Free To Love A Lord of London (Wardington Park; Raptures of Royalty) by Eleanor Meyers Page B

Christa.
    “Lady Christa, Miss Ott. Meet the next great playwright, Sir Rudolph Vow.”
    Vow bowed to the women. “So good to meet you.” Then he laughed and said to Nathaniel, “I thank you for your words, my lord.”

    “ H onest words .” Then Nathaniel turned to Amy. “I know you’ll be interested in this. I’ve invested in Sir Vow’s play. Hopefully, we’ll be able to put it on by the end of the year.”
    Amy smiled. “What’s the name of your play?”
    Vow said, “The Man Who Knew No One.”
    Amy frowned.
    Nathaniel laughed, “Don’t worry. It’s a comedy. I’ve read the script myself.”
    Amy hesitated, “No, my lord. That’s not it… It simply… It sounds familiar.”
    Vow’s smile fell, but then returned so quickly that Amy wondered if it happened at all. “Well, the English vocabulary is so limited. Many works of art will have the same title. Like songs or books.”
    “Of course,” Nathaniel said.
    “Well,” Amy asked. “What’s the play about?”
    Vow said, “You’ll have to wait and see.”
    Nathaniel began to speak, but Amy cut him off. “Well, you don’t have to give me any of its lines. A simple synopsis would do.”

    V ow frowned .
    Nathaniel laughed and said, “It’s about an old duke who is to marry the young daughter of an earl in a week. The young woman, in preparation of her marriage, travels to Scotland to visit her family, but the duke believes she’s run off to marry in Gretta Green to another. So, he follows her in the hopes of stopping it. The play is about his journey.”
    Amy nodded, “Does it start with him purchasing a horse?”
    Nathaniel looked shocked, “Why, yes. It does. The duke calls the old girl scary—”
    “And names her The Nightmare?”
    Nathaniel frowned, “Yes. That’s a good guess. How’d you know?”

    V ow looked as though he’d broken out into a sweat.
    Amy narrowed her eyes. “Because, my lord, I’ve seen this play before.”
    “Where?”
    “East London.” The least safe part of London.
    Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. “What were you doing there?”
    That was not something she wanted to discuss with him. Ever. She changed the subject. “The play had been called He Who Knew No One, and it was written by a friend.” A good friend of Amy’s from her former life.
    Vow swallowed.
    Nathaniel turned to him. “Vow, did you plagiarize this play?”
    Vow licked his lips and then his eyes hardened. “The man who wrote it was nobody. Just some poor writer living in a whore house. We can make real money from this. ”

    A my looked disgusted .
    So did Nathaniel. “How dare you? You’re not a writer. You’re a thief, and I’ll have you arrested for this.”
    Vow looked surprised, “You’ll arrest an old friend over the honor of a poor man.”
    “No,” Nathaniel said. “Over the honor of an artist. It’s men like you who crush creativity before it has the chance to bloom.” Then he headed out of the box with Vow on his heels.
    Christa turned to Amy, “I hope this doesn’t come back to bite you.”
    Amy hoped the same thing, but… “I couldn’t let that man claim work that wasn’t his.”
    Christa sighed, “But now you’ve raised more questions about yourself. What if Nathaniel goes in search of this writer? What if he goes to the whore house? What if he finds out your connection to it?”
    Amy looked away at hearing the truth. Christa was right. She’d exposed herself. Amy’s mother tried acting at first but had never been good at it, so after Amy’s father’s death she’d done what she could to feed Amy. Amy remembered the nights her mother would come home, not saying what it was she actually did, but everyone knew. Everyone had told Amy, which eventually led to the young Amy having to hide herself in public. She could never be seen with her mother. It had all been in effort to make sure nothing ruined Amy’s chances at a future… but in a moment of doing what was right, she’d led Nathaniel on the path of