My True Companion Read Online Free

her
room.
    At first, Millie only saw long shadows, cast along the
hallway by the faint electric lamps. Then a man appeared at the top of the
stairs. He was tall and muscular, with rugged features, and hair thick and
dark, devoid of the oils and potion many men used. It was also slightly longer
than the norm, his fringe falling over his eyes, which were hazel brown. He
looked like a man only just in touch with civilisation, like an animal that had
only recently been tamed and might easily revert to a savage state at any
moment.
    “I heard that Fazeby Hall had a ghost called The Grey Lady,
but I hardly expected to meet her on my first night,” he said in deep tones,
his piercing gaze searching Millie’s face. There was an old roof supporting
beam across the ceiling, on which he rested his hand, towering above her,
making her feel even smaller and insignificant than usual. “Or that she would
be so lovely … and sad.”
    “I am not a ghost, sir,” she said, trying to sound braver
than she felt. “I’m a guest. Millicent Woodridge.” She held out her hand.
    “Richard’s girl?” he said, his eyes widening. “Dear God, why
are you here?” He took her hand, but did not let go as Millie expected him to.
    Her cheeks felt hot. “I am a companion to Mrs Oakengate. But
if you object to my being here…” She pulled her hand away.
    “No, certainly not. Forgive me,” he said, his voice
softening. “I just wasn’t expecting to see you. This makes things more
interesting. Very interesting indeed. Are you brave, Millicent?”
    “Not very,” she admitted.
    “I don’t believe you. Your father was brave. Right to the
end. You have something of him in you. The way you meet my gaze head on. I like
that.”
    It was news to Millie. What she really wanted to do was look
down, run, to get as far away from this disconcerting man as she could. “You
are Mr Haxby, I presume,” she said.
    “That’s me. Adventurer and all round good egg.”
    “Are you, sir?”
    “Stop calling me sir. I’m not your schoolmaster. This is
nineteen-twenty-one, you know. My name is James. Or Jim when you get to know me
better.” He said the latter with a degree of intimacy that made Millie blush
even more.
    “I doubt we will become that well acquainted,” she said,
smiling shyly.
    “What a pity,” he said, looking at her with those deep hazel
eyes. “I shall just have to be haunted by you for the rest of my life.”
    “It may be safer that way,” said Millie. For whom she didn’t
know. “Goodnight, Mr Haxby.” She slipped past him and ran to the safety of her
room, where despite her best efforts to forget, she spent the rest of the night
remembering his piercing eyes.

Chapter Three
    Victoria Oakengate cried off from visiting The Heights of
Abraham, preferring to remain in the comfort of Fazeby Hall. Henry Fazeby
announced that he had too much to do on the estate. James Haxby was nowhere to be
seen at breakfast, and his batman informed Cynthia that Mr Haxby had slept in
but would join them later.
    The party travelling in several cars to Matlock on the
bright spring morning consisted of Millie, Cynthia Fazeby, Count Chlomsky, Alex
Markham, Mr and Mrs Parker-Trent and Barbara Conrad. Millie travelled with her
god-father.
    Millie would never have admitted it publicly but it felt
good for her to get out from under the shadow of Mrs Oakengate. She felt
light-hearted for the first time in a long time.
    “It is good to see you, Millie,” said Alex, who had
engineered things so that he and Millie had a car to themselves. “Especially
now we’re rid of that dreadful woman. Really, child, what possessed you to
become her companion?”
    “The need to eat and have a roof over my head,” said Millie,
quietly. “You know that Papa’s pension was stopped. I spent all our savings on
his legal defence and renting a room.”
    “I will ask around Whitehall,” said Alex. “There’s bound to
be a job you can do there.”
    “I can’t imagine