The Rose of Winslow Street by Elizabeth Camden

Author:Elizabeth Camden [Camden, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, FIC042030, FIC042000, FIC042040
ISBN: 9780764208959
Publisher: Bethany House
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Michael felt like a leper.

As spectators left the courtroom, their steely glares burned him. When he left the courthouse, people drew away from him, turning their backs and pulling their skirts aside. Even Libby appeared shaken and reluctant to speak with him as she pushed through the crowds toward her father.

It did not matter. Among the dozens of people leaving the courtroom, there was only one person he needed to see. Dominic Sterescu was a stranger to him, but a dangerous stranger. Across the courtyard, the young man was only a few steps away from boarding a carriage and leaving town. If Sterescu got away before he could be neutralized, Michael’s hard-fought victory in smuggling Mirela out of Romania would be jeopardized.

Michael shouldered through the crowds, jostling a man off the path and almost causing another to stumble down the steps of the courthouse. He quickened his step to bound across the yard and toward the street. Dominic Sterescu had already opened the door of the carriage and was about to step inside. “Sterescu!” he shouted in his command voice. “Wait! Don’t go.”

The young man paused and looked over his shoulder. With reluctance, he lowered his foot and turned to face Michael. “Mr. Dobrescu,” he said with a brief nod. “I’m sorry if my testimony put you in a difficult position, but my first loyalty must be to the duke.”

Sterescu spoke in Romanian and Michael answered in the same language. “I have no argument with you,” he said as he extended his hand. After a moment of hesitation, the younger man shook his hand, but when he sought to withdraw it, Michael’s grip tightened and refused to let go.

“I have no argument with you,” Michael repeated in a low voice, “but I know who you are, and I know why you were expelled from the University of Bonn. I do not believe your new employers in America would be pleased to know the Romanian agent they have hired has been disgraced and branded as a cheater in the circles of Europe.”

A flash of anger lit Sterescu’s eyes, but Michael maintained his iron grasp on the man’s hand. “I repeat, I have no argument with you. But if you tell my brother that I am in America, or that any of my family is here, I will blanket every American newspaper with advertisements that announce your shameful past at the university.”

Michael stared hard into Dominic Sterescu’s troubled eyes. Sterescu’s disgrace when he was caught cheating on a philosophy exam was eight years ago, but that sort of stain lingered on a man’s reputation. A stupid mistake made by an eighteen-year-old should not carry a life sentence of shame, but that was what Sterescu faced if Michael carried out his threat.

“Both of us are seeking a new start here,” Michael said slowly and carefully. Winning clear title to the house on Winslow Street would be a minor victory compared with the real prize he had won for Mirela, and it would be jeopardized without this young man’s cooperation.

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