Read Online Lady in the Mist by Laurie Alice Eakes - Free Book Online Page B

Once, he caught her eye and coaxed a smile from her. Another time, he saw her lingering over a stall of used goods, fingering the spine of a worn volume. Such a look of longing etched her delicate features, he had to stop and speak to her.
    “My mother loved that book.”
    She jerked her hand away as though the leather had turned to hot coals, but she smiled at him. “My mother brought it home to me from a patient once, but my father said it was silly and wouldn’t let me read it. He made me read things other than novels.”
    “I haven’t read it either.” He picked up the book, casting the seller a frown to keep him from protesting. “ Evangeline sounded like something a female would read. But I miss—”
    “Dominick, where are you?” Letty called.
    He sighed and returned the book to the shelf. “I hope to see you again soon. I have something I have to tell you, but not here in public. If we could meet—”
    “It wouldn’t be appropriate.”
    “But—”
    “Dominick?” Letty sounded impatient.
    “I’ll make a way to talk to you,” Dominick promised.
    Tabitha didn’t respond, but a glance back told him she watched him stride away.
    He smiled. The midwife liked to read. If only he could purchase the book, he could take it to her, lend it to her. But he had no money and thus no excuse to seek her out.
    He didn’t see her for what remained of that week. But snippets of overheard talk told him Wilkins was speaking against her. No one seemed to hold much credence in the censure of her skill. Still, she needed to know, for her own sake.
    For his own sake, Dominick feared that, if he didn’t find her soon, Kendall’s guests would arrive, and Dominick would have no free moments to slip away until they departed. By that time, he feared she would have forgotten him. Of course, if she did, he would have no reason to pursue her, to persuade her he was the kindest, most gentlemanly of men . . .
    He didn’t like the notion of having no reason to seek her out, but only because he thought a flirtation with the midwife would ease the tedium of his work, the frustration of being away from the home in Dorset he had rejected and now missed enough to dream about, as though his school holidays had been an endless succession of joyful activity.
    School was where he’d found joy, the books he’d read in secret so his classmates wouldn’t harass him, the schoolmasters who’d encouraged him while keeping his secret. If he had showed academic prowess, his father would have believed himself correct in sending his youngest son into the church.
    Of course, if Dominick had known of another vocation acceptable for a man of his station in life, he might have been able to persuade Bruton, his father, to allow him to head in that direction. Unfortunately, Dominick hadn’t known anything other than getting himself out of a life as a vicar.
    Now that he knew what he wanted, however temporary, it eluded him. She eluded him. Seabourne lay in peaceful mourning over the loss of more young men, without a clue to their whereabouts, and the midwife had vanished from Dominick’s presence like the mist she’d stepped out of on their first encounter.
    Meanwhile, he played his role of butler, preparing for the important guests due to arrive the following week, and chafing under the dullness of his existence. So far, in the nearly three weeks he’d resided under Kendall’s roof, he had served only one guest at a time, and those infrequent. Kendall dined out at the homes of others more than he remained at home. But, at last, he announced that the minister and his family would be coming home with him after church on Sunday.
    “His wife is related to the Lee family, and the niece coming with them is a Lee. So make certain everything goes well,” Kendall admonished Dominick.
    “Yes, sir,” he responded with a calm outward demeanor.
    Inside his uniform, his skin crawled at the idea of serving a minister. The last man of God with whom