Beautiful Days Read Free Page B

what she could ever do that would make right the way she’d betrayed her father. But with his dying breath he’d declared her an heir to his business, too, and now she saw how she was going to get the chance to prove herself. What Charlie and Jones had proposed brought her no anxiety at all; in fact, it sounded like fun. “Of course! I’d be honored.”
    â€œGood!” Charlie clapped his hands and wrapped his arm around his sister’s shoulders once again. “Now, I want you to go get dolled up. No more pool clothes. We’re going to have dinner as a family, just like Dad would have wanted. Leave the details to Jones for now—but be ready. We’re going to need the infamous Cordelia Grey working for us soon.”

Chapter 2
    NOT FAR FROM DOGWOOD, DOWN THE LITTLE COUNTRY lanes that skimmed the edges of farms, stood a very different kind of house. It looked similar enough from the outside, with its impressive bulk and Tudor flourishes and leaded glass windows, its multiple chimneys just visible above the high hedges that surrounded the property, its lawns sloping down to a well-manicured orchard. But it lay across an invisible line, perceptible only to a chosen few, which separated the old White Cove from the one where the newcomers lived. Marsh Hall was named for the man who had built it, and it was still occupied by his descendents. It was half a mile closer to the White Cove Country Club, and while it may on occasion have been known for a scandalous evening or two, nothing ever happened there to make necessary armed guards.
    These were differences that Astrid Donal, riding home to Marsh Hall in one of the Greys’ Daimlers, had been trained to see from a young age but chose not to notice. She could be perceptive, and in three years at Miss Porter’s, her boarding school in Farmington, Connecticut, she had proved that she could be a good student when she put her mind to it. But among her other talents were forgetting what she did not like and ignoring what she preferred not to see.
    As the car sped along the road that ran by the water, she let her eyes close, breathing in the salty air, and did not even bother to open them when the car swerved and went up the gravel drive toward the house. It had been such an absolutely perfect day, and Astrid felt sure that even if she were the sort to keep a long memory, she wouldn’t be able to recall a time of such contentment. Cordelia was a true friend, and then about a month ago she had multiplied herself, and now there was Letty, who was such a delightful little fairy creature, always entertaining everyone with some silly face or gorgeous gesture. Meanwhile, someday in the not-so-distant future, she and Charlie were to be wed. Charlie Grey was the most exciting person she had ever met—at least, she had thought so until she’d met his sister, Cordelia—and he had been her boyfriend over a year now, and as of a month ago, she’d been calling him her fiancé. This was all a good riot, and a good riot was what she lived for.
    Astrid had left Farmington with the notion that she was not to return, and at the end of a day like this one, she felt even more convinced of it. Her home was here in White Cove, and with the golden light warming the skin of her eyelids, she wondered vaguely if summer couldn’t just roll on forever.
    â€œWe’re here.”
    â€œOh!” The car had come to a stop, and when Astrid opened her eyes she saw her mother’s third husband’s grand house standing stolidly before them. Its high stone walls seemed to offer enduring sanctuary, but Astrid knew from a childhood spent living out of suitcases and hotel rooms that any impression of that kind was illusion. She smoothed her bright yellow hair down over her ears and smiled a thank-you at the young man who’d driven her home. He was wearing an undershirt tucked into brown trousers, and he had a prominent nose and olive coloring,