Page 11 of In Bed with the Earl

All the energy went out of her, and Verity abruptly stopped midstride, and then slid onto the edge of her usual kitchen chair.

Gone. It was gone. Except—

“It can’t be gone,” she whispered.

“It is,” Bertha muttered, earning a frown from Livvie. “They’ve been looking for a reason to sack you, and now they have it.”

Aye, Bertha spoke the truth. Verity’s throat moved spasmodically. She’d been hired on as a mere girl of twelve, that post one her father had helped coordinate for her before he passed. And in her time there, Verity had worked within every capacity possible atThe Londoner: she’d swept the floors and seen to the overall tidying of the establishment. Before being promoted to the role of note-taker, and then eventually ... reporter.

All while the owner’s son, that miserable bastard she’d despised since they’d first met, had expressed nothing more than boredom and disdain for his family’s work.

Now that same clueless-to-the-workings-of-a-newspaper blighter had taken over ownership from his aging father, and she’d been fighting for her livelihood since.

For no other reason than her gender.

He didn’t care about the fact that she’d spent nearly half her life working in this damned office. Or about the quality of her work.

Her passion.

He would simply turn her out and allow a thief of words in Verity’s place instead.

“Over my dead body,” she gritted out. Exploding to her feet, Verity sprinted over to the coatrack and yanked off her cloak.

“This isn’t the time to speak to him,” Livvie said, correctly anticipating Verity’s intention and exuding far more restraint than her older sister.

“The hell it isn’t.” Verity snatched her bonnet and jammed it atop her head.

As if to make a mockery of that very idea, a bolt of lightning streaked across the afternoon sky.

“I have to agree with the girl,” Bertha warned as Verity yanked the strings of her bonnet into a sloppy bow.

“I’ll return shortly,” she said, grabbing up the morning edition ofThe Londonerand her small satchel.

She flew from their apartments. The scents of the bakery below, the smells of baked goods and fresh bread that penetrated the thin walls and had always been soothing, now proved sickeningly sweet.

Verity stormed down the narrow stairway so quickly she stumbled at the bottom step. She caught the railing to keep herself upright. When her feet found the floor, she took off running for the doorway that led out to the crowded streets of East London.

The streets were bustling and noisy, with shopkeepers hurriedly hawking the remainder of whatever goods they had for that day before the rain broke.

Bypassing an old Rom woman trying to sell her jewels, Verity raced onward. She kept her gaze forward and wove amongst the passersby, her skirts whipping in angry time to her furious footfalls. As she found her way along the familiar path she’d traveled these past eighteen years, her chest rose and fell from her exertions. From the burn of her fury.

The offices ofThe Londonerdrew into focus. She staggered to a stop, her gaze leveled on the neat little building, the one spot of white amongst a row of grey and brown stucco establishments.

I’ve found you employment, poppet. I hate that this is the future that awaits you. I wish it was more. I want it to be more ...

And what her father had secured had been the most she ever could have hoped for as a bastard-born girl.

He’d secured her employment. And he’d cared for her as much as any bankrupt nobleman might care for his by-blow daughter.

And now she was on the cusp of losing it.

Verity briefly closed her eyes and focused on taking a slow, steadying breath. And then another.

When she opened them, she brought her shoulders back and marched into battle. She climbed the handful of steps, and her trembling fingers fumbled with the handle.

Damning that shake, a sign of weakness, Verity yanked the door open and stormed inside.

The din of the room continued; writers and editors clamoring to meet the day’s deadline didn’t so much as lift their heads from the tasks focusing them.

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