So in Love Read Online Free

eyes were the same color, an odd sort of gray that had always embarrassed her. Her hair was brown, with a tinge of red to it, much as it had been as a girl. While it was true her face appeared thinner and her cheekbones higher, it was no doubt due more to the deprivations of the past months than to the passage of time.
    The spoiled and rebellious young girl had become a survivor, but such changes didn’t show on the surface.
    Her fingers toyed with the rectangular gold pendant thatwas one of a few scant remnants of her past. An ugly piece of jewelry, it had belonged to her mother and was, for that reason, treasured.
    Douglas had looked so prosperous sitting in Robert Hartley’s library. There was a look on his face, watchful more than stern, that would caution even the most flirtatious woman from approaching him. Whereas her last memories of him had been as a smiling young man, this stranger was formidable and commanding.
    Turning from the window, Jeanne performed her nightly routine of pushing the bureau in front of the door, a barricade against Hartley’s nocturnal visits. A month ago he’d knocked on the door, whispering an entreaty. A week ago he’d tested the door, only to discover the furniture blocking his way. So far he’d allowed it to stand, probably because he didn’t want his attempts at seduction to be overheard.
    Her employer was watching her like a bird of prey. Sometimes when she came upstairs, he would stand at the landing, refusing to move as she passed. She’d feel his hand glide over the material covering her bottom, but because Davis was with her she hadn’t chastised him in front of the boy. Several times when she entered the schoolroom he was there, leaving only after he’d made a show of questioning his son on his newfound knowledge, and complimenting her overmuch when little Davis repeated his daily lessons by rote.
    Something would have to be done about him, and soon. Her nightly precautions wouldn’t keep him at bay forever.
    If she’d had another trade, another method of making her way in the world, she would never have chosen to be a governess. But she had few attributes other than her education. People, especially the Scots, simply didn’t care that she was the daughter of a French Count, that her father had once been so wealthy that he’d loaned the king money, thatVallans had boasted over three hundred rooms and countless works of art.
    Nor would they care, if they had known, that she had escaped from a convent, leaving France with little more than the clothes on her back.
    It certainly hadn’t mattered to Robert Hartley that she was destitute when she’d come looking for a job, that it had been three days since she’d last had a substantial meal. The two questions he’d asked prior to employing her had been simple and easily answered: Did she have any references, and was she willing to work for a certain sum? No to the first question, regrettably. Her years with the nuns would not help. From the convent she’d made her way to Scotland to be with her aunt, only to learn that her only living relative had died a year earlier. Her uncle by marriage had no interest in opening his home to a half-French émigré whatever the relationship. As to the latter question, she would gladly take whatever Hartley wished to pay.
    Jeanne was well aware that she was working for a smaller wage than Hartley would have paid a Scotswoman. But she had learned a very valuable lesson in the last ten years. Life could be distilled to its basic elements. As long as she was warm, dry, and had a little food, she was content. Anything more was superfluous.
    Slowly, she removed her clothing, hanging each garment inside the small armoire. She was careful with her three dresses, a legacy from a fellow émigré who had been grateful for Jeanne’s tending of her sick child.
    Her fingers smoothed the fine embroidery stitches adorning the top of the collar of one garment. As a child, she’d been punished for her