Storm Over the Lake Read Online Free PDF

dejected and miserable. “He’s a beast.” She got up and went to the cupboard, taking out a cup.
    â€œThere’s a reason,” Lillian said quietly, eyeing Dana while she rolled a piecrust, her brown hands flecked with flour and dough. “He’s so alone.”
    â€œWe all are,” Dana said absently, her eyes blank on the shimmering black coffee as she poured herself a cup of the steaming brew and sat back down. “Every one of us.”
    â€œNot like he is.” Lillian picked up the pie tin and a sharp knife, and trimmed theexcess pastry away in a neat motion. “And I don’t mean just since the Missus died. She hated him. Hated his job, hated his hobbies, hated his civic work…she was jealous of him. If you’d worked here while she was still alive, she’d have made life hell for you. She drove him wild with her jealousy. You know,” she said solemnly, setting down the pie crust to study Dana, “she used to call restaurants where he’d be entertaining clients, to see who he was with. She was always checking up on him.”
    Dana nodded. “I remember hearing you talk about it, years ago. He…he was a very attractive man, I don’t suppose she could help being jealous if she loved him.”
    â€œThat’s the whole point, she didn’t,” Lillian said gruffly. “She didn’t care if he died, but she was scared he’d find some other woman and kick her out. She liked the money, the clothes, the fancy cars. She liked her life, and didn’t have any notion of changing it.”
    â€œBut she had lovers…”
    â€œOnly the one who killed her,” Lillianrecalled. “He was special, but when the Mister told her to give him up, she didn’t give it a second thought. They said that was why her lover killed her, because she was breaking it off. She’d given him God knows how many expensive things, including a car…the trial cut the Mister apart,” she said, shaking her head. “It ripped his pride to shreds, but I never heard him say a word about it. Not one word. He buried it inside.”
    Something else for him to blame me for, Dana thought miserably. To lose his fortune and his pride at the same time would have been a blow few men could have borne. But Adrian Devereaux was a breed apart, and nothing could bring him to his knees.
    â€œHe loved her?” she murmured absently.
    â€œHoney, you can’t live with someone for thirteen years and not feel anything when they die,” Lillian said with a patient smile. “I think he had to feel something for her. She was a very beautiful woman, and she could be charming. But she suredidn’t care about him. Wouldn’t even give him children—she was afraid they’d ruin her figure.”
    â€œMaybe he didn’t want them,” she murmured.
    Dana felt those wise eyes on her. “He wanted them. There’s a child-hunger in that man. He wants an heir. But,” she added coolly, “he needn’t think this new girl’s going to give him one! She likes her girlish figure, too, for all that her girlhood years are behind her,” she mumbled cattily.
    â€œIs she his age?”
    â€œJust about.” Lillian smiled. “You’re a baby compared to both of them. You steer clear of the dragon, honey, she’ll burn you to a cinder.”
    â€œI can’t. He’s getting me up a list of people to invite to a party on the lake this weekend. I’ll just bet her name’s at the top of the list.”
    â€œGod love you, child,” Lillian sighed. She poured the apple mixture into her pie shell and laid the second crust on top, pinching the edges together in a prettyfluted pattern. Just as Dana’s mother used to do, years ago, before…
    â€œHe hates me, you know,” she told Lillian, tracing the pattern on the tablecloth with one long, slender finger.
    â€œWhy?” Lillian asked