Filed To Story: Alessia Mistaken as Mistress Book PDF Free
“I’ll do just fine.” Alessia assured herself more than anyone else. Anything was better than riding the train day and night and sleeping sitting up.
“Where did you work before this?” Mattie asked.
“Well, L…” She considered the truth, but decided they wouldn’t accept her if they knew she’d never worked a day before. “I worked for a family in Ohio. I took care of their house.” It was partly the truth. She had run the Halliday home for the past few months. The thought prompted her to wonder how Leda was getting along without her help. Nicholas had been adamant about his mother needing help so she could rest more and see friends.
Perhaps he’d have to entertain less. Or find himself a housekeeper…or a wife…
“If you carry the baby on your back, it will hurt less,” Hannah said.
She listened, glad for the distraction. “Oh?”
“I can show you. I have a little girl.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s with my sister right now. I hated to leave her, but she’s getting too big to keep with me. My sister lives on a nearby farm, so I see her on my days off.”
Alessia wanted to cry for her. What would she do when William got too big to carry? She didn’t want to think about it. She refused to think about it
“Mrs. Hargrove could fill our jobs in a minute, though,” Hannah explained. “The hotel is always shorthanded. Girls either leave to get married or take factory jobs. Girls at the factory leave, too. I’d be long gone from this sorry place if some farmer or rancher would ask me.”
Mattie laughed. “Me, too.”
“You’ll marry again too, Alessia,” Hannah said. “You’re the prettiest one I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Alessia said, then stopped her denial. She would not give up William. If she had to marry someone in order to take care of him, she would do it.
Immediately, her thoughts turned to Nicholas. Could she bring herself to marry a man she didn’t love for William’s sake? She swept his image from her mind and finished her dinner. There was still water to heat and carry for the guests as they prepared for bed.
“We can leave at a quarter to ten,” Mattie explained. “And we get either Saturday or Sunday night off. We take turns so we can keep company with our young men.”
“For me it’s time with my baby,” Hannah added.
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Alessia offered. “I will take Sundays so others can have free time on Saturday.”
Mattie and Hannah grinned and thanked her.
By the time she snuggled William against her on the cot, her body ached worse than it had the night before. But she’d come this far and she’d found a job on her own. Once again she wondered how long she’d be able to keep her baby with her all day while she worked.
And again Nicholas’s image swam behind her closed eyelids, and she remembered him as she’d seen him the very first time. She recalled the strength in his arms as he’d carried her, the smell of his hair and his clothing.
The vivid memory of his inflaming kisses and the warmth of his sleek skin would be with her always. She could see him as he’d been the day of the picnic, smiling, his always perfect hair mussed by the wind. He’d become a man the day his father died, Leda had told her, and Alessia understood. That was why he’d been demanding of Stephen, that was why he’d been wary and severe with her.
And if she hadn’t already been in love with him, watching him that day would have made her fall. Oh, but there wasn’t a man who could compare.
There might be handsome men out there. There might be perfectly nice ones who could provide for her and maybe even love her. But there was not another Nicholas. And for that reason she could not marry. She could not live with a man, sleep in his bed, give him children, and love Nicholas for the rest of her days. He was the one she loved. The one she desired and the one she could never have.
If she had to she would move on, find work farther west.
Alessia drifted into exhausted slumber. She dreamed of a man with black hair and eyes as dark as strong coffee. And awakened an hour later to startling screams and the choking smell of smoke.
Alessia stood outside with the other boarders, a blanket wrapped around her for modesty. The summer night was unpleasantly warm, and her cotton nightdress clung to her damp body. Against her shoulder William’s head lay drenched with perspiration.
She held him protectively, watching and listening as volunteers found the source of the smoke somewhere behind the row of buildings. Her body trembled with fatigue and anxiety.
“This is going to be a short night,” one of the other women grumbled.
The boardinghouse owner appeared in a frilly wrapper, oddly out of place on such a plain woman. “Okay, girls, head back upstairs. The fire was in the living apartment behind the shoe store next door. It’s all taken care of.”
Alessia followed the complaining boarders up the creaking set of outside stairs and back into the stifling upstairs room. The stuffy space still smelled like smoke.
The fire could have spread to the boardinghouse. Or the smoke could have overcome them all. She and William could have died here. Alone. With no one knowing where they were or who they were.
Creating a pillow of her blanket, she tried to make herself comfortable on the cot and give William space. She didn’t allow herself to think of Mahoning Valley, the Hallidays’ home, Nicholas or the security any of them represented. As miserable as it was, this was her life now.
If she’d died, they would have placed her body in a grave beside the bodies of strangers. Would her father ever have learned of her death? Would he have cared? Or did he already think she’d been killed in the accident? Thinking of that, she wondered if the agent she’d hired had found news of Claire’s body. She regretted being unable to give that information to the Hallidays. She supposed she didn’t deserve any better conditions than she was living under now.
Because of her, Stephen and Claire were not together. Worse yet, because of her they hadn’t been in their compartment where they might have survived the accident.
Loneliness and guilt would be her closest companions for a good long time. She might as well become used to them.
Nicholas’s office boy rapped on his door and entered. “Miss Marcelino is here again, Mr. Halliday. She wants to see you.”
“Did you tell her I’m busy?”
“I told her, sir. She’s not an easy person to put off.”
“You’re telling me. This is the third time in a month. Tell her-“
“Tell me nothing. Tell me yourself,” she said from the doorway.
The youth gave Nicholas a stricken look.
“It’s all right. I’ll handle this.” He waved him into the outer office, then stood, rolling down his sleeves, and shrugged into his jacket.
Without waiting for an invitation, Judith seated herself on one of the chairs across from his desk. “If I didn’t know better I’d think you were avoiding me.”
“I have a foundry to run, Miss Marcelino.”
“Surely you could spare time for lunch.”
“No, not really.”
Her green eyes narrowed. Today she wore a fashionable turquoise dress with a bustle and a low-cut bodice, and sported a perky hat to match. Gracefully, she got up and moved to perch on the edge of his desk, where she leaned in to him.
He remained where he stood. Her heavy floral perfume assailed his nostrils.
“You seem the type of man who would appreciate a bit of diversion during the day.” She ran a finger across his lapel and pressed her breasts against his chest. “We don’t have to eat.”
Nicholas stepped back, and she had to catch her balance. High color rose in her cheeks.
“If this is about the money you claim Mrs. Halliday owes you,” he said, “why don’t you just let me pay the debt?”
Her chin notched up. Taking obvious offense at his constant refusals, she narrowed her eyes. “You are dense, do you know that?”
He raked his gaze over her straining cleavage and back to her irritated expression. “Not as dense as you believe. I caught on two visits ago that you had set your cap for me. But short of bluntly spelling out that I have no interest in pursuing a relationship, I have no idea of how to handle you delicately, except to refuse your offers.”
Her neck and cheeks blotched with embarrassment-or was it humiliation?