Read Online If I Had You by Heather Hiestand - Free Book Online Page B

not poverty. And sleep, it had continued to elude her. It seemed every time she closed her eyes the four funnel stacks of the Lusitania came into view, just like they had for nearly a decade now.
    She lifted one foot and rubbed the back of her other calf with it. Her muscles were cramping, unused to standing in heeled shoes. Her grandfather didn’t hold with anything fashionable. She stared at the brooch, shining and glamorous amidst the relative squalor of the shop.
    Then, finally, the curtains parted. A rotund middle-aged man came out, followed by a tall, handsome fellow with soft-looking black hair that fell around his face. The brooding expression reminded her of someone, and then it hit her. It was Ivan Salter, in the back of an East End pawnshop.
    â€œMr. Salter,” she said, delighted to see a familiar face.
    His expression remained impassive, not matching her smile. “Miss Loudon.”
    â€œWhat a treat to see you outside of the hotel,” she said. Her nerves jangled uneasily amid his continuing unfriendliness. Had she offended him somehow? “Russell told me to come here.”
    He didn’t respond.
    â€œThe concierge?”
    Mr. Salter looked at the little man behind the counter. He shrugged, then took a loupe out of his pocket and bent to examine the brooch.
    Alecia noticed the record under Ivan’s arm. “Are you a music lover?”
    â€œNot like you,” he replied dryly. “This is for my sister.”
    He spoke! “How nice. Is it a dance record?”
    â€œA fox-trot, yes.”
    â€œI know how to do that, at least.” She lifted her arms. “I want to learn some of the other dances, like the Charleston.”
    â€œI don’t dance,” he said.
    She didn’t like to see his beautifully molded lips thinning, those lips that had once kissed her so generously. “I see.”
    â€œI’m not supposed to be speaking to you,” he said.
    His words startled her. “Why not?”
    He looked above her head instead of at her face. “Mr. Eyre sent out a notice.”
    She remembered his familiarity earlier. Was he laying a claim to her? How shocking. She’d read of such things in novels. “Not to speak to me?”
    â€œNot to be familiar with the residents,” he explained. “Not just you.”
    â€œI see.” Not so glamorous then. “Well, better that than something against me specifically.” She worried at her lip. “I was afraid I had hurt your feelings somehow, the way you so pointedly cut me on the stairs.”
    â€œI must do my job,” he said in a stiff tone.
    â€œWe aren’t at work now. We could even have a cup of tea together.” Her daring thrilled her.
    â€œThere are no nice little tea shops in this part of town,” he said blandly. “Just public houses.”
    â€œA glass of ale, then,” she suggested.
    â€œYou aren’t meant to be sitting around sailors and traders and hopeless drunks,” he said. “You shouldn’t even be in the East End.”
    She wanted to shake the smile back into him and then kiss that sensual mouth. “You don’t know anything about me.”
    â€œI don’t need to. You are a woman with no past.”
    She stepped back involuntarily, stung deeply by his remark. “That’s no longer true, as you well know.”
    â€œWas that kiss so important to you?” He leaned forward, voice low, and brushed her lower lip with his thumb.
    â€œIvan!” shouted the little man with an air of command. He spoke rapidly in a language that Alecia didn’t understand.
    Ivan stepped away from her. “You needn’t worry. She’s just a secretary.”
    â€œI thought she was from the hotel,” the pawnshop owner said.
    â€œI live in a valet’s room,” Alecia said, feeling the humiliation acutely. “I work for a married couple who reside at the hotel.”
    â€œAnd this is their