Read Online Temptress in Training by Susan Gee Heino - Free Book Online

than to waste candles when Mr. Fitzgelder does not need them.”
    â€œSeems he might have a care whether or not his staff breaks a leg tending their duties in the pitch black like this.”
    Sophie just snorted. “I’d hardly say this could be called tending to duties. Heavens, but Mrs. Harwell would throttle me if she found us sneaking away like this! The other girls will surely get their ears boxed if they don’t tend to all their work plus mine until a replacement is found.”
    â€œThat’s not your concern,” Miss Sands assured her. “Now show the way out. I don’t like being here one more minute than I have to. Look, there’s a light up that corridor. What is that?”
    â€œThat would be Mr. Fitzgelder’s study. He must have left it burning when he went with his friends. I’ll go take care of it.”
    Miss Sands grabbed her arm. “You certainly will not! We’re leaving. Let it be.”
    â€œBut someone will be reprimanded for it!”
    â€œThen they should not have neglected to put it out, should they? Show us the door.”
    It hardly seemed fair to let someone suffer Mrs. Harwell’s wrath when it was but a few steps and a simple matter for Sophie to tend to the forgotten lamp. Ignoring Miss Sands’s plea, she moved into the corridor and was just feet from reaching the study when she felt her companion’s hand clench around her elbow. At the same time, Sophie heard voices in the lighted room. One voice in particular she recognized.
    â€œDamn!” the actress swore beside her, pulling Sophie back against the wall. The voices were accompanied by footsteps—large, male footsteps. And these males were moving in the study as if preparing to leave it. “What do we do? Where can we go?”
    Sophie paused just long enough to gather her wits, then dove across the hall and into an open doorway. She dragged Miss Sands with her. Drat, why had she ignored the young woman’s warning? She should have taken them straight out to the street when she’d had the chance.
    So Mr. Fitzgelder had not gone when all his guests departed, had he? No, he had stayed behind for some reason. That was his voice in the study, Sophie was sure of it. Oh, but if they should be found out here…How dreadful! Clearly they had to hide.
    But where? There was nothing to hide them in this small room, just a narrow cabinet with some ugly, half-wilted floral arrangement in a gaudy vase. Obviously Mr. Fitzgelder did not spend much time in this room. Hopefully that was a good thing and meant he and his friend would not bother to come in for any reason. Perhaps if Sophie and Miss Sands stayed very quiet they would be safe until the men went elsewhere. Oh, she prayed that would be the case.
    â€œAnd you just let them go, just like that,” Mr. Fitzgelder was complaining. They could hear him quite clearly from where they crouched behind the cabinet.
    â€œI’m sorry, sir,” another voice replied. This one Sophie did not recognize. “I don’t know how it happened. We was following them real close. That old man moved awfully quick, he did.”
    â€œAnd the actress? Did you see her?”
    â€œAye, right pretty young thing, just as you said.”
    â€œSo where did she go?” Fitzgelder demanded. “I told you not to let her get away!”
    â€œI’m sorry, Mr. Fitzgelder, sir. Somehow they just lost us on the streets.”
    Now a third man spoke up. This one Sophie recognized from earlier. These must be the men who had chased them and very nearly caught them! Their voices were quite near now, probably just inside the study doorway. Sophie sank down even lower and tucked her knees up under her chin.
    â€œSir, we’ll go back out and find them if you like. They can’t have just disappeared.”
    â€œNo, they can’t,” Mr. Fitzgelder agreed. “And I’ll find them, damn it, I will. But for now,