Night of the Candles Read Online Free PDF Page A

would go out of their lives in an hour or so, never to see them again? Why should they attack her with their verbal barbs? Although uninvited she was still a guest, and this was the height of discourtesy.
    Thunder rumbled again and then, in the midst of the sound, came the ringing of a handbell.
    “At last!” Theo got to his feet and gave his hand to Amanda as she rose, then tucked her hand into his elbow, and led her toward the dining room, leaving his sister to follow with Jason. The nurse, Marta, met them at the foot of the stairs. The woman, her face almost purple from the exertion of hurrying, fell in behind them.
    Jason took his place at the head of the table. The cook, Proserpine, standing behind his chair, ran her eyes over the company, and then, a carefully blank look hiding her displeasure, went away to bring another place setting for Amanda. Amanda glanced at Sophia, but if the woman had been made to feel she had been derelict in her duties, she gave no sign. Sophia took her place, automatically on Jason’s right and watched with an amused expression as her brother held the chair on the left for Amanda, then sat down beside her.
    It was a simple meal. Vegetable soup was followed by crisp golden chicken stuffed with herbs, fluffy biscuits the size of a silver dollar, gravy, rice, smoked ham with sweet potatoes, and some of the eggplants of the season mealed and fried. Dessert was a pie made with fresh pecans and cane syrup, still warm from the oven.
    The courses were accompanied by wine, and Amanda noticed that Jason refilled his glass often from the decanter at his elbow.
    Halfway through the meal the rain began, falling thick and heavy on the roof, while the lightning flickered continuously beyond the muslin curtains over the windows.
    There was not much conversation. The storm seemed to have a depressing effect on the group around the board, except for Marta who ate with a stolid unconcern for the other diners, pushing the food into her mouth by the forkful. Theo and Sophia spoke now and then, employing the short swift comments of those long used to each other’s thoughts and opinions. Jason sat morose, staring at his wine glass, now and then raising his eyes to let his gaze slide over Amanda as if he would like to stare but would not allow himself to do so. A scowl drew his brows together, and she wondered if his anger was directed at himself or at her.
    As Proserpine, a big woman with a round face on which ill nature had stamped strong lines, brought the last dessert plate, she stopped beside Jason.
    “Yes, what is it?” he asked without looking up.
    “That tramp, the crazy Carl. He’s done come in out of the rain. He’s eatin’ in my kitchen right now.”
    “And?”
    “And this time he’s got a lizard with him, feeding’ it off his plate!”
    “A lizard?”
    “One of them … change-lizards.”
    “Chameleon.”
    “That’s right. I ain’t puttin’ up with no such carryin’-on in my good clean kitchen. You tell him to take himself off. I ain’t havin’ no lizard runnin’ around on the table where I eat!”
    Jason sighed. “What can it hurt? You have to make allowances for Carl.”
    “I’m through making ‘lowances. A kitty-cat I can stand, but I ain’t standin’ no scaly lizard with beady eyes and a wicked, forked tongue! What if that little beast gets loose in the stranger’s bedroom tonight? It’s me that’ll…”
    “All right, all right. I’ll speak to him.”
    Mollified, Proserpine nodded and moved with head held high and a slow step from the room, her skirts rustling from the paper she had sewn to her petticoats to imitate the sound of taffeta.

Chapter Two
    “IF you will take my advice, you will throw that madman out of the house for good,” Sophia said dispassionately.
    “I can’t help but agree with Sophia,” her brother supported her. “I never have understood your soft spot for that crazy man. Nobody else would let a lunatic have the run of the house to the