Nine Buck's Row by Jennifer Wilde Read Free Book Online

would help, but my eyes were dry and my face was composed.
    Sergeant Caine stepped into the room. He looked a little flushed, his blue eyes stern, his jaw thrust out. Millie sauntered into the room behind him, a pixie smile on her face. Caine cleared his throat and brushed back locks of blond hair, striving to look official. Millie had cast her spell over him and he was thoroughly bewildered.
    â€œI guess that’ll be all, Miss Hunt,” he said gruffly. “I’ll report back to headquarters. Your guardian will be arriving any minute now. It was a privilege to be of service.”
    â€œThank you, Caine,” I said politely.
    â€œDon’t trip over your feet on the way downstairs,” Millie said sweetly, toying with one of her long copper curls.
    Caine gave her a murderous look and marched briskly out the door. She burst into peals of delighted laughter.
    â€œGuess I showed him!” she exclaimed. “Just because I asked him to come down and help me move an old chest he thought he could take liberties! He could have, actually, but he was so shy and nervous that by the time he got up enough courage I was bored with the whole idea.”
    â€œCaine’s such a nice young man—” I protested.
    â€œHe’s a bore,” she retorted. “No spirit. He might be bold as brass when he’s making an arrest, but when he’s with a girl—” Millie smiled her pixie smile, quite pleased with herself.
    â€œWhen are you going to get a beau?” she inquired. “It’s such a waste , Suzy, a girl with your looks always mooning around, reading, painting with watercolors when you could be having such fun—”
    â€œI’m not interested,” I replied primly. I’m afraid my answer wasn’t totally honest.
    â€œBosh!” Millie exclaimed. “You don’t fool me for a minute, Suzy Hunt. You may be proper and well bred and all that, but you’d still like to have a few beaux hanging about.”
    â€œThere’s plenty of time for that.”
    â€œMaybe you’ll meet a lot of interesting men through your new guardian. Perhaps he’ll have some fascinating friends—”
    â€œPerhaps,” I said.
    â€œHow old is he?”
    â€œThirty-two, I believe.”
    â€œThat isn’t very old,” Millie said. “Perhaps you’ll be interested in him, Suzy.”
    â€œYou read far too many cheap novels.”
    â€œMaybe I do, but it happens all the time! He’s thirty-two and you’re already eighteen, going on nineteen. He could be devilishly good-looking. The situation just reeks with possibilities!”
    â€œYou’re incorrigible,” I scolded, smiling in spite of myself.
    Millie ran a hand through her hair. A ray of sunlight touched it, and the long curls gleamed with deep coppery tones. Her brown eyes were snapping merrily, and she danced over to the window to peer out. Millie was a pretty little thing with her pert mouth and the scattering of golden freckles across the bridge of her nose. About my height, she had long legs, a tiny waist and an extremely well developed bosom. The men already flocked around her, and she led them a merry chase, playing the soldier against the bank clerk, the stevedore against the butcher’s apprentice. She was a hoydenish sprite, full of life and no better than she should have been, but she had been like a sister to me these past two years. I loved her dearly, even though I couldn’t approve of some of her escapades.
    â€œWhat does he do?” she inquired, brushing the skirt of her vivid yellow dress. “Your guardian, I mean—what’s his name again?”
    â€œNicholas Craig—”
    â€œI adore that name. It sounds so masculine!”
    â€œMr. Dawson was rather vague about what he does. He owns a paper factory in the country, but it’s run by others and doesn’t take up much of his time. I think he makes some kind of