Free A Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey Page A

time. Just be yerself, and it will all turn out right for ye.”

Chapter 9
     
    “I ’VE A PACKAGE TO DELIVER to a Lord Malory. Would ye ’appen to know where ’e might be found?”
    “Heard tell there’s a Malory family lives over in Grosvenor Square.”
    “And where would that be?”
    “New to town, are ye?”
    “It’s that obvious?”
    A chuckle. “You’ll find Grosvenor north o’ here. Head down the block, then turn right and just keep going that way till you come to the rich houses.”
    An address would have helped, but then again, probably not. Danny would need a map for that and didn’t know where to get one, wouldn’t be able to read one either, for that matter. An address would have helped only if she could afford to hire a hack, which she couldn’t.
    She was so out of her element it was beyond pathetic. She was keenly feeling the disadvantage of her lack of education, too. She would have given up by now if her anger weren’t goading her on.
    She had found a nice quiet alley to sleep the day away in, but didn’t actually sleep that long. Her hunger woke her much sooner than she would have liked, and the headache it was causing lent desperation to her situation.
    She had to find a job fast. If she had to resort to stealing just to eat, then she’d be no better off than she had been. This was an opportunity to better herself, not slip back into the gutter and old habits. But it wasn’t going to be easy. She knew, because she’d tried before.
    Lucy used to cover for her absence when Danny would go out to look for a respectable job. The problem had always been her appearance, and her lack of even a basic education. To apply for a man’s job that didn’t require being able to read and write did require muscle, which she couldn’t muster. To apply for a woman’s job she’d need some female clothes first, which she didn’t own. And no matter what job she could talk her way into getting, she’d need a roof over her head and some coins in her pocket to last her till her first pay.
    She’d thought she’d had that solved at one point. The job of a maid often came with room and board, which was ideal for someone starting out completely broke. She’d borrowed one of Lucy’s dresses for the interview and had been so thrilled to get hired—for all of two hours. The butler had given her the job, and only because he’d been fascinated by her looks. As soon as she met the housekeeper though, she was fired. They were a middle-class household trying to move up the social ladder, which meant they wanted only a better class of servant, at least none that sounded like gutter trash or looked like whores.
    Danny had been so disappointed and discouraged by that experience, she’d stopped looking for decent work for a long time. Then when she did start looking again, she simply had no luck.
    Recalling her many failures, she got angry. The fact was, she’d hunted for a job sporadically, maybe four or five times a year. She’d never done it daily because she hadn’t really been ready to go out on her own. To be alone. But she had no choice now, and she didn’t have the luxury of taking her time about it. She needed to find a job immediately, that very day. And she needed to find some food even sooner. Calling herself ten kinds of a fool for not holding back at least a few of the pound notes Malory had given her, instead of giving the whole wad to Dagger, wasn’t going to feed her.
    She didn’t like being on her own. She was finding that out firsthand, but she’d known she wouldn’t. She’d grown up with a houseful of children around her. She wanted that back, but she wanted them to be her children, so she could have a say in raising them proper. She needed a husband to help with that, though, a good man, and one with a respectable job. That had been a goal of hers for a long time, she’d just never been able to get serious about it while she was still living the life of a boy.
    She wasn’t going to