Courting Susannah by Linda Lael Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

specifically, with Miss Susannah McKittrick, his late wife’s friend and the newest member of his household. She had not, in fact, been out of his thoughts since her unexpected appearance in the upper corridor of his house the day before, though he had tried mightily to dismiss her.
    She was not classically beautiful, not in the way Julia had been, and yet her face, her shape, her manner and movements were all etched into his memory as effectively, as inexorably, as if he had always known her. At the same time, she was an intriguing mystery; he sensed that there were unfathomable depths of intelligence, indeed whole worlds to explore, hidden behind those large gray eyes. He wanted to learn her every secret, even those she had kept from herself, but it seemed unlikely that he would attain this objective. Susannah was a universe unto herself, and even a lifetime would not be long enough to unfold the many layers of her mind and heart and spirit.
    A lifetime. Halfway up the stairs that led to his office, Aubrey stopped, shaken. After Julia, he had sworn never to think in such terms again, where a woman was concerned, at least, yet here he was, a mere four months after burying the wife he’d thought he loved, pondering the claiming and charting of Susannah McKittrick’s soul. Such fancies would not do; far better to confine himself to the shallow but artful Delphinia, awaiting his pleasure in her suite at the Pacific Hotel.
    He’d fully intended to go to her the night before; instead, he’d spent the night upstairs in his office, brooding.
    He was scowling as he gained the upper floor and strode past Jim Hawkins, his bespectacled secretary, toward the open door beyond. Until the day before, he’d enjoyed a consuming passion where Delphinia was concerned, but suddenly, without warning, and just since Miss McKittrick’s invasion of his home and his thoughts, he had lost interest in the woman as well as the affair.
    Crossing the threshold into his private domain, he slammed the door behind him, no doubt causing Hawkins and the bookkeeper to start in their chairs. Hellfire and damnation, he thought, why hadn’t Susannah stayed on Nantucket where she belonged? Just by showing up that way, by falling asleep on his bed, she’d spoiled a perfectly tenable arrangement for him. In one corner of his mind, he was already calculating what it would cost to pay off his mistress and send her packing.
    He remembered his resolve to make sure Susannah was who she seemed, went back to the door, and wrenched it open. “Hawkins!” he barked.
    The clerk jumped to his feet, nearly overturning his wooden swivel chair in the process. “Yes, sir?”
    â€œGet me a Pinkerton man.”
    Hawkins swallowed. The autumn sunlight pouring inthrough the windows struck his spectacles in a dazzling flash. “A Pinkerton man, sir?”
    Aubrey had no intention of explaining his request further. “Damn it, Hawkins,” he said, “you heard me!” With that, he slammed the door again and strode to his desk. Of course, he assured himself, that was the thing to do. Hire a detective. If Miss McKittrick was indeed the dear friend Julia had been corresponding with all during their brief, tempestuous marriage, as she now claimed, and a fit guardian for the child, he would settle an ample sum of money on her and ship the pair of them straight to Massachusetts. The whole problem would be solved, leaving him with a clear conscience. For the most part, anyway.
    The pram was hidden away in the attic, where Maisie said it would be, as shrouded with dust as if it had been there for years. It seemed a sad summation of Mr. Fairgrieve’s basic attitude toward both his wife and his child.
    With a sigh, Susannah began to brush off the pretty wicker carriage as best she could, before bumping it carefully, awkwardly, down the steep folding staircase. Maisie was waiting at the bottom, looking fretful, with the baby at