Bloody Lessons Read Online Free Page A

“Annie, my love, just because you are capable of facing down murderers and assailants with aplomb doesn’t mean every woman is as brave or as foolhardy as you are.”
    Annie laughed, turned further into his arms, and rested her head on his shoulder. As they sat entwined, Nate breathed in her distinctive spicy scent, rubbed his chin against the silk of her hair, and welcomed the comfort of having the woman he loved in his arms. He had met Annie Fuller last August, less than six months ago, when the death of one of his law firm’s clients brought them together. At first , he’d been confused by how attracted he was to a woman who flouted societal norms left and right. Annie was independent to a fault and an assertive advocate of women’s rights. She had even been educated in the masculine world of high finance by her father, a famous stock broker. Yet none of this had protected her from the financial ruin and death of her husband that had left her an impoverished widow, dependent on her in-laws back east.
    Two years ago, Annie had inherited this house in San Francisco, turned it into a boarding house, and created the role of Madam Sibyl, clairvoyant. She’d explained to him that, while she didn’t believe in the palmistry and star charts she used with clients as Madam Sibyl, this was the only way men would take a woman’s business advice seriously, and she needed the money to supplement the income she got from the boarding house. He pictured how she had looked as she defended herself, her cheeks flushed, her delicate chin thrust up, her brown eyes darkening with defiance.
    Nate had come to admit that some of the very characteristics that made him uncomfortable also made Annie more attractive to him. They were some of the very same characteristics she had in common with his sister, whom he teasingly called his little Susan B. Anthony. Annie was correct; he would have assumed that Laura would respond to a threat, particularly one by a man, by getting angry. But he wasn’t sure he still understood her; she’d seemed different over the holidays, more subdued than usual. That was, until she got the letter about coming to San Francisco. Then the old Laura had reappeared.
    He said, “Annie, do you think that Laura is hiding something? She didn’t write to me very often last fall. Normally, when we are apart, she writes about once a week, letters filled with all her doings and little enthusiasms.”
    “Oh Nate, from some of the things she has said to me this week, she didn’t feel her first teaching assignment went at all well. She might have been embarrassed to admit this to her big brother. At her age, you often think you are invincible, that you can do anything. Then you hit your first obstacle. It can knock the stuffing out of you.”
    Nate smiled, thinking of his first trial. What a disaster. Thank goodness his Uncle Frank had finally brought a new partner into the firm. Able Cranston was a first-rate defense attorney, and Nate had already had the opportunity to second him in two trials. He was learning a good deal that only practical experience, not law books, could teach him.
    Annie continued. “I felt like she was just getting her confidence back. Last night, she told me all about her students and new assignments she had planned. Then tonight, I saw her standing in the kitchen, huddled like a small scared animal. Well, I could wring the neck of that man, whoever he was, for doing that to her.”
    This image of Laura rekindled Nate’s anger. He pulled back from Annie and started to rise, saying, “Look, I need to see her. Make sure she is really all right. Maybe she will tell me more than she told you…maybe she has remembered something. Can I go on up to her room?”
    Annie stood up and put out a restraining hand. “Nate, no. She is probably already asleep. She needs her rest to be ready for school tomorrow. Don’t worry, I will look in on her before I retire.”
    “But what if the attack wasn’t random? I