Twin of Ice Read Online Free PDF Page A

Houston could answer, Blair said, “ That was the man who built that house? No wonder he doesn’t ask anyone to it. He knows they’d turn him down. By the way, how could he tell us apart?”
    “Our clothes,” Houston answered too quickly. “I saw him in the mercantile store.”
    Blair and Leander continued talking, but Houston didn’t hear a word that was said. She was thinking about her encounter that morning.

Chapter 3
    The Chandler house was set on one-half acre of land, with a brick carriage house in back and a latticed grape arbor just off the deep porch that surrounded three sides of the house. Over the years, Opal’d turned the land into a jewel of a garden. Elm trees that she’d planted when the house was new were now mature and shaded the lush lawns and flowers from the moisture-stealing Colorado sun. There were narrow brick pathways, stone statues and birdbaths hidden in the orderly tangle of flowers. Between the house and coach house was a cutting garden, and Opal always kept every room in her house filled with fresh, lovely flowers.
    “All right,” Blair said as Houston bent over a rosebush in the garden at the northwest corner of their property. “I want to know what’s going on.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Kane Taggert.”
    Houston paused for a moment, her hand on a rose. “I saw him in Wilson’s Mercantile and later he said good morning to us.”
    “You’re not telling me everything.”
    Houston turned to her sister. “I probably shouldn’t have involved myself, but Mr. Taggert looked as if he were getting angry and I wanted to prevent a quarrel. Unfortunately, it was at Mary Alice’s expense.” She told Blair about Miss Pendergast’s nasty remarks.
    “I don’t like your getting mixed up with him.”
    “You sound like Leander.”
    “For once, he’s right!”
    Houston laughed. “Perhaps we should mark this day in the family Bible. Blair, after tonight I swear I’ll never even mention Mr. Taggert’s name.”
    “Tonight?”
    Houston pulled a piece of paper from inside her sleeve. “Look at this,” she said eagerly. “A messenger brought it. He’s invited me to dinner at his house.”
    “So? You’re supposed to go somewhere with Leander tonight, aren’t you?”
    Houston ignored the remark. “Blair, you don’t seem to realize what a stir that house has caused in this town. Everyone has tried to get an invitation to see the inside of it. People have come from all over the state to see it, but no one has been invited in. Once, it was even put to Mr. Taggert that an English duke who was passing through should be allowed to stay in the house, but Mr. Taggert wouldn’t even listen to the committee. And now I’ve been invited.”
    “But you have to go somewhere else. The governor will be there. Surely he’s more important than the inside of any old house.”
    “You couldn’t understand what it was like,” Houston said with a faraway look in her eyes. “Year after year we watched the train unload its goods. Mr. Gates said the owner didn’t build a spur line to the house site because he wanted everyone to see everything going all the way through town. There were crates of goods from all over the world. Oh, Blair, I know they must have been filled with furniture. And tapestries! Tapestries from Brussels.”
    “Houston, you cannot be in two places at once. You promised to go to the reception and you must go.”
    Idly, Houston toyed with a rose. “When we were children, we could be in two places at once.”
    It took Blair a minute to understand. “You want us to trade places?” she gasped. “You want me to spend an evening with Leander, pretending I like him, while you go see some lecherous man’s house?”
    “What do you know about Kane to call him lecherous?”
    “Kane, is it? I thought you didn’t know him?”
    “Don’t change the subject. Blair, please trade places with me. Just for one night. I’d go another night but I’m afraid