Loving Rose: The Redemption of Malcolm Sinclair (Casebook of Barnaby Adair) by Stephanie Laurens Read Free Book Online Page B

further occurred to him, he sighed and turned to the bed. He was safe enough there, and his unexpected housekeeper and her children—learning to live alongside them, learning to live in the world again—would be interest and challenge enough for the nonce.
    And if he could do anything to help them, he would.
    While he waited for Fate to summon him.
    A fter doing her nightly round of the house, and noting with approval that her employer had taken himself upstairs, Rose climbed to the upper floor; hers and the children’s rooms were nestled under the eaves.
    Going first to Pippin’s small room, then to Homer’s, she tucked them in firmly. Both were already asleep, their innocent faces beatific; she smiled down on them, then left them to their slumbers.
    Earlier, when she’d come up to shoo them into their beds, both had still been chattering about Mr. Glendower—Thomas as he now was to them. She didn’t think it wise to relinquish the formal mode of address herself, and he, sensibly, hadn’t pressed. But with the children he’d already stepped far beyond the “distant employer” state; both had many eager and curious questions, none of which, she judged, were of the sort to cause him any difficulties, and she had to admit she was curious herself.
    If someone had asked her to imagine what her absent employer would be like, she would never have dreamed of such a man—of such a very complex, rather fascinating man.
    Oddly, despite being on obvious display, his infirmities had not, and did not, materially influence the way she or the children saw him—and that, she suspected, was because he, himself, did not see himself as damaged and unable, as somehow lesser because of his injuries. It was his self-confidence and assurance that others responded to; that had been demonstrated beyond doubt throughout the evening.
    Still, as she slid beneath the covers and settled in her bed, she forced herself to take a mental step back and evaluate, coolly and logically, whether Thomas Glendower and his advent into their lives posed any threat to their concealment.
    She’d already dismissed the possibility that he might be any threat to either her or the children personally; her instincts really were too well honed by now for her to doubt their verdict, and on the subject of Thomas Glendower, her instincts were entirely certain: He posed no direct threat to her or the children.
    That aside . . . she weighed every likely possibility, thought through every scenario she could imagine, and ended concluding that, if anything, his presence at the manor, as the owner of the property, someone who, despite not having been there for years, was known by name and reputation, made their situation better, not worse.
    He was, effectively, an extra shield, strengthening and making more impenetrable the façade she’d constructed to hide behind. Him being there, and by inference accepting her and the children for who they purported to be, made their disguise even less transparent.
    She considered that conclusion for several minutes and finally accepted it as sound.
    Satisfied, she turned on her side and snuggled down, pulling the covers over her shoulder.
    Having Thomas Glendower return to live at the manor might be a very good thing, indeed.
    And that was not at all how she would have expected to feel about having a largely unknown man sleeping under the same roof as her and the children.
    Lips curving in a wry, faintly intrigued smile, Rose shut her eyes and let sleep take her.

 
     
    Chapter
    2
     
    T he following morning, before Rose could set a tray for him, her employer arrived in the kitchen and took his seat at the end of the table.
    “Good morning.” He nodded to Homer and Pippin, both of whom grinned back, then he raised his gaze to Rose, where she stood rooted before the stove. “What’s for breakfast?”
    Rapidly consulting her memory, Rose realized he had, indeed, mentioned taking his meals—all meals—with them. She reached