Earl of Gold (Lords of Scandal #7) - Tammy Andresen Page 0,2
dug into his thigh, he didn’t even bother to hide it. “And how do I know you’ll keep your word?”
Daring gave him a grin. “You want a contract before our contract? You’re as shrewd as they say. Trust me, you’re not a man I wish to double cross. You keep up your end of the bargain and I’ll keep up mine.”
His fist relaxed. Many of Daring’s points held merit that Logan wouldn’t mind exploring. If he could gain favor in the ton, would he be even more successful than he’d been?
To find out he only needed to help one little do-gooder start up an orphanage.
He could do that. No problem. Easy.
The Den of Sins would be his.
Chapter One
Penny Walters sat in front of the chipped and cracked mirror attempting to assess if the style of her hair was at all pleasing. Styling herself had never been her strong suit. Even in the speckled reflection, she noted several stray curls sticking up at odd angles. She wrinkled her nose as she lifted her hands to her hair once again.
“It looks dreadful,” a young voice called from the door.
She let out a long sigh, sliding out a pin. “I was afraid of that.”
Her friend and companion, Clarissa, slid into the room, her bare feet sliding across the worn wood. Penny had bought her new shoes, but the girl would only wear them outside the house. Penny supposed Clarissa wasn’t actually a girl anymore. At eighteen she was nearly a woman, but she was slight and small, and she padded barefoot as much as she wore footwear. She seemed so much younger than Penny even though only four years separated them.
“How long before you leave?” Clarissa asked, already pulling the rest of the pins from Penny’s brown hair. It was thick and full with long waves that made it terribly unruly.
“A quarter hour,” Penny answered, smiling at Clarissa in the glass. Her appointment wasn’t for two hours yet, but she needed time to cross the city.
Clarissa nodded without response as she brusquely brushed out the locks. The girl had been the daughter of a country barrister before she’d been orphaned. Penny had found her at a church on her return trip from Dover six years prior. She’d been hoping to obtain a position as a governess but the family had gone with another candidate.
Directionless, Penny had been returning to London, wondering what she might do with the rest of her life. And that’s when she’d found a young Clarissa. Barely old enough to care for herself, Penny hadn’t been able to leave the fierce girl behind. The priest there had been attempting to convince Clarissa to join the nearby convent. An honest choice but as Clarissa was regularly blasphemous, it likely would have been an ill fit.
Now she couldn’t imagine her life without her friend. Clarissa began to re-pin the hair, pins sticking out of her mouth, even as she talked. “I don’t understand why you didn’t just ask me to do it in the first place.”
“You were helping Natty and Fran,” Penny answered, her grin growing. With a few benefactors, and a small inheritance, Penny had been able to maintain her family home just outside of the Docklands and convert it to a small orphanage. The East End reeked of the tanning mills just outside the city and the paint was chipped and worn but it was all they could afford. All in all, she had four girls living with her. Ones that society would have swept under the carpet and looked away from as the mean streets ate them for breakfast.
They’d been orphaned for one reason or another and she’d determined to give each of them a real home. With food and clothes, love and shoes…
“May I ask why you aren’t wearing the new boots I bought you?” She suppressed a grin as Clarissa wrinkled her nose.
“You know I don’t like anything on my feet.” Clarissa pulled a good deal harder than was necessary as she tamed an unruly lock of hair.
“Do they not fit?” Penny raised her brows refusing to give up the subject. She loved Clarissa like a sister which was why she needed to start wearing coverings on her feet. One could not go out and get a job or a husband while barefoot. Penny had rescued Clarissa to give her choices in life. Not to hide her away in this house.
“They fit fine,” Clarissa sighed as she twisted once more. “After spending two years in shoes that