“Tome.”
“You’ve had a funny way of showing it all these years.”
This was the conversation they needed to have, the one he’d been waiting for, and somehow it had caught him flat-footed. “Lucy, I—”
“Tell me about the gaming hells,” she interrupted. “Are they truly the bastions of debauchery, vice, and sin described in novels?”
The girl wanted to change the subject. He would let her. “Worse, I imagine. The endings at those places aren’t happy for the people who work there.”
Her eyes widened. “And you owntwo, according to the scandal sheets.”
“Two that I’ve shuttered. I’ve sold most everything off. They now stand empty.”
“Empty?What about those people with the unhappy endings? Where did they go? You can’t very well sell them off.”
“Pardon?” This conversation had just hooked a left turn.
“The harlots yourescued. Where are they?”
“They’re in a house in Seven Dials where they can sort themselves out.” He wouldn’t mention that most of the women had refused his offer of shelter.
“Sort themselves out? I can’t imagine that a woman who has been reduced to whoring—”
“Lucy,” he inserted in warning. He might not be much of a father, but even he knew aristocratic young ladies didn’t speak such words. That she’d done so with such ease . . . Well, he suspected he had much to learn about his daughter.
For her part, Lucy plowed on. “Such a woman wouldn’t have many options forsorting herself out. In fact, I would think she had just the one. And you’ve taken it away from her.”
For all her high-spiritedness, Lucy was one pragmatic girl. Who had rendered him stumped. Was she getting at what he thought she might be getting at?
She spoke his suspicion aloud. “You must provide them with an alternate occupation.”
Percy raised empty hands. “I haven’t any occupation to give them. I’ve secured their freedom and a roof over their heads.”
“And?”
“Andwhat?”
Lucy released a blustery sigh. “Every occurrence has three phases.” She ticked them off with her fingers. “Before, during, and after. Have you stayed for theafterin your entire life?”
“Pardon me?” He was fairly certain he’d just been insulted by this daughter who might see him too clearly.
“It’s the same with this Savior of St. Giles business. You obtained freedom for the harlots, but now what? Every good act can have a negative effect if it’s not seen through. Really, how much evil havegoodacts wrought in the world?”
“You’ve acquired a bit of wisdom in your short number of years.”
Lucy shrugged a shoulder. “I read a considerable amount. More intelligent people than I have said as much.” Her direct gaze skittered away, and her expression went suddenly shy. “The same is true for how things worked out with you and Mama. And with you and me.”
How vulnerable and young she appeared now. Percy called upon the heavens for the correct words. “I would like to change that.”
Lucy’s gaze found his. “St. Alban offered to adopt me.”
Gutted, that was the word for this feeling inside Percy. “I wasn’t aware.”
“This was before you returned to London.”
“Did you agree to it?” He had to know.
“I told him thank you, but no. I am content with being a bastard.”
