Filed To Story: Alessia Mistaken as Mistress Book PDF Free
Gruver staggered to his feet and stood blinking. Soapsuds dripped from his face and clothing onto the soaked floor.
“I-I beg your pardon, Mr. Halliday,” Penelope stammered.
“The Hallidays have a dinner guest” Mrs. Pratt’s tone was scathing. “Your childish pranks are best saved for your own time and at the expense of your own quarters.” She turned to Nicholas. “Sir, I’ll handle this.”
Nicholas didn’t say anything for heart-stopping seconds. Alessia could taste Penelope Gruver’s sudden fear. They had solid, well-paying jobs here, away from the toil and poverty of the iron workers. “Forgive us, Mr. Halliday,” she begged. “Gruver did a bit of celebrating this evening. It won’t happen again.”
Gruver wore a repentant but silly expression, and his stance wasn’t all that steady.
“What were you celebrating?” Nicholas asked, surprising not only Alessia but the others as well, judging by their expressions.
“We’re going to have another baby,” Gruver announced.
Penelope’s face flamed a deeper shade of crimson. She tried to dry her hands on her soaked apron in a nervous gesture. In the tense silence her gaze flicked to Alessia and back to her employer.
“Congratulations, then,” Nicholas said. Alessia wished she could see his face, but she held her position just behind him. He surprised her even more by stepping forward, the sole of his shiny black Wellington splatting in a puddle, and extending a hand to his driver.
Gruver accepted it with a relieved grin. “Thank you.”
“See to it she’s not the one who mops and dries this floor tonight.”
“No, sir,” Gruver replied. “I’ll take care of it myself.”
“And after you’re finished, come by my study for a cigar.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll do that.”
“I think we’re ready for dessert, Mrs. Pratt,” Nicholas said, indicating to all of them that the discussion was finished and the issue settled.
“Right away.” She scuttled toward the icebox.
“Thank you, Mr. Halliday.” Penelope flashed a grateful smile before she gathered her wet skirts and stepped away.
Nicholas turned back then, and discovered Alessia. He took her upper arm gently and led her into the short hallway that connected the kitchen and dining room.
He stopped there, and Alessia, standing close, examined his odd expression.
His dark eyes met hers. “Stephen used to do that.”
“Used to do what?” she asked.
He pursed his lips a second as if searching for the explanation, and gestured with a jerk of his hand toward the kitchen. “Play like that. Do silly things. Spontaneous outrageous things…and laugh.”
“A good many people laugh,” she replied.
“Do they?”
The confusion in his eyes made the question more than just another of his cynical remarks. “Yes.”
“I’ve never heard you laugh. I’ve never even seen you smile for that matter.”
She could have said the same to him. But she didn’t. For some weighty, unexplainable reason, she didn’t. “Come some time when William is in his bath and see him splash Mrs. Trent. Or when he tries to study his own fists and only succeeds in crossing his eyes. You’ll hear me laugh.”
They stood curiously close, their voices low, the sounds from the kitchen a muted backdrop to their discreet exchange.
Alessia’s attention dropped to his lips. “Is that an invitation?” he asked.
“I guess so.”
“What time does William have his bath?”
“After breakfast.”
They both knew he was gone to the foundry by then. But he said, “I’ll stop by.”
The swinging door behind Nicholas opened and they hurried to the dining room ahead of Mrs. Pratt and her custard.
This unfamiliar side of his personality amazed her once again. The softer side that showed leniency with servants and concern for employees. Was that the side that spoke from his heart every so often? Or was the cynical, acerbic side of him the true side? She didn’t think so. Or she didn’t want to think so.
Which side would be the one that reacted when he finally learned the truth about her? Would he treat her with the same indulgence he used with his employees? The same tolerance she’d seen tonight? Or had that simply been good business sense: treat employees right, they work harder.
She didn’t have much confidence when it came to men’s forbearance. It was more likely he would respond to Alessia’s deception with the same intolerance she’d been afforded up to this point.
Leda was telling William a tale that had Milos fairly napping. Mrs. Pratt served the custard and Alessia picked up her spoon.
“Tell me about Thomas Crane,” Nicholas said, coming to Milos’s rescue.
The request gave her a little start. Had someone given her away?
Milos tossed her a subtle glance before replying. “He’s doing well. His wife’s been sick, but the Ladies’ Aid is helping.”
Milos knew! The silver spoon slipped from her fingers and clinked against the china dish. She ignored it. If he’d gone and checked on Tom, he’d have known that first Mary and then Elissa were sick, but now nearly recovered. And Tom would have told him about her visits. Was Milos going to say something to Nicholas?
She didn’t know why it mattered. She’d actually gone there, in the first place, to do something to help the Hallidays, to pay a debt to Stephen, and perhaps just to assuage her guilt. And yes, she’d wanted Nicholas’s approval.
Not now though. She’d lived her entire life in comfort, her first eye-opening taste of reality coming after her father had shunned her. Still, she’d never seen how those who didn’t have it as easy lived. And now that she’d seen it, and knew how frightening it was to have nowhere to go and no one to turn to, she simply wanted to help.
Looking at the situation honestly, Nicholas might never approve of her. But she had to approve of herself. And that had been darned hard to do over the past year.
Nicholas finished his dessert. Mrs. Pratt removed his dish, and he propped his chin on a strong long-fingered hand, his elbow resting comfortably on the arm of the chair. With the other hand he swirled the wine in the bottom of his glass.
His coffee-colored eyes met hers and Alessia couldn’t pull her gaze away. “I have a surprise for you,” he said.
His shuttered expression revealed nothing. She glanced to his mother and back, waiting expectantly. What kind of surprise could he possibly have for her?
“I know you’re already busy preparing for my guests, but we’re going to have another.”
How did he figure his business associates coming to stay were a surprise for her? “One more will be no problem.”
“I didn’t think so, either. I wrote her with an open invitation, and I just received a reply that she’s coming to stay. Indefinitely.”
That last word clued her in that this was no ordinary business visit
Her? Did Nicholas have a woman in his life after all? The thought shouldn’t have carved a wedge of disappointment in her chest. If he had a woman friend it was not her business. A few more months and Alessia would be erased from their lives. “Are there any special arrangements I need to make?”
“You will know that better than I,” he replied.
The cryptic remark brought a puzzled lift of her eyebrows. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”