After the Frost by Megan Chance Read Free Book Online

avid stares of the other women. Stella Miller looked ready to pounce at the slightest word. And Ernestine Dumont wore a wicked smile on her heavy face, as if she was enjoying Lillian's obvious discomfort.
    "Goodness, I can't imagine why she wouldn't," Ernestine drawled. "Why, a hotel's not only dangerous, it's unseemly."
    "Absolutely," Stella put in. "I'm sure your mama would love to have you home again after so long."
    The coldness in her mother's gaze went clear into Belle's bones. "I'm surprised you thought you had to ask, Belle," Lillian said slowly. "You're always welcome, you know that."
    Belle suppressed a shiver. Even if no one else did, she heard the anger in her mother's carefully modulated voice. She'd heard it too many times to mistake it. There would be hell to pay later when they were alone, but now she felt a rush of triumph. She had won. Lillian could not back out now—Stella and Ernestine would not only tell everyone, they would be watching for the slightest hint that things were not as they seemed.
    Belle smiled at the thought. "Thank you, Mama. I thought that might be your answer."

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
     
          S he had trapped them neatly, Rand thought angrily, watching her from across the Millers' dining-room table. Like rabbits caught in a snare, they'd stumbled in without hesitation and now were too dumb and surprised to struggle.
    He would have told her no if she'd asked him. He knew just how he would have said it—solidly, so that there was no room for misinterpretation or pleading. A quiet, forceful no. But she had not asked him, and he knew why.
    She leaned back in her chair and laughed, pulling meat from a piece of chicken with strong, tanned fingers. Her eyes sparkled as she responded to something Paul Miller had said. For just a moment, deep inside him, Rand felt a spark of admiration—just a spark, and barely there, but he felt it nonetheless. If he'd been less angry, he almost could have congratulated her on the success of her plan. He was sure even this dinner was part of it—a way to charm the neighbors and lull him and Lillian into complacency. There was no doubt in his mind that what Belle really wanted was to get inside the house, to wait until they were unsuspecting and then run off with Sarah.
    They'd been blithely, easily manipulated.
    Or Lillian had anyway, so he was caught as well, because he would not publicly embarrass his stepmother. If he refused to let Belle stay, if he kicked her out of the house or made things so bad for her, she left, it would be gossiped about for years. It would be humiliating for Lillian, and as for him, well, he had lived through that once. He did not want to again.
    Belle laughed again, throwing her head back to bare her slender throat. The motion accentuated her slight overbite, the teeth that seemed a bit too big for her mouth, a feature he'd once found charming. Now the realization that he still did—that he noticed it at all— brought back his guilt, and that made him furious. Damn her. He clenched his fist beneath the table. At the very first opportunity he would confront her, let her know in no uncertain terms that she wasn't fooling him with her charming laughter and seemingly innocent words. He knew what she was up to, and he'd be damned if he'd let her get away with it—
    "More green beans, Rand?" Stella Miller was leaning over him, pushing a nearly empty serving bowl at him, and Rand blinked in surprise.
    He shook his head. "No thanks, Stella. I've had plenty."
    "Why, you've hardly had any at all," she admonished him. "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you didn't like my cookin'." She sat down again beside him, a swoosh of blue-striped silk and cotton. "I guess I prefer to think you're only excited at havin' your sister back."
    "Stepsister," he corrected softly.
    Across the table Belle paused, a bite of chicken halfway to her mouth. She grinned. "You should have seen the welcome he gave me yesterday, Miz