Ruthless Charmer by London Julia

Author:London, Julia [London, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780440235620
Publisher: Dell
Published: 2003-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Fortunately, Claudia didn't have to lie to anyone when Sophie slipped out to meet Sir William the next day, as she discovered Julian had left early for Cambridge. Nor did she have to lie the day after that, when Sophie came home more in love than ever and peppered her with a hundred questions about men and love and the universe. As the weather was starting to turn, Claudia used that as an excuse to escape Sophie's delirious state and paid a call to the house on Upper Moreland Street before the rains came.

And as she stood in the small parlor on Upper Moreland Street, she felt the cold seep through her bones to her very marrow. Doreen Conner stood in front of the small fire, her bony hands on her hips, impassively watching Claudia, having just given her the news.

Ellie was dead, strangled by her lover.

Claudia had met Ellie only a handful of times. The young woman had worked as a "daily" servant until a few weeks ago, when some incident involving her current beau had gotten her ejected from her employment and her living situation. With no money and no family to whom she could turn, she had been brought to Upper Moreland Street by a woman who had once stayed at the little town house. Ellie was there only a few days before her beau discovered where she was and began to make himself known. Doreen said that Nigel Mansfield often came around after he'd been in the public houses, quite late at night, and far into his cups. On one occasion, he was so intoxicated and angry with Ellie over some slight that he had tried to break down the locked door. But the barrel of Doreen's gun, a rather huge thing Claudia had appropriated from her father's gun cabinet, had properly cowed him.

Ellie was trouble, everyone thought so, but Claudia had genuinely liked her nonetheless. Plump and cheerful and pretty, she was so very thankful that she had been given a place in the town house that she was eager to contribute in any way she could, most notably by doing a great amount of work around the place. "There must be something we can do," Claudia muttered helplessly, heartsick at the news of her death.

"There ain't nothing to be done for her now, miss," Doreen said stoically. "All of us, we tried to tell her that Nigel was a mean one, but she wouldn't listen."

"He must be brought to justice!" Claudia insisted, shivering unconsciously at the memory of Doreen's description of how they found Ellie—lying on the back stoop, her own scarf bound so tightly around her neck that it had cut the skin.

Doreen resolutely shook her head. "We've no evidence it was him. For all we know, Ellie found herself another bloke last night that done this to her. And besides, there ain't a magistrate who'd care enough about poor Ellie to go after the man. No, miss—he'd take one look where she come from, her lot in life, and he wouldn't waste one moment on her.

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