Paid Companion by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online Page A

Society as his fiancée that worried her, she thought. She could deal with those things.
    What made her uneasy about this too-good-to-be-true post was the fact that she was almost positive that St. Merryn had not told her the whole truth.
    He was keeping secrets, she thought. Her intuition warned her that St. Merryn’s scheme involved something far more dangerous than a plan to put together an investment consortium.
    But his private affairs were none of her concern, she concluded with rising excitement. The only thing that mattered to her was that if she successfully carried off the role St. Merryn had assigned to her, she would be well on her way to realizing her dream by the time he brought his little drama to a close.
    4
    “It is just barely possible that my streak of extremely bad luck is about to come to an end.” Elenora sank gratefully into the depths of the wingback chair and smiled at the two women perched on the sofa across from her.
    She had first met Lucinda Colyer and Charlotte Atwater six months before, in the offices of Goodhew & Willis. The three of them had arrived on the same day, seeking employment as companions. After a particularly trying afternoon of interviews, Elenora had suggested that they all go to the tea shop just around the corner and commiserate.
    As it happened the three of them were quite different in temperament, but that fact paled in comparison to the things that they did have in common: They were all in their mid-twenties, well past the age when a good marriage was still a viable option. They were all from respectable backgrounds; well-bred and well educated. And due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances, all three found themselves alone in the world and without resources.
    In short, they shared the common bonds that drove women such as themselves into the paid companion profession.
    That first afternoon tea together had become a regular Wednesday affair. After they had obtained posts, Wednesday was the one day of the week that each of them had free.
    For the past few months they had been meeting here in the parlor of Lucinda’s elderly employer, Mrs. Blancheflower. It was not an environment calculated to lift one’s spirits, in Elenora’s opinion, and she knew the others did not find it particularly cheerful either.
    The atmosphere was one of intense gloom due to the fact that Mrs. Blancheflower was dying somewhere upstairs. Fortunately for Lucinda, who had been hired to keep the lady company in her remaining days, her employer was taking her time about making her transition to a higher plane.
    As Mrs. Blancheflower slept most of the time, Lucinda had found her post to be quite undemanding. The chief drawback was that her employer’s relatives, who seldom came to call, had decreed that the housekeeper maintain a suitably funereal decor. That meant that there was a great deal of black cloth hung everywhere. In addition, the drapes were always kept pulled tightly closed to ensure that no hint of cheerful spring sunlight could squeeze into the somber rooms.
    While the gloom weighed on one, Elenora and her friends endured it every Wednesday because there was one very significant advantage to holding their visits here: The tea and cakes were free, thanks to Mrs. Blanchefiower’s unknowing largesse. That meant that the three women could all save a few pennies.
    Elenora had asked St. Merryn to allow her to tell her friends the truth about her new post and had assured him that neither of them went about in Society. Lucinda’s employer was on her deathbed and Charlotte’s was an elderly widow who was confined to her house by a failing heart.
“Not that either of them would breathe a word about my role even if they were to encounter someone who was acquainted with you, sir,”
she had added with great certainty.
    St. Merryn had seemed quite satisfied, even unconcerned with her friends’ ability to keep silent about her role as his phony fiancée. He truly was not the least bit