The Heart Remembers Read Online Free Page A

place cleaned and ready to occupy.”
    There was such an expression of violent protest on Selena Durand’s thin face for a moment that Shelley shrank from it almost visibly; but the next moment the expression was gone and Selena was saying thinly, “Of course. We’ll be happy to have her. But I’m afraid, Miss Kimbrough, I won’t be able to make you very comfortable. We have no servants any more and we only use a portion of the house.”
    Shelley had a wild desire to flee and managed to control it only with an almost superhuman effort.
    â€œIt’s very kind of you, Miss Durand—” how hard it was to force that hated name from her lips—“but I do feel it’s a very grave imposition. I am sure I could easily travel by bus to and from the hotel in the county seat until my place is ready.”
    For a moment Selena looked as though she would agree to that thankfully. But Jim cut in sharply, “Nonsense, it’s all settled. You’re to stay here, of course. We’ll be delighted to have you, won’t we, Aunt Selena?”
    And as though she felt a compulsion in his voice that she dared not fight, Selena said lifelessly, “Of course. Naturally you will stay here. If you will come with me, I’ll show you your room. Supper is in an hour or so.”
    She turned to the stairs, and Shelley followed her, wanting to run the other way. If he suspected that emotion, Jim did not reveal it by so much as a glance as he followed them, with Shelley’s suitcases.

Chapter Three
    The room was big, airy—and shabby. The furniture was old and beautiful, but it needed polishing badly, and the window curtains, though spotless and crisply starched, were old and neatly mended. The rag rugs scattered over the floor had been faded by washing. But the room was neat and clean and quite comfortable.
    When Selena and Jim had gone, and Shelley was alone, she stood very still and looked about her. She was shaking a little and she fought hard to control that trembling. Was it a good omen, or otherwise, that she had been brought so suddenly and with so little ceremony into the very home of her secret enemy? That the first person she had met there had been related to that enemy? That she was already accepted, though with obvious unwillingness, by that enemy herself?
    By the time she had freshened up in the one bathroom down the hall and changed from the graysuit to a softly tailored dinner-dress of pale blue that she told herself was quite suitable for country dining, she had herself under control. And she had warned herself that she mustn’t let herself think of the unlovely fact that although officially there as a guest, covered by the ancient law of hospitality, she was in reality a spy.
    By the time she found her way down the stairs, dusk was setting in and she hesitated at the foot of the stairs, not quite certain which way to go. The door to the small sitting room was open and soft yellow lamp-light spilled out. But the room seemed quiet and deserted.
    From down the hall beyond the stairs, in what she knew must be the service quarters, she heard the subdued murmur of voices, the faint clatter of pots and pans that told her of preparations for supper, and she was relieved that she was not going to be late. To be a tardy guest at mealtimes in a servant-less house, she knew, was one of the cardinal sins.
    And while she stood hesitantly at the foot of the stairs, Jim came in from outdoors, and looked startled at sight of her there in the yellow lamplight.
    â€œOh, hello, there you are; come on in here,” he said lightly, and drew her toward the small sitting-room. “Supper’s almost ready. There’s a fire in here. Even if it is spring, these nights are a bit chilly, and Aunt Selena and I enjoy an open fire.”
    â€œAs who doesn’t?” agreed Shelley, politely making conversation, liking the small, cheerful room, the comfortable old furniture with