Page 5 of The Virgin Who Humbled Lord Haslemere
A burst of smothered laughter met her ears from the other side of the door, and she charged into the bedchamber without knocking. “Well, good evening, girls. My, you’re all quite cheerful tonight. Pray don’t let me interrupt the joke.”
Her brisk steps were loud in the hush that fell over the room. One, two, and…yes, there was little Caroline, on the other side of the door. That made three, and then Abby, over by the window, was four. Four heads, where there should be six. She was missing two heads—that is, twogirls. “All right, then. Let’s have it out, shall we? Where have Sarah and Susannah gone this time?”
Four pairs of guilty eyes opened wide before Abby, the oldest and by far the most cunning, spoke up. “Wot, are Sarah and Susannah gone, Miss Harley? Why, we didn’t even notice,did we girls?”
“Is that so?” Georgiana crossed her arms over her chest. Like most street urchins, her girls were accomplished liars, but she’d been both a street urchin and a liar herself once upon a time, and she knew how to pry their secrets loose. “Let’s ask Caroline, shall we? Come here.” Georgiana beckoned to Caroline and pointed to the floor in front of her. “Did you see Sarah and Susannah tonight?”
Caroline was the youngest and tenderest of the girls, and the most easily worked upon. Occasionally Georgiana felt a pang of guilt for targeting the weakest animal in the herd, but when it came to wild schoolgirls, ruthlessness was a necessity. It was either devouror be devoured.
Caroline cast an uneasy look at Abby, but she came forward as she was bid, her lower lip trembling. Georgiana peered down at her, and let the silence stretch until the child began to squirm. “Well, Caroline?”
“Yes, Miss Harley. I saw ’em.”
“Ah, I thoughtsomeonemust have. When did you see them last? No, look at me, not at Abby.” Georgiana turned Caroline’s face toward her with a finger under her chin.
“At supper, Miss Harley.”
Supper! That was hours ago. “What, not since then?”
“Nay, miss.” Caroline darted an anxious look at Abby. “They ducked out the front door when Mrs. Browning went back to the kitchen. They said they fancied a walk, and—”
Abby let out a warning hiss, but Joanna pointed an accusing finger at her. “Abby went with them, Miss Harley! She sneaked back in just before Mrs. Browning came up. She just told us Sarah and Susannah went toCovent Garden.”
“Covent Garden!” Dash it, those foolish girls! What did they think they were doing, sneaking off to Covent Garden after dark? London was rife with scoundrels and villains, but no place more so than Covent Garden. “WhereinCovent Garden?”
Caroline heard the tight note in Georgiana’s voice and began to cry, but before she could get her lungs into it, Abby, who could see the truth was going to come out despite her best efforts, pushed Caroline aside. “Stop your sniveling, Caroline, and let me tell it. Right, so it were like this, Miss Harley. We were on Henrietta Street, not doing any harm, mind ye, just watching the coves going in an’ out of the hells and begging a penny or two. Not bothering no one, minding our own business, like, when—”
“Minding your own business, were you?” Georgiana snorted. “I suppose if I check your pockets, I won’t find any silk handkerchiefs, then?”
Abby took a hasty step backward, out of Georgiana’s reach. “Minding our own business, like I said, when out comes these three toffs, and oh, they were pretty ones, Miss Harley, I tell you! Fancy, with their waistcoats all shiny embroidered everywhere, and gold watch fobs and everything.”
Oh, no. This was growing worse every minute. Of all the scoundrels one might encounter in Covent Garden, fashionable rakes were the worst. They saw everything and everyone they came across as playthings for their exclusive amusement.“Aristocrats?”
“Aye, I’d say so, miss. Viscounts, p’haps, or earls. Lords, leastways. So, these toffs, they see Sarah and Susannah hanging about, and they ask them if they want to makea guinea each.”
“Aguinea?” Georgiana gaped at Abby in horror.
“Aye, a guinea. They were in their cups and laughing a good deal, so it was hard to tell what for, but Susannah and Sarah went off with them quick enough, as soon as they mentioned the guineas.”
Well, of course they did. A guinea was a fortune to girls like Sarah and Susannah, who’d hardly ever had two pence to rub together, never mind a guineaeach. A frisson of dread tripped up Georgiana’s spine. If these rakes were offering that much, what did they expect from the girls in return? Sarah and Susannah were hardly more than children, but to a certain type of man, it didn’t matter how oldthe girls were.
Or howyoung.
The thought turned Georgiana’s stomach. “Where did the lords take them, Abby? Did you see whichway they went?”
“Round the corner to Maiden Lane. But there’s no need to take on so, Miss Harley. Sarah and Susannah know what they’re about. Why, they’re probably on their way back here now, with that toff’s gold fob in one oftheir pockets.”
The other girls nodded, and Georgiana wanted to tear her hair out in frustration. Because they’d managed to survive the streets this long, these girls thought they were invincible, but Georgiana knew the odds of Sarah and Susannah coming away unscathed from an encounter with three drunken rakes were poor, indeed. She’d spent too many years of her own childhood on the London streets to have any illusions about a girl’s chances of survival.
She wasn’t fool enough to think she could rescue every waif in London, but these girls werehers. She’d plucked them off the street herself, one after the next, much as Lady Clifford had plucked her off the street all those years ago. They werehergirls, and God knew if she didn’t take care of them, no one else would.
“No one sets a single toe outside this door. Do you hear me?” Georgiana looked from one girl to the next, and if she could judge by their expressions, she must have looked fierce, indeed. “Not one single toe.”
The girls nodded, their eyes wide. “Yes, Miss Harley.”
Georgiana whirled around, ran back to her bedchamber to tug on some clothes, then hurried down the stairs. She paused in the entryway to snatch her coat and hat off the hook, then rushed out the door and into the night in the direction ofCovent Garden.
It wasn’t far, just over a mile, but it was damp and cold, and the streets were slick. She skidded along, shivering in the icy January fog, curses and prayers droppingfrom her lips.
