Free A Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey Page B

find a husband around the next corner though. And food was a necessity, which meant a job of her own came first. Then she could start looking for a husband to start raising a family with.
    She got lucky with the food. She found that one of the rings from Heddings’s stash had fallen through the little hole in her coat pocket to the lining underneath. She couldn’t sell it by normal means, since it might be one of the stolen pieces being looked for. But she remembered Miss Jane selling a ring all those years ago to buy food.
    She hadn’t thought of Miss Jane in years, not since the nightmares had stopped. She wasn’t sure why they had stopped. They’d plagued her from as far back as she could remember—which was the short time she’d spent with Miss Jane. And they’d usually been the same, filled with blood and screams, until a club fell on her head to end it.
    One dream she had far too infrequently was very nice and left her feeling warm and comfortable. It was a dream of a young woman, one she’d never met, but the lady had white-gold hair just like hers, though arranged in one of those fancy styles she’d only seen ladies wear. A beautiful woman, dressed elegantly, like an angel she was, walking in a field of flowers.
    Lucy had figured the angel dream really was an angel calling to her because she was supposed to have died all those years ago but didn’t. Of course Lucy had been fanciful. But Danny had been even more fanciful, figuring the beautiful lady was herself, something she could aspire to. The dream gave her hope.
    She needed hope now, and a lot more. The ring had fetched her less than a pound note. Very disappointing, but then the best she could get from a total stranger who’d only looked as if he could afford a good deal.
    Her predicament was entirely that young lord’s fault. If he hadn’t been so high-handed, if he’d just accepted her refusal and instead found himself someone who would have been thrilled to do what he wanted, she wouldn’t be worrying about where her next meal was going to come from.
    He owed her. And he could bleedin’ well pay up, or she’d let Lord Heddings know where his stash of stolen jewelry had trotted off to. Well, she wouldn’t really go that far, but Malory would get the idea.
    She finished the meal she’d bought in a nice restaurant and thanked the waiter for the food and his directions. She didn’t see his frown. If she had, she wouldn’t have realized it was because she didn’t know to leave a tip for him. Ignorance was sometimes bliss, or it could have been.
    In this case, the waiter was annoyed enough that he wasn’t going to let her remain ignorant. He followed her outside to shout at her, “Cheap bastard! And after I gave you directions, too, which I didn’t have to do!”
    Danny swung around, realized he was yelling at her, though she couldn’t imagine why. “Wot are ye talking about, eh? I paid for the bleedin’ meal.”
    “Shows how dumb you are! You think service is free? I should have known better than to let your kind through the door.”
    Her kind? That stung and made her cheeks bloom with color. She’d picked the first restaurant she’d come across, hadn’t really noted that it was in an affluent business district, with well-dressed people everywhere she looked. A crowd was gathering because of the waiter’s shouts. And she heard other angry murmurs now.
    “A thief, no doubt.”
    “Better check your pockets if he’s been working this area today.”
    “Better check his pockets.”
    “All I wanted was some food,” Danny said quickly to the waiter. “Which I paid for. If I didn’t pay enough, ye could ’ave just said so. Ye didn’t ’ave to insult me.”
    The fellow looked as if he realized he had overreacted. But too many of his regular customers were about now for him to back down and apologize.
    “Just get out of here and don’t come back,” he warned. “This is a respectable district. Go back to the slums where you