Filed To Story: Alessia Mistaken as Mistress Book PDF Free
“You know as well as I do that I’d never seen you before that evening at the restaurant.”
“You and I know that. But the Hallidays don’t.” She raised a haughty brow and looked at Alessia through her kohled lashes. “Yet.”
Alessia couldn’t catch her breath.
“And I assume you want it to stay that way.”
Alessia stared at her. “What is it you want?”
Judith adjusted a ring on a finger of her right hand, straightened her bodice and patted her hair. “Why the same things you want, of course. A rich husband. Lots of fine clothing and jewelry.”
Heat rose in Alessia’s face. She was sure it must appear that way. “What do you want from me?
“
Judith looked her square in the eye. “I’ll be happy to have the Hallidays go on thinking you’re their precious Claire. If that’s what you want, then that’s what I want.”
Alessia waited.
“I’m sure you’d be more than happy to support the arts this season. A donation toward the refined things we both love.”
“I have no money of my own,” Alessia said bluntly.
“Of course you don’t. Isn’t that why you’re here? But you have a good thing going with the Hallidays. If you play your part well, you’ll have his ring on your finger before you’re out of those widow’s weeds.”
“I mean-” Alessia glanced around “-I don’t have any money to give you. Can’t you just leave us alone?”
“How stupid do you take me for? They think you’re a
Halliday, for crying out loud! I’m confident you can handle it. Until you figure out the cash, there’s that lovely emerald bracelet….”
Stricken, Alessia stared at her. “That was my mother’s!”
“I’m sure she’d think it was a good cause. There’ll be plenty more where that came from, after all.”
“Please, you don’t understand-“
“Oh, I understand. I understand quite well. And if you don’t want your fish on a hook-Nicholas there-to understand, too, then you’ll do exactly as I say.” She stood.
Alessia stared up at her in horror, unable to make her body move.
“I’ll come calling morning after tomorrow. And I’ll leave richer than I came. Got that?”
Alessia nodded dumbly.
“And if I don’t-Mr. Halliday will have his eyes opened. Opened wide. Got that, sugar?”
Alessia nodded again.
Judith straightened her skirts. “Well, I must go after my amusing partner. He doesn’t have money, but his robust, homespun talents almost make up for it.”
She opened her fringed parasol and sauntered away.
Alessia didn’t know whether to cry or faint.
The sounds of conversation and children calling blended into an accusing drone in her ears. She was being blackmailed. Only murderers and thieves were blackmailed. She pressed her fingertips to her temple.
No. Someone with something equally ugly to hide could be blackmailed. And she had a secret. A big one. An ugly one.
Each day had been leading her a little closer to this moment. She’d been on stolen time since the minute she’d arrived. It was only a matter of time until Celia blundered or she herself did something to give the ruse away.
But she would not steal from the Hallidays to pay Judith. And the bracelet was her only means of providing for William’s future; she certainly wasn’t going to turn that over.
She had to leave.
Alessia pledged that her last day in Mahoning Valley would be a day to remember, a day to hold close to her heart when the days ahead grew long and lonely. She threw herself into the festivities, joining Milos in a ringtoss competition and watching the fathers and sons run three-legged races.
She watched and she laughed and she forgot for a few hours that she was Alessia Thornton, and that tomorrow she’d be totally and completely on her own, and that everyone here would remember her only as the woman who’d deceived them all.
She wouldn’t be able to leave on Sunday. She’d be discovered. Gruver always drove them to church and then had the afternoon off with his family. Alessia spent Sunday carefully laying her plans for stealing away after Nicholas left for the foundry the next morning. That would give her all day to travel and be as far away as possible before he came home.
She would leave Leda a note saying she’d gone to the Cranes’ for the day and taken William.
Somehow she struggled through her last hours with them on Sunday. She and Leda made a cold supper, and they shared it with Nicholas in his study.
She avoided his eyes and never allowed herself to be alone with him. Leda came to her room that night, and Mrs. Trent brought them tea.
“This is generous of you, Mrs. Trent,” Alessia said. “Now you go rest. I’ll clear this away and see to William if he should wake.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Your leg is much stronger,” Leda commented. “I noticed at the picnic that you hardly favor it any longer.”
“It’s much better. It only aches a little at night.”
“It’s probably still healing.”
“I’m sure that’s so.”
“You know how dear you are to me, Claire,” Leda said.
Alessia tensed, praying Leda wouldn’t go on about how she and William were her life source. She didn’t think she could handle the remorse tonight. She nodded.
“You’ve become like my own daughter.” She hurried to say, “I don’t mean to offend you. I know you have your own mother.”
“I’m not offended. I know what you’re saying.” Leda was the closest thing she’d had to a mother in many years. Leaving her was nearly as difficult as leaving Nicholas.
“Since you know how fond I am of you,” Leda continued softly, “I don’t believe you’ll take this wrong.”
Alessia prepared herself. “What is it?”
“I loved my Stephen as much as any mother could love her son. As much as you love William.”
“Of course you did.”
“I overlooked much of his foolishness. At first I forgave him because he was young. And after that because Nicholas treated him like a child. And after that I forgave him simply because he was Stephen. Just as I forgive Nicholas for being domineering and aggressive. Because they are my sons. A mother turns a blind eye to those things she doesn’t wish to see.”
“I think I understand, but I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”