Unlaced Corset Read Free Page A

the shape of her curves.
    It implied her naked body readily, and the image it conjured up was not one that he would soon forget. What's more, he had worried that it might show on his face that he had noticed. However the stony-faced butler had managed to ignore it was beyond the young lawyer.
    No, he thought. He would need to sequester himself in the study if he were to get any work done at all. If he weren't careful, he could spend all day looking at a woman like that. Fire-red hair and a body that looked like it was built for making children…he shook his head.
    She was also a Lord's daughter, and though she may not be the heir to his title, she was so far off-limits that he should leave her be even in his dreams.
    He picked up the luggage easily and set it on the bed, unzipping and pulling the clothes out in large folded stacks, hanging what he could and stowing the rest in drawers.
    There was a lot of work to be done here. At the bottom of the bag, so as to seem inconspicuous, he had hidden another ledger, and folded into it he had a receipt of the Geis family accounts from the Bank of London. When he'd seen it, he had nearly blanched.
    Surely they had some form of income that he wasn't aware of. It was hardly unusual for a family of this stature. If they did, though, then he hoped that it would pay out for them soon. Their accounts were utterly in shambles.
    James needed the money from this job, and he needed it soon. In a week or so, he was sure that someone would come to call on the home and things with the Geis title would be settled. Then he could make his claim, and when that happened he would need to have shown that, if nothing else, he had done what was expected of him and earned the back-pay he hoped for.
    He certainly had his work cut out for him, though. Before he could begin to set things in order, he would need to figure out where the money was going, and then staunch the outward flow as much as possible. He picked up the ledger and moved over toward the study.
    He'd had Davis show him where it was on the way to his room, but he hadn't gone in. He tried the door and found it unlocked, so he pushed it open and stepped inside.
    For a moment he thought there might have been a mistake. Surely this wasn't right. The room was an absolute mess. Had the maids simply been ignoring the room? Or were they left with instructions to stay out? He made a mental note to talk to Davis about it and see what was what.
    Before that, though, work.
    He took the room in and tried to mentally tabulate what needed doing. There must have been a desk in the room; he knew that because there was a chair pushed up to it, but he could hardly see it for the heaps of paper stacked.
    As he came up to them, looking at one after another, there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the order. Rather, they appeared to have been placed wherever was convenient at the time and left.
    The only clear space on the desk, now that he looked closely, was a notebook that had been stuffed halfway-underneath one of the mounds of paper. He could tell that it was the most recent because it was the only thing that had not been torn away, and because a pen sat on top of it.
    James took off his jacket and hung it on a hook by the door. There was going to be quite a bit of work ahead of him, now. A few hours of tidying and he could finally set about looking at the figures. Surely there would be an obvious answer to the problems that faced the Geis household, then, and he would be able to begin planning for the future.
    He rolled up his sleeves and began separating things into more careful stacks as best he could.
     
    Hours later, he sat back and looked at his work. James felt tired; there was a dullness in his eyes that he couldn't quite get out of them. Whatever he had planned to do after this, he wondered if he had the energy. There were no less than six ledgers, each as thick as he could possibly imagine. None were more than a quarter full, spread seemingly at