Read Online Follow The Night (Bewitch The Dark) by Michele Hauf - Free Book Online Page A

gestured to the silver tray that displayed pastries fresh from a patisserie down the street.
    “You will spoil me,” she said. “I am accustomed to country fare. Simple greens and roasted fowl.”
    “Then it is a wonder you are not much rounder.” The valet sat and popped a thumb-sized almond tart into his mouth. “Most country women wear their meals on hips and bosom.”
    A giggle escaped before she could suppress it. “You’re not like most servants, are you?”
    “Too forthright?” He smiled. “Forgive me, mademoiselle. Leo and I do not enjoy the usual servant/master relationship. I should be more respectful of company. But that giggle, it surprised you, yes?”
    “What?”
    “Just now.” He tipped another tart to her before consuming it in one gulp. “I wager it has been a time since you’ve surrendered to something so easy and light.”
    She nodded and allowed the smile to remain. “You are perceptive.”
    “I do my best. Do you favor him?”
    Like the sun glinting from a shiny copper roof, a lingering kiss stolen amidst a captured rainbow flashed across her thoughts. “You mean Leo?”
    “Are there other rakes in this house I am not aware of? Come, you can talk to me, mademoiselle. You are all alone, yes? In need of a confidante. I’ll keep our conversation private from Leo.”
    “I don’t worry about that. You’re a good man, Toussaint.” She sipped the sweet chocolate.
    He had guessed correctly. She desperately needed a kind ear to spill her woes. “Favor your master? When there is so much not to like about him?”
    Toussaint raised a brow.
    “Well.” She set the cup on the saucer with a tink . “The man is arrogant.”
    “I’ll grant you that.”
    “Conceited.”
    “To a delicious degree.”
    “Vain.”
    “Decidedly so.”
    “Materialistic.”
    Toussaint sighed.
    “And worst of all…”
    “Yes?”
    “He’s so damned…” The word teetered on the tip of her tongue. Toussaint waited eagerly. So be it. “…charming.”
    “Ah.” He nabbed a sugar-dusted strawberry with an elegant twist of his wrist. “You’ve just described Leo perfectly. But really, the arrogance, the conceit, the vanity and materialism, it is merely a façade. You haven’t begun to look beneath the surface.”
    “When one has to wade through all the lace, powder and frippery? Trust me, that man’s surface is impenetrable!”
    The two shared knowing laughter.
    Toussaint leaned an elbow on the table. “Do tell me one thing.”
    “If I can.”
    “I’ve always considered charming to be a favorable trait. Why is it you do not?”
    “Well, I…” She felt heat color her neck and sensed the valet had guessed far more of her mind than she wished. How many women had he had this same conversation with, perhaps following a tumble from Leo’s bed? “It is a false charm. The man uses it easily. I don’t believe he has a clue how artificial it is.”
    “Oh, he does. The veneer serves a purpose, that is all.” Toussaint collected the silver tray and the cooling chocolate pot. “Promise me you’ll take a look beneath the surface? There is a genuine man beneath all that frippery.”
    “Really?”
    “Really.”
     
     
    Gabriel peered up through the oculus. One could never see out at night for the glare of the lantern. But that was the purpose, wasn’t it? The shower of color offered sanctity, not the darkness that lurked beyond the iron lamp reflectors.
    Toussaint entered, linens in arm. “Would you like me to prepare your bath, Renan?”
    “I’m going out, tonight, Toussaint. Let the vampire come to me.”
    “Ah yes, the laced fop trips into the night to face danger, wielding a walking stick and a smart patch on his brow.”
    Gabriel waggled his brow. “And a jaunty stake.” He pulled out the stake he’d tucked in his waistband.
    “When did you—?”
    “Carved it myself in the stables this afternoon. You think it will serve?” He mimed a stabbing motion.
    Speechless, Toussaint