Amelia by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

you to our host and hostess."
    Enid had told Amelia before that the Valverdes were descendants of Spanish settlers who had been granted a huge tract of land here before the war with Mexico. After the Spanish were driven out of the territory, American settlers were invited in by Mexico. Soon afterward however, the American settlers demanded their independence from Mexico, and war broke out. The Valverde descendants had, by that time, been accepted by American settlers and were part of the independence movement. They retained their huge land grant mainly, Enid said, tongue-in-cheek, because they had enough cowboys to fend off interlopers.
    Horace Valverde and his wife Dora were short, dark, and rather reserved. Dora welcomed them with more warmth than her husband, motioning for Darcy to come and join them.
    "Have you met our daughter, Darcy, Miss Howard?" she asked Amelia.
    "Yes," Amelia said with a quiet smile. "It's nice to see you again, Miss Valverde."
    "We're glad that you could come," Darcy said carelessly. She beamed at Enid. "My, you do look lovely!" she added, toadying to the older woman. "Did you buy that gown?"
    "You know that I sew my own clothes." Enid chuckled, flattered. "Amelia made hers as well. She's quite accomplished at copying designs she likes."
    "Why, yes, your gown does remind me of one I saw in New York," Dora agreed, giving Amelia's gown a second look. "It's a Charles Worth design, isn't it, my dear?"
    "Yes, it is," Amelia said, flushing as King joined them, catching the tail end of the conversation.
    "King! How dashing you look!" Darcy enthused, taking his arm prisoner with no attempt at formality. "Everyone's ignoring my lovely Jacques Doucet original from Paris," she added with pouting lips.
    "You know you always look lovely to me, whatever you wear," King said with a warm, genuine smile.
    Amelia felt chilled. Darcy's gown, while it might have flattered a taller woman, made the short, dark Darcy look like an ice cream sundae. The woman was attractive but hardly a beauty. And expensive designer gowns made little difference. Perhaps King loved her and saw her with the eyes of the heart. Imagine him in love, she thought wildly, and had to force herself not to laugh. He seemed the last man on earth to succumb to a woman's charm.
    "Well, who is this vision?" a pleasant male voice enquired, and a tall, blond man with a mustache came up to stand beside King. But it was Amelia, not Darcy, at whom he was staring appreciatively.
    "Miss Amelia Howard," Dora said, "this is Ted Simpson, our friend from Boston."
    "I'm delighted to meet you, Miss Howard," he said formally, bowing.
    "And I, you, sir," she returned, making him a slight curtsy. She smiled up at him unreservedly, because he reminded her of her brother, and she liked him immediately. He wasn't broody or mercurial, and at least he made her feel attractive.
    "Would you care to dance?"
    "I should be delighted," she told him, and immediately took the arm he preferred. "If you'll excuse me," she said to Enid.
    "Certainly, my dear."
    King watched them walk away, chattering animatedly, with silver eyes that were positively grim.
    "Don't they suit?" Dora asked innocently. "She's very pretty, your houseguest."
    "I suppose she's stuck up," Darcy said cattily. "Most pretty women are. Helpless, too, I imagine, and not much use around the house. Can she ride?"
    "I don't believe she does," Enid said, taken aback by the criticisms.
    "Can you see her on a horse?" King asked with cold sarcasm, shocking his mother even further. "She's a chocolate box beauty with no spirit and even less imagination."
    "You seem to know her rather well, to make such easy comparisons," Darcy probed.
    King shrugged. "Her brother and I have been best friends for many years. I know Miss Howard only from the vantage point of an infrequent visitor to their home."
    "I see." Darcy moved closer to him. "You don't like her, then?"
    "Darcy, really, what a question!" Dora laughed nervously.
    "No, I