Read Letter Perfect ( Book #1) for Free Online Page A

thing.”
    Before he could formulate a response to her startling comments, the door opened and Maltby strode in. Joshua cleared his throat and said, “Rick Maltby, let me introduce you to Miss Ruth Caldwell. Miss Caldwell, this is Rick Maltby, attorney-at-law.”
    To his credit, Rick didn’t act surprised in the least. He dipped an urbane bow and murmured, “Pleased to meet you.”
    Ruth stood, curtsied, grabbed her fan, and sidled back toward the wall once again. “I’m sorry for taking your seat, sir.” She managed to jab herself with the fan as she pulled a hankie from her sleeve, then proceeded to hold both fripperies as if armed for war.
    Rick dragged a pair of chairs into position across from his desk. “Why don’t you both sit here?”
    She stared at him and shook her head.
    “She isn’t convinced Alan’s dead,” Joshua informed him.
    Ten minutes later, Ruth sat by Joshua’s side across from Rick’s desk. They’d tucked her between themselves, walked her over to the churchyard, and let her see the gravestone. Strangely enough, once she saw it, her hiccups ceased. Her head dipped and her shoulders curled forward. For a moment, Joshua feared she was fixing to swoon; but then she folded her hands together, let out a very unladylike sigh, and had a moment of silent prayer over the grave of the father she never knew.
    Now Miss Caldwell clutched her gloves in her lap and stared at the edge of Rick’s desk. She’d turned her gloves the wrong way so all of the fingers stood up like a bouquet of rabbit ears. That fact touched Joshua—she tried so hard to behave like a decorous, refined lady, but deep down inside she couldn’t seem to keep the silly details straight. But maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment. After all, she was in shock.
    “I wish I’d never come,” she whispered.
    “No need to worry,” Josh soothed. “I’ll send you back to your mother.”
    Miss Caldwell shook her head. The adamant motion set her curls flying every which way.
    Again wondering if she’d not been aware of her mother’s tenuous condition, Josh strove to choose his words carefully. “The letter states your mother’s health is fragile.”
    “Then you’ll want to depart immediately,” Rick surmised.
    “I can’t.” Her grasp on those bunny ears of gloves became a stranglehold. “Sh-she’s passed on.”
    “I see.” Rick mercifully spared her having to explain further.
    Eyes shimmering with tears, Miss Caldwell turned to Josh. “I didn’t know exactly what was in the letter. I followed her instructions and mailed it. It was her dying wish—”
    “Hush,” he growled softly as he swiped her hanky and dabbed at her cheek. “What’s done is done.”
    “Mama said that, too.” She finally turned loose of those ridiculous gloves and claimed the hanky. In mopping her face, the woman turned the smudge by her temple into a streak of mud.
    Josh couldn’t fathom what to do with the woman. At seventeen, Laney might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she’d exhibit far more poise than this bundle of nerves.
    “Perhaps we’d be wise to concentrate on what Miss Caldwell will do now that she’s here,” Rick said.
    The brave way she straightened her shoulders didn’t distract Josh from the pained expression on her pretty face. “I’m capable in all domestic matters. Do you gentlemen know of a family in need of a housekeeper or governess?”
    “No.” They spoke in unison—Rick undoubtedly out of honesty, Josh out of the certainty that no family would survive Ruth’s so-called assistance.
    “It might be crass to discuss money, but I have eighty-three dollars and seventeen cents with me. Could I start a dress shop? I’m able to sew quite well.”
    The poor girl was scrambling to find a way to support herself. Josh frowned. “That’s unnecessary.”
    “Let me examine the will.” Rick opened an oak filing cabinet and pulled out the document. The drawer glided and clicked shut, and the metered tick