Free One Penny Surprise (Saved By Desire 1) by Rebecca King Page B

quietly about a half hour later. He kept his voice low in deference to a nanny walking her young charges along one of the paths just a few feet away and waited for Luke to join him. “Are you all right?” Barnaby asked when Luke appeared. His concern grew as he witnessed the paleness of his friend’s cheeks and the visible tremor in his hands. It was most unlike Luke to be shaken by anything; much less the sight of a corpse, many of which Barnaby knew Luke had handled in the past.
    Luke nodded. He was relieved to note that the body Barnaby had just found was the man he had fished out of the river, and not Poppy. Determined to keep his mind on the task at hand, and off the disturbing emotions that were starting to unfurl deep within, Luke threw Barnaby a dour look.
    “Do you recognise him?”
    Barnaby studied the dead man’s face for a moment then shook his head. “He isn’t someone I have ever come across but, from the look of his clothing, I cannot see him taking a pint down at the Dog and Ferret, can you?”
    Luke snorted and pushed to his feet. “He is one of the ton.”
    “We need to get Sir Hugo to take a look. If anyone is likely to recognise him, he will.”
    “Sir Hugo is at home in Cornwall isn’t he? I thought I heard Marcus mention that one of the children had recently caught chicken pox which had spread throughout the entire family – including their father.”
    Barnaby grinned at the mental image of his boss being covered from head to foot in small, red, and very itchy spots. “I am not sure. If he is still out of action then we will have to speak to Simon Ambrose. Now he is here because I spoke to him last week. His was grousing about the children wrecking the house.”
    “He shouldn’t have so many of them,” Luke replied with a grin.
    “Six at the last count,” Barnaby smirked.
    Wild horses would never get him to acknowledge it publically but Luke rather envied Simon his lifestyle. Although his boss always moaned about the chaos his ever growing brood brought to his life, there was always an unholy light of mischief in his eyes that assured everyone that he didn’t care one bit what carnage was caused. They were his children, and he was proud of them. To Luke, children were always something that belonged to someone else. In his youth he had never once stopped to consider having a family of his own. However, now that he was getting on a bit, and the world was starting to feel a little jaded, he began to wonder if it was time to settle down.
    Poppy’s face immediately sprang to mind, but he quickly blanked it out. It took far more effort than he wanted to acknowledge to force his attention back to the pick-pockets and the dead man, but he set the strength of his reaction to her being the mother of his children to one side to consider later. All right so she was beautiful but there were plenty of stunning women in the world. What was it about Poppy that brought about such keen interest? He couldn’t consider her anything more than a suspect in a murder right now. It was foolish to see her in any other light other than someone who had plenty to hide. Why then did he want to help her? Why then was he almost desperate to find her again just so he can reassure himself that she really was alright?
    “Do you think the older gang of pick-pockets did it?” Barnaby asked, studying the bruising around the man’s neck. “This is done by an adult, or an older youth.”
    “Not the ones I saw. They were really young. The oldest must only be about twelve and the youngest not much older than six or seven. I don’t believe any of them had the strength to do this, much less the interest. The gang I chased this morning were mischievous urchins. They are not ruthless enough for this. It could be the new gang, but if so why? They didn’t take his cravat pin or his coins.”
    “Why were the gang you saw out this morning if they are innocent though?”
    Luke shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they are avoiding