Free My Seductive Innocent by Julie Johnstone Page B

sure to get him healthy. We wouldn’t want him dyin’ before he makes ye his duchess.”
    “Frank,” she began in an exasperated tone.
    He cut his eyes to Harry. “Remember what I said about yer brother if ye don’t obey me.”
    She gritted her teeth, nodded, and pasted on a fake smile. “Let me go, please. I need to go to the privy before I go back upstairs.”
    Frank released her at once. “Ye hurry yer arse,” Frank said. “Oh, and Sophia, Moses is a mite mad with ye. I’m holdin’ him back for now, but cross me and yer all his.”
    Sophia shuddered at the thought and scrambled through the kitchen door and into the noisy, crowded tavern, then rushed outside to the privy. After attending to her business, she picked her way through the dark back to the tavern but was delayed by a man too foxed to get into his carriage on his own. When she finished helping him and entered the tavern again, she spotted Frank standing at the bar with a decidedly nefarious grin on his face. He was likely planning what he was going to do with all the money he thought would be his after he attempted to guilt Nathan into marrying her. He pointed to the stairs, and she nodded dutifully, though in her mind she shook her fist at him.
    She dashed upstairs and was about to pass by her and Harry’s room on the way to the guest room when Harry came flying out into the hall, eyes bugged and face white. He grabbed her by the hand, hauled her into the room, and slammed the door. “I-i-it’s g-g-gone,” he wailed.
    Sophia frowned. Harry’s speech was difficult to follow at times, especially when he got upset and his stuttering worsened. “What’s gone? And why are you up here already?”
    “I f-f-finished quickly, s-so I c-came to do what you s-said.”
    “All right. Now what’s gone?”
    He pointed to where his bedroll usually was. It, along with the loose boards, had been moved from its usual spot. Fear started in her gut and gained speed and strength as she fell to her knees by the hole and peered into the darkness. She immediately saw the worn edges of the letter from her mother and let out a sob of relief as she grabbed it and stuffed it in her boot before peering back into the dark hole. Maybe the money had been shoved farther back?
    “Hand me a candle,” she said.
    Harry’s footsteps padded behind her as he retrieved the candle and then back toward her. He kneeled down and held the candle in front of them. “It’s n-n-no use, Sophia. I already ch-ch-checked. Twice. Your letter was the only thing in there, and I left it ’cause I know how you worry it might get r-ripped.” His lower lip started to tremble, and tears welled in his eyes.
    Her heart twisted in commiseration. She wanted to cry, too, but she wouldn’t. Someone had to be strong for the both of them. Scanning the small, shabby room with its one cracked window and peeling wallpaper, despair wailed in her breast. They’d be stuck here forever. Ruthlessly, she fought against the hopelessness. She grabbed Harry’s hand and squeezed it. “We must try to stay calm.”
    Squeezing her eyes shut against the ravaging panic, she counted slowly in her mind and took a long breath. When she opened her eyes, Harry was staring at her with tears streaming down his smooth, youthful cheeks. “Harry!” she gasped and tugged him to her, enfolding him in her protective embrace. “Don’t cry.” She ran a soothing hand over his fine, silky hair and kissed him on the top of his head. “It’s not your fault.”
    He tore away from her. “I-it is my f-fault,” he groaned. “I l-left the d-door open w-when I was p-p-packing my b-bag and th-then a man stumbled past and I h-helped him d-down the s-stairs.”
    “Did you pass anyone on the way down?”
    Sophia’s nerves were a throbbing, balled, jumble of hard knots.
    “F-Frank. H-he said h-he had to check on s-someone.”
    Had Frank taken the money? If he knew she’d been hiding money... Dear God! “Harry did you see Frank