Forever in My Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the direction of the clock on the mantel. It looked to be nearly three-thirty. He rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger.
     
"What is it you want to know?" he asked tiredly.
     
"The girl who was in here, what's become of her?"
     
He stopped rubbing and greeted the madam with a caustic glance.
     
"How would I know?" He lifted one corner of the sheet and made a pretense of searching under it. "No, not there. Have you checked the privy? The kitchen? What about another room? Surely I'm not the only man she's entertained tonight."
     
Lisa reached in the drawer on the bedside table and found a match. She struck it and lighted the oil lamp, turning up the wick for a fuller flame. Replacing the glass globe, she held up the lamp and pointed to the dark stain he had uncovered when he rearranged the top sheet. "The young lady you were with this evening isn't entertaining anyone else," she said in icy tones that were every bit a match for his. "More to the point, she's never entertained anyone else.
     
And it's unlikely she found much in the way of entertainment with you!"
     
The words were as effective as a cold shower or a pot of black coffee.
     
He was wide awake. He stared at the dried blood spotting the bottom sheet and felt himself paling. "What the hell's going on here?" he asked, pushing himself out of bed. He dragged the sheet with him, hitched it around his waist, and cinched it. He glared at the madam, then at the man at the foot of the bed, then finally at the woman in the doorway. "I didn't ask for a damned virgin!"
     
"Oh, I believe you, honey," Megan said. "And if you'd come to the right room, you wouldn't have gotten one.
     
"Right room? What do you mean?" His brows drew together as he glowered at Lisa Hall. "What does she mean? You told me this was the room. Left at the top of the stairs. Second door on the right."
     
Lisa's fingers were working nervously on her pearls. She sat down heavily on the bed. "This is awful! Horrible! Do you have any idea what you've done?"
     
His dark brows rose. "Any idea what I've done?" He paused, his upper lip curling cynically. His black eyes were cold. "If this is a scam, then you've picked the wrong john. I didn't ask to initiate one of your angels and I'm not going to pay just because she's fallen hard."
     
Morrison set his bag on the bed and spoke up in Lisa's defense.
     
"No one is trying to take your money. There's been a mistake, that's all. Megan, check the wardrobe. Perhaps she hasn't left." As Megan went to do his bidding, Morrison's eyes alighted on the bottle of Scotch. "I'm Dr. James. Mrs. Hall asked me to come by to see the girl you were with. She... umm, she wasn't well. You didn't answer Lisa's question. Did the girl drink some of that?"
     
"Most of it."
     
Lisa's soft groan was smothered by Megan's announcement that the wardrobe was empty.
     
"What's going on here?" he demanded, taking the offensive. His eyes fell on the doctor's bag and he remembered his own black leather satchel. He looked around for it, first on the table just inside the door, and when it wasn't there, he scanned other parts of the room.
     
"Where is it?" he demanded. When the others merely looked at him blankly, he repeated the question more harshly. "I had a bag with me.
     
Almost exactly like the doctor's. What the hell have you done with it?"
     
"I haven't touched it," Mrs. Hall said. "None of us has."
     
"What did you tell the girl to do with it?"
     
"You're mistaken," Morrison said. "If the bag's gone, Lisa didn't have anything to do with it. This is a respectable house."
     
"It's a brothel."
     
"It's an honest one," Megan said, offended by the stranger's arrogance.
     
"Find my bag and I'll apologize," he said with dry sarcasm.
     
Unconcerned with modesty, he dropped the sheet and pulled on his drawers and trousers.
     
Megan sighed. "I wish you had found the right room."
     
He merely grunted, unmoved by the flattery. He slipped on his evening shirt and tucked in