Choosing Love Over Honor [Agents of the Crown #2]

Chapter 12

The trip from Avondale had been quick, and Charlotte had arrived with Emma in tow to her brother's townhouse close to midnight. While the lady would have loved to immediately head out to look for Lionel, however, Emma was having none of it. With the Duke in the countryside manor, the household servants heeded Emma's words over Charlotte's, which left her with little choice but to remain to mope around the house until first dawn.

The moment the first streaks of the sun breached the skies, Charlotte was out of the front door regardless of her lady's maid's harping.

"A lady should not be -"

"Then neither should you," Charlotte responded just as quickly. Not even sparing the fussing lady's maid, she pulled the coarse shawl over the rough cotton frock she had on, pulling the excess cloth of the shawl over her head. "Stay here. I'll return quickly as I can."

"The day isn't even bright yet!"

"That's the whole point, Emma. You worry about my reputation, do you not? Then I shall simply go when it isn't fashionable at all to be seen. No one will be around then."

Through the spluttering of protests, Charlotte promptly pushed past Emma and left the front door. As the younger, unmarried sister of a duke, Charlotte has had little chance to explore the streets of London by herself. Usually accompanied by a maid or footmen, and most often traveling by carriage unless she was out for a walk by a possible suitor, when one considered her abysmal sense of direction, that meant Charlotte was not the best at picking out the way to the East End, considering the Duke's residence was nowhere near the cesspit of thieves and unruly behavior.

But she has had many a conversation with Elle as her sister in law had been abed over the final parts of her pregnancy, and Charlotte now used the many stories Elle had told her as a guide. Faint memories of Elle explaining to her a street she used to frequent, or the way she had to remember to get back to the residence she used to share with Lacey flickered briefly in her mind as Charlotte made her way down the quiet streets of London. In such an early hour, only the sounds of rickety carriages and wagons trundled through the cobbled streets as vendors and shop owners alike hurried about to start their business before the more affluent personalities descended at what was considered a more 'fashionable' hour.

Biting her lip as she paused at an intersection, her brows furrowed. The girl pushed her strawberry blonde locks out of her gaze, her mind working furiously. She was running out of time, and she had to get out of the streets of London before she risked being spotted.

Taking a gamble, the girl ducked down a street, hurrying down and taking a few turns. Each decision warred against her normal senses, for unlike a regular day, Charlotte now actively sought out the streets that looked dirtier, more unruly than the rest, believing that would be the one that would lead her to the East End. And once she found the East End, she was more likely to find Lacey, and hopefully, Lionel. He had said he was heading out with Lucan to catch the Moonlighter, did he not?

Hurrying along as the skies got brighter, it did not take long before Charlotte began to notice how the buildings got more ragged as she went further along the path. Eyes kept on her path and on the way before her, the girl would have entirely missed a young boy had he not knocked into her, almost bowling her over had she not managed to catch herself by catching on to him.

What Charlotte did not expect however, was for the small, bedraggled child she had caught to freeze and start tugging at her hold in a panic.

Her first instinct was to release the young boy, yet before she could, Charlotte remembered her whole aim in diving headfirst into the riskier areas of London, and tightened her hold. Her captive turned wide, frightened eyes at her as her grip tightened, and a smidgen of guilt piped up at her chest, only for Charlotte to wave it away. She could not afford to feel soft-hearted now - besides, she reasoned with herself, she only needed his help, and did not intend to harm him.