Rainy Day Dreams: 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

and came to rest on Kathryn. His eyebrows arched high on his forehead. “Your hired girl?”
    “That’s right.” She turned her smile on the young man. “If you want her to take care of your laundry or other personal concerns, we’ll work out the details. That’s one of the reasons I’ve hired a strong young woman, so I can offer good service to my customers.”
    When she gave Kathryn a disturbingly proprietary glance, the meaning of her words struck with force.
    “I?” She rested a hand on her chest. “I am to be a…a maid?”
    Pudgy fingers waved in the air in her direction. “We’ll work out the details in a bit. Let me see my guest settled first.”
    She continued upward and disappeared through the doorway at the top. Kathryn stared after her, jaw slack. This was Papa’s arrangement? Not that she assist in the management of the hotel, but that she become a servant? Then she realized she was the object of close scrutiny. Mr. Gates’s gaze connected with hers for a moment. Was there more than curiosity in his stare? Did she detect a superior smirk? Heat flooded her cheeks. She whirled around and made a show of splaying her hands to warm them before the fire. The sound of creaking steps told her of his departure.
    She forced a long, even breath from her lungs. A mistake had been made. She would write to Papa immediately.
    No—on second thought, there was no need to write. She didn’t intend to be here long enough for her letter to reach him and his reply to arrive. First thing in the morning she would speak with Captain Baker and book passage on the Fair Lady for the return voyage home.

     
    The room was bare, but sufficient. Jason stood in the open doorway to inspect the interior. A pair of narrow beds, little more than cots, really, lined two walls and took up most of the space. Between them stood a nightstand with a lamp on its surface, and very little room for much else. The area between the beds was hardly big enough for two men to stand side by side, but that wouldn’t present a problem since he did not intend to share his lodgings. He had money enough to ensure his privacy for the duration of his stay in the Faulkner House. As soon as he had settled into a routine at the mill, he would arrange for permanent lodgings.
    “There’s plenty of light in this room.” The proprietress peered over his shoulder. “Two windows, you’ll notice. Good breeze when they’re open.”
    Since the room was situated on a corner, windows graced two of the four walls and gave the impression of more space than was actually available. The curtains had been tied back, though the dark sky outside shed little light at the moment. Rain drizzled down the glass on the rear-facing wall and turned the trees behind the hotel into mirages. The other two walls were as bare as the ones downstairs. He would take care of that shortly.
    He stepped through the doorway and set the crate containing hispainting down on the floor. “This will be fine for my needs. Would you arrange to have the spare bed removed?”
    “It’ll be morning before my hired man comes, but I’ll have him see to it.” A gleam flickered in her eyes as she looked at the second bed. “I can move it across the hall and turn that room into a triple.”
    Unless the other room was significantly larger than this one, Jason couldn’t imagine how three beds would fit. But that was not his concern.
    He dipped his head in a courteous farewell. “Thank you, Mrs. Garritson.” Hopefully he’d gotten the name right. Her correspondence had been nearly illegible, and she had not introduced herself since his arrival.
    “Madame Garritson’s what everybody in these parts calls me.” She smiled, a somewhat gruesome gesture considering two of her teeth were charcoal gray and the rest yellow. “Or Mother Garritson, if you prefer.”
    An image of his mother, genteel and educated and exquisitely groomed at all times, rose in his mind. If he were given the task of selecting