Twin of Ice Read Online Free PDF

Mr. Gates would forbid it, and I’m not sure Leander would want me to go either, and I’ll never get another opportunity like this. Just one last fling before I get married.”
    “You make marriage sound like death. Besides, Leander would know I wasn’t you in a minute.”
    “Not if you behaved yourself. You know that we’re both good actresses. Look at how I pretend to be an old woman every Wednesday. All you have to do is be quiet and not start an argument with Lee, and refrain from talking about medicine and walk like a lady instead of looking like you’re running to a fire.”
    Blair took a long time before she answered, but Houston could see she was weakening. “Please, please, Blair. I hardly ever ask you for anything.”
    “Except to spend months in the house of our stepfather whom you know I detest. To spend weeks in the company of that self-congratulating man I think you intend to marry. To—.”
    “Oh, Blair, please,” Houston whispered. “I really do want to see his house.”
    “It’s just his house you’re interested in, not Taggert?”
    Houston knew she’d won. Blair was trying to act reluctant, but for some reason of her own, she was going to agree. She hoped Blair wouldn’t try to get Lee to take her to the Infirmary.
    “For Heaven’s sake!” Houston said, “I’ve been to hundreds of dinner parties and I haven’t yet been swept off my feet by the host. Besides, there’ll be other people there.” At least, she hoped there would be. She didn’t want to be held against a wall again.
    Blair suddenly smiled. “After the wedding, would you mind if I told Leander he spent an evening with me? Just to see the look on his face would be worth everything.”
    “Of course you may. Lee has a very good sense of humor, and I’m sure he’ll enjoy the joke.”
    “I somehow doubt that, but at least I’ll enjoy it.”
    Houston threw her arms about her sister. “Let’s go get ready. I want to wear something befitting that house, and you’ll get to wear the blue satin Worth gown,” she said enticingly.
    “I should wear my knickerbockers, but that would give it away, wouldn’t it?” Blair said as she followed her sister into the house, a light dancing in her eyes.
    What followed was an orgy of indecision. Houston went through her entire extensive trousseau that had been made for her wedding, in an attempt to find just the right dress.
    At last she settled on a gown of mauve and silver brocade, the low square neck and hem edged with ermine, the short, puffed sleeves made of mauve chiffon. She would hide the dress in a leather valise—Blair was always carrying bags full of oddly-shaped medical instruments—and change at Tia’s.
    She didn’t want to use the telephone for fear someone’d hear her, so she paid a penny to one of the Randolph boys to deliver a message to her friend Tia Mankin, whose house was near the foot of Kane’s drive, that asked her to say Blair was there, should anyone ask.
    Blair started complaining again, acting as if Houston were sending her on an impossible quest. And she wailed for twenty minutes about the tightness of the corset that forced her waist small enough to wear the Worth gown. But when Blair looked in the mirror, Houston saw the sparkle in her eyes and knew she was pleased with how she looked.
    The few minutes they spent in the parlor with their mother and Mr. Gates were a joy to Houston. Blair’s comfortable clothes made her feel quite the tomboy, and she antagonized Mr. Gates to no end.
    And when Leander came, she enjoyed baiting him too. Lee’s reserved coolness, the way nothing she said to him penetrated his superior attitude, began to make her angry and, by the time they reached Tia’s, she was glad to get away from both Lee and Blair.
    She met Tia in the dense shadow of a cottonwood tree and followed her up the back stairs to her room.
    “Blair,” Tia whispered, as she helped Houston to dress, “I had no idea you knew our mysterious Mr. Taggert.