Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle by Bronwyn Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

Inn and thanked Alice Bradley and her daughters for the ride, waving aside Alice's suggestion that she conduct her business in their company.
    Several times during the short trip into Manchester, Alice had invited her to join them for the day. Her daughters had echoed their mother's sentiment. Nora had refused all requests politely on the grounds that she didn't wish to hamper their fun and that there was nothing unacceptable about a respectable, middle-class spinster conducting errands on her own.
    She did, however, promise to meet them at the inn for tea later that afternoon and to join them on the return to Stockport-on-the-Medlock. Nora had no intention of a gift horse
    in the mouth. In the cold winter weather, it would be the height of foolishness to make the five-mile trip home on foot and carrying her purchases to boot.
    Nora pulled her winter cloak close about her. It was a solid, although inexpensive, affair, made of wool and lined with rabbit instead of the other more luxurious furs worn by the Squire's wife and his daughters. But it was what she could

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    Pickpocket Countess
    afford without taking funds away from the poor who
    lay claim to even the middling garments she She pulled her hood over Eleanor's dun-coloured wig and clutched her reticule and shopping basket close, glad to be off on her rounds. The winter had been especially cruel so far and many people would be happy to receive the relief The Cat offered through the conduit of Eleanor Habersham.
    The Cat could not afford the risk of making deliveries in person often for fear of increasing her chance of exposure. If she was too liberal in flaunting her identity, it wouldn't be long before someone turned her over to authorities.
    Early on, she had taken great pains to set up her network by identifying reliable and trustworthy merchants who would convey The
    offerings to those in need. They'd learned to recognise Eleanor Habersham as The
    messenger.
    Nora hadn't gone far when the strange sensation of being watched caused her to pause and reassess her surroundings, which until that point had been filled only with other people going about their daily business at the shops. Someone was not what they seemed.
    Cautiously, so as not to give away her awareness of being followed, Nora glanced around, quartering the area with her gaze. A woman with her young children entered the greengrocer's. A street-sweep cried out his business on the corner. A hackney waited for his next fare. Then she saw him. It was no more than a glimpse before he fell back into the crowd of people moving through the streets, but it was unmistakably him. S tockport was following her.
    Nora cautioned herself not to jump to conclusions. He was a busy man. He might very well have his own reasons to be in Manchester. It was, after all, a thriving city and Stockport was a man interested in enterprise and industry. She had no proof yet that he was here simply to follow Eleanor sham, a spinster of meagre means, on her errands. He had

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    given no indication of having seen her beyond her intuition sensing his presence.
    Yet, his presence sounded an alarm. Nora looked up and down the street. While it was possible that he would be in Manchester for his own purposes, it seemed unlikely that a man of his calibre would be on this particular street, which was devoted to grocers and food shops of various sorts. An Earl didn't procure his own foodstuffs. This was a section of town frequented by the servants of the wealthy and those who couldn't afford servants of their own.
    There was only one way to find out if his being in town was coincidence or something more. Nora smiled to herself. Forewarned was forearmed. She would put him to the test and still get most of her duties accomplished right under his nose.
    Nora deliberately walked down the street, giving him a chance to spot her if that was his intention, and entered her first stop, the bakery.
    'Good day,
    Harlow. I've come to get some of your