TheWifeTrap by Unknown Read Free Book Online

one with adequate hearing could possibly miss the
ongoing clamor.
    “Yes,” Jeannette
agreed. “They are rather difficult to miss.”
    Wilda drank
another swallow of tea, set down her cup with a delicate
clink
of
china on china. “In the five months they’ve been here, I’ve gotten rather good
at tuning them out. Barely even notice, these days.”
    Wilda angled her
head to one side as if a new thought had just occurred. “They didn’t disturb
you this morning, did they, cousin? I asked the architect in charge most
expressly to begin late today since I knew you would want to sleep in. They
usually begin at first light, around six o’clock.”
    Sleep in!
Jeannette marveled in horror. Wilda
considered seven-thirty sleeping in? Obviously the woman had kept country hours
for far too many years. She opened her mouth to correct her cousin’s
misconception, when she met the ingenuous expression in Wilda’s eyes.
    Now was her
chance to complain, she realized, to unleash the barrage of displeasure that
had been fairly burning a hole in her tongue for the past hour. But even as she
opened her mouth to speak she realized she couldn’t do it. Wilda would be hurt
despite the fact that it was the workmen who were at fault.
    Still, Jeannette
knew she would simply die if forced to awaken every morning at the unholy hour
of six. Perhaps some compromise could be reached.
    She smiled.
“Thank you for your consideration. I wonder, however, if I might beg a favor?”
    “Oh, of course,
child. However can I help?”
    “Since the
workmen started late this morning, do you suppose they could continue to do so?
I have to confess, I’m used to keeping Town hours and I fear the strain of
having to rise at dawn may prove unhealthy to my constitution. I imagine it is
deleterious upon your health as well.”
    “Oh, I’d never
thought,” Wilda said in surprise. “You see, I’m long used to rising early. But
if it will pose a misery for you, then I’ll see what I can do. Be forewarned,
however, we are dealing with men, and you know how contrary men can be.”
    The comment
couldn’t help but bring Darragh O’Brien to mind. With his face swimming in her
thoughts, Jeannette finished spreading marmalade on her toast. Taking a savage
bite, she chewed, swallowed and patted her lips dry.
    “Yes,” she
murmured, “I know precisely what you mean.”
    ----

 
    Chapter Three

    Bored.
    She’d been here
less than a day and already she was so insanely bored she was all but ready to
be bound and gagged and carried off to Bedlam, or whatever similar facility
might exist here in this pitiful excuse for a country.
    A light breeze
played over her skirts, the sun bright, the sky blue, the temperature pleasant
and not as warm as the day prior. As for the perpetual din that rang out in
steady intervals from the construction site…well, she did her best to ignore
that. She paused in her wanderings, used the toe of her slipper to nudge a few
pieces of loose gravel on the path that cut through the gardens behind the
house.
    She heaved out a
desolate breath.
    She supposed she
could read. A brief tour of the house had revealed the library—which thankfully
had not burned down—and the extensive selection of literary works it contained.
    Yes, she decided,
a book might well be her only salvation.
    A half smile
played at her lips as she thought how shocked those of her acquaintance would
be if they knew she was even contemplating such an act. Even her own her family
believed her to be practically illiterate. But it wasn’t true. Secretly she
enjoyed reading now and again, especially the lurid romantic novels printed by
the Minerva Press, though she rarely had an opportunity to indulge herself in
such pastimes.
    During the months
when she’d been pretending to be her bookish twin, she’d had the opportunity to
openly bury her nose in several volumes, including the Jane Austen novel Violet
had been forced to abandon the day of their switch. The book had been