Read Online Maid to Match by Deeanne Gist - Free Book Online Page B

deeply of apple cider, she tried to hear Allan and Pa over the noise.
    “Are you sure it was wise to take on a contrary, unlettered yokel like that, son?” Pa asked him.
    “I’ll admit, he’s rougher around the edges than Earl.” Allan looked toward the corner of the building.
    Tillie followed his gaze. Mack stood in the shadows watching the dancers, but had yet to participate himself.
    “Underneath, though,” Allan continued, “he’s not your typical backwoods mountain man. He’s well-spoken and educated and better read than you and me put together.”
    “How do you know?”
    “When we polish silver we debate everything from Socrates to Oscar Wilde’s new aesthetic views about art. And try as I might, I can never stump him.”
    Tillie looked again at Mack and caught him studying her. She quickly turned away.
    “Strange that Earl’s not like that,” Pa said.
    Allan nodded. “I think it’s likely Earl has the intellect, but he’s just more interested in other things.”
    Dixie Brown sank down beside Tillie, blond tendrils escaping her Gibson Girl hairstyle. “He’s such a dream !”
    Tillie smiled. The two of them had spent many a candlelit evening dressing each other’s hair. Tonight Tillie had done both of them up in the soft, wide pompadours she’d seen in a Charles Gibson illustration. “Who’s the dream this time?”
    “Mack Danver. Who do you think?”
    She stilled. “Mack? I thought it was Earl you had your eye on.”
    The two of them quickly located Earl. He’d backed one of the scullery maids against a bale of hay. She didn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight.
    “Every girl on the estate has her eye on Earl,” Dixie said. “But to think, all this time, he had a twin !”
    Dixie moved her gaze toward the corner of the room.
    Tillie grabbed her wrist. “Don’t look!”
    But it was too late. Not only did Dixie look, she grabbed Tillie back, her eyes widening. “He’s coming and he’s looking right at . . . at you !”
    Tillie lurched to her feet. “I have to go.”
    Dixie yanked her back down into the chair. “Introduce him to me first.”
    “I can’t. I have to go.”
    She squeezed Tillie’s arm with surprising strength. “Please.”
    “No. Now, let – ”
    “Evening, Allan. Tillie.” His voice poured out like warm molasses. Sweet, thick, and rich.
    “Pull up a chair, Mack,” Allan said. “This is my pa, Herbert Reese. My ma was here earlier, but she had to take the youngsters home. The rest of the family is around, though. Somewhere.”
    Pa stood and shook hands. “Mack.”
    “Mr. Reese.”
    “Call me Herbert.”
    Instead of joining them, Mack singled Tillie out. “Would you like to dance?”
    No. “Have you met my friend Dixie? She’s a third-floor chambermaid.”
    He nodded. “Evening, Dixie. I’m still trying to learn who’s who.” He turned back to Tillie. “Would you like to dance?”
    She hesitated. Her mama had been right. She shouldn’t have come. She should stay away from the barn gatherings until her position was secure.
    Allan shoved back his chair and gave Dixie a broad wink. “How about you and me doing some twistificatin’?”
    An adorable dimple bloomed on Dixie’s left cheek. “I’m not sure you’re quite the man your father is out there on the floor.”
    “Oh yeah?” Tweaking her nose, he hooked an arm around her waist and swept her to the center of the room.
    Pa offered an arm to Tillie’s little sister Gussie, who’d come to claim the final dance of the evening. Tillie and Mack were the only ones left at the table. Refusing him would be unthinkably rude. She slowly rose.
    Without a word, he grasped her hand, pulling her behind him. She resisted. Surely he knew he should be guiding her by the elbow.
    Yet Allan wasn’t guiding Dixie by the elbow, and Earl wasn’t guiding his scullery maid by the elbow. But that didn’t mean Tillie had to put up with such familiarity.
    She yanked back.
    He looked over his shoulder, grasp