A Perfect Stranger Read Free Page A

instant, and then, as though she had been only an apparition, she seemed to walk into a hedge and disappear.
    For a long moment Alex stared at where she had been, rooted to the spot where he sat. It had all happened so quickly. Then suddenly he stood and ran quickly down the steps toward where she had sat. He saw a narrow pathway leading to a heavy door. He could only guess at a garden beyond it, and there was no way of knowing to which house it belonged. It could have been any one of several. So the mystery ended there. For an impotent moment Alex found himself wanting to knock on the door she had entered. Perhaps she was sitting in the hidden garden behind the locked door. There was an instant of desperation, knowing that he would never see her again. And then, feeling foolish, he reminded himself that she was only a stranger. He stared at the door for a long pensive moment, and then turned slowly and walked back up the stairs.

Chapter 2

    Even as Alex put the key in his front door, he was haunted by the face of the crying woman. Who was she? Why had she been crying? From which house had she come? He sat on the narrow circular staircase in his front hallway staring into the empty living room and watching the moonlight reflected on the bare wood floor. He had never seen a woman so lovely. It was a face that could easily haunt one for a lifetime and he realized as he sat there without moving that, if not for a lifetime, he would certainly remember her for a very long time. He didn't even hear the phone when it rang a few minutes later. He was still lost in thought, pondering the vision he had seen. But when he finally heard the phone, he ran to the first landing with a few quick bounds and into his den in time to dig the phone out from beneath a stack of papers on his desk.
    Hello, Alex. Instantly there was a moment of silent tension. It was his sister, Kay.
    What's up? Which meant what did she want. She never called anyone unless she wanted or needed something.
    Nothing special. Where were you? I've been calling for the last half hour. The girl working late in your office told me you were going straight home. She was always like that. She wanted what she wanted when she wanted it, whether it suited anyone else or not.
    I was out for a walk.
    At this hour? She sounded suspicious. Why? Something wrong? He sighed softly to himself. For years now his sister had exhausted him. There was so little give, so little softness to her. She was all angles cold and hard and sharp. She reminded him sometimes of a very sharp crystal object one would put on a desk. Pretty to look at, but not something one would ever want to pick up or touch. And it had been obvious for years that her husband felt the same way.
    No, nothing's wrong, Kay. But he also had to admit that for a woman as indifferent as she was to other people's feelings, she had an uncanny knack for sensing when he was down or out of sorts. I just needed some air. I had a long day. And then, attempting to soften the conversation and turn her attention slightly away from him, Don't you ever go for a walk, Kay?
    In New York? You must be crazy. You could die here just from breathing.
    Not to mention mugging and rape. He smiled gently into the phone and he could sense her smile too. Kay Willard wasn't a woman who smiled often. She was too intense, too hurried, too harassed, and too seldom amused. To what do I owe the honor of this phone call? He sat back in his chair and looked at the view as he waited patiently for an answer.
    For a long time Kay would call about Rachel. Kay had stayed in touch with her ex-sister-in-law for obvious reasons. The old governor was someone she wanted to keep in her court. And if she could have talked Alex into going back to Rachel, the old man would have loved it. Provided, of course that she could have convinced Rachel of how desperately unhappy Alex was without her and how much it would mean to him if she'd only give it another try. And Kay wasn't above