The Redemption of a Rogue (The Duke's By-Blows #4) - Jess Michaels

Chapter 1

1816

It had all been a mistake from the beginning, but there was no changing it now. At least that was what Imogen Huxley kept telling herself as she stumbled down the long, dingy hallway of the Cat’s Companion. The brothel was in the very worst corner of London and yet she’d seen many a very important man haunting its not-so-hallowed halls. As many as in the finer establishments of its ilk.

And Imogen had been to them all recently. Or at least it felt like she had. Since her husband’s death, since she realized that Warren had left her with absolutely nothing to her name…

Well, what choice did she have but to seek a protector? By any means and at any location necessary.

“You gonna stand in the way, luv, or go earn your keep?”

The sharp female voice startled her from her thoughts, and Imogen pivoted. It was Maggie Monroe who stood there, hands on her hips, dark eyes barely visible through her smoldering glare. Imogen had met the woman once before, the first time she’d come here. The time she’d sworn she’d never come back. Maggie was abjectly terrifying then and it was no different now.

“I-I was just about to go in,” she said, pushing her back against the wall so Maggie could pass her in the narrow hall.

She did so, smacking Imogen with her shoulder as she moved. “You’d best forget you’re a lady right quick,” the woman snapped as she continued up the hall. “If these bastards wanted a lady, they would have stayed home.”

Imogen bent her head. She’d been a lady her whole life, daughter of a second son, wife of a third son. It was a sheltered life, she knew that now more than ever. Until it wasn’t. Until she’d been thrown out into the cold.

She took a long step toward the door she was meant to pass through. In that room was a man who wished to bed her. If she pleased him, he might take her as his mistress, he might pay for her to have a home and a little allowance. Lying on her back could save her.

“God, I hope he’s at least a good lover,” she murmured, trying not to think about the inexperienced fumblings of the man she’d been with last time she was here. She shuddered as she lifted her hand to open the door.

But before she could, there was a shout from behind it. A very drunken shout, indeed. “Where is that bitch?” the voice grunted, and there was a great crash. “I’ll not be made to wait by some poxy whore.”

She stepped back away from the door, her heart racing as she flattened to the wall as if she could disappear into it. In that moment, she wished it were true. That she could sprout wings and fly away.

There was a second bang from within the chamber, and she shook her head. “I will not do this,” she whispered, clenching her hands into fists at her sides as she pivoted toward the front exit of the establishment. But up that hallway were a group of loud and very drunk men. They were watching her. Go that way and it was out of the frying pan and potentially into a very bad fire.

So she turned the other direction, toward where Maggie had gone a few moments earlier. There were a dozen exits to this place, she knew that from the chatter of the other girls hired to work here on a more permanent basis. Plenty of modes of escape for client and lightskirt alike.

Now Imogen just had to find one of them and get out. Find some other means of getting protection. At least her best friend Aurora would be pleased. She hadn’t wanted Imogen to come back after the last time.

Imogen pushed those thoughts aside and scurried up the hall before her intended client burst through the door and simply took what he wanted. She meandered through the halls, turning left, then right, lost in a maze of dark hallways and closed doors. Moans and cries came from behind them, some pleasurable and others that were…not.

Her stomach turned and she blinked to clear the tears in her eyes. She needed to be focused now.

There was a door ahead, one with a big rusty smokehouse lock that dangled open from the hinge. Those locks were often used to protect the outside doors, and Imogen gasped in relief as she pushed the door open. But what she found wasn’t escape but