Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
About the Author
Preview "Bound by Magic"
Deborah Court
House of Pleasure
Copyright Page
House of Pleasure. Copyright © 2011 by Deborah Court. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This bookcontains explicit adult content and is not suitable for anyone who is under the legal age limit.
Special thanks to my friend and editor, writer Lynette Sofras, who has been a great help and source of learning on my constant voyage to improve as a writer. Check out her entertaining blog at http://manicscribbler.blogspot.com, and her latest book, "The Apple Tree", here.
Visit the author's blog
http://deborahcourt.blogspot.com
and website
http://www.deborahcourt.com
You can contact me by e-mail at [email protected]
I love to hear from readers!
*****
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
About the Author
Preview "Bound by Magic"
Chapter One
When Jane Eden inherited an old house on the outskirts of Boston, she was speechless with surprise. Having lost her parents in a car accident at an early age, she was adopted by a middle-aged couple who had loved her as much as if she had been their own child. In fact, she was happy enough that it never occurred to her to search for members of her real family, even when she had moved out and left for college.
Having achieved a degree in English literature, she was eager to get a job and move into another city. She had no other family than her parents, and no boyfriend. Apart from several heated affairs, she had never met a man whom she cared enough about to stay with, so she was as free as a bird when she received the letter from the Boston lawyer, Conrad & West.
Dear Ms. Eden,
As an old family friend and legal representative of your recently deceased aunt, Beatrice Eden, I would like to start this letter by offering my heartfelt condolences for your loss.
It will be of interest to you to know that you are your aunt’s sole heir and beneficiary as, at her demise, she was unmarried and without other dependents. Subject to the usual checks, I can therefore confirm that you will inherit your aunt’s fortune, and her house in Boston.
Please contact my legal office at your earliest convenience to discuss the terms of your aunt’s legacy. The attached form sets out the documents legally required to confirm your eligibility for this inheritance.
With kind regards and once again, please accept my sincere condolences on your loss.
Yours etc
John Conrad
She never even knew that she had an aunt! Why hadn't she taken Jane in when her parents had died; surely she must have known that they had a now-orphaned child? Maybe she'd thought about it, and had developed a bad conscience when she grew old. Probably that was why she had passed the house on to Jane.
Shrugging, Jane dismissed those thoughts. It was far too late to grieve now for a relative she'd never known.
Besides, she still had to pay back her college loans. A bit of extra money would allow her to look for a job she'd really like, instead of accepting the first offer just because she was broke. Right now, she simply couldn't afford false pride. She would accept her Aunt Beatrice's inheritance.
Two weeks later she was in Boston, with three suitcases of clothes and a carton containing her most precious belongings. She was ready to begin her new life, in a house of her own - no matter how old and crumbly it was. Mr. Conrad met her at the airport and, after taking her to his office for some final signatures, told her how large the fortune she had inherited actually was. Jane paled visibly. The lawyer chuckled.
"That's right, Miss Eden," he said. "You are a very wealthy woman now. You'll never have to work again, unless you want to."
Jane asked him about her aunt, but he said that he had only met Beatrice on rare occasions. She had been a beautiful and intelligent woman, but also a recluse in her later years, hardly ever leaving her house. Before her death, it had been her fondest wish that it would be entailed to the last living female member of her family, Jane. Mr. Conrad also told her that apparently there had been some argument between Jane's father and his older sister. Beatrice had regretted not adopting her niece until her death. Obviously, she had given her the inheritance to make amends.
Mr. Conrad had insisted on bringing Jane to her new home personally, and they had just reached the well-kept suburbs in which the house was located. Jane gasped at the sight of the luxurious neighborhood, but the lawyer simply laughed. That was when she began to have serious doubts about the house being small and cozy, the way one imagined a late aunt's home would be. However, she didn't really care.
It was her house, and she loved it already, without even having seen it with her own eyes.
*****
"Mr. Conrad, I think you misled me on purpose," Jane said, climbing out of the black Mercedes. Frozen in her tracks, she just stood and stared up to the intimidating silhouette of the majestic three-storie Victorian mansion that rose before her. It looked as if several owners had added their contributions to the architecture. The house featured varied styles of shingles and siding, prominent twin gables, and a turreted corner tower that looked as
