Free The Secret Kiss of Darkness by Christina Courtenay

hidden door, he heard movement.
    Damnation.
    But luck was with him. A voice he knew and loved spoke and Jago felt a grin tugging at his mouth.
    ‘You may go now, Harriet. I won’t need you again until morning.’
    Eliza. Jago waited until he heard the sound of a door closing, then quietly opened the secret door.
    Eliza was sitting on a stool in front of a dressing table, looking ethereally beautiful with her long hair, newly brushed, hanging down her back. It looked like a silvery waterfall, shining in the light from a nearby candle. Her face, reflected in the oval mirror, had a sad, faraway look, but as he stepped up behind her, this changed to one of incredulity, then utter joy.
    ‘Jago? Is it really you? Or am I dreaming already? How did you get in here?’
    She turned and he pulled her up and into his arms, covering her mouth with his for an answer. She felt so right, so perfect in his embrace, as if she’d been made for him and him alone. How could he have stayed away?
    ‘You shouldn’t have come, my love. It’s too dangerous,’ she breathed, but at the same time she melted into him, her flimsy shift and wrap no barrier to his questing fingers.
    ‘For you, I’ll brave any danger,’ he whispered back, and he knew it was the truth.
    She was all that mattered.

    By Monday morning Kayla was well enough to go to work and she left her flat after a last glance at the man in the painting. He hadn’t spoken to her again and although she wished it could be otherwise, she knew it had just been a dream. After all, talking paintings were an impossibility and she almost laughed out loud at the conversation her fertile mind had invented between them.
    ‘Talk about vivid imagination,’ she muttered to herself. If she told Maddie about this she felt sure her friend would take her to see a doctor at the very least, not to mention a shrink. And she had to admit it was crazy to be so obsessed by a long-dead man in a portrait that she’d had imaginary conversations with him. Definitely not healthy. She decided to blame the food poisoning.
    ‘Bloody oysters.’ She shuddered at the thought. Never again would she so much as look at one, that was for sure.
    She’d expected things to be awkward at the office, but she found to her relief that Mike had gone on an unexpected business trip.
    ‘Didn’t you know?’ the receptionist asked, obviously scenting an interesting piece of gossip.
    ‘Yes, of course I did. I’d just forgotten. Had such dreadful food poisoning over the weekend my brain’s not in gear.’ She tried to laugh it off, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before everyone in the office would find out about the broken engagement. Kayla’s heart sank. She’d better go and see the Human Resources manager straight away and hand in her notice. There was no way she could stay here now.
    By the time Kayla reached her flat that evening, she was exhausted from having to pretend that all was well. The Human Resources manager had promised to keep the news to himself for the moment, but Kayla almost wished she’d had the courage to just tell everyone. It would have been easier than acting unnaturally cheerful all day. A mammoth headache was building behind her eyes as she came through the door. Needing to vent her anger and frustration on someone or something, she marched over to the painting.
    ‘This is all your fault!’ she hissed, knuckling away the tears that started to trickle down her cheeks. ‘I hope you’re pleased now. God, to think if I’d never set eyes on you, I would still be happily engaged. I’d be getting married in a few weeks’ time. I’d be having children, well at some point anyway.’ She slumped onto the floor and covered her face with her hands. ‘What a mess. What a God-awful mess.’
    She didn’t know how long she sat there, but when the supply of tears had at last run dry, she stood up slowly and climbed up the ladder to lie down on her bed. There was no point in preparing any food, she