Lady Be Good by Meredith Duran

been a different man then. Less certain of his power. Blunter in wielding it.
    “You got caught.” He sounded as though this was the best joke he’d heard all week. “
You
. By a toff!”
    She felt stung. “You’ve no idea. He isn’t what you think. He’s . . .”
Different
, she wanted to say. But how? In appearance, Palmer was as sleek and idle as the rest of his lot.
    It was in the full force of his physical presence that she sensed the difference. Finding herself the focus of his attention, she had suddenly believed the wild tales about his heroism, the bloody charge that had decimated a stronghold of enemies. A simmering energy crackled around him.
    And for some dreadful reason, it took her breath away.
    “Well, then.” Nick dropped his hand to show her a predatory smile. “I see he meets your approval.
Miss Marshall
.”
    He never lost an opportunity to jibe at her for the name she’d adopted. As if an Irish girl named Monroe would have any chance of working at Everleigh’s! “He’s not stupid, is what he is.”
    “That’s bad news for you.” With a shrug, Nick resumed his stroll.
    “Wait! I . . .” He looked over his shoulder. “What will you do?”
    “
I
do?” He lifted his brows as he turned back. “’Tisn’t me who has the problem, Lily.”
    Fear kicked through her stomach. She crossed her arms, hugging herself. “I can’t get the letters for you. He took them.”
    “Aye, it’s a proper conundrum. But I’m certain you’ll find a solution for it. You do have a knack for pleasing those toffs.”
    “Nick.” She dug her fingers into her sides. “Please. Do you really mean to tell them about me?”
    “Stupid question.” His voice snapped like a whip. “Try another one.”
    It wasn’t right that he should sabotage her like this! “I’ll be done for if you tell them! Don’t you have any care for your own niece?”
    “Care?” He stepped toward her, his gaze hard as a bludgeon. “That’s ripe, Lily. ’Twas
you
who turned your back on your kin. Shook off your family like dirt from your shoes, and rubbed out your true name like a stain from your skirts. And for what, I ask? To grovel for swells who wouldn’t spit on you to put out a fire. And now you come asking if I
care
?”
    “I never turned my back.” Did he think she enjoyed bowing and scraping? It was only a means to an end—one that would take her a sight further than bowing in Whitechapel to
him
! “I only wanted to make a future for myself! Can’t you see—”
    “Aye, I’ve heard that speech,” he said grimly. “You wanted
better
. And I let you make a choice. But now you’ll live with it, Lily. You won’t come calling me Uncle and begging for mercy, just because it serves to remember your family today. For tomorrow, we both know you’d forget me again, and look away if we passed in the street.”
    “That isn’t fair.” The words came out in a whisper, for this was an old argument, and she stood no hope of winning it. But why did he always refuse to see it from her view? “All I wanted was a life where I’d never sufferfrom trouble.
This
kind of trouble.” Suddenly she was angry again. “Family, you say? Some family, that threatens and blackmails and harasses me—”
    He made a contemptuous noise, a sharp puff of air. “Aye, yours is a sad story, no doubt. But if it weren’t for your rotting bastard of an uncle, ask yourself where you’d be now. Who gave you the fees for that typing course? Who paid for that fine gown with which you interviewed at the auction rooms?”
    This was his trump card. She gritted her teeth and glared past him down the road. Onlookers who’d paused to eavesdrop made a quick retreat to avoid her notice. Always a spectacle, in these parts.
    “No reply to that,” he said. “You know you’d be plucking cat fur in some garret, praying the week’s pay would cover your rent.”
    “So I’m forever to be indebted to you,” she said bitterly. “Forever to answer to your