Amanda Read Online Free PDF Page B

Daulton Industries, that Sully had done an excellent job raising and training the Thoroughbred hunters for which the Daulton family was justly famed, and that Kate had spent her entire life as the gracious hostess of Glory.
    None of that mattered.
    “Jesse—”
    “it’s
her
, Walker, I know it. I knew it the minute she walked into the room.” Jesse’s eyes were still fierce. He downed his scotch in a gulp, grimaced briefly at the liquid fire settling into his belly, then nodded decidedly. “Amanda’s come home.”
    “You can’t be sure, not so quickly.” Walker knew he wasn’t making much headway, but he had to try. “At least give it a little time, Jesse. Wait for the test results, and in the meantime talk to her, question her about her life, her background. Don’t jump the gun on this.”
    Jesse laughed briefly. “you’re as cautious as your father was, boy. All right, all right—I won’t change my will just yet.”
    “I’m glad to hear it.” Actually, it was more than Walker had hoped for. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to the office and try to work a couple of hours today.”
    “Come for supper tonight,” Jesse said, more command than invitation.
    Too curious to invent other plans, Walker merely accepted with polite thanks.
    “I’ll walk out with you,” Kate murmured, rising to her feet.
    From the front window of her corner bedroom on the second floor, Amanda watched the lawyer stroll to hiscar with Kate Daulton at his side. They made a striking couple. He was a little above six feet tall and built athletically, which made him a good match for Kate’s height and impressive figure, and his dark, hawklike good looks complemented her flawless beauty.
    They paused by his shiny Lincoln for a few moments, talking intently, and Amanda wished she knew what the conversation was about. When he had spoken to Kate downstairs, his voice had been oddly gentle, and something about his posture now indicated a kind of protectiveness Amanda would have sworn was alien to his nature. Walker McLellan was not a man given to macho protect-the-little-lady impulses, Amanda thought.
    But Kate, it seemed clear, occupied a special place in the lawyer’s affections. Were they lovers? It was possible, even probable, given the circumstances. He was clearly at home here at Glory and seemed to be treated virtually as one of the family; he and Kate had known each other all their lives; both were single; and it was doubtful Jesse would have objected to the relationship.
    Walker was a good seven or eight years younger than Kate, Amanda thought, but he didn’t seem like a man who would give much consideration to the age difference if he loved her. Odd, though, if they were lovers and hadn’t married. With passion as well as affection, what would prevent them? It certainly appeared a good match, and since both were prominent citizens in a small Southern town where reputations still mattered and sex out of wedlock was still eyed askance, they would have found it troublesome if not downright unacceptable to conduct a discreet affair for any length of time.
    Amanda waited to see if Walker would kiss Kate before he left, and she was a bit unsettled to feel apang of relief when the lawyer got into his car with no more than a casual wave of his hand. Probably not lovers, then—or else extremely undemonstrative ones. And she wasn’t
relieved
, she told herself, just …
    Just what, Amanda?
Just glad the sharp-eyed, lazy-voiced, and suspicious lawyer who thought she was a liar wasn’t having an affair with her aunt?
    Shaking her head a little at her own ridiculous thoughts, Amanda watched Walker leave and then turned from the window with a little sigh. Hadn’t exactly been on her side in all this, but she felt oddly alone now that he was gone. Natural, she supposed, since he had been her sole contact during all the interviews that had preceded her arrival here.
    She could clearly remember him rising from the big