Key Of Knowledge Read Free Page A

served her champagne.
    â€œI think I could’ve fixed it,” Zoe muttered.
    â€œThat may be.” With obvious gratitude, Bradley accepted a drink. “But you’d have ended up with grease all over your dress. Then you’d have needed to go home and change and you’d’ve been even later. It’s hardly a slap in the face to accept a ride from someone you know who’s going to exactly the same place at the same time.”
    â€œI said I was grateful,” Zoe shot back, then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said to the room in general. “It’s been one of those days. And I’m nervous on top of it. I hope I haven’t held anything up.”
    â€œNot at all.” Rowena brushed a hand over her shoulder as a servant came to the archway and announced dinner. “There, you see? Right on time.”
    IT wasn’t every day you ate rack of lamb in a castle on a mountaintop in Pennsylvania. The fact that the dining room had twelve-foot ceilings, a trio of chandeliers sparkling with white and red crystal drops, and a ruby granite fireplace big enough to hold the population of Rhode Island certainly added to the perks.
    The atmosphere should have been intimidating and formal, yet it was welcoming. Not the sort of place you’d chow down on pepperoni pizza, Dana reflected, but a nice ambience for sharing an exquisitely prepared meal with interesting people.
    Conversation flowed—travel, books, business. It showed Dana the power of their hosts. It wasn’t the norm for a librarian from a small valley town to sit around and break bread with a couple of Celtic gods, but Rowena and Pitte made it seem normal.
    And what was to come, the next step in the quest, was a subject no one broached.
    Because she was seated between Brad and Jordan, Dana angled herself toward Brad and spent as much of the meal as possible ignoring her other dinner partner.
    â€œWhat did you do to make Zoe mad?”
    Brad flicked a glance across the table. “Apparently, I breathed.”
    â€œCome on.” Dana gave him a little elbow poke. “Zoe’s not like that. What did you do? Did you hit on her?”
    â€œI did not hit on her.” Years of training kept his voice low, but the acid in it was still evident. “Maybe it annoyed her that I refused to muck around in her engine, and wouldn’t let her muck around in it either, as we were both dressed for dinner and were already running late.”
    Dana’s eyebrows rose. “Well, well. Seems she got your back up, too.”
    â€œI don’t care to be called high-handed and bossy just because I point out the obvious.”
    Now she smiled, leaned over and pinched his cheek. “But, honey, you are high-handed and bossy. That’s why I love you.”
    â€œYeah, yeah, yeah.” But his lips twitched. “Then how come we’ve never had wild and crazy sex?”
    â€œI don’t know. Let me get back to you on that.” She speared another bite of lamb. “Guess you’ve been to a lot of snazzy dinners like this, in snazzy places like this.”
    â€œThere is no other place like this.”
    It was easy for her to forget that her buddy Brad was Bradley Charles Vane IV, heir apparent to a lumber empire that had built one of the country’s largest and most accessible home improvement and supply chains, HomeMakers.
    But seeing how smoothly he slid into this sort of sophisticated atmosphere reminded her that he was a great deal more than just the hometown boy.
    â€œDidn’t your dad buy some big castle place in Scotland a few years back?”
    â€œManor house, Cornwall. And, yeah, it’s pretty incredible. She’s not eating much,” he murmured and gave a little nod toward Zoe.
    â€œShe’s just nervous. Me too,” Dana added, then cut another bite of lamb. “But nothing kills my appetite.” She heard Jordan laugh, and the deep male sound