Kisses and Scandal (A Survivors Series Anthology ) - Shana Galen Page 0,90
his voice stern. “If I understand correctly, you don’t have anywhere to go. I take it you have been sleeping in a church?” He gave Raeni a dark look. “Yet another fact I was unaware of. That’s simply unacceptable.”
“As I was saying,” Raeni broke in, “I have a little money now, and I can get us a room for the night.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “A room with eight of you cramped inside and that’s not counting the rats and fleas. No. You’ll stay at my town house in Cheapside.”
Raeni gaped at him. “But we couldn’t do that!”
“I will sleep here. Then it will be proper.”
She didn’t care about what was proper. She could not move herself and a woman and child he did not even know into his home. “Sir, that’s simply far too much to ask of you.”
He shook his head. She had seen the look he wore before when he’d been negotiating with merchants. She’d come to think of it as his stubborn look. It meant he had made up his mind and nothing she said would change it. “If you’re to insist, then we will stay here,” Raeni said. “Just for a night or two.”
“A baby sleeping above a shop on Bond Street? That won’t do.”
She wanted to ask why not. Surely there were many babies sleeping above shops on Bond Street.
“I’ll take you home until we figure out another arrangement. Miss Alice?” He looked at Alice, who stared at him open-mouthed. “Is that acceptable to you?”
She looked at Raeni. Thomas cleared his throat. “Would you like a clean room, a bath, supper, and a bed for you and your child?”
She gave Raeni an apologetic look. “Yes?”
“Good. Have something to eat now while I arrange for a coachman to drive you.”
Alice’s eyes went wide again. While she reached for a slice of cake, Raeni gave her the baby back and followed Thomas into the back room. Mr. Miller looked up from his ledger when they entered, but she paid him no heed. “I will agree to this on one condition.”
Thomas turned on her. “You’ll agree to this without any condition. What else are you hiding from me, Raeni? Sleeping in a church? Anything could have happened to you.”
“You’re angry at me?”
“I’m angry at the world—at men who buy people as though they were a sack of flour, at the rich who pass the sick and diseased and do nothing more than put their handkerchiefs to their noses, at the wounded former soldiers begging for money on street corners who fought Napoleon for their country and now cannot work because they have only a stump of a leg. I’m angry.” His eyes softened. “But not at you. Not at your friend. I can help them, and it’s the least I can do.”
Raeni swallowed. He was a good man. She had not really believed such men existed. “Then you will have my thanks, but I cannot put you out of your home. If there aren’t enough rooms to accommodate all of us, I will sleep with Alice or on the floor or—why are you smiling?”
“There is room enough, and you’re right. There’s no reason for me to go. Besides, this arrangement might actually work out well. I haven’t had a chance to discuss the details of the opening celebration with you, and it’s only a week away. You can tell me what arrangements you have made in the hackney.”
Raeni sighed as he left her to find a hackney. As much as she admired the businessman, she liked the man who had kissed her even better. She did not want to impose on him, but when she thought about the advantages of doing so, more time to discuss work matters was not on her list.
More time to kiss him, more chances to wrap her arms about his strong shoulders, more opportunities to accidentally meet in the wee hours of the night when she was wearing nothing but her chemise and he...
She swallowed and put a hand to her heart. She shouldn’t imagine what he wouldn’t be wearing.
“Are you all right, Miss Sawyer?” Mr. Miller called.
“Just fine, sir.” She had better go back to Alice and George. “Everything is fine.”
THOMAS WASN’T CERTAIN how to describe the first few days of having Raeni live at his house. Well, Raeni and Alice and George. There was the annoyance of waking up because a baby was crying, but there was also the pleasure of sitting across the table from Raeni in