Lessons in French Read Online Free PDF Page A

smiled a little. "It was long ago,
    as you say."
    Callie sat mute, unable to steer between the treacherous shoals of conversation she
    perceived threatening on each side. She wondered if taking recourse to the sal volatile
    and burned feathers on the nightstand would help.

    "I do think he has matured well, do you not?" Madame said faintly. "Though he took a
    fall from a horse, he told me—such a shame, that it has marked his face. He was always a
    perfect Adonis." She drew a hoarse breath. "So says his doting maman!"
    "Is the pudding sweetened to your taste, ma'am?" Callie said in a stifled voice. "It's
    from Mrs. Adam. Tomorrow we'll see into procuring a woman to cook."
    "So good she is, Mrs. Adam! She has warned me again and again against Mrs. Easley,
    but—you know— she is not such a bad woman, after all." Her voice trailed off into a
    small cough.
    Callie did not need to be told that Mrs. Easley had been all the cook that Dove House
    could afford. "I'm sure that we can find someone more suitable, now that your son has
    returned." She was a little vexed that every subject seemed to lead back to Trev, but it
    was hard not to be glad at the look of relief on Madame's pale countenance.
    "Oh yes—everything is so much better now!" the duchesse said.
    "I'll make inquiries directly. And until we locate someone, we can very well spare the
    undercook and a maid from the Hall." Callie paused. "If Lady Shelford approves," she
    added belatedly, recalling that she no longer had charge of the housekeeping staff at
    Shelford Hall.
    "Do not trouble yourselves at Shelford! Trevelyan will—" Madame lost her sentence in
    a fit of coughing. It grew worse, lasting so long that the tray shook and the Frenchwoman
    struggled for air.
    Callie finally took the tray and helped Madame to lie down, keeping her own
    countenance calm with an effort. Hardly a spoonful of the pudding had been eaten, and
    every gasp seemed weaker. Madame lifted her lashes when the spell at last diminished,
    clutching the coverlet.
    "Oh, Callie," she whispered with a faint sound of despair. "I don't want to leave him all
    alone."
    "Rest now," Callie said, stroking her forehead gently.
    The duchesse closed her eyes. She breathed shallowly, her lips working as if she would
    say more. But she sighed instead, holding on to Callie's hand. A single tear slid down the
    side of her face.

    Callie stopped in the kitchen door, still startled at the sight of him, even though she
    should have been perfectly prepared. He sat at the kitchen table, watching Lilly measure
    tea into the pot, but he sprang up as Callie entered.
    "Jacques! The tray." He glanced at a mountainous man who stood wedged between the
    table and a sideboard. "She didn't eat well?"
    "Not very well," Callie admitted quietly, surrendering the tray to the scarred and
    gnarled hands of his hulking servant. "Lilly, you needn't carry up the tea after all. She's
    lain down to sleep now."
    "Bring it to the parlor," Trevelyan said. "There's a fire started there."
    Callie had been about to see if she might discover some supper for him, but he was
    already at her elbow with a light touch that had resolve in it. She glanced about quickly
    for Lilly as she found herself propelled up the short stairs and across the dark hall to the
    parlor. She did not really think he was going to despoil and plunder her person, or
    anything nearly so interesting, but the town of Shelford would be honor-bound to assume

    so, having exhausted the latest volumes of The Lady's Magazine and La Belle Assemblée,
    and being in grave want of a fresh topic of conversation.
    In the firelit room, he set the chairs back from the hearth. "I beg your pardon. I hope
    you may draw a breath in here," he said. "I don't remember that the chimney used to
    smoke this way." He placed a chair for her. "I won't keep you long, I promise. Miss Lilly,
    you'll remain with us after you pour out the tea."
    "Yes, sir." Lilly curtsied willingly. Mrs. Adam's pert