Mistress of Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

declined, telling me that you still weren’t up to it after—after Caleb’s accident. Of course, it had been over a year since the accident then. I hope you won’t still refuse me on those grounds!”
    Refuse him? She wasn’t really hearing him at the moment. She was trying to sort through the rest of the men in the room. Talking together in the far corner were Niles Sherman and Jesse Brant. Jesse was president of the company, a septuagenarian with wonderfully dignified posture, steel gray eyes and a thick head of snow-white hair. He was a veteran of many amusement parks and knew his management well. Niles held the positions of treasurer and press liaison officer. Like Jesse, he had been around for many years. Niles had worked with the biggest and the best in the field of entertainment complexes; he had come to work for Max because he’d had so much belief in Max’s commitment to his work. Niles didn’t need to work; he did so because, like Max, he was a believer in magic.
    But Niles, like Jesse, looked grave today.
    Only Rick seemed to be unaware of the tension in the room. Rick and …
    In the far corner of the room, in the shadows created by the artificial light centered on the polished oak table, stood the last of the board members.
    Max’s silent partner, Reggie thought. The man with the real money behind the enterprise. Silent no more, it seemed.
    She squinted imperceptibly, trying to see him, wishing that she had given the business part of this enterprise more attention in the past. But that wouldn’t have mattered. Max’s main backer had never put in an appearance before.
    She couldn’t see him. The light was too bright in the center of the room, too muted where he stood. She imagined him to be a septuagenarian, like Jesse. Dignified like Jesse, or with a shining, bald pate like Niles. His name was Wesley Blake, that was about all she really knew. Max had felt obliged to reach him immediately, the moment he had been advised that Daphne was missing—and that the fallout from it was going to fall on him.
    But Wesley Blake had already known. He had told Max he was making his travel arrangements already.
    Please, please let him be like Jesse or Niles! Reggie thought. Both of the older men knew Max and believed in him. If Wesley Blake was the same …
    “Well, Reggie?”
    “What?”
    She drew her focus to Rick Player with a polite smile.
    “Dinner—how about dinner tonight?” He lowered his voice. “Maybe between the two of us, we can figure a way out of this for old Max. Terrible thing, isn’t it, this Daphne business. Terrible, terrible.”
    She felt a smile curl her lip. “You should know, Rick. You did seem fond of Daphne! And naturally, I assume you must be very worried.”
    His playboy smile faded a little, despite the innocence of her gaze. “As yet, we’re not even sure that there is anything to be worried about.”
    “Right. But then … there are rumors.”
    “Poor Max.”
    “My brother is innocent.”
    “Of course, of course. Innocent of what?”
    “Of any wrongdoing,” Reggie insisted coolly.
    The man in the shadows was moving toward Max. Reggie tried to get a look at him.
    Rick Player blocked her way.
    “Reggie, how about dinner? You haven’t answered me yet.”
    “I’ve already made—” she began, but broke off, inhaling a gasp of astonishment. She had seen him at last. He had crossed the room; he had reached her brother. He had set a hand lightly on Max’s arm and was speaking to him softly.
    The partner. The silent partner. The man who was to be silent no longer.
    He was no septuagenarian. He was neither bald, nor gray, silver nor white-haired.
    He was a young man, midthirtyish. Despite the power in the room, despite all these people who knew what they were doing, who knew what they were up against, who were leaders in this field, there was a look about him that seemed to state he would be the one to take charge here.
    He was no stranger.
    He was Dierdre Dinosaur’s