Filed To Story: Alessia Mistaken as Mistress Book PDF Free
“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Alessia objected.
“Just for a few hours. I would really like to. I carried my baby until he was over a year old, so it won’t be a burden for me. Please let me.”
William was not a burden to her, either, but a morning without his weight would be welcome. “All right,” she agreed.
They transferred the sling from Alessia’s shoulders to Hannah’s. She kissed William’s cheek and touched her nose to his.
“Whoever gets fourteen today, let me have the room,” Hannah said.
“A handsome guest?” Mattie asked.
“As sin,” Hannah replied.
“And we know he’s rich as sin if he’s staying here,” one of the others said.
They all laughingly agreed.
“Maybe I’ll catch a glimpse of him,” Mattie said hopefully. “Do you suppose he’s married?”
“Most of the good ones are,” Hannah replied.
Alessia listened to their lighthearted banter until Mrs. Hargrove came with the day’s assignments.
“You’re looking a little peaked, Alessia,” the woman said as the girls scattered to their chores. “Is there a problem?”
“No, ma’am. No problem.”
“That baby getting too heavy for you?”
“No. He’s not heavy at all. Hannah wanted to carry him for a while.”
“I miss my baby,” Hannah said in support.
The woman surveyed Alessia’s appearance at length. Alessia had taken care with her dress and hair and cap that morning, but she’d been outdoors in the breeze. She resisted feeling her hair for errant curls. She took no chances with Mrs. Hargrove finding fault.
Finally the woman moved aside so she could pass.
Relieved, Alessia hurried to the linen racks.
The heat and the wait had done nothing to improve Nicholas’s disposition. He rang for water, and answered the door at the light tap.
“Your water, sir.”
“Thank you.”
A slender young girl carried a pail to the gold-trimmed pitcher and bowl on the washstand and poured the water into the pitcher. She carried a baby on her back. “Will there be anything else?” she asked.
He still had towels. “I don’t believe so.”
He handed her a coin. She accepted it with a blush, and gave him a wide smile that revealed a tooth that overlapped charmingly. “Enjoy your visit in Fort Wayne, sir.”
He nodded, his head clouded with thoughts of Alessia.
She turned to leave and reached for the doorknob, placing the baby plainly in front of Nicholas.
The fair-haired child blinked at him with wide blue eyes.
Alessia’s eyes. William’s eyes. Nicholas stared at the baby for several startled seconds. This baby was slightly bigger than William. But it had been weeks since he’d seen him.
He had the same wide blue eyes. The same chin. And though this baby’s hair seemed longer than he remembered William’s being, it curled on his forehead and over his ears.
The infant grinned at him, whisking the air from his lungs.
Alessia’s smile.
Nicholas forced himself to breathe. What did he know about babies? They’d all looked the same to him until William. He’d thought of nothing else for weeks; had he begun to see what he wanted to see?
She reached the hall, getting away from him.
“Miss,” he said, stopping her with the word.
She turned back. “Yes, sir?”
“Your baby…your baby has the prettiest blue eyes.”
She grinned. “He does, doesn’t he? But he’s not my baby.”
Nicholas’s heart stopped. “Oh?”
“No. He belongs to one of the other girls.”
It started again with a violent chug. “Well, he’s a handsome one. What’s his name?”
She turned so that he could see the baby. “William,” she replied.
At noon, Alessia joined the others at the back entrance where they sat on the stairs and ate. She had thirty minutes to allow William some freedom, rest her back and leg, and feed both of them.
“I saw him again,” Hannah reported.
“Fourteen?” Mattie asked.
“Yup. William came in real handy.”
“How’s that?”
“Seems he likes children.”
Mattie pumped water from the kitchen’s indoor pump and carried metal pitchers out to them. Alessia drank as much as she could hold.
Hannah played with William, and when their dinnertime was over, helped Alessia slip his sling on.
The afternoon grew stifling hot, and before dinner all the guests asked for water to bathe. Alessia adjusted William’s weight. He was napping and seemed to weigh so much more when he wasn’t holding his head up.
She hadn’t been able to find Hannah after the desk clerk gave her the instructions to carry water to room fourteen. Hannah would have her hide if Alessia actually got to see the fellow. She paused on the stairs, shifted the buckets and hurried on. She tapped on the door.
“Enter,” a muffled voice called.
“Your water.” She carried the buckets through the suite and poured the water into the copper tub behind a screen in the dressing room. She went back to the linen closet in the hall and returned with towels. Squatting to keep William balanced, she picked up the empty pails.