The Mysterious Stranger (Triple Trouble) Read Online Free PDF Page B

sort of like being a mermaid. What if we call you Ariel? She’s the mermaid in the Disney movie.”
    “Ariel?” The woman repeated the name. “Fine, if you like it.” She glanced at Jarrett. “Any objections?”
    “No.” He glanced at his watch. “I have to make a call to the West Coast. I’ll see you two at dinner.”
    “Can I stay here with Ariel?” Anna Jane asked.
    He looked into her dark eyes. She asked for so little. There was no way she could suspect their visitor of being anything other than what she claimed. He nodded, then walked into the hall and headed for the stairs.
    Ariel. It was just a name, he told himself, yet it suited the woman. He didn’t want to think about that, nor did he want to think about how quickly Anna Jane had taken to her. The last thing the child needed was to be hurt again. She’d been through enough.
    He thought about returning to “Ariel’s” room and warning her off. But he didn’t. Mostly because she seemed to talk to the girl so easily. It was a skill he’d yet to master. Whenever he was around his niece, he didn’t know what to say to her. He sensed she needed something from him, but what?
    I usually eat alone. Anna Jane’s words came back to him. He hadn’t meant that to happen, for the child to be so solitary. His hotels were all around the world and the various time differences meant he was on the phone at odd hours. Had he really left her to eat on her own so many times?
    He thought about the past few days and realized he had. Too many conference calls and too much work. He’d neglected Anna Jane. He resolved to make sure that didn’t happen again. The first thing he had to do was get their mysterious guest out of his life. Then he would concentrate on his niece.

Chapter Three
    N ot knowing how else to wear her hair, Ariel had taken Anna Jane’s suggestion that she pile it on top of her head. She’d handled the gold-blond curls easily, quickly scooping them into order and securing the style with pins from a makeup kit Leona had lent her.
    Now Ariel stared into the vanity mirror at her dresser, studying the results. Feathered bangs covered her forehead but did nothing to conceal the bruises and scrapes along the left side of her face and the gash above her eyebrow. She touched the swollen area, wincing slightly at the pain. With her fingers she traced the shape of her nose, then her mouth, finally cupping her undamaged cheek.
    No doubt like many women she spent a small portion of each day staring into a mirror. Perhaps just to make sure her skin was clean, or maybe to apply makeup. As a teenager she would have examined her features, trying to decide if she was pretty or not. A person would grow familiar with lines and planes, tiny imperfections, freckles, curves, coloring. Yet the face staring back at her was a stranger’s. She would have sworn, under oath, with her hand on a Bible, that she’d never seen it before in her life.
    And yet that face was hers.
    Ariel sucked in a breath as the room tilted slightly. She sensed that the dizziness came from disbelief rather than from a physical reaction. She felt disconnected from her surroundings, and there were some aches from her close encounter with that cliff, but otherwise her body felt fine. It was her head that had her worried.
    She stood and walked to the door. Dinner would be served in a few minutes, and she didn’t want to keep her host waiting. She didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out Jarrett Wilkenson was the kind of man who expected things to happen on his timetable and not anyone else’s.
    As she reached for the door handle, a voice whispered at the back of her mind. It told her to turn around and take one last look in the mirror—just to make sure she looked all right. Something about the voice, something familiar, told her she’d heard it all her life. That she made a habit of checking in the mirror one last time. Just to make sure her slip wasn’t showing or that she’d