Shadow of Love Read Free Page A

common past, forbidding herself to go there. To dwell upon it had no point, she told herself as she gathered her jacket and peeked out the window.
    Rain was pouring, the silhouettes of the poplar trees in the front yard moving in the wind like the eerie shadows of ghosts. In the mudroom next to the kitchen were the raincoat and two umbrellas left there for emergencies exactly like that one.
    ‘ Not the best night for a date, Sophie.’ She handed her sister a coat and an umbrella. ‘It’s raining cats and dogs.’
    ‘ Doesn’t matter.’ The other woman shrugged, the movement rippling the soft, silvery silk of her blouse. ‘James will send a car for me; he said so himself.’
    ‘ James who?’ It was time to find out more about the mystery man, Emily decided as she turned off the lights in the back room, her eyes doing one final inspection.
    ‘ James McMaster.’ Sophie said it slowly, savoring the sound of every letter. ‘I was kind of surprised, though.’
    Obviously, she was unable to stop talking about him, and something akin to pity for Peter stirred deep inside Emily’s soul. She might have been angry with him and absolutely over whatever they had in the past, but she felt sorry that he was about to get a taste of the famous ‘Sophie treatment.’
    ‘ He doesn’t look like a James, you know.’ Sophie kept talking as her long, perfectly manicured fingers did quick work of the buttons of the wellington. ‘More like a Javier or Enrique.’
    ‘‘ He sounds exactly like the type you’re after, Soph.’ Emily was only too aware of Sophie’s obsession with all things Mediterranean, men included.
    Her stepsister shook her blond head, carefully pulling up the hood of the coat. Emily noticed—not for the first time—that no piece of clothing was bad enough to diminish her glamorous looks even a bit. Sophie was absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful in whatever she put on, an old, oversized raincoat included. ‘He’s too dark and mysterious to be plain English. Before we spoke, I was certain he would be a foreigner, or at least have an accent.’
    ‘ But he doesn’t?’ Emily grinned, imagining her sister’s disappointment. ‘I gather that his good looks were enough to make up for this shortcoming. Does he at least speak Italian or Spanish? Then you can close your eyes and imagine him being transported here for your pleasure straight from some god-forsaken olive grove in the south.’
    ‘ He grew up here, in London,’ Sophie admitted almost reluctantly, ignoring Emily’s jibe. ‘Lives somewhere in Kensington, as far as I know. Has a house there.’
    ‘ Not too shabby.’ Emily whistled appreciatively, remembering her sister’s weakness for luxury. Maybe that was why Peter didn’t have a chance, she though bitterly, as she remembered her ex boyfriend’s rather modest salary as a beginning doctor.
    ‘ I’m not after his money. He is just so… magnetic, Em. What were the odds for us to hook up, you know? There were at least three hundred people at the party. I didn’t think he would notice me, with all those women around him.’ Her lovely face darkened at the memory. ‘But he looked at me as if he knew me, I swear. He walked all the way across the room to talk to me. If that isn’t destiny, I don’t know what is.’
    ‘ Where are you going tonight?’ Emily decided not to pursue that slippery slope, knowing very well that once Sophie decided to follow her instinct, Emily could do little to stop her. It seemed harmless enough, anyway. The fact that Emily herself didn’t believe in love at first sight or destiny or all the talk about halves completing each other through time and space was irrelevant.
    ‘ To Maxim’s.’ Sophie nodded eagerly, satisfied to see Emily impressed. ‘They require reservations three months ahead of time, but James must have pulled some strings, because he got us a table right away.’
    ‘ Well, then.’ Emily pushed Sophie gently towards the exit, bracing herself