Courting Constance (Fountain of Love) Read Online Free PDF

to go there to take a gift to Lady Lily once.” 
    Constance thought about it for a moment looking out the window.  It would be dark before too long, and she didn’t want to be on the road at night.  “How long will it take us to get there and back?”
    “Oh, the walk will take about an hour, but he’ll have someone drive us back.”  Alice opened the door and pulled Constance outside with her.  “The weather is clear.  It will be fine.” 
    As they walked, the two women chatted about their day.  Constance was a decent seamstress, but she was needed at the front of the shop, so she knew little about what went on in the back.  “All the girls were asking about the gifts and how you know Lord Charles.”
    “Did you explain that I just met him last night?” Constance asked.  She still couldn’t understand why the man had become so fixated on her.
    “I did, and that’s when it got even worse.  They wondered what could have happened during dinner at his sister’s house to make him fall in love.”
    Constance sighed.  “He’s not in love.  He hasn’t even told me what he wants other than to have lunch with me.”
    “He wants to marry you and show you what a life of leisure is.  You can be his countess and sit in the parlor all day doing nothing.”  Alice’s voice took on a dreamy quality as she spoke; obviously she loved the idea of a man taking her away from her life of hard work.
    Constance laughed.  “You’ve read one too many fairy tales, my friend.  All a man like that wants from me is sexual favors.”
    Alice shrugged.  “If you get to live in his fine house with him and he loves you, what difference does that make?”
    “I can’t live that way.  I know I’m not meant to be the wife of a nobleman, especially not an earl.  I need to encourage him to move on and leave me to live my life.”  Constance felt her resolve strengthening as she said the words.  As the gifts had piled up that afternoon, she’d wondered if it would be so terrible to be a nobleman’s mistress, but she couldn’t do it.  There was no stability.  If he decided he was tired of her after a week or two, where would that leave her?  What about children?  She couldn’t bear to have children who would never be recognized by their father.  No, she had to stay strong, no matter how she felt about him.
    She thought about his brown eyes and her heart began to melt a little, but she hardened it again. 
    Alice sighed.  “He’s the best looking man in the whole county, and even better, he’s the richest.  How could you say no to that?”
    Constance sighed.  “I can’t let myself rely on a man.  I need to rely on myself.  If I became his mistress, and he tired of me, where would I be?  What if we had children together?”   She loved the idea of spending her life with Lord Charles, but not as his mistress.  She couldn’t do that.
    “Then you wouldn’t be alone any longer.”  Alice’s voice had a wistful air to it.  Obviously she’d thought a great deal about what it would be like to be the mistress to a powerful nobleman.
    Constance put her hand through Alice’s arm.  “I’m not alone.  I have you!”
    Alice laughed.  “So you do!  And when you’re the wife or mistress of Lord Charles, you can hire me to be your lady’s maid.  I promise I’ll do your hair just the way you say and call you Lady Constance.”
    Constance laughed.  “I promise not to hit you with my fan if you get in my way too often, and I’ll always remember your name.  I might call you ‘maid’ or ‘girl’ on occasion, but I’ll always remember that your name is really Althea.”
    “Oh, so kind of you!” 
    They continued bantering back and forth as they walked, dreaming up more and more ludicrous things Constance could do once she was Lord Charles’s wife.  They were laughing uproariously by the time they reached Marsgate Manor, and Constance found herself suddenly nervous as she stared up at the old