Seductive Knight Read Free Page A

here to talk to anyway. They’d all been gone since she left. What she’d been wondering, though, had been whether Baskerville shared the information about her arrival to Arthur Knight. They were friends, always meeting for lunch and sharing notes about their jobs. That was long time ago, though. Everyone changed.
    Staying with Baskerville sounded cool, but she’d rather stay with her friend, Luke. She knew him—well, more than Baskerville. The idea about staying with him, though, didn’t sit well with Nanni. So old-fashioned in many ways, Nanni didn’t think that it was a good idea. A single woman, she said, shouldn’t live—even for a short time—with a single man under one roof. It wasn’t right, she added. Maybe in the olden days, she thought.
    She’d met Luke when she was sixteen and he a high school graduate doing his mission for his church. Since then, they’d been friends and he had been the force behind her education, one who badgered her about online classes and demanded that she finish her course and come back to the US with a degree. He also filled the bookshelf in Nanni’s family room with books that didn’t go to waste.
    Foreign languages, biography, geography, math, and Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home by Emily Post published in 1922—these had occupied her time on the island. The latter though, fascinated her. What the English thought of as good etiquette rules were foolish to her estimation. They were constricting. Believing that Alex should behave like a young woman should and never do anything that would ruin her name, Nanni had insisted that she follow Post’s teachings. Trust and respect, Nanni said, were easily earned if you showed others that you deserved them. And to do that was to act proper.
    For the sake of avoiding arguments, Alex tried to act as proper as she could be. But when Nanni was away, she often let her spirit run free. She frolicked, swam, ran, climbed trees, and flirted with boys a handful of times—until Ema put a stop to it.
    Molly wanted you to grow up to be a respectable lady, with education and good background. She didn’t want you to grow up to be like her. Those were Nanni’s words. Almost like a mantra she had to listen to everyday.
    Grow up like her mother? Of course she wanted to be like Mom. Her mom, after all, had been nothing but great. Then of course, she knew why Nanni instilled in her brain that she shouldn’t follow her mother’s footsteps. Mom had traversed a muddy path. People whispered her name with disgust and mockery. She bet Reina’s mother, Mrs. Adams, had been one of those people.
    Alex sighed. She would never do anything considered inappropriate. If she had to act and speak like a lady to earn everyone’s high opinion, then she must. Even though her mind rebelled against it. She didn’t want to be anything but herself, living on the island with Ema and Nanni and their friends, frolicking in the water, laughing without care about what other people would think, walking barefoot and without worries, hanging out with her Filipina friends at the beach singing and dancing. Yeah, that would be wonderful if she could live like that.
    Holy coconut. She’d been here only an hour and she suffered from homesickness already. Once she was settled, she’d call Luke. She missed him, too.
    Ema believed Luke had a thing for her. She laughed at that. Mormons were naturally friendly to anyone. And it was nice to know that she had a friend that she could call in this big country. She chewed her lower lip and thought about Baskerville. He must be eager to see her, too.
    Alex straightened her back and let out a groan Nanni would call unladylike. Sitting on a cramped seat in the plane had worsened her already tensed back. And her feet! They ached so much. She stood up, imagining she was still in Nanni’s house walking on the smooth bamboo floor and digging her feet on the hot sandy beach. Sadness gripped her heart. She wanted to go