Miss Lottie's Christmas Protector by Sophia James

Author:Sophia James
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-07-30T18:43:11+00:00

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Leonard Carvall’s address was closed up and empty. A bogus direction, a place of shadows and mirrors, aiding a man who worked at brokering other people’s ruin.

When Jasper asked a neighbour about the house he was led to believe the place had been unoccupied for at least three months.

The image of Charlotte in the rain with her wet hair and damaged cheek came to him, the thick meaty fist of the biggest thug about to rain down upon her fragile bones terrifying.

He blinked twice, hard, trying to disperse the memory, but it kept returning again and again.

What if he had been too late?

What if Twigg from the One Tun pub had not sent him word about Charlotte being there asking her inflammatory questions?

What if he had not instructed his driver to go faster and then faster again?

Charlotte Fairclough would have been dead. A small crushed shape on the cobblestones of the Irish Rookery, all the life in her gone.

He remembered her words when she was drunk, soft improbable things that spoke of more than indifference. Drink muddled one’s brain and he could hardly take such utterings as gospel. Still, the hope of it was there, in a warmth about his heart.

He needed to go home and rest his leg because the cramps were threatening, but he did not. Instead he went to the One Tun to see the publican.

Twigg was in the back room, a woman dressing the cut above one eye with an ointment that smelt strongly. The publican sent her away as soon as the doctoring was finished.

‘They found out I sent you a note, Mr King,’ he said as he looked up, ‘and I’m lucky to escape with only this.’

The hand he used to gesture to his face was grazed, too, and digging into his pocket Jasper laid out two gold coins on to the table before him. ‘This is in payment for your note warning me that Miss Fairclough was here asking questions. If I were you, I’d use it to employ a few of your own men here as security. Do you know a man named Leonard Carvall?’

‘I’ve heard the name, all right.’

‘I think he’s behind all this and I need to find him.’

‘He isn’t from around the Rookery and, if you want my opinion of where things presently stand, I would say that those you seek are not pleased with your interest in them.’

‘Or that of Miss Fairclough?’

Twigg shook his head. ‘The Fairclough Foundation holds a strong pull in these parts and there would be hell to pay if they killed her.’ He stopped. ‘There’d be too many questions to answer, for even with all the criminal activity there is a loyalty here to those who try to help and the Fairclough family definitely does that. I think it was more of a scare-off tactic.’

The tight knot of fury inside Jasper loosened a little, though the fright they had given her was still deplorable.

‘I will be asking around for any information, Mr

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