Maid of Dishonor Read Online Free PDF

the pristine blonde wooded space was already throbbing with life. One small
table right on the outskirts of the action was still vacant. She nabbed it and
waylaid a member of the wait staff.
    â€˜A club soda, please.... No, scratch that,’ she said as
indecision struck. ‘Make that a small dry martini, light on the vermouth.’ One
drink couldn’t hurt and she’d earned it.
    When the martini arrived, Gina took a single sip, then placed
it on the table in front of her, savouring the flowery taste of the gin and
resisting the urge to down it in three quick gulps. She never drank to excess
any more. Mostly because she now knew that inebriation had a direct correlation
to stupid behaviour.
    She speared the olive at the bottom of her glass with a
cocktail stick and swirled it around, savouring the light buzz from the alcohol
as the guttural chatter of the Japanese tourists at the next table cocooned her
in the blessedly anonymous corner. The muggy scent of body odour and expensive
perfumes and colognes overwhelmed the blast of cold air from the bar’s
air-conditioning system, drawing her back in time to a sultry summer afternoon a
lifetime ago.
    The ripples in her martini glass shimmered out to the rim and
dissipated as the hazy memory floated at the edges of her consciousness and
invaded her senses.
    The phantom scent of lime polish and hyacinths tickled her
nostrils as she recalled the pleasantly cool hallway of the clapboard house on
Hillbrook College Campus. The parquet cold beneath bare feet as she tiptoed down
the compact house’s corridor with her shoes clutched in her fist. Guilt tugged
at the pit of her stomach—because she was creeping home at four in the afternoon
after an all-night frat party when she had promised faithfully to spend the day
revising at the college library with Reese. And then she heard again the sound
of an unfamiliar male voice, low and brusque despite being infused with the lazy
rhythms of the Deep South, echoing down the stairs from Marnie’s room on the
first landing.

THREE
    â€˜No is my final answer, Marnie. Mama’s not going to allow you to go on a road trip with your friends and neither am I. Once the wedding is over, you will be staying in Savannah for the summer.’
    Gina’s brows drew down in a sharp frown. So the famous older brother, the Sainted Carter, had finally showed up to transport Marnie’s stuff back to Savannah. She slipped her shoes back on and decided to stay put in her hiding place—and get some vicarious pleasure from hearing Marnie give the guy the smack down he clearly deserved.
    What a tool, ordering his sister about like that.
    â€˜I don’t believe I need your permission, Carter,’ Marnie replied, succinctly. ‘You’re not Daddy—and Mama will come around once I’ve spoken to her.’
    Way to go, Marnie.
    Pride swelled in Gina’s chest at the knowledge that a year ago, when Marnie had first arrived at Reese’s house on campus from deepest, darkest Georgia, she never would have had the guts to talk back to the Sainted Carter like that. A man Gina and Reese and Cassie had all suspected was a total douche, hence the nickname they’d given him together, despite the way Marnie gushed about him.
    â€˜Mama doesn’t control the mill’s finances, I do,’ came the low, irritatingly patient reply. ‘So I’d like to know how you’re gonna go on this road trip, if I refuse to pay for it.’
    â€˜Daddy left me a share in the mill, surely I can—’
    â€˜Daddy left your share in trust,’ he interrupted with the same implacable calm. ‘A trust which he left me to administer until you reach your majority—and I’m refusing your request for funds on this occasion.’
    â€˜That’s not fair, Carter.’
    Gina’s fingers fisted into tight balls as the argument continued and slowly but surely all the confidence and assurance