Read Lessons in French for Free Online Page A

even now, as if he stood there yet, the
    door to the carriage f lung open and Trev moving suddenly to sit up. Remembering,
    Callie bit down on her fingers so hard that it hurt through the glove.
    Trev had tried to conceal her, but there was no hope of it. Only an instant of
    bewilderment, and then her heart had seemed to burst in horror. Sickness rose in her
    throat. She had barely been aware of Trev's quick move to arrange her skirts; she had
    seen only her father's face, a nightmare against the shadowed brick of the coach house
    wall.
    "Get down," her father said in a whisper.
    Callie had scrambled past Trev, stumbling down the stairs, her gown and hair in
    disarray. Her father had not touched her. He stood back, his hand working on the riding
    whip he carried, as Trev swung down after her in one swift move.
    "Callista," he said. "Go back to the house."
    Trev started to speak, and her father struck him across the face with the whip.

    Callie made a choked cry. She took an instinctive step toward Trev as she saw the line
    of blood well across his cheekbone. His face was white, utterly still. He stared at her
    father without speaking.
    "Go to the house now, Callista," her father said. "Or do not expect ever to enter it
    again."
    She had run. She had turned away and run from the stable yard, up the front stairs, run
    blindly through the hall and up to her room. She had not seen Trev again. He had
    vanished from Shelford, from his family, from her life. Not even his mother had known
    where he had gone until years later, when he began to write from France.
    Late in the evening of that dreadful day, after she had sent back a tray from her room,
    having no appetite to swallow anything, her father had come to her. Callie was too
    mortified to do more than sit at her dressing table with her fingers gripped around her
    comb until the teeth bent. She had glanced at him once, but the expression on his face
    was unbearable. If it had not been her father, her own staunch and self-possessed papa,
    she would have thought from his red-rimmed eyes that he had been weeping.
    "Callista," he said, "I will not chastise you. You lost your mother when you were very
    young, and perhaps I haven't—perhaps your governesses—" He paused, rubbing his hand
    over his eyes. "I'm convinced that you did not comprehend."
    She sat silent, allowing him to excuse her. She well knew she had been wicked.
    Anything and everything to do with Trev was a transgression. She had kept it secret
    because she had known that with perfect clarity. All she had to say for herself was that he
    made her lose all shame and reason, and that was no defense.
    "I must—" He turned his back on her. "I must ask this. Did he—ah—"
    He seemed to lose the tail of his sentence. She felt the ivory teeth of her comb break
    with a tiny snap. She stared down at the red marks on her fingers.
    "He claimed that he did not utterly soil and ruin you," her father said in a rush. "I
    cannot—I will not—take the word of a blackguarding French scoundrel, but if you tell
    me that is so—" His voice changed. He seemed almost to plead. "Callie, I will believe
    you."
    "He didn't, Papa," she said quickly, flushing so hot that she felt feverish. Callie
    perfectly understood what he meant. She was as well acquainted with certain facts of life
    as any farmer's daughter would be. But she should not have touched that place where
    Trev had guided her hand, or let him do what he had to her—what girl of any slightest
    modesty would not have comprehended that!
    Her papa let go of a deep breath. "I see."
    She picked at the tiny broken teeth of her comb. He turned back to face her. Callie
    stared at her toes.
    "My very dear," he said. "Oh, my dear. I'd have given my life to spare you this. He's a
    villain of the lowest sort. I know that he made you believe he loved you, or you would
    never have been so rash, but, Callie, Callie…" He gazed at her, his eyes damp. "It is all
    lies. You're a substantial