LoverforRansom Read Online Free PDF

table and then the chair before she
sat. Ransom bent to press a kiss to her cheek. “Good morning, sister.”
    Jenny reached up and patted his hand. Wide-eyed, Ransom
turned to the teacher, wondering how this severe little woman, with her plain
mourning gown and black glasses, could have made such a transformation in so
short a time.
    “Good morning, Miss Ryan,” he said cheerily as he drew the
chair from her hands and pulled it back for her.
    Mouth set in a grim line, she moved around the chair and sat
as he pushed it in. “Thank you, Mr. Byrne.”
    “Good morning, Miss Ryan!” Sissy greeted cheerily as a
servant moved around the table, dishing food onto the plates. “I trust after
the…um…unpleasantness, you slept well enough?”
    “Very well,” she began, but Ransom butted in.
    “Unpleasantness? Thank you, Sally,” he added as a biscuit
landed on his plate.
    His mother’s hand fluttered as if she were shooing a bee.
“Jenny had a bad dream.”
    “I’ll butter that for you, missy,” Sally whispered to Jenny.
    “Thank you but she can do it herself. And it wasn’t a bad
dream at all,” Miss Ryan said as she quietly placed Jenny’s hands on her
cutlery. She guided Jenny’s fingers to the biscuit on her plate and then to the
butter dish. “Would you like to try?”
    “I’m afraid I’ll make a mess,” Jenny squeaked.
    “Nonsense. You’re learning. It’s perfectly fine for you to
make a mess,” the teacher said patiently. “Careful not to cut yourself.”
    Ransom gaped as his sister began the trial and error process
of buttering a biscuit. “Unpleasantness?” he repeated.
    Miss Ryan eyed him over the top of her spectacles. “Her
reaction to common sounds that wouldn’t otherwise frighten a sighted person is
perfectly normal. Other senses fill in and can become overwhelming, especially
at night. It’s merely an adjustment Jenny will make with time.”
    “Now you won’t have to come to my room in the night
anymore,” Jenny said, directing her comment toward him.
    “I knew you’d been going to her.” Sissy shook her head but
gave him a sly smile. “And I’m glad you did. Sally, my tonic?”
    Ransom sat back in his seat. He’d hardly made it a secret
that he’d defied the doctor’s orders. “I didn’t think that doctor knew what he
was talking about.”
    “It’s a good thing Miss Ryan has come.” Sissy took the little
bottle Sally produced from her pocket. From the ever-present taint on his
mother’s breath, Ransom highly suspected it had been filled with bourbon. She’d
imbibed ever since his grandfather—her father—had died.
    Ransom envied her ability to escape. He certainly didn’t
blame her. But he would not afford himself the same luxury. He deserved to
suffer for bringing death and blight home to roost.
    “When will you get started teaching Jenny her lessons?”
Sissy inquired.
    Just about to put a forkful of egg in her mouth, Miss Ryan
stopped. She straightened. “The lessons will involve the entire family
and the servants as well.”
    “What do you mean?” Sissy tipped the bottle over her coffee
and poured in at least two tablespoons of the liquid.
    “It’s acceptable to use your hands to feel your way around
the table,” the teacher told Jenny as she guided her knife to the top of her
plate. Miss Ryan lifted her gaze. “Jenny is clearly not comfortable with her
surroundings. Everyone at Byrne’s End can help by remembering to perform simple
tasks that will keep the house uniform for Jenny.”
    “Such as?” Ransom asked.
    “I’ll show you in good time. But for now, we should stop
talking about her as if she weren’t here.”
    He tasted his coffee, the realization that he’d been guilty
of treating Jenny differently sitting like a cold stone in his gut. Since she’d
gone blind, he’d treated her as if she were a fragile doll instead of the
horse-riding, rough-housing sister he’d loved to kid before the war.
    Maybe entrusting Jenny to this