The Virgin Who Ruined Lord Gray - Anna Bradley Page 0,45
promised.” Once he freed Jeremy from his irons he leapt backwards, out of Lord Gray’s reach.
The moment Jeremy was free, he threw himself on Sophia’s neck. “I didna think ye’d come, Miss Sophia.”
“Hush now, sweetheart. Of course, I came.” Sophia brushed his limp hair away from his forehead and did her best to give him a reassuring smile. “Have I ever abandoned you, Jeremy?”
“Nay.” Jeremy sniffled, and dragged his arm across his eyes. “But the man yesterday said as I’d done a bad thing, an’ I thought ye wouldn’t like to see me again, now I’m a bad man.”
Hogg snorted, and Lord Gray turned a frigid look on him. “I told you to get out.” He didn’t spare Hogg another glance, but the man took to his heels readily enough, the clang from the iron door ringing like a death knell long after he’d slammed it behind him.
Sophia tried not to flinch at the sound, and turned her attention back to Jeremy. “You’re not a bad man. Did you hurt anyone?”
Jeremy hung his head. “Nay, Miss Sophia.”
“Look at me, Jeremy.” Sophia raised his face to hers with a nudge to his chin. “Did you steal anything from Mr. Sharpe?”
Jeremy sucked in a shaky breath. “Nay, miss.”
“Then you’re not a bad man, Jeremy, no matter what the man said. You haven’t done anything wrong. This is all a dreadful mistake. We’ve come to help you.” She took his hand in hers and began to gently chafe his wrists to force the blood to flow.
Jeremy made a hoarse, rusty noise that sounded, incredibly, like a laugh. “Ye shouldna have come ’ere, Miss Sophia. This isn’t a good place for ye, and there ain’t no help for me now, no ways.”
“Don’t say that, sweetheart. Lady Clifford would tell you it’s never too late for anything, wouldn’t she?” More words rushed to Sophia’s lips—arguments, denials, reassurances—but she couldn’t force them past her lips, because they felt like lies. No matter what Lady Clifford said, the odds were against Jeremy surviving even another few nights in Newgate.
Tears started to her eyes, and it was all she could do to hold them back. Dear God, how could they have done this to Jeremy? How could they do this to anyone? Guilty or innocent, no man deserved to die in this place, like this.
“I didna do it, Miss Sophia. I didna hurt that man.” Jeremy caught her hand in his, grasping it weakly. “Ye’ll tell Lady Clifford an’ Mr. Daniel I didna do it? An’ Miss Cecilia and Miss Emma, and Miss Georgiana? Ye’ll tell ’em I didna do it, and I’m sorry—”
“Hush, now. They know you didn’t do it, sweetheart. No one is angry at you. Now, let’s clean you up a bit, because I’ve brought someone to see you today.” Sophia took a clean square of white linen from her pocket, wiped Jeremy’s eyes, then gave the cloth to him. “This gentleman here is Lord Gray.”
Jeremy turned wide, guileless blue eyes on Lord Gray, then ducked his head to whisper to Sophia, “Ye brought me a lord?”
Sophia smiled. “I did, yes. Lord Gray is an earl.”
Instead of cleaning his face, Jeremy used the handkerchief to scrub at a place next to him on the stone floor. When he was finished, he turned bravely back to Lord Gray. “How do ye do, my lord? Will ye sit down?”
Sophia held her breath, dreading the moment when Lord Gray would coldly refuse Jeremy’s invitation, but to her surprise he crossed the cell and crouched down next to Jeremy. “Thank you, Jeremy.”
“Jeremy,” Sophia began, brushing a filthy, ragged clump of hair away from his face. “Lord Gray and I need you tell us as much as you can remember about what happened that night in St. Clement Dane’s churchyard.”
Jeremy gave her an apprehensive look. “I don’t know how to talk to a lord, Miss Sophia.”
“You needn’t worry, sweetheart. Lord Gray will be good to you. How did you happen to be in St. Clement Dane’s churchyard so late that night?” The judge had asked Jeremy the same question at the trial yesterday, but he’d been too frightened to give more than a stammering, incoherent answer.
Jeremy gave her an uncertain look. “I weren’t doing nothing wrong. I were just passing through the churchyard.”
“All right,” Sophia agreed with a reassuring smile. “And where were you before that? What had you been doing?”
Jeremy’s brow pinched, as if he were trying hard to remember. “I were at the Turk’s Head.”