White Satin Read Free

York. I suppose he decided that the estate needed more protection and privacy than it had when you were here.”
    “I liked it better without it.” It was just like Anthony to build walls to shut the world out, Danythought, her gaze fixed on the rambling Tudor-style brick house at the top of the hill. The two-story mansion was built of mellow pink brick, and the lead-glass windows and graceful fanlight over the front door gave it an air of warm, open invitation. Why had Anthony bought it when it was sold after her parents were killed in that boating accident? It wasn’t his type of home at all. Even as a child she’d been aware of that. Anthony was as uneasy in cozy domestic surroundings as an unfettered panther would be.
    “You lived here all your life until you were fourteen?” Beau asked, and immediately recalled the answer to his question. “Of course. Anthony was a friend of your parents, wasn’t he?” His forehead knotted thoughtfully. “He became your guardian when you were eight, and they’d been killed in that accident. He must have been very close to them to assume the responsibilities of a kid so willingly. Anthony isn’t what you’d call the fatherly type.”
    “I guess so,” Dany admitted. That was, she knew, a distinct understatement. “I remember himbeing around the estate occasionally when I was five or six.” But he hadn’t really been close to her carefree, jet-setter parents. Beneath that glittery veil of charm he drew about himself on occasion, Dany had been aware of a dislike that was close to animosity whenever the four of them were together. She’d sensed it with a child’s unwavering instinct and been surprised that her parents hadn’t felt it. She shouldn’t have been, she supposed. Her parents hadn’t been especially sensitive to anything that didn’t affect their own comfort and pleasure.
    But it seemed totally absurd. Anthony couldn’t possibly have had any other reason than affection and a sense of obligation to her parents when he’d sued for guardianship of her. Dany shook her head in bewildered frustration as the limousine pulled smoothly to a halt before the front entrance. Why did she even try to fathom Anthony’s motivation for anything? He was a law unto himself, an enigma she hadn’t been able to solve for the past twelve years.
    Pete Drissell, the chauffeur who was opening the passenger door and helping Marta and herfrom the limousine, was a quietly courteous young man and as unfamiliar to her as the black-jacketed, gray-haired servant who opened the front door.
    “Miss Alexander? I’m Paul Jens. Mr. Malik is waiting for you in the library.” His voice was meticulously polite. “He asked me to send you there immediately upon your arrival. I’ll have one of the maids take up your luggage to the room I understand you occupied previously. I’ll take Mr. Lantry and Miss Paulsen to their rooms now if they’ll follow me.” The polite query was really a command, and Beau gave Dany a resigned shrug as he allowed Marta and her to precede him into the spacious oak parquet–tiled foyer.
    “Looks as though you’re destined to beard the lion in his den alone, sugar,” he said as he started to follow Paul Jens up the wide, curving stairway. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
    “Don’t let him keep you too long,” Marta warned. “You need a nap. You didn’t sleep very much on that jet. You can’t afford to exhaust yourself unnecessarily with the kind of schedule you’ve got.”
    “I’ll give Anthony your instructions,” Danysaid wryly as she slipped off her beige cashmere polo coat and draped it over her arm. “For all the good it will do me.” Evidently Anthony wasn’t even going to give her an opportunity to settle in and renew her acquaintance with Briarcliff before he demanded an explanation for yesterday’s debacle.
    She dropped her coat on the long cushioned bench against the wall and walked quickly down the corridor to the library. She paused for