The Secret of Mirror House by Jennifer Blake

Author:Jennifer Blake [Blake, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0-7592-0072-6
Publisher: ereads.com
Published: 2011-12-13T10:54:51+00:00

And the blots of nature's hand

Shall not in their issue stand;

Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,

Nor mark prodigious, such as are

Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.

"Outlining your glorious plan for Amelia, Katherine?"

"Nelville!" Katherine exclaimed in annoyance, "this is a private conversation."

"How private can a conversation be when you are disposing of lives. My life, Amelia's, James's?" The door he had opened swung slowly against the wall, showing him leaning on the door frame with a full glass in one hand and a half-empty bottle dangling from the other. His face wore a smile that did not reach his eyes, eyes that were as wary and watchful as an animal's.

"Really, Nelville, must you descend to melodrama? Amelia and I are discussing possibilities."

"True, but your possibilities have a way of becoming other people's certainties, Careful, Katherine. You are playing God and doing it clumsily."

"Oh, Nelville," Katherine said in a tone half angry, half sorrowful, "must you?"

"Did she tell you, Amelia," he ignored the question, "that you must choose between myself and James for your marriage partner. Our children would be Harvestons of course, since you are, and well, James is your second cousin, but what does that matter so long as Mirror House stays in the family. Even first cousins have been known to marry under those circumstances."

Amelia looked at Katherine who had turned distinctly white, and stared, as if entranced, at Nelville. "Marry one of you," she repeated tonelessly, not really surprised.

"Certainly. That is the plan, isn't it Katherine? What could be more perfect-though James is the favorite, the Harveston name, you understand."

"I believe you are drunk," Amelia said quietly, and Katherine laughed weakly.

"The thought of marriage doesn't seem to be to your taste," Katherine said with a faint smile to Nelville, ignoring for the time being Amelia's interested presence, "almost as though you had never agreed to the proposition."

"I agreed in theory only," Nelville said shortly, "before I met Amelia and before our fawning and cajoling maneuvering disgusted me. Did you think I would do it? You're a greater optimist than I thought, or a greater fool." He came walking across the room to stand beside the table on which the lamp burned. His eyes, as they stared across the flame at Katherine, were mocking, green, and glass hard. Katherine seemed suddenly older, the bones of her face standing out in the flickering light.

"Please," Amelia said calmly, considering the frantic thoughts that whirled through her mind.

"Why not?" Katherine said angrily, unheeding of Amelia's plea. "Why ever not? Wouldn't it settle everything?"

"Perhaps, if you could let things alone. Why must you meddle and push at people? It might have worked if you had let it be."

"So. That's the way it is," Katherine said with satisfaction.

"Don't be sure. Gloating is very unbecoming to a woman."

What is going on,?" James asked, coming into the room while Reba and Sylvestor paused at the door.

"Another of their endless quarrels," Sylvestor said and turned away up the stairs, but Reba stood, curious, waiting.

"Nelville is alarming Amelia with another of his dramas," Katherine said with a challenging light in her blue eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.