Cast in Ice by Laura Landon Read Free Book Online Page B

the money.
    That was one question Winnie could never allow her father to ponder. Just as she could never— never —give herself to a stranger. The thought was unbearable. It turned her stomach. She would rather die than submit her body to someone she didn’t know, and didn’t love.
    Winnie finally shifted her gaze back inside the carriage to where Nick Stillman watched her as if he was waiting for her to answer. When she didn’t speak, the corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly.
    “I didn’t think you’d want to make that choice,” he said.
    “Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Why are you telling me this?”
    “Because the men who run The Soiled Dove are evil and corrupt. And because I’m going to destroy The Soiled Dove along with the men who run it, and I don’t want you there when I do it.”
    “If you know who runs The Dove and what they’re doing, why don’t you close them down now?”
    “Because there’s a third partner and I don’t know his identity.”
    “This is personal to you, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Who was she?” Winnie asked.
    Nick Stillman leaned back against the squabs. “Someone young and innocent who couldn’t live with what the monsters who run The Dove forced her to do.”
    Winnie couldn’t find the words that would change Nick’s determination, because there weren’t any. There was no excuse for the innocent young lives The Dove had stolen. And if Winnie had discovered one trait concerning Nick Stillman, it was that he didn’t give up until he’d done what he’d set out to do.
    That was a face she should remember when it came to his determination to find her mother.
    Neither of them spoke for several long moments. The carriage continued to drive through the streets of London. From the sounds and the smell, Hodgekens had taken them away from The Soiled Dove and was circulating the more fashionable West End. He would no doubt continue to drive until either she or Nick Stillman issued the order to take her home.
    With an uncomfortable realization, Winnie knew the only orders Hodgekens would likely listen to tonight were orders that came from Nick Stillman. Because he was one of Mack Wallace’s brigadesmen, Hodgekens trusted him implicitly. Because Nick Stillman had been so angry when he’d followed her from The Dove , Hodgekens no doubt knew Winnie had done something the brigadesman didn’t approve of. And Hodgekens was willing to let Nick Stillman berate her so Hodgekens didn’t have to.
    Winnie waited. She wasn’t going to be the first to speak. The only words she wanted to utter were to tell him she wanted to go home. Except at this stage of their discussion, that would seem like capitulation. And she wasn’t quite ready to admit wrongdoing, even though Hodgekens would say she’d been wrong. Finally, he spoke.
    “I want your word that you will never go back to The Dove , Lady Winnifred.”
    She shook her head. She couldn’t promise him that. She could promise that she’d be a smarter player. That she would make sure she was well rested before she went back so she didn’t play like a novice. And she would promise that she would never wager more than she could cover. But she couldn’t promise not to go back.
    She needed the money she won at The Dove to pay for her mother’s keep at Saint Christina’s Hospital. She needed winnings from the tables to pay the blackmailer’s demands. And now she needed even more money to pay additional guards to make sure her mother didn’t escape from Saint Christina’s.
    She looked at him, and opened her mouth to tell him she couldn’t agree. But before she could say her first word, he spoke.
    “If you don’t agree to stay away from The Dove , I swear I’ll go to your father. I’ll tell him what you’re doing and you can worry about how you’re going to explain the reason you need to go there.”
    “You can’t,” she said in a weak voice.
    “Oh, I can. And I will. You can bet every pound you have on