Second Sight by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online Page B

trouble attracting the right sort of clientele. In addition, it will be difficult for you to conduct business with men without projecting the wrong impression. Your status as a widow will endow you with a certain respectability that will otherwise be impossible to attain.”
    “I understand,” Venetia said. She straightened in her chair. “I have been giving the matter of my new name a great deal of consideration and I have made a decision.”
    “Which name did you choose?” Edward asked.
    “I will call myself Mrs. Jones,” Venetia said. Amelia, Beatrice and Edward stared at her, mouths agape. “You are going to adopt the name of your deceased client?” Beatrice asked, amazed.
    “Why not?” Venetia said. A sad, wistfulness rose up inside her. “Who will ever guess that a certain Mr. Gabriel Jones was my inspiration? After all, Jones is an exceedingly common name.”
    “That’s true,” Amelia said thoughtfully. “Why, there must be hundreds, it not thousands of Joneses in London.”
    “Precisely.” Venetia warmed to her own idea. “No one will ever think to make a connection between me and the gentleman at Arcane House who was once, quite briefly, a client. In tact, to make quite certain of that, we shall invent an exciting little story to explain why our Mr. Jones is no longer among the living. We shall see to it that he expired in some distant, foreign clime.”
    “I suppose it is rather fitting, in a way,” Beatrice mused. “After all, had it not been for Gabriel Jones and those enormous fees that were paid in advance, we would not now be plotting our new financial venture.”
    Venetia felt the dampness gathering behind her eyes. She blinked hard, several times, but the burning sensation returned.
    “You must excuse me,” she said brusquely. She got to her feet and started around the table toward the door. “I just remembered that I want to place an order for a new supply of dry plates.”
    She could feel the worried eyes of her family upon her but no one tried to stop her.
    She hurried upstairs to the tiny bedroom of the rented cottage and let herself inside. She closed the door behind her and looked at the wardrobe on the far side of the room.
    Slowly she crossed the space, opened the wardrobe door and took out the gentleman’s evening coat she had stored inside.
    She folded the coat over one arm and smoothed the expensive fabric in a way she had done many times since the flight from Arcane House.
    She carried the coat to the bed, lay down and let the tears fall.
     
    Some time later, her emotions drained to the point where she no longer felt much of anything, she got up and dried her eyes.
    Enough was enough. She could not afford useless sentiments and romantic daydreams. She was the sole support of her family. Their futures depended entirely on her ability to forge a career as a photographer in London. She could not allow herself to be distracted from the daring plans she and the others had made. Success would require a great deal of hard work, cleverness and attention to detail.
    Aunt Beatrice was right, she thought, picking up the tear-stained coat. There was no reason to become overly sentimental about a dead client. She had known Gabriel for only a few days after all; made love with him only once.
    He was a midnight fantasy, nothing more.
    She put the coat back into the wardrobe and closed the door.

Chapter 5
    Three months later…
     
    “I don’t pretend to comprehend how it has come about,” Gabriel said, “but I appear to have acquired a wife.”
    “The devil, you say.” Caleb crossed the library in a few long, impatient strides and came to a halt on the other side of the desk. “Is this your idea of a joke, cousin?”
    “I think you know me well enough to realize that I do not make jokes when it comes to the subject of my future wife.”
    Gabriel had been leaning forward, both hands braced on the desktop, to read the article. He straightened and reversed the newspaper so that