Twin of Ice Read Online Free PDF Page B

I wish I could go with you tonight, and I bet Houston wanted to go too. She loves that house. Did she ever tell you about the time she…? Maybe I’d better not tell.”
    “Maybe you shouldn’t,” Houston said. “Now, I must go. Wish me luck.”
    “Tell me about it tomorrow. I want to hear about every stick of furniture, every floor, every ceiling,” Tia said, following her friend down the stairs.
    “I will,” Houston called as she ran up the drive leading to the Taggert house. She hated arriving without a carriage, on foot, like a runaway or a beggar, but she couldn’t risk being denied this opportunity.
    The circular drive led to the front of the house, tall white wings radiating out like arms on each side of her. Around the roof was a railing and she wondered if there were terraces above.
    The front door was white, with two long glass panels in it, and as she peered inside and smoothed her dress, she tried to calm her pounding heart and knocked. Within minutes, she heard heavy footsteps echoing through the house.
    Kane Taggert, still wearing his coarse clothing, grinned as he opened the door for her.
    “I hope I’m not early,” Houston said, keeping her eyes on his face and forcing herself not to gawk at her surroundings.
    “Just in time. Supper’s ready.” He stepped back and Houston had her first look at the interior of the house.
    Directly in front of her, sweeping from both sides, was a magnificent double staircase, a black iron, brass-railed bannister gracefully curving along it. Supporting it, white columns topped with intricately carved headers rose to the high, panelled ceiling. It was a study in white and gold, with the soft electric lights drenching everything in their golden haze.
    “You like it?” Kane asked and was obviously laughing at her expression.
    Houston recovered herself enough to close her gaping mouth. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she managed to whisper.
    Kane puffed up his big chest in pride. “You wanta look around some or eat?”
    “Look,” she said, even as her eyes tried to devour every corner of the hall and stairwell.
    “Come on, then,” Kane said, setting off quickly.
    “This little room is my office,” he said, throwing open the door to a room as large as the downstairs of the Chandler house. It was beautifully panelled in walnut, a marble fireplace along one wall. But in the center of the room was a cheap oak desk, two old kitchen chairs beside it. Papers littered the top of the desk, fell onto the parqueted floor.
    “And this is the library.”
    He didn’t give her time to took longer but led her to a vast, empty room, with golden colored panelled walls inset with empty bookcases. Three large bare areas of plastered wall interrupted the panelling.
    “Some rugs go there but I ain’t hung ’em up yet,” he said as he left the room.
    “And this is what’s called the large drawing room.”
    Houston only had time to look into a large white room, completely empty of furniture, before he showed her a small drawing room, a dining room painted the palest green, then led the way down a hallway to the service area.
    “This is the kitchen,” he said unnecessarily. “Have a seat.” He nodded toward a big oak table and chairs that must have come from the same place as the desk in his office.
    As she took a seat, she saw that there was grease on the table edge. “Your table and desk seem to match,” she said cautiously.
    “Yeah, I ordered ’em all from Sears, Roebuck,” he said as he filled bowls from a huge pot on the cast-iron stove. “I got some more stuff upstairs. Real pretty, too. One of the chairs is red velvet with yellow tassels on it.”
    “It sounds like an interesting piece.”
    He put before her a bowl of stew with enormous pieces of meat swimming in grease, and sat down. “Eat it before it gets cold.”
    Houston picked up her big spoon and toyed with the stew. “Mr. Taggert, who designed your house?”
    “A man back