Paid Companion Read Online Free PDF Page B

in the files of Goodhew & Willis could not get any worse, she was confronted with a madman.
    “Miss Lodge?” St. Merryn’s voice cracked like a whip across the room. “Are you all right?”
    Jolted, she opened her eyes and summoned what she hoped was a soothing smile. “Of course, my lord. I am perfectly all right. Now then, perhaps there is someone who should be summoned?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “A family member or a personal servant, perhaps?” She hesitated delicately. “Or an attendant?”
    The poor sent their insane relatives to the horrors of the hospital known as Bedlam. But among the wealthy, it was customary to secure an afflicted family member in a private asylum. She wondered when St. Merryn had escaped and whether anyone had noticed yet that he was missing from his locked cell.
    “An attendant?” St. Merryn’s expression hardened. “What the devil are you talking about?”
    “It is rather bleak and gloomy outside, is it not?” she said gently. “One can easily become lost in a fog like this.” Especially if one’s mind is also filled with strange vapors and visions, she added silently. “But I’m certain that there is someone who will come and guide you home. If you could just let Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis know where to send a message .
    Understanding and then icy amusement lit St. Merryn’s eyes. “You think I’m mad, don’t you?”
    “No such thing, my lord. I was merely trying to be helpful.” She took a cautious step back toward the door. “But if there should happen to be a tiny problem here, I am confident that Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis will be able to deal with it.”
    Concluding that it would not be wise to turn her back on a lunatic, she groped awkwardly behind herself, searching for the doorknob.
    “No doubt.” His smile was wry and fleeting. “I’ll wager those two are capable of dealing with just about anything, including a deranged client. But, as it happens, Miss Lodge, I am not mad.” He shrugged. “At least, I do not believe that I am. If you will take your hand off that doorknob, I will attempt to explain.”
    She did not move.
    He raised his brows slightly. “I promise you, I will make it worth your while.”
    “In the financial sense?”
    His mouth tilted a little at one corner. “Is there any other sense?”
    Not as far as she was concerned, she thought. In her current predicament, she could not afford to overlook any reasonable offer of employment. The shimmering dream of a new future for herself that she had created out of thin air that long, lonely night six months before, had proved far more difficult to achieve in real life than she had ever imagined. Money was the sticking point. She needed this post.
    St. Merryn might be mad, but he did not appear to be a depraved rakehell or a drunkard as had been the case with two of her potential employers that afternoon.
    In point of fact, she thought, he was starting to sound more and more like a man who understood how to conduct a business negotiation. She admired that quality in a gentleman.
    And he was most certainly not on his deathbed, either, as the third potential client that day had been. Quite the contrary, there was a disconcerting, intensely intriguing air of masculine vitality about him that stirred her in a way she could not describe. He was not handsome, at least not in the manner in which Jeremy Clyde had been. But the whispers of awareness lifting the little hairs on the nape of her neck were oddly stimulating.
    Reluctantly, she released the doorknob. She stayed where she was, however, within inches of escape. A successful paid companion learned to be prepared for the unexpected.
    “Very well, sir. I am listening.”
    St. Merryn moved to the front of Mrs. Goodhew’s desk, leaned back against it and stretched his arms out to the sides. The position pulled his excellently cut coat snugly across his strong shoulders. It also allowed her to notice that he had a broad chest, flat stomach