The Lady Who Saw Too Much Read Free

wastes enough time in the company of plants,” Elmsworth said. “Your job is to see to it she focuses her attention on people.”
    “In other words, Miss York, you’ve been hired to be my friend.” Alice shot to her feet. “Wasted effort on my brother’s part, since I neither want nor need your services.”
    Gia fidgeted in her seat. Alice’s opposition would have Gia out of a job before she finished her tea.
    As if sensing Gia’s distress, Alice reclaimed her manners. “No offense to you, Miss York, but I prefer to keep to myself.”
    “That’s precisely the problem,” he said.
    “My problem, Denny, not yours.” Alice lifted her chin. “This entire idea is humiliating. How do you intend to introduce us? As your pathetic sister and the companion you hired to tolerate her company?” Her blue eyes welled with tears.
    Elmsworth sighed but said nothing.
    Trying not to sound as desperate as she felt, Gia said, “If that’s your worry, Alice, I’m sure we can come up with a more discreet solution. I can be introduced as an old friend of the family who has come to spend the summer with you.”
    Alice considered this before glancing to Elmsworth.
    “Problem solved,” he said.
    Gia breathed a sigh of relief. While she sympathized with Alice’s dilemma, Gia needed this job to save the girl’s brother.
    “I suppose I have no choice,” Alice said.
    He shrugged. “You can always attend the season’s affairs with Aunt Clara.”
    Alice cringed at this alternative before turning to Gia. “Welcome to Misty Lake, Miss York.” With one final frown at her brother, she swished from the room.
    * * * *
    Landen turned to his sister’s new companion, studying her reaction. Despite the awkwardness of Alice’s little fit, the woman remained poised and collected as she sipped her tea. She was older than he’d expected. And a hell of a lot prettier. Long lashes fringed her brown eyes. Her dark hair was coiled and tucked into her hat, but its unique citrus scent could not be contained. And that mouth…
    He cleared his throat—and his wandering mind—amid his pleasant surprise. Aunt Clara’s former companion had been a spectacled, dowdy woman who’d claimed to speak fluent French and prattled incessantly in English.
    Miss York’s attractiveness might work in Alice’s favor. Men would flock to this woman, and Alice would be at her side. Perhaps Miss York’s grace and confidence would be contagious and Alice would contract some for herself.
    “You’re very hard on her,” she said suddenly.
    He blinked at her critical tone.
    “Have you tried being patient?”
    “I’ve tried everything,” he said. “And I’ve indulged her solitary behavior for too long. Years spent hoping she’d grow out of it. It’s time my sister came around.”
    “She’s a lovely young woman.”
    “She may as well be a toad for all the good loveliness does her.” He glanced out the window to where Alice knelt amid a thick patch of tall daisies. “She shrinks from the world as if she were the ugliest creature under the sun.”
    Craning her neck, she watched Alice with a faraway look in her eyes. “Has she always been so shy?”
    He nodded. “Even as a child. She never joined with other children to play but instead would watch from the sidelines. Her mother feared there was something wrong with her, but our father wouldn’t hear of it.”
    She turned from the window to face him. “Her mother?”
    Landen leaned back in the chair, impressed she’d been listening so closely. He added “keen intellect” to her growing list of attributes. “I am a product of our father’s first marriage,” he said. “My siblings—Alice and Alex—were born during his second marriage to their mother.”
    “Alice mentioned her parents were deceased.”
    “Yes,” he said. “Four years now.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    The stark sincerity in her voice took him aback. As did his reaction. He brushed off her condolences without meeting her eyes. “After