A Wayward Man: A Prequel to A Dangerous Invitation (The Rookery Rogues) by Erica Monroe Read Free Book Online Page A

her. Needed to know that she
supported him, that she understood this must all be some wretched
mistake.
    She shook her head.
“We have to go to him. He'll need our support.”
    Papa reached across
the table, taking her hand in his. His grip was resolute. “There's
little we can do except weather this storm.”
    “I love him.
How could you even consider not doing anything?” Shock splayed
across her features. “You wouldn’t let him rot, would
you?”
    Papa tensed at her
accusation. “It’s more complicated than that.”
    Kate lifted her
chin, looking him in the eye. “Then explain it to me, for all I
see is that you’re giving up hope.”
    Papa pursed his
lips. “There’s a witness.”
    “A witness?”
Kate repeated, the word like acid on her tongue. Someone had seen
Daniel kill the laborer? That didn’t make sense. She remembered
Daniel’s hands pressed into hers, the hopefulness in his eyes
when he’d proposed.
    You're my heart,
my ruler, my best friend. She twisted the gold ring on her
finger, so that the heart was against her palm.
    Whatever the witness thought they’d seen, it couldn’t have been Daniel.
    “Then the
witness is wrong. Surely, you must know someone in the police,”
she pleaded. “You can get him released to us. Get these
horrible charges dropped.”
    “You
overestimate my reach, child,” Papa said. “If Daniel
killed this man—one of my employees—there is not
much I can do to save him.”
    “You know
him!” She wrenched her hand from his. “You know he
wouldn't do this.”
    “I can talk to
the papers, but that's the only sway I have.” Papa frowned.
“We'll be lucky to get out of this without stock dropping.”
    “Stock? You
want to talk of stock at a time like this?” She pushed herself
up and out of the chair, aghast at his callousness. “I don't
care about your shareholders, Papa. Let Emporia burn for all I care.
I'm going to Newgate.”
    He stood. “That's
no place for you.”
    “Because I'm a
lady?”
    “Yes,
precisely. You're a lady of good breeding, and you're mydaughter.
I forbid it.”
    She balled her hands
up into fists at her sides, facing him. “I love him. I’m
not going to abandon him.”
    Papa didn't flinch.
“And I think of him as a son. But this is London, my dear, and
the journalists are animals. I won't have you dragged through the
muck, simply because he made a mistake. Your name is already tied up
with his. I will do what I can for Daniel, but associating with the
criminal lot at the prisons would surely be disastrous.”
    “It's a risk
I'm willing to take,” she responded stubbornly. “He would
do it for me.”
    Papa stood, crossing
over to her. Gathering her up in his arms, he laid a kiss to the top
of her head. “I know. But let me handle this and we'll get
further.”
    Kate sank against
him, as if she were again the little child who had fallen in the
garden and scraped her knee. Papa would make it right, as he always
did. He'd find Daniel and bring him back to her. She had to believe
that.
    The alternative
would be that Daniel was left without allies. She believed in his
innocence, but she was only a woman without power or connections. If
she only trusted Papa, went by his plan, Daniel would appear in front
of her once more.
    They stood there for
what seemed like ages, her sobs quieted by the thick wool of his
coat.

    The hack used to
transport prisoners to Newgate was obscenely small. Daniel sat
smashed in between two other prisoners. One smelled of cheap port,
the other of old cigars and mildew. Mixed together, the odors were
exactly what he imagined prison would be like: vile and nauseating.
He knew well enough that he wouldn't survive long, for without the
flow of gin through his body his hands would shake and his mind would
slow. Already, he could feel it starting. He’d not taken a
drink in hours.
    Eventually, he’d
become no more than a shell. His consciousness was frayed. The memory
of Dalton's last breath was spliced with the