Read Online When I'm with You by Kimberly Nee - Free Book Online Page A

more than she could have begrudged Vanessa hers when she’d married Aidrian. It was wonderful to see the glow that being in love brought to her friends’ faces. Besides, she hadn’t entirely given up hope that her own face would one day glow just as brilliantly, even when the likelihood seemed to lessen each day. She couldn’t give up that hope. Not just yet.
    â€œBut still…” Martha grasped her quilt and sheets to draw them down. “I’d like to find you someone as well. I think a man would consider himself lucky to have you for a wife.”
    â€œI don’t know about that.” Katie turned, trying not to scoff at the notion of being considered acceptable. Martha should only know how impossible that was. “Unlace me?”
    Martha chattered as she loosened the laces. “Why not? You’re kind and sweet, and would take wonderful care of a house and children, never mind a good man. And like I said, any man would consider himself lucky to have you, Katie. What about Marcus?”
    â€œThe footman?” Katie didn’t mean to wrinkle her nose. It just seemed to do it on its own. “I don’t think so. He’s a bit… odd .”
    â€œHow so? I mean, aside from the fact that his eyes are a bit lopsided.”
    â€œHe doesn’t say much.”
    â€œWell, neither do you and no one thinks you’re odd. But then again, your eyes aren’t lopsided, are they? There!” Martha loosened the last inch of lace and the corset opened. For the first time since daybreak, Katie was able to draw in a deep breath, and her head spun from the sudden rush of air.
    She stumbled, but caught herself as well as the corset, tossing the latter onto the straight-backed chair next to the simple washstand. The servants’ quarters at Marchand Hall were nice by most standards, but still sparse. The furnishings were plain and sturdy, and a bit battered from years of use.
    They lived two to a room—two beds, two small tables, a chair for each of them, the screen, and two washstands. Her bed was the one nearest the door, narrow and as spare as the rest of the room. The linens were white, the quilt a faded shade of blue that had probably been a bright royal at one time. Still, they were soft sheets, much softer than Katie had been used to in Jamaica, where her existence had given new meaning to the word “meager”.
    However, they were not as soft as the sheets upon which she’d slept in the captain’s cabin aboard the Eastwind . Those were by far the most luxurious sheets she’d ever felt.
    Stop it.
    Martha slid beneath the covers and snuggled into her pillow. “So what is so odd about him?”
    â€œIt isn’t something I can put my finger on. He’s just… odd .” Katie hung her dress in the unadorned wardrobe, whisked her cap from her head and tossed it atop the corset on the chair. “And it’s more than just lopsided eyes. He just seems a little…off.”
    Her hair was pinned into a smooth knot at the back of her head, and pins clinked softly as she slid them free to drop into their bowl. Little by little, the knot loosened, and when pale blonde hair streamed past her shoulders, she reached for her hairbrush.
    â€œFair enough. I’ll agree, in that he strikes me as odd as well.” Martha, whose hair was an unruly mass of dark curls, chuckled. “I’m always amazed at how you keep all that hair tucked up so well. How do you manage?”
    â€œA lot of pins.” She made quick work of braiding her hair into a single plait.
    Martha waited until Katie climbed into her bed before blowing out the candle to plunge them into friendly darkness. Katie stared up into it as the weariness from a long day sank into her.
    The silence was peaceful, even if her thoughts weren’t. They were scattered and wild, like a nest of birds disturbed by an intruder. Without warning, they took off screaming in half a