Read Online A Scandalous Melody by Linda Conrad - Free Book Online Page B

knock at the front door, Chase noticed some of the floorboards were hanging loose from their joints and bits of paint had begun to peel off of decades-old exterior walls. He looked closer and found cobwebs lurking in dark, dingy corners of the veranda.
    Apparently the maintenance had been ignored for quite some time. A flash of anger at Kate for letting things slide came—and quickly went. This much deterioration had to have begun with her father. Princess Kate would know no better. No sense blaming her for things she hadn’t done. There were plenty of other things for which she deserved the blame.
    â€œWelcome, Chase.” The alto voice was feminine but not Kate’s.
    He turned to see a slight woman in her midtwenties with ash-blond hair and soft-gray eyes, standing at the open door with a toddler in her arms. It was the quiet look in the woman’s eyes that made the schoolday memories reel forward in his mind.
    â€œHello, Shelby,” he murmured. “It’s been a while.”
    She stood aside and let him move through the doorway. “Ten years. This is my daughter, Madeleine. We’ve been expecting you this morning.”
    â€œHow do you do, Madeleine,” Chase said to the serious baby with the big blue eyes, before he returned his attention to her mother. “Kate tells me you and your daughter are living in one of the guest cottages, Shelby. You divorced?”
    Shelby chuckled, turned and headed toward the sweeping, main staircase. “You get right to the basics, don’t you, Severin? No, I am not divorced. Maddie’s father was a marine. Went off and got himself killed before he even knew he had a child on the way. And no, I’m not his widow, either. We weren’t married.”
    Chase followed Shelby up the wide, carpeted stairs. He could easily see now why Kate had wanted to help this woman and her child. Her story had disturbed him a great deal, and he barely knew her.
    â€œKate didn’t mention which room you’d be wanting to occupy,” Shelby said when she reached the top of the staircase. “I try to keep up with the cleaning, but I didn’t know you were moving in until this morning. If you want one of the rooms that isn’t made up, it’ll only take me twenty minutes or so to…”
    â€œWould you mind giving me a short tour of the house first?” He still did not know what his own intentions were. “Where’s Kate?”
    Shelby moved the baby to her hip and gestured to the faded carpet. “Leave your luggage here on the landing. I’ll show you around. Kate is outside doing Saturday chores.”
    â€œKate? Doing chores? You’re kidding.”
    â€œHold it, Severin,” Shelby said as she stopped and poked a finger at his chest. “You’ve been gone a long time. Maybe before you just jump to conclusions, you might want to take the time to really see the way things are now.”
    He dropped his luggage and smiled at the irate woman and her child. “Point taken.” Chase wasn’t sure he would be able to stand spending enough time here to see anything though, not with all the unwanted feelings that kept getting dredged up whenever he was around Kate. “Lead on with the tour.”
    For the next half hour Shelby showed him through the ten upstairs bedrooms, the kitchen, dining room, library and four parlors. Everything was clean but shabby. It made him melancholy to think of a grand historical house like this one falling into such disrepair.
    Finally they arrived back at the base of the main staircase. “You won’t need to make up a room for me,” he said before they could climb the front stairs again. “I’ll store my luggage for today and Kate and I will work out the sleeping arrangements later. Thanks.”
    Shelby released the baby on the marble floor, letting her crawl free. “No problem. Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? Something’s