Hold Back the Night Read Free Page A

for an hour. I find I can get along without hiring anyone. There isn't ... '
    'In that case I could pay you in instalments,' Domini interrupted quickly. 'A hundred dollars a month. Plus interest, of course.' ,
    Domini could practically see the wheels turning in the other woman's head as Miranda fingered the cash, torn between accepting the sale on Domini's terms and waiting for a better offer, which might not materialize in the short time remaining before Christmas. 'I'll have to speak to the artist,' she said slowly. 'He may not like to wait for the money. And he'd have to wait, because since my husband died the gallery hasn't been doing too well. This has been a particularly slow year.'
    'A slow sale is better than no sale,' urged Domini, sensing an impending victory. 'Couldn't you phone him and speak to him right away?'
    'Even better.' Miranda smiled, reaching a decision and rising to her feet. She started towards the back of the shop where a stairway was half concealed by a movable shelving unit displaying plain wooden toys quite unlike the other items in the Santa's Workshop show. 'To tell the truth he's my brother, and he lives right upstairs. Can you mind the gallery for a second? I'll bring him down and let you speak to him yourself. When he hears how anxious you are, he won't say no!'
    Domini turned to gaze at the unicorn again while she waited to meet the artist who had carved it. Not that any man could really be called an artist, reflected Domini, under those tragic circumstances. Any more than Sander could have continued to be a sculptor, especially in a medium as unyielding as stone, if the operation had not restored his sight.
    With Miranda gone, Domini allowed herself to think about Sander, about the months in Paris, because at this moment there was no other person present to witness the expression on her face. How ironic that it was a blind man who had carved this creature, a creature she longed to buy because for her it symbolized the father's love Tasey would never get from Sander. Not that Sander had been blind at the time of Tasey's conception. Then his dark eyes had been silvered with anger, a terrible consuming anger such as Domini had not seen in any other person's eyes in her life, not even in Papa's...
    ❧
    The man on the second floor had listened to his sister in silence, his resentment building with every word she spoke. Did she really think him such a fool? Miranda was perfectly capable of making decisions of this sort; there was no need for him to go downstairs.
    Too annoyed to answer at once, he continued the task she had interrupted, first unscrewing the lid of the instant coffee. In the kitchen drawer he fumbled for a spoon and then dipped in for a measure of the granules he could not see. By the sound as he scraped the excess off against the jar's rim, he wondered if a large-size spoon had been placed improperly in the drawer. He tested with his left hand, found it was so, and started to return some coffee to the jar. Annoyance at Miranda's transparency caused his hand to tremble. The spoon collided with glass and the granules spilled, causing his fury to turn inward, where there was no more room for rage. Like a festering boil, his temper burst.
    'Miss Greey! Unattached, of course!' he lashed out. 'Did you think I wouldn't understand your motives?'
    'She might not be unattached,' Miranda replied defensively. 'She has a child.' She moved to the counter and with a curved palm started to sweep the coffee into a small neat pile. The soft sounds grated on her brother's nerves.
    'I'll do it,' he snapped, seething at his inability to function in a world designed exclusively for the sighted.
    Chastened, Miranda backed away and watched. Moments later the spilled granules went into a mug, along with a scattering of crumbs left from the breakfast toast. For once she held her tongue, saving it for more important matters.
    'You'll never meet anyone up here. Was it so awful the last time I introduced you