Read Online One Penny Surprise (Saved By Desire 1) by Rebecca King - Free Book Online Page A

of evidence maybe?
    If the pick-pockets returned now, they would help themselves to the coins Luke had found, dead man or not. To anyone who else happened to be genuinely taking an early morning stroll, she was standing over a dead man whose personal property had been bared for the world to see. Not only that, but the marks around his throat were clearly visible now that Luke had untied the cravat – marks that highlighted he had been murdered. It looked incriminating even to her and cast her under a cloud of suspicion she knew she would struggle to explain her way out of.
    “He could come back,” she whispered. “Again. He will ask questions – again.”
    Given how he had studied her bag, she wondered if he would insist on taking it off her so he could have a look inside. If anyone was arrogant enough to, it was the man who had chased after a shadow without a qualm.
    “What to do, what to do,” she whispered.  She didn’t want to, but she knew that there really was only one option available to her. With one last furtive glance around to make sure that nobody was watching, she turned around and retraced her steps toward the main gates. She didn’t know what she would say if she happened to cross paths with Mr Brindley again but didn’t want to even think about that right now. She felt guilty for having to abandon the body, especially when Luke had told her to stay with it, but she just couldn’t risk being accused of killing someone.
    “Whoever Mr Brindley is, he can deal with the body himself if he ever returns,” she muttered. “Besides, you don’t want to wait around just in case the killer does turn up.” That thought made her feel a little queasy and was enough to force her to redouble her efforts to get out of the park before Luke reappeared and stopped her.
    As she merged into the passing pedestrians on the busy main road, her thoughts remained locked on the enigma that was Luke Brindley. She hated to think that someone like him could be a cold-blooded murderer, he was just too handsome. Besides, there was something about his calm, unflappable manner that was distinctly reassuring. He had been annoyed at her questions, but then she hadn’t really done herself any favours by sounding fraught and irrational. He hadn’t been aggressive, just impatient and a little patronising. Just the thought of some of the questions she had asked him made her wince. It was her own fault if she had irritated him. Now that she came to think her questions over, she had been a little foolish.
    “He must think you are a right nincompoop,” she muttered, then clamped her mouth closed when a passing gentleman looked at her warily.
    If she wasn’t so attracted to Mr Brindley – Luke - she could begin to put the entire debacle behind her and focus on what to do about the contents of the bag she still carried. It wasn’t lost to her that she still had the wretched thing, but couldn’t quite make her mind up whether that was a good thing or not. She had a strange feeling that it wouldn’t just be the face of the corpse that would haunt her dreams from now on. The image of a rather dapper, and incredibly mysterious man called Luke, would stay with her for a very long time as well. Still, there was no reason why her rather unexpected attraction to him should mean that she should allow herself to be suspected of a crime she hadn’t committed, especially when the mysterious Luke Brindley appeared guiltier than she did.
    Confident that she was doing the right thing, Poppy ducked her head, sent a silent prayer of apology to the mysterious Mr Brindley and the corpse, clutched her bag tighter, and made her way back to the hovel.
     
    “Sodding hell,” Luke snarled as he side-stepped a barrow man and had to take his eyes off the stranger only a few feet ahead of him. Although he did so for only a few seconds, it was more than enough time for his quarry to vanish. Luke lengthened his stride and scoured each nook and cranny as he