Jack (The Jaded Gentlemen Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

doubtless been penned. Miss Hennessey extracted paper
    from a drawer, took up a quill pen, and uncapped a silver ink bottle.
    “When shall my half day be?” she asked, putting pen to paper.
    “You want a written contract?”
    The pen continued its progress across the page. “Of course. Coin is involved, and a woman can never be too careful.”
    Jack was torn between affront and amusement. “Miss Hennessey, I am a gentleman. My word is my bond.”
    Still, she scratched away at her document. “Gentlemen are prone to memory lapses, though I’ll not hear a word against Mr. Belmont, ever. Your
    gentlemanly word won’t get me very far in court, Sir Jack, and it won’t pay for a bolt of cloth from the dry goods store, or buy me new boots
    before the first snowfall. What is your legal name?”
    She would have made a very effective officer, which
was
a compliment. “Sir John Dewey Fanning, though my friends call me Jack.”
    The pen stopped. “I’m Madeline Hennessey.”
    How pensive she looked, sitting at the massive desk—and how pretty. “No middle name?” He wanted to know this about her, wanted any detail
    she’d part with, because information was a form of ammunition.
    She resumed writing, and muttered something under her breath.
    “I beg your pardon, Miss Hennessey?”
    “Madeline Aphrodite Hennessey. I’ll thank you not to bruit that about at the Wet Weasel.”
    “Of course not.” Aphrodite was the goddess of love, pleasure, and procreation, if Jack recalled his tutor’s maunderings. “Might I
    inquire as to your other conditions for accepting employment in my home?” The home to which Jack was anxious to return, lest his domestics burn the
    place to the ground in his absence.
    “I will be driven to Sunday services, if your mother chooses not to go.”
    Jack attended regularly. He wasn’t particularly religious in the Anglican sense, but he did want to set a good example for the staff, and socializing
    in the churchyard aided in his magistrate’s duties.
    “I will happily drive you to services, madam.”
    She put down the pen. “
You
will?”
    Jack crossed to the desk and peered at what she’d written.
    I, Sir John Dewey Fanning, on the date signed below, do take into domestic employment one Madeline A. Hennessey, in the capacity of temporary
     lady’s companion for my mother, upon certain conditions as follows…
    “You’re a budding solicitor, Miss Hennessey.” She had a graceful hand—neat and legible, no schoolgirl flourishes or embellishments.
    “I’m a woman without a man to speak for her, unless one relies on Mr. Belmont’s overprotective nature—which I do not.”
    “Hence the severance pay if your employment is terminated in less than thirty days.” A considerable sum too, as household wages went.
    Beneath her confident manner was a caution Jack had not anticipated. Mama would approve—Mama was all in favor of women looking out for
    themselves—but Jack did not.  
    “Miss Hennessey, we are not adversaries. I have an embarrassment of means and need not quibble with my help over contractual details. My objective is
    that you should enjoy the time spent in my household, to the extent anybody can enjoy time with my mother.”
    Or with him. Jack had no delusions about the pleasure of his own company.
    Miss Hennessey pushed the paper over to him and held the pen out. “A fine speech, sir.”
    “We aren’t to have witnesses to our signatures?”
    “The Belmonts can sign it, after I make a second copy.”
    “Miss Hennessey, you risk insult to your employer before you’ve begun your duties. I don’t need a copy of the contract. The terms are
    simple, and you’ll correct me should I breach them.”
    “No, I won’t.” She signed her name in the same flowing, elegant hand.
    “You’ll allow me to breach the terms of this agreement with impunity?”
    “Of course not. If you put a foot wrong, I’ll leave.”
    Belmont would be on Jack’s doorstep the next morning, glowering