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.”While Lindsay was chuckling at Ginny’s stories of growing up on Serenity Island, Kaitlin had been struggling to match the seemingly meticulous, traditional Sadie who’d been in charge of the Harper castle for so many years, with the lively young girl who’d apparently run wild with Ginny.Both Kaitlin and Lindsay were swimming in the pool.Right now, their arms were folded over the painted edge, kicking to keep their balance while Ginny shared entertaining stories.The water was refreshing in the late afternoon heat.A breeze had come up off the ocean, and dozens of birds flitted in the surrounding trees and flower gardens.Kaitlin was beginning to think Serenity Island was paradise.“It wasn’t like it is now,” Ginny continued, gesturing widely with her half-full glass of iced tea.“None of these helicopters and the like.When you were on the island, you were here until the next supply ship.”“Did you like living here?” asked Lindsay, stretching out and scissor-kicking through the water.“We constantly plotted ways to get off,” said Ginny, with a conspiratorial chuckle.“Probably ten kids in all back then, what with the families and the staff.We were seventeen.Sadie convinced my daddy that I needed to learn French.Mais oui.Then I convinced him I couldn’t possibly go to Paris without Sadie.”“You went to Paris?” Lindsay sighed, then pushed off the pool wall and floated backward in her magenta bikini.“I love Paris.”Kaitlin had never been to Paris.Truth was, she’d never left New York State.Shelter, food and education were the top of her priority list.Anything else would have to come after that.Though, someday, she’d like to see Europe, or maybe California, even Florida.“We took one year of our high school in France,” said Ginny, draining the glass of iced tea.“Came home very sophisticated, you know.”One of the staff members immediately arrived with another pitcher of iced tea, refilling Ginny’s glass.She offered some to Kaitlin and Lindsay, filling up a fresh glass for each of them.They thanked the woman and set their glasses on the pool deck in easy reach.Kaitlin had spent several hot hours today prowling through the castle.The dusty attic rooms were particularly hot and stuffy.Now she was grateful for the cool water of the pool and the refreshing glass of iced tea.Ginny waited until the young woman left the pool deck and exited back into the main house.Then she sat up straighter, leaning toward Kaitlin and Lindsay.“Zachary’s grandfather, Milton Harper, took one look at Sadie in those diaphanous Parisian dresses and, boom, she was pregnant.”Kaitlin tried to hide her surprise at learning such an intimate detail.Back in the 1950s, it must have caused quite a scandal.Lindsay quickly returned to the pool edge next to Kaitlin.“They had to get married?” she asked.Ginny pointed a finger at Lindsay.“I’m not recommending it to you,” she cautioned.“You girls want to know how to catch a man nowadays?”“Not necessar—”Lindsay elbowed Kaitlin in the ribs.“How?”“Withhold sex,” Ginny told them with a sage nod.“They can get it any old place they want out there—” she waved a hand toward the ocean, apparently including the world in general in her statement “—but you say no, and he’ll keep coming back, sniffing around.”“Auntie,” came Dylan’s warning voice.But it held more than a trace of humor as he strode across the deck in a pair of blue jeans and a plain T-shirt.“I don’t think that’s the advice I want you giving our lady guests.”Ginny harrumphed as he leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek.“You’re cramping my style,” he admonished her with good humor.Ginny looked to Lindsay again, gesturing to her grandnephew.“This one’s a catch.”“I’ll try not to sleep with him,” Lindsay promised.Then she covered her chuckle with a sip from her glass.“You’ll do more than try, young lady.” Ginny, on the other hand, seemed completely serious.“I like you.Don’t mess this up.”Lindsay sobered.“Yes, ma’am.” But as she spoke, Kaitlin caught the smoldering look that passed between her and Dylan.For all her plain-spoken, sage wisdom, Ginny had just made a fatal error with those two.She might as well have dared them to sleep together.“Help me up, dear.” Ginny reached for Dylan, and he grasped her hand, supporting her elbow, and gently brought her to her feet.It took her a moment to get stabilized, and Dylan kept hold of her.“Now that you’re here,” she said to him, “I thought I might call Sadie—” Then she stopped herself, a fleeting look of confusion entering her aging eyes.“Silly me.I meant the rose garden.I think I’d like to visit Sadie’s rose garden.”Dylan slid a look of regret in Lindsay’s direction.But there was no impatience in his voice when he spoke.“I’d be happy to drive you down,” he told Ginny.Kaitlin hopped out of the pool, adjusting her mint-green bikini bottom and making sure the straps had stayed in place.“I’ll do it,” she offered to both Ginny and Dylan.She’d love to tour Sadie’s rose garden.There was a picture of it in its heyday on the wall of one of the drawing rooms in the castle.She’d driven one of the little golf carts between the houses that afternoon, and it was very easy.“Thank you, dear,” said Ginny as Kaitlin scrubbed the towel over her wet hair.“You’re a good girl.You should go ahead and sleep with Zachary.”Kaitlin stopped drying and blinked at the old woman in shock.“Those Harper men aren’t the marrying kind,” Ginny elaborated.“Zach already married Kaitlin,” Lindsay offered.Then she froze halfway out of the pool.“I mean…”“Are you pregnant?” asked Ginny, her gaze taking a critical look at Kaitlin’s flat stomach.Kaitlin quickly shook her head.“I’m not pregnant.”“I’m sorry,” Lindsay squeaked in horror.“Well, I don’t know how you trapped him,” said Ginny matter-of-factly.“Sadie and I have despaired that he’d even give any woman a second glance.”Kaitlin looked to Dylan for assistance.Did the situation require further explanation? Would Ginny forget the entire conversation by morning?But he was too busy struggling to control his laughter to be of any help.“We’re, uh, not sure it’s going to work out,” Kaitlin explained, feeling as though she needed to say something.“Well, how long have you been married?” asked Ginny, slipping a thin wrap over her shoulders, obviously oblivious to the undercurrents rippling through the conversation.Kaitlin hesitated.“Um, a few months.”“Then you’ve already had sex,” Ginny cackled with salacious delight.“Who’s had sex?” Zach’s voice startled Kaitlin as he appeared from between two of the pool cabanas and came to join the group.His curious gaze darted from one person to another.“You and Kaitlin,” said Dylan.“What?” He took in Kaitlin’s bathing suit–clad body, his intense gaze making goose bumps rise on her skin and heating her to the core.“Ginny and I are going to the rose garden,” she announced, swiftly wrapping the big towel around her body.There was no reason she had to remain here.Dylan could bring Zach up to speed.She and Ginny headed for the cabana that held her clothes.Sadie’s rose garden had obviously been a spectacular showpiece in its day.Some sections of the formal gardens had been kept up over the years by the castle staff, but it was obviously too much work to keep it all from overgrowing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]