Rescue Me Please Read Online Free PDF Page B

continued to watch through tiny slit s .  The tip of her tongue peeked out again to run across her bottom lip as if she could taste the tart sweetness and he watched as her throat worked on a swallow.
    “Why are you being so kind?”  H e r throat closed, tears glisten ing in her eyes.
    Her voice spoke volumes of doubt and concern, and Parker felt all his protective instincts rise to the fore.   “Because I am able and quite willing to come to you and your bab i es aid , Miss Smith.” Parker smiled just a little , his eyes narrowed.  “I have never been accused of being heartless and standing aside while there is someone who is in such desperate need of assistance.”
    “Charity?”  She swayed, blinking, then s queezed her eyes tighter over a prickle of useless tears.  Show no fear.  No weakness.  She had to be strong.
    “No, Miss Smith, kindness,” Parker replied gently.  “Obviously something that has been sorely lacking in your life of late for it to be unrecognizable. ”   His left hand covered her baby’s back, holding her firmly against his shoulder and he held out his right hand in supplication.  “I would be grateful, if you would al low me to do this one kindness.  I am obviously in tremendous need of practice.”
    Persephone was afraid that at any moment she would make a spectacle of herself by swooning.  If her circumstances did not ch ange, it would not be the last.
    “My skills for charming strangers have noticeably diminished greatly over the past few months.”  Parker watched her grow even paler, which he would have thought impossible, and took a step closer , raising his arm to assist.
    She s hrunk back from his touch , her heart rate spiking in fear as his hand rose , the color fading from her lips .  She held out her arm as if to assist with her balance as she swayed again .  She thought she managed a smile and tried to respond before her eyes fluttered closed and she slumped to the ground in a graceless pile .
    Parker witnessed what little color remained in her face quickly fade and discerned the precise moment that she was going to sink to the ground, but unable to do anything about it.  He sprinted to where she lay crumpled in an untidy heap and knelt next to her body, shaking her gently.  “Miss Smith?”  He breathed a sigh of relief when she groaned .  H er eyelashes fluttered open, then closed where they remained .  Any man who said that they enjoyed women swooning at their feet must not have had a true experience.  It was rather frightening.  He would prefer to face a pistol over a wet field at dawn.
    He looked down at the baby with a raised brow.  “Well, little one, what am I to do now?”  He laid the smiling Tillie, oblivious to any of her mother’s difficulties, gently on the ground beside her supine body and stood, peering intently towards the house, waving his arms vigorously.  He shouted in a most ungentlemanly fashion, “ Torridge !  Torridge !”
     
    ***
     
    A dele stood framed by the window of the Rose Room gazing out , watching as her nephew wandered aimlessly through the gardens gravel paths.  She wanted him to lead a fulfilled life.  She knew he deserved to experience the magical love of a woman in which fairytales were written and Rosebriar deserved to have the joyous laughter of children and the patter of little feet running through the halls again.  He was always so restless.  Too busy minding everyone else’s business to mind his own.
    She watched as he wended his way slowly through the narrow passages in the garden, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket.  Too serious by half.
    Perhaps she could truly talk him into mucking out the stables.  It never hurt anyone to get their hands dirty every once in a while.  She smiled remember ing the look on his face when she made that particular suggestion.
    Adele looked back out the window and watched as Parker made his way out of the garden.  He stopped and started, glancing