White Wedding. Jean Barrett

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СКАЧАТЬ could tell he knew it by the smoldering gleam in his eyes. He’d always recognized her vulnerability to him.

      Wonderful. There was already an element of strain about this whole weekend. She’d been sensing the undercurrents ever since they’d all come together at the dock. Now this!

      “Never better,” Jack assured her. “So, how about you, Lane?”

      He didn’t wait for her to tell him. She could feel those deep blue eyes carefully appraising her. Discovering, perhaps, that she knew how to dress her slender figure with more style these days, that she wore her cinnamon hair longer and with less curl, even noticing that she’d learned restraint in the use of makeup on a face that qualified as winsome if not sublime. She was aggravated with herself that it should matter in the least whether he approved of these changes.

      Managing to extract her hand from his grip, she covered her inner turmoil with a hasty response. “I’m fine.”

      “Still rising in the hotel business?”

      “I try to. I’m assistant manager now for one of the chain’s four-star inns.”

      “Good for you. In St. Louis, right?”

      She was surprised that he knew.

      “I manage to stay informed,” he assured her.

      It worried her that he would make the effort. She was relieved when Ronnie Bauer, hovering close by, impatiently interrupted their absurdly polite exchange. “Are you going to share him, dear?”

      Allison saved the moment by introducing him to those he hadn’t already met. “Dr. Jack Donovan, everyone.”

      Ronnie was impressed, and purring flirtatiously. “Do you specialize, doctor?”

      “Bones,” he said.

      “I’ll certainly remember that if I ever break one.”

      “I don’t mend them, Ms. Bauer. I dig them up.”

      Ronnie was plainly confused until Hale corrected her misconception. “Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Mother, he’s not a medical man. He’s a doctor of paleontology.”

      “Fossils?”

      “Dinosaur, to be exact,” Jack said.

      “Even better,” she cooed. “All those exciting expeditions. Just like the hunk in Jurassic Park.”

      “Hunting for usable fossils is no Hollywood adventure, Ms. Bauer,” he informed her dryly. “It’s a lot of time-consuming, hot-as-hell labor.”

      How well she had learned that truth, Lane thought.

      “Hey,” Stuart demanded, “are we going or not?”

      Jack eyed the waiting sleighs. The first one had places for six people, including the driver. The second, carrying all the luggage for the party, had space for only two passengers in the rear.

      “Give us a minute,” he said.

      Before Lane could object, Jack drew her off to one side for a private exchange.

      “I’d like for us to ride together in that second sleigh.”

      There was a determined look in his eyes that warned her to avoid any such intimate arrangement. “Not a chance.”

      “Look,” he pressed her, “it isn’t what you think. It’s just that I’d feel better if we rode together.”

      “Why?”

      “Because I don’t trust the situation.”

      “The sleighs?”

      “Maybe. Or maybe it’s the whole setup of this weekend that bothers me. I learned something last night I don’t like. All right, so it probably doesn’t mean a thing. Let’s just say you humor me, and we stick together.”

      There was a mysterious grimness in his undertone that frightened her. Was he serious? For a moment she was inclined to think so. Then she dismissed the whole thing, remembering how often in the past she had fallen for Jack Donovan’s take-charge, overprotective tactics. Well, not this time.

      “Sorry,” Lane said at a volume that could be heard by the others, “but I’ve already promised Judge Whitney I’d ride with him.”

      She hadn’t, and she regretted the necessity for her impulsive lie. She could see how surprised Dan was when she rejoined the group, but he offered no word of contradiction.

      Before Jack could object, Ronnie linked a proprietary arm through his. “Sit with me, and you can tell me all about these important fossils of yours.”

      Lane watched an irritated Jack being hauled off to the second sleigh. She felt sorry for him. Almost.

      Dan, falling in step beside Lane as the rest of them moved toward the sleighs, whispered in concern, “Is something wrong?”

      She shook her head, then offered a quick apology. “I’m sorry about that. I hope you don’t mind.”

      “Riding with you? On the contrary, it’s my pleasure.” She could feel his curious gaze on her as they reached the end of the dock. “An old friend of yours?”

      She knew he was referring to Jack. “Not exactly.” She hesitated. There was no reason he shouldn’t know. “Try an old husband. Now,” she added, just as buoyantly as she could, “would you like to suggest some graceful way to climb down from this dock and into that sleigh?”

      * * *

      THE HORSES WERE POWERFUL Belgians, able to draw the heavy sleighs over the fractured ice of the broad harbor with an effortless ease. The snow cover, thick in places, almost nonexistent in others, formed swirling patterns across the wrinkled surface. Through the brittle air the sleigh bells called to each other musically.

      It should have been a pleasant experience, one that Lane could enjoy without reservation. Instead, she twisted in her seat to gaze back longingly at the receding village where a pair of white church steeples rose through the dark evergreens against the steep hillside. Those spires looked so solid and comforting, the ice beneath her so fearfully insecure.

      “No need to be nervous,” her insightful companion assured her. “We don’t very often get safe ice on the bay this soon in the season, but it’s been an unusually early winter with a lot of hard freezes. And the Nordstrom brothers,” he added, referring to their drivers, “are experienced and know what they’re doing.”

      Lane turned her head, managing a lopsided smile for Dan beside her. “That obvious, huh?”

      “Your tension? Well, a little,” he conceded with a gentle smile.

      She considered him, thinking how different he was from his cousin, Allison, with his relaxed manner and brown hair frosted with gray. He was the sort of person who prompted confidences, probably a good quality in a judge. She decided to share a confidence of her own.

      “And I was hoping it wouldn’t show. But I СКАЧАТЬ