Read Prelude to Heaven for Free Online Page A

corridor into the wide entrance hall, but though her struggles subsided, he could feel her apprehension like a tangible thing, and her voice, when she spoke, shook a little. “Where are you taking me?”
    “My sofa is not for sleeping,” he told her as he began to ascend the stairs. “That is what beds are for. You, mademoiselle, should be in one.”
    “This isn't necessary. I can walk. You needn't make such an effort.”
    “You don't weigh enough for it to be an effort, mademoiselle,” he answered. They were at the top of the stairs now, and he turned toward his bedchamber, the one she'd been sleeping in since her arrival. “It seems I need to feed you better.”
    She did not answer, but she was rigid in his arms, and when he set her down inside his bedchamber, her feet had barely touched the floor before she was scrambling backwards, out of his reach, one hand holding the lamp, and the other clutching at the collar of her dress.
    Astonished, he stared, realizing that she was actually afraid of him. Perhaps she had already heard the rumors about him. Perhaps she knew of Anne-Marie and what had happened here.
    No, if she did, she would never have come here in the first place. But a woman could have other fears. It was clear this woman did.
    “Go to sleep, mademoiselle,” he said and turned away. He left the bedchamber and walked further down the corridor to the one he was now using. As he lay in bed, he watched the breeze tease the moonlit curtains at the open window and thought about her. He thought about the frightened cries she had uttered in her delirium whenever he touched her and how she had slapped his hands away. He thought about the way she jumped back whenever he came close. He thought about how her eyes watched him with suspicion. He wondered again why she was so afraid. Could she somehow sense what he was, what he had done?
    He knew she only stayed because she had no choice. He knew she was afraid of him. And he found himself wishing that she weren't.

Chapter Four

     
    When Tess came downstairs the next morning, Monsieur Dumond was gone. In the kitchen, she found a loaf of bread, a sausage, butter, and cheese set out on the table for her. Tucked beneath the bread was a note. Written in bold black letters were the words, “Eat. I will return at sunset. Dumond.”
    Tess ate a bit of the bread and cheese and decided to explore the house and grounds in a search of ways she could be useful here. If Dumond was to be persuaded to let her stay, she would like to give him as many reasons as possible to do so.
    It was a beautiful morning, and she began her explorations outdoors. The château was perched high on a craggy cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. On the landward side, the sloping hills to the left were covered with deserted, overgrown vineyards. The hills to the right led through forests of chestnut trees and pines, interspersed with meadows of wildflowers and lavender. Having passed the vineyards on her journey here, Tess did not go that way. Instead, she wandered around the grounds of the château itself.
    The courtyard was bordered on two sides by the main house. Along the other two sides ran crumbling stone walls, one of which had completely fallen down. She stepped through a huge gap in the other wall where an archway had once stood and took the first path, leading her past the garden where she’d collapsed a few days earlier to a group of outbuildings. Made of stone and timber, with crumbling tile roofs or ramshackle wooden ones, they were badly in need of repairs.
    Opposite the outbuildings was a pasture, choked with weeds, where a goat stood grazing. The animal was tethered to gnarled, dead tree, for the fence surrounding the pasture was in very poor condition, with many gaps where the goat could easily escape. The berry brambles that grew wild beside the pasture were a tangled mass of canes.
    One of the outbuildings was a henhouse with a fenced pen. Although the fence wasn't falling down