Read An Improper Situation (Sanborn-Malloy Historical Romance Series, Book One) for Free Online Page A

from beneath the hem. Charlotte wiggled her toes self-consciously until his gaze returned to her face.
    “You’re wearing a banyan,” he remarked, which she thought quite rude.
    “ My father’s,” she muttered, smoothing her hands over the outrageous peacock blue silk of her Indian gown, as she called it. There was nothing subtle about the rich purple curlicues woven through the damask, but when her mother’s robe wore out, Charlotte had naturally decided to make use of her father’s morning gown. She had long forgotten such a thing might be considered improper.
    Reed shook his head abruptly as if to break up his thoughts and then addressed her question.
    “I found out about Thomas’s nightmares for the first time on the train. We had a sleeper car from Baltimore,” he continued, as he took the pot from her and set it on the stove. “Lily told me that he has been having them since they moved from their own home to their grandmother’s. Thomas barely knew his father, so his death wasn’t as traumatic.”
    He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up on top. “Both feel the loss of their mother greatly. I think it’ll just take some time, and they need to feel secure—not as though they’re being shuffled around.”
    His pointed look made her flush again, not with embarrassment this time but with shame. This man had expected her to be that security for them, and she had let them down. Mutely, she pointed to the pot where the milk was starting to bubble, and he turned away. She sighed.
    “The sooner you take them home, Mr. Malloy, the better.”
    “ Home!” he echoed, his voice harsh. “They don’t appear to have one at the moment. You know, I didn’t even hesitate when Ann asked me to put you down as their guardian should anything happen to her. In your writings, Miss Sanborn, you seem far more compassionate than you are in person. But perhaps you care more for the plight of unknown farmers than you do for your own family.”
    He poured the steaming milk into two cups and, with another scathing look at her that again took in her ridiculous outfit before resting on her scarlet face, he walked past her down the hallway.
    Charlotte was mortified. She was compassionate! She was just unsuited to . . . to what? she asked herself, leaning her palms against the work table. To being motherly? What about wifely? Couldn’t she love anyone? Couldn’t she reach out and be like other people? Didn’t she need anybody? She thought of her parents, of Thaddeus—her Teddy—and of the years she’d spent alone.
    She straightened. No, she didn’t need anyone. If she did, she would have been crushed years ago and would be a sad, lonely woman even now. And she was not. Not at all. Wearily, she climbed the stairs, pausing only to listen to the voices of Reed and the children. He was telling them a story. A lump rose in her throat. Teddy used to love it when she told him stories—it was something she’d always been good at.
    She hesitated only a moment before going to her bedroom. She was not welcome in the room with her guests, not while the condemning words of Reed Malloy still reverberated in her mind, not while he blamed her for causing Thomas’s nightmares to continue. It was an odd sensation, feeling estranged in her own home.
     
    *****
     
    “ Mr. Malloy, this is intolerable.” Charlotte had waited until the children went out to explore their new surroundings after breakfast, but she could hold her tongue no longer. “It just caps the climax! You cannot simply show up unannounced—”
    “ But we were announced,” he interrupted, moving to the sideboard to fill his coffee cup before sitting down at the dining room table. The remains of eggs, bacon, and potatoes were starting to stick to the plates.
    She sighed. “Granted, you sent me a letter informing me of the decision made by my cousin and telling me that you were coming. I still think it an odd and even unorthodox practice that I was not told of