Page 10 of A Strange Christmas Game

“Whom am I addressing?” he asked, tilting his head. His voice was quiet and measured. She did not get the sense that he usually resorted to anything louder than a normal speaking voice. A similar, startledwantthat matched hers was visible in his eyes. But she appreciated that he had not opened with anything lascivious.

She could only imagine what some men might say upon discovering an unaccompanied, filthy woman in their empty house.

This time, she had a surname at the ready. “Miss Florence Doyle.”Doylewasn’t completely false. It had been her mother’s unmarried name.

“I’m Mr. Charles Mason,” he said, with a bow that seemed practiced. It was all too deep for her.

Her face fell. If he was here, that might mean his family—his father—was of a similar standing as the Danvers. She knew she should not judge all men of a similar kind, yet her mind raced with the worst possibilities. Mr. Mason probably believed in the law and the right order of things.

She would have to go back to the Danvers. She had nowhere else to go. If she was lucky, they would not try to dismiss her.

And evenifshe decided to somehow find something else to do to earn her way, almost no one would hire a woman with no references. There would also be time between when she was paid or compensated, and now. She had nothing to her name on which to survive.

Thinking all of this, she tried to calm herself.

“Well, I do apologize, Mr. Mason, for my presence here. I did not know Mr. Roderick Mason had any heirs. I thought I would be undisturbed for some time.”

“Until when?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Had you moved in, or were you just stopping over?”

He was teasing her, albeit gently, and she did not appreciate it. “My business is my own.”

“Not when it takes you into my house.”

Mr. Maclean smothered a chortle from behind Mr. Mason.

She said, “I do suppose that is correct.”

The three of them stood in silence for a small moment. Then, Mr. Mason said, “Would you please consider setting down that pan, Miss Doyle?”

Florence knew as soon as he asked that she would doanythinghe asked her, so long as he said please. She did not know how she could know that after knowing someone for less than five minutes.

She still knew.

She put the pan down.

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