Till Dawn Tames the Night by Meagan McKinney

Author:Meagan McKinney [McKinney, Meagan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 044020870X
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1991-04-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The governor's gilt barouche rocked back and forth as it climbed the promontory to the top of New Providence. Below, all the lights of the city twinkled through the colonnade of palms that lined the drive to the mansion. The ride was made in absolute silence as Flossie and Isaac did their absolute best to ignore each other.

It wasn't easy. For one thing the carriage was small and neither one of them possessed the slim girth of their youth. But worse than the cramped quarters were the stares they threw at each other like darts.

Flossie would attack first, unable to keep her emotions from sparking up into her eyes and hurling themselves silently upon Isaac. She stabbed him with one of her glittering, accusatory stares until he was forced to deflect it or allow himself to be unmanned. But when it was her turn to be the recipient of a particularly vile glare, she opened her eyes wide and nearly choked on the shock of it all, as if, by his retaliation, he was now even worse than the devil she thought he was—and how dare he look at her that way?

"I cannot believe I almost invited you to my cabin for tea! I cannot believe it!" With that outburst, she abruptly turned away and stared past the driver toward the mansion on the hill.

"Oh, will you give that up?" Isaac retorted, annoyance heavy in his voice.

"I will not! It was the most stupid thing I've ever done in a life full of stupid things! I'll never ever forgive myself for it! I, Mrs. Stefan Lindstrom of St. George's and London, almost invited a pirate into my cabin for tea!"

"To begin with," he answered nastily, "I'm not a pirate, and I'm getting jolly tired of explaining that. While you may not believe it, I'm a sea captain, I have always been a sea captain, and I intend to stay a sea captain!" When he had calmed himself, he said, "And another thing. I have never seen a woman so lacking in sense as yourself. Why, my own Rachel was half your age when she died, and she possessed more sense. People chastise themselves for what they have done, or what they should have done. But not for what they might have done\" With that off his chest, he hunched down into the seat and stared at the flattened calash of the carriage until they arrived.

The governor's mansion was a huge stuccoed palace to rival Marco Polo's description of Xanadu. Chinoiserie was everywhere, from the red faux bamboo chairs to the black lacquered Weisweiler commodes. In the porte-cochere fantastic birds were painted flying across the wallpaper while such exotica as Chinese export porcelain and English pastiches were displayed on fretwork pedestals. The predominant colors were scarlet and purple; the enormous pier mirrors reflected them incessantly, and also the astonishing narcissism of their owner.

Governor Ignatio Roberto Aquila Lopez stood in the entrance to the drawing room, his hand fondling the hilt of an ancient Toledo sword.

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