The Earl's Wildcat. Krystina DarylЧитать онлайн книгу.

      "Come on, men! Don't be cowards! Deposit what you're worth on the table!" Lydia slapped her palm on the table, shaking it on its unsteady legs and toppling two mugs of ale.

      One man pushed away from the table when the liquid poured over on his side. Another pushed him aside, sank to the ground on his knees with his open mouth wide pointing to the heavens. He made a fool of himself trying to gulp the ale down and keep his mouth open to continue receiving the ale.

      The man—a giant—who was pushed away growled, "Lloyd, you owe me another mug!"

      Lydia grunted in response. "Are we going to drink or are we going to gamble?"

      He bent down, supporting his weight on the table as he leaned in close to Lydia. "Boy, my... ale... now!"

      Lydia had learnt early on never to let intimidating giants make her quake in her boots. It was the only way to survive in this cruel world. Forced to take the disguise of a boy to earn an extra living, she knew her bark and bite needed to compensate for her small size and short height.

      It was either gambling or whoring, and she was not going to whore herself to disgusting pigs!

      If she chose the life of a whore, she'd toy with the idea of going to London and joining the White Palace. She heard that was where men with fortunes and noble titles went. There were great prospects there. She also thought of becoming a courtesan and gaining a wealthy protector and living a life of luxury. The days of work and struggles would all be forgotten.

       But, she drew the line at becoming a married man's mistress. There was no reason to be part of destroying a man's family.

      In that sense, she was better than her mother.

      Geraldine had been a married man's mistress in Yorkshire, England. She thought she could get more money by using blackmail to expose his bastard to his wife—whom he had married just for her fortune. She never anticipated that same woman would become a paladin for fidelity and ship the bastard and his whore to America on the fastest ship out of England.

      Lydia lived with a mother who despised her and a sickly grandmother who treated her like a treasure. Those were conflicting emotions for a child to grow up with. But once Geraldine married a man with a dark soul that matched hers and left, Lydia became settled.

      Yes, she lost a prospective sister she would have loved to have, but she was rid of her witch of a mother and dodged a drunken cad for a stepfather. Poor Lanie had ended up with both.

      She'd always known she'd have to be tough to survive the dangerous streets of Dallas, but once her grandmother passed when she was just five and ten, she knew she had to toughen her skin even more.

      Now she was a jack of all trades and a master of one—gambling.

      There was not a table she left without spoils. Her grandmother had taught her well.

      Lydia Parker, a bastard, an adulterous