Silk and Stone Read Free Page A

I know. Either a girl marries well, or she’s nothing.”
    “You sound just like Mom and Dad.” Frannie tugged at her hand. “But there’s so much
more
. Women don’t have to be measured by their husbands’ importance.”
    “Oh, hell, Frannie, what else can we be measured by? I wanted to go to law school. You know what I was told—it wouldn’t do me any good, it was a waste of time, forget it. End of discussion. Men have all the choices. Women have only one—pick your targets, get what you can, use it before you get fat and wrinkled and nobody gives you a second look. Well, that’s what I intend to do—and everybody better get out of my way.”
    Frannie rocked back on her heels, staring at her older sister with open-mouthed distress. “You
did
talk Judge Vanderveer into giving you that ruby.”
    “Hell, yes, I did. Just to prove that I could. And I’m
never
letting it out of my cold-blooded little fists either. Sarah Raincrow has more than she deserves already. Nobody keeps her from doing what she wants. Good God, she got to marry the man she loves, and he’s an
Indian.
”
    “Do you
want
to make your own husband take sides against his sister?”
    “I want him to do
exactly
what I tell him to do. That’s the only power a woman has, and I intend to use it.”
    “You don’t love him. Alexandra, you took vows, but you lied.”
    “It makes no difference to him. He wanted a prize, and he got one.”
    “No, he loves you. He really does.”
    “He’s forty years old and about as exciting as stale bread. He doesn’t love me—he loves the idea that he can
have
me.”
    Frannie’s shock turned to righteous anger. Dropping Alexandra’s hand, she stood. “I know about you and that law student. I know you sneaked out to see Orrin Lomax even after you got engaged.” She shivered with frustration. Her shoulders slumped, and she turned numbly toward the door. “You could have married Orrin.”
    Alexandra was silent. Her eyes shimmered with new tears. “Orrin has a lot of ambition but no money, and no clout. If I married him, I’d have to give up my horses. We couldn’t afford them.”
    Her horses? Alexandra was an avid rider, and her two Arabians were champion stock, and she doted on them, but to marry money just to keep them.… Frannie shook her head in dull amazement. “You love Orrin, but you can marry somebody else so you can keep your horses.”
    Alexandra stiffened. “Do you think your future is going to be better than mine? You think you can just traipse off and do as you please?”
    “I can try.”
    “Frannie, Carl Ryder was the first in a series of long, hard lessons you’re going to learn about reality.”
    Frannie stared at her. Even the mention of Carl’s name brought an ache to her chest. In a small, shattered voice she asked, “What do you mean?”
    “I mean that Mom and Dad arranged to have your soldier transferred out of state. Did you really think they’d let you meddle around with the son of mill workers? Youcan mumble about social equality all you want—you can turn up your nose at the family’s money and call us all a bunch of snobs, you can talk about brotherhood and freedom until you’re blue in the face, but you not only can’t do anything about it, you don’t even suspect what you’re up against. They’ll have your soft little hide nailed to a respectable altar by the time you turn my age. I made the best of my choices, and so will you.”
    Frannie stumbled to the door and held its cold, crystal knob for support. “They got rid of Carl?”
    “Of course they did. And the same thing will happen with anyone else who isn’t good enough for a Duke. They threatened to disown me if I even talked about marrying Orrin. If I can’t get around them, why in the world would you assume you can?”
    “But … but why do you have to
care
about being disowned?”
    “Because I won’t be a
nothing
, you idiot. I won’t struggle along in a cheap apartment with a law student and