Eve Silver by Dark Desires Read Free Book Online Page A

at least a minute after his departure, her heart pounding in her chest. Eventually the frantic rhythm began to slow, and she bent to scoop the fallen book from the floor beneath the desk.
    Laying the book flat, she carefully smoothed the pages and with a practiced eye assessed the drawing of the leg that Mary had shown her earlier. Yes, if the outer edge was moved here and the bottom, there...Darcie ran her finger over the paper, imagining how she would draw the thing. It mattered not that the subject was unpleasant. She viewed it with an artist's eye, seeing beauty where others would not.
    Unthinkingly, she reached for a quill and dipped it in the nearby inkwell. How long was it since she had enjoyed the luxury of drawing? Passion rose within her, an instinct she could no sooner deny than the natural urge to draw breath into her body. With a few simply placed lines she rendered her version of the shape of the limb right next to the original on the page. Several rapid strokes added light and shade. There, she thought with satisfaction. That looked better.
    Suddenly, the enormity of her trespass hit her. She had taken up pen and ink and marked one of the doctor's books, perhaps his own sketchbook. What had possessed her? A shaking began at her core and spread like a palsy through her limbs. He would send her away, back to the street, to the hideous fate she had barely escaped. She could scarcely believe her own foolishness, the temerity of her actions.
    Horrified by what she had done, Darcie snapped the sketchbook shut. She slid the book back onto the shelf and stared at the spine in morbid fascination. She could do little now but hope that she had replaced it in the correct spot and that the sketch would fail to draw the doctor's notice.
     She forced herself to turn away, and resumed her chores, though her fingers felt numb, barely able to hold tight to the feather duster. With just a bit of luck on her side, Dr. Cole would not search out that particular book for a good long while, and when he did, perhaps her luck would hold, and he would choose a drawing other than the one of the human leg to examine.
    o0o
    That night, Darcie lay stiff and tense upon her bed, bone weary from an endless day's work. Despite her fatigue, her nerves were wound so tight that sleep eluded her. Mary's faint snores reverberated through the room, punctuated by the rustling of the covers as she shifted position in her sleep. Darcie tried to ignore the sounds, but her efforts met with little success.
     The two women shared a small room beneath the eaves, and Darcie was grateful that the chamber held a separate bed for each of them. She knew that many girls in service shared one narrow pallet with two or even three other women. That could be a blessing in the cold winter months when the girls would share their body heat to keep warm. But Dr. Cole was a generous employer. He provided ample coal for the iron grate and Darcie and Mary had no need to combine the warmth of their bodies.
    “Pssst. Darcie? Are you asleep?” Mary's whisper edged aside her memories.
    “No, but I thought you were sleeping. I hope I didn't wake you.”
    “What are you thinking about?”
    “I was just remembering the day I first came here. How Dr. Cole asked you to bring me a tray.”
    “I never minded,” Mary insisted.
    “I know. But I think Poole did. He was angry that I came in by the front door. And then, when Dr. Cole gave you the extra task of carrying me a tray...I think Poole's hated me ever since.”
    “His face did turn a bright shade of red. I thought he'd explode for certain,” Mary said, laughter in her tone. “That Poole, he's a regular charmer.”
     Picturing Poole's ever-censorious gaze, Darcie thought that he was anything but a charmer.
    “I was amazed when I saw this room for the first time,” she said. “It had been so long since I slept in anything more comfortable than a damp doorway. And here I was to have my own warm bed.”
    “I know just