Ready & Willing Read Free

had she not been dreaming. But then, had she not been dreaming, she would have been alarmed the moment she woke up and found her bedroom redecorated by HGTV’s latest makeover show, Melville My Room . So instead of running away from the shadow, Audrey turned around and walked back to the stairs.
    It was then that the shadow took form and turned into Captain Summerfield. He stood on the second-floor landing gazing down at her, looking almost exactly as he did in his portrait. Though in place of the black uniform jacket with brass buttons, he was dressed in a roomy white shirt, open at the throat, and black trousers. His only accessories were black boots and a cut-crystal snifter half-filled with brandy that he cradled in one hand. His dark hair a was tad longer than in the painting, but his smile was every bit as tempting, and his brown eyes were every bit as knowing. He looked to be in his early to mid forties and was taller than she would have guessed, easily topping six feet. He, she was certain, wouldn’t feel at all minimized by the stalwart furniture with which he had filled the house when it was his.
    And how do I know this is the furniture that filled his house? she immediately asked herself. She was dreaming. All this furniture came from her own imagination, just like the good Captain had.
    “Madam,” he said by way of a greeting. His voice was as dark as the rest of him, yet as rich and mellow as the spirits in his glass. “How nice of you to visit.”
    She smiled at him, wondering why she didn’t feel intimidated by him. “I’m not visiting. I live here now.”
    He smiled back, and something about the gesture made Audrey feel very intimidated indeed. The reaction was only compounded when he began a slow descent down the stairs, his eyes never leaving hers.
    “No, I live here now,” he told her certainly. “You won’t live here for more than a hundred years.”
    “This is just a dream,” she replied, the words coming out a little shakier than she wanted. Then again, she was a little shakier than she wanted.
    So that explained that.
    “Yes, it is a dream,” he agreed. “But whose? Mine or yours?”
    She opened her mouth to reply, then realized she wasn’t sure how to answer. It must be mine, she wanted to say. Because she wouldn’t be conscious of one of his. She would only be a figment of it.
    He came to a halt on the last stair before stepping down into the living room, something that only enhanced his overpowering height—and presence. “Actually, the now is immaterial,” he told her. “Right now, there is no now . There is only this dream. And it doesn’t matter whose it is. Only that both of us be in it.”
    “And why is that?” Audrey asked.
    “Because I need to speak to you, and I can’t do that outside of a dream. Well, I can,” he corrected himself. “But I much prefer this manner instead.”
    Weird dream, Audrey thought. She was going to have to cut back on the Chunky Monkey ice cream before bed.
    “What did you want to speak to me about?” she asked.
    “About my great-great . . .” He paused, seemed to think hard about something, ticked off a few numbers on his fingers, then waved a hand in front of his face. “About a descendant of mine.”
    She hadn’t thought about him having descendants. But he might very well have family still living in Louisville. People from here tended not to move away very much, so it was likely.
    “What about him? Or her?” she added.
    “Him,” Captain Summerfield told her. “Nathaniel Summerfield. My great-great . . . Well, he’s a grandson of some kind.”
    “I didn’t realize you were married.”
    Not that she’d really given it any thought. After all, she’d just met Silas Summerfield that afternoon.
    He took a step to the side, something that crowded his body against hers, even though their bodies weren’t quite touching. Instinctively, she took a step backward. When she did, her foot tangled with the edge of the Oriental rug,