Read Online Folly by Marthe Jocelyn - Free Book Online

you'll--"
    We rounded the corner and the reason for Eliza's tizzy were clear at once. Forty men or more, in one small street; sitting about, leaning on walls, smoking, laughing,
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    brushing horses, polishing boots, spitting, cursing, and generally strutting their manly selves.
    "What--?"
    I began to skitter backward but Eliza gripped me as a pair of tongs grips a cutlet.
    "There's a barracks here," she whispered. "It's a girl's dream come true!"
    "No, Eliza, not me." I were blushing already, guessing the kind of girl who might dream that way!
    I were surprised at the gall of her. Under usual circumstances, Eliza thought of one man only and his name were Bates. But even with him, she complained when he took his jacket off in company, if you can call us in the kitchen company. Yet here she were, gawping at a crowd of dozens , and these men were not entirely clad. Indeed, several lolled about without shirts at all!
    "Eliza! We should not be here!"
    I yanked my hand from hers and turned to flee, but at that moment saw an urchin, smaller and much dirtier than Nut. His grimy fingers closed around Eliza's purse and gave a mighty yank, us being otherwise distracted.
    "Stop!" I cried. "Stop, you! Hey!"
    Eliza spun about, thinking it were me who pulled on her. Seeing the boy, she screamed, tripped, and fell forward over her own clodhoppery feet, landing on the muddy cobbles with a thunk and a moan. I stared at her upended bottom and missed snatching at the boy.
    All about us now were men , utterly confusing the
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    situation. They tried to right Eliza and each report what he had seen, each clamoring to say the most.
    I held Eliza's arm and tried to wipe away the mud.
    "My purse!" she sobbed. "I shall be whipped--"
    "Not whipped, Eliza," I muttered. "Surely not whipped."
    "Whipped!" she wailed. "Alack this day!"
    It were not until the word alack that I saw her game. She shook free my hold to accept assistance from the whole company of men around us.
    If she had seen herself in a glass, she'd have delayed her drama, for she were smeared with mud and horse dung from hem to cap, with her nose blazing scarlet to match the men's jackets.
    "It was my lady's money!" explained Eliza, to the few men who listened still.
    I'm not proud to say, but a giggle tickled at my throat, so I looked away while she flirted. I stood on tippy-toe, though I had no hope of spying the boy, who would be vanished and cheering his luck by now.
    But then, up went a cry.
    "What? Tucker?"
    "Tucker's got it!"
    "He caught the brat and trounced him!"
    "Is it true?" I asked, pulling on the sleeve of the nearest soldier. Eliza paused in her performance.
    A grinning lad approached, holding high a muddy prize that were the stolen purse. He were nearly as bespattered as Eliza, but his comrades clapped him on the
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    shoulders as he passed and set up a chant in jest, "Tuck er ! Tuck er ! Tuck er !"
    He put the purse in Eliza's outstretched hand and then bowed low and clicked his heels, causing huge hilarity amongst the others. Now that he were near, we could see that he were closer to boyhood than most of them and dressed in the fashion of a groom, not the full uniform of the Coventry Guard.
    "Caden Tucker, at your service." He ignored the friendly jeers.
    As Eliza's mouth still hung open, I had the wits to bob.
    "We thank you, kind sir," I said, matching his elegance. "This is Eliza Pigeon, whose whipping you have averted, and who will speak again when she has caught her breath."
    I pinched her, and she blurted, "Aye!"
    Caden Tucker now turned his eyes to me, and sure I felt the crackling blue heat of them, alongside a glimpse of a cheeky smile and a head full of shining dark curls, not that I were thinking so poetic at the moment.
    "And you?" he asked.
    Eliza began to moan about the state of her dress and tried to wipe it with her hands, which only moved the muck around. The men had lost interest and were wandering back to their boot polishing and arm wrestling and tobacco