Stars in Your Eyes: a classic adventure romance (The Emilie Loring Romances) by Emilie Loring

Author:Emilie Loring [Loring, Emilie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2021-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

XVI

Kay had read of horror turning a person to stone and had thought it the hectic invention of a fictioneer. Now she knew it to be fact as she stared unbelievingly at the smiling man leaning against the frame of the long window. Her feet were rooted to the floor. The door was but a few steps away but she couldn’t move. The silence of fear, her fear, brooded in the room.

Why had she hurled that marriage announcement at Castello because he had a newspaper in his hand? There was more than one sold in Mexico. Why had she assumed that he had read the story to which Bill had referred? Why hadn’t she thought then of the excuse of a broken-down car to explain her presence at the hotel—which had tripped from her tongue so glibly in answer to her sister-in-law’s surprised greeting? The human mind certainly moved in a cockeyed way its wonders to perform. Better face the cold, undeniable fact that she had messed up another life and her own and check and double-check every word she uttered from now on.

“Don’t look so startled, Señora Hamilton. I was strolling on the balcony, saw you here and couldn’t resist offering my best wishes. You didn’t give me a chance at the door. Why not sit down? It’s a pity to allow the chef’s masterpieces to spoil while you wait for—your husband.”

Anger at the assurance in his voice and eyes, the suggestive pause before the word “husband,” sent blood in a hot tide through veins she had thought ossified. The sudden return from the Stone Age lifted the weight from her spirit, released her inventiveness. Through her mind echoed Drex’s voice:

“What I am fighting for is time. Our suave señor will be so busy watching you that he won’t have me on his mind. That will help.”

An idea there if she could put it across. She could help that much. She glanced at the table, then appealingly at the man who had drawn out a chair.

“Just between you and me, Señor, I don’t like waiting.” Gaiety and impatience were delicately blended in her voice. “Drex went to phone Hugh and his sister our startling news. He said it might take ages to make the connection. Listen to that divine waltz rising from the patio and I’m here with no man to ask me to dance.”

Her smile and the invitation in her voice were nothing short of brazen. Would he fall for it? He did.

“There’s one right here. You won’t mind if I still think of you as Miss Chesney?”

“No.” She regarded him gravely. “I like it. Do—do you ever wonder, after you’ve done a crazy thing, why you did it?” That was a true statement of her reaction if nothing else had been.

“Do you regret so soon the step you have taken this day, Señorita?”

If she obeyed that impulse she would shout “Yes!” If only she had allowed Drex to handle the situation at the door. Jail would have been better for him than this bottleneck.

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