Someone to Love by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online

stood up and watched the show, laughing.
    But Jace’s eyes were on the woman who was standing by the wall and smiling. He could see through her. She had on a high-necked, long-sleeved white blouse; her slim waist was encircled by a wide belt above an ankle-length skirt and soft, lace-up boots. Her long, dark hair was tied back at the nape of her neck, forming a thick tail that hung down her back almost to her waist. Her face was in profile and he saw delicate features, a perfect nose, and long-lashed eyes. Through her, he could see the bricks of the wall.
    Daisy and Erin were laughing and doing a little jig, but Jace stayed frozen in place, not even blinking as he stared at the woman.
    Smiling, the spirit woman turned to look at Daisy and Erin, who didn’t seem to see her. When she saw Jace staring at her, her eyes opened wide in surprise, and for a moment their eyes locked. She was pretty in a quiet way, like someone in an old ad for shampoo or soap. Her eyes were dark blue and her mouth was small and perfectly shaped.
    When she realized that Jace could see her, she registered surprise, then for about three seconds, her body had more substance. She wasn’t solid by any means, but he could see more of her and less of the bricks. In the next second, she was gone. No poof of vanishing, just there, then not there.
    Jace stood still for a moment, not moving, before he realized that Daisy and Erin were staring at him.
    “You look like you saw the ghost, sir.”
    Reluctantly, he pulled his eyes away from the wall. “No, just recovering from ten pounds of breakfast. You better get your berries and get out of here before Mrs. Browne returns.”
    “Yes, sir, thank you, sir,” they said as they ran out of the fruit cage. At the door in the brick wall, Daisy stopped, smiled prettily, and said, “If you’re needin’ anything, let me know. Anything at all. A foot massage, maybe. Or a—” Erin grabbed her arm and pulled her through the door.
    “Make that six months before she’s pregnant,” Jace muttered.
    For a while, he stood inside the fruit cage and stared at the spot where the spirit of the woman had been. She had protected the two giggling girls who were raiding the raspberry patch, he thought. She had picked a spider off the wall and blown it into Mrs. Browne’s face so she would run away and not see the girls snitching raspberries.
    What amazed Jace was that neither the girls nor Mrs. Browne had seen something that had been so clear to him.
    “It’s you,” he heard to his right and turned to see Mrs. Browne opening the cage door. “I thought I saw someone in here.”
    “Yes, I confess. I was eating raspberries.” He looked again at the place the woman had appeared. “Did I see you dancing a moment ago?”
    “You might call it that. A spider fell off the wall and onto my face. I told Hatch what I thought of his gardening. He lets those boys of his slack off. They do no work.”
    “Not like your girls.”
    “I make them work, if that’s what you mean.” She was trying to get to the raspberries behind him, but Jace was firmly rooted to the spot. “You have that look on your face.”
    “And what look is that?”
    “The ghost look. Did you see her? Will you be puttin’ the house up for sale?”
    Jace made himself look at her. “Sell? And miss out on your breakfasts? How could I do that?”
    She gave her rusty little laugh. “You’re a smooth one, aren’t you, Mr. Montgomery? Why don’t you have a wife and children? Fill this house with young ’uns. That’s what it needs.”
    “Are you proposing?” he asked and she smiled.
    “Go on now, go find somethin’ to do and leave me to my work.”
    Jace went to the cage door, but turned back. “Mrs. Browne,” he said seriously, “about this ghost. Do people see her inside the house or out?”
    “Inside. I never heard anybody say they’d seen her outside. Ol’ Hatch would be scared to death of her if she showed herself out here.”
    “But didn’t