love for him after just one night in his bed. Certainly, he couldnât take an innocent to bed, but that wouldnât keep him from being charming. In fact, the lady heâd spent the last two nights with assured him of his appeal when he left her bed this morning, reminding her that he never spent more than two evenings with the same female companion. There were far too many others to meet and choose from. But sheâd seemed pleased with his performance, too. They all were. How much different could the chaste courting of a âdifficultâ young lady be?
As he neared the tollhouse, Owen drew up the reins to signal Apollo to stop. The horse tossed his head and slowed accordingly. There was a small queue at the tollhouse and Owen waited impatiently behind a rickety cart filled with vegetables and occupied by a poor farmer.
When the farmer finally was next in line, the sounds of raised voices caught Owenâs attention. Apparently, the farmer and the gatekeeper were having a disagreement about something. Owen maneuvered Apollo closer to hear the conversation.
âBut I canât afford it,â the farmer said. âLast time we came through, it werenât so much.â
âI donât set the prices,â the gatekeeper replied. âParliamentâs decided to raise taxes. Thatâs all I can tell ye.â
âBut I wonât have any more money till I can get me goods ta the market in London.â
âAinât me problem,â the gatekeeper replied. âAnd yeâre keeping this fine gent behind ye from passing. Out of the way if you canât make the toll.â
The farmer glanced at Owen. Shame marked his haggard features. âIâm sorry for the trouble, me lord, but me daughterâs sick and me wife wanted me ta take her to the surgeon what lives near St. Paulâs.â
Owen glanced into the back of the manâs rickety cart to see a thin child lying on an even thinner bed of hay, amongst the vegetables. She was wrapped in a dirty old blanket and coughing as if her lungs might explode.
Owen swallowed the lump in his throat. He pulled his purse from his inside coat pocket, loosened the string, fished inside, and tossed the farmer a sovereign.
âThis is far too generous of ye, me lord,â the man said with tears in his bleary eyes.
Owen nodded at him. âThink nothing of it, sir. Just see to it that your daughter receives the care she needs.â
âI surely will, me lord. Me wife thanks ye and I thank ye.â
Owen glanced back into the cart in time to see the little girl close her eyes and drift back to sleep.
Owen paid his own toll and kicked Apolloâs flanks to set the horse in a gallop toward town. He needed to get back immediately to prepare for the ball. But as he rode, he knew for certain that childâs image would haunt him.
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CHAPTER SIX
That evening, Owen stood in the Duke of Huntleyâs town house at a bloody ball planned in anticipation of him wooing the dukeâs daughter, and Owen had yet to see the lady in question.
And he was bloody well getting impatient. Owen was used to being the one making ladies wait for his arrival, not the other way around. As a result, he was becoming increasingly surly. He glanced around the large, crowded ballroom. Where was a footman with some brandy when one needed it?
âWhere is this blasted girl?â he whispered to his sister, Cassandra, who had just arrived with her husband, Swifdon, at her side. Cassandra had floated in looking fresh and pretty in lavender silk, her blond hair piled atop her head and a stunning row of diamonds around her neck. Cassandra had never been a disappointment to their parents. Quite the opposite, actually, sheâd been their favorite child. Right up until sheâd tried to marry a mere captain in the army, regardless of the fact that he was the second son of an earl. Until, that is, Julianâs older brother was murdered in