Read Online Mistletoe and Mischief by Patricia Wynn - Free Book Online

fingers this time and wiped the pane again to keep it clear. Then she saw a figure move into the lantern light– a man with a dog, small like a puppy, that he was holding by the ears.
    Before the next wail of pain reached her, Louisa had bolted from her seat and flown to the door. She threw it open to find Sammy Spadger on the point of knocking.
    Her demeanour frightened him. “What is't, lass?”
    “Oh, Mr. Spadger, come quickly! I've no time to explain, but you are needed!”
    Louisa did not wait to see if he followed. Without so much as her spencer–which she had removed so Mrs. Spadger could press it–she headed out the main inn door and into the street beyond.
    “Miss! But, miss–!”
    Sammy Spadger grabbed a lantern and came running after her, the words “catch thy death” and “dampen thy slippers” tripping off his tongue.
    But Louisa was so heated by what she had just seen that no amount of snow could chill her. She stalked up to the man still standing on the pavement–a heavyset man with a stale smell of alcohol about him–and snatched the dog from his arms.
    “0h, how could you! You scoundrel!”
    When he saw who had accosted him, the man's first startled glance quickly changed to one of furtive belligerence.
    “'Ere now! Wot you doin’?”
    Louisa ignored him. She hugged the puppy close to her while the frightened creature huddled in her arms and whimpered. Seeming to sense a sympathetic spirit, it snuggled closer to her for warmth until Louisa felt a cold, wet nose planted between her breasts. A shock of long silky fur tickled her on the chin.
    “Miss?” Sammy Spadger was hovering anxiously at her elbow. “What would tha be needing me for?”
    Louisa turned to him, surprised. “I need you to call for the bailiff, of course! This man ought to be arrested for what he's done! Did you hear this creature's cries? What he did was brutal! “
    “Arrested!” The man was taken aback. “You can't have no one arrested fer that! This 'ere's my dog, 'e is! I've a right to do wot I want wif 'im! “
    “T' fellow's reet, miss,” Sammy said apologetically. “Tha's no reet ta take away a man's dog.”
    Louisa stared at him incredulously. “But I refuse to give him back! How could you suggest such a thing to me? Have you no pity?”
    Sammy winced. “I don't say that it's good, miss. I hate ta see a dog treated that way. But there's nowt I can do abowt it–” he cast a suspicious glance at the man “–not unless he's made off wi' t' dog.”
    The fellow started to protest his innocence, but Louisa cut across his speech. “Do you know this man, Mr. Spadger?”
    “Nay, he's a foreigner.”
    Louisa quite rightly took this to mean that the man was simply not from the village.
    “I've seen 'm abowt a bit, though.” Sammy sounded displeased.
    “Well,” Louisa said, “I'm certain that a man who is capable of tormenting a dog is quite capable of stealing one. Until this matter can be decided, I shall take the dog myself to keep it safe! “
    “But, miss–” Much as he disliked the fellow, Sammy would not support her.
    “I'll call for the bailiff meself, I will–” the burly fellow's tone grew uglier by the minute “–and we'll see wot the law says about it. A body can't take a man's dog , 'specially no girl!”
    Louisa drew herself up and spoke with dignity. “You shall not intimidate me nor deter me from doing what I know to be right.”
    Then she spoiled the effect of her statement by sneezing. The burly man peered closer and snorted with laughter. Louisa tried to maintain her firm pose, but the dog's hair had tickled her nose and made it quite red. Even her eyes had begun to itch and water.
    Desperate to make a sterner impression on the two men–for she could see that even Sammy had begun to lose patience with her–she said, “And, for your information, you shall not be dealing with me. My cousin will attend to you as soon as he returns from his errand. He is a marquess and travelling on