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gloriagay.com
Category:
Romance
Publisher: Gloria Gay
ISBN-10: B07RRYZ65D
Type: Fiction
Pages: 145
Copyright: May 14, 2019
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Through the years Simon Westrick, Earl of Brandel, searches for a girl he saw being abused by her caretakers.
Waiting at the London posting station for a friend, young Simon Westrick, Earl of Brandell, was annoyed by a strident female voice that cut through his thoughts. The awful woman appeared flustered that her brother was missing and was verbally abusing a lovely young girl dressed in worn clothes who stood before her. Simon moved closer as the woman pushed the girl onto a bench with a warning and went in search of her brother.
Left alone, the girl stood and up from between the two large women who were glaring at her and walked toward Simon. Simon saw the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen in his life and they were awash with tears.
The girl’s silent plea reached him as few things had ever touched him before in his young life.
Simon bought a posy from a vendor who went by and then handed to the girl. And just as Simon asked Lydia for her aunt’s name, so that he could help her, the woman in charge of her came back, her large brother in tow.
She scolded Lydia for talking with Simon, grabbed one of the girl’s hands and then pinched it.
And when Simon protested, the woman and her brother each grabbed one of the girl’s arms and then ran with her, in what Simon realized was a practiced run.
And no matter how hard Simon searched for them in the crowded yard, they disappeared into the fog and he was unable to find them.
And so began Simon’s search for Lydia, for he could not ever forget the plea in her beautiful eyes, no matter how many years went by.
Excerpt
The woman gave Simon a dirty look and turned in a fury to the girl, shouting at her:
“How many times have I told you not to talk to strangers, Lydia?”
She grabbed one of the girl’s hands and pinched it with such force that the girl cried out.
“Hey!” Simon yelled at the woman, “Stop that!”
“Mind your own business you dandy fop,” the woman yelled in his face.
Suddenly, the woman grabbed one of the girl’s arms and the burly man grabbed the other one.
In a matter of seconds, the girl was then whisked between them away from the station, at a run.
Taken by surprise by what appeared a practiced action, Simon had lost a few precious seconds before he, too, chased after as the largely-built couple carried the girl away, between them.
The place was so crowded that Simon soon lost sight of them as they disappeared among vendors, travelers and beggars.
Simon ran to the station entrance and looked about in the crowded yard, but there was neither sight nor sound of them. The group had disappeared into the thick fog among the horses, carriages and people.
Nevertheless, he walked about around the yard, weaving alongside parked coaches in the fog and asked the people that were milling about if they had seen the group.
Nobody was able to help him, so Simon went back inside the station and looked about for his friend.
The girl knows that it’s better not to cry out in public, Simon thought in disgust. Most probably the punishment would be worse once they were at home.
He felt helpless to defend the girl and it made him sick to his stomach.
***
“I saw you run after a girl, old chap,” said his friend Amby when he met up with him. “Skirt chasing is not really meant to be literal, you know.”
“That horrible woman was mistreating her ward.” Simon shook his head and settled down to a pace with his Eton friend, “She made my blood boil.”
He was still outraged at what he had witnessed but more so because he had been unable to come to the girl’s aid, even though the girl’s eyes had begged for his help.
“That odd woman called me a dandy fop.” He shook his head. Had she been a man, he thought, she would have been on his back in the dirty station floor before he had realized what had happened to him.
“Not you, old chap,” said his friend, who much more fit the description of dandy. “You’re as severely dressed as Brummell. That woman doesn’t know fashion worth halfpence.”
“I agree,” said Simon. “Her brother called her ‘Jalenta’,” he added. “No last name. It will be difficult to locate them.”
The lovely girl’s blue eyes were stamped in Simon’s mind and refused to leave it for a long time after.
A very long time.
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