Beware of the Beast by Anne Mather Read Free Book Online Page B

you to enter the house," he told her quietly. "Go ahead. I must-Speak to Constandis before he leaves."
    "He's leaving?" Charlotte's mouth was dry.
    "This is supposed to be our honeymoon," remarked Alex ' dryly. Then he shook his head. "Go with Maria. You'll find she speaks quite reasonable English. They all do - I taught them myself."
    With slightly nervous steps, Charlotte followed the old woman across the cool terrace and into the house through sliding glass doors. The coolness inside was almost chilling, and she realized that although the walls of the building were thick, this coolness was the result of a very efficient air-conditioning system.
    A cool stone hall extended through to the front of the house, widening here to run the length of the terrace. Arched doorways opened off the hall giving tantalizing glimpses of white-walled rooms which relied for their colour on hand-woven tapestries and pottery in brilliant shades and designs. Couches and chairs were mostly of leather or sheep and goat skin, and self- coloured rugs were strewn across the polished wood-blocked floors. Beyond the terrace at the front of the house, Charlotte could see the cliffs and the curve of the bay, and through the open doors she could hear the murmur of the sea as it curled along the rock-strewn headland. The beach she had seen from the air was hidden below the cliffs, but she guessed there would be a path down to it.
    Shallow steps out of the hall brought them to a slightly higher level where a circular table and chairs with curved arms pronounced this to be the dining area. Although all the furnish ings Charlotte had seen so far were plain arid functional, they had a certain style and elegance, fitting accoutrements to this spacious split-level bungalow that far surpassed anything she had imagined.
    The old servant Maria said little, merely indicating a particular tapestry here or a pottery urn spilling over with exotic blossoms there; small evidence of her own pride in her surroundings.
    Beyond the dining area, another hall extended into the west wing of the house. Here several doors were closed against them, but Maria led the way confidently to the last of these, and turning the handle ushered Charlotte into what she guessed correctly to be the master bedroom.
    It was an enormous room, but dominated by an equally enormous four-poster bed which occupied a central area. Easily six feet across, and longer than average, it was flanked by furniture of comparable size — a huge tallboy, a massive double wardrobe, and a dressing table with carved legs. Long windows stood wide to the scents from the garden at the side of the house, long wild silk curtains in a delicious shade of green moving slightly with the breeze. The floor was wooden as before, but the rugs here were white and soft, matching the silken covers on the bed.
    "Is good, kyria ?" suggested Maria shyly, and Charlotte could not deny her. It was the most beautiful room she had ever been expected to sleep in.
    "Thank you, Maria, it's delightful," she said, dropping her bag and the vanity case on to a chair and moving across the room. A bowl of arum lilies occupied a position on the table beside the bed, and she touched their waxy petals with a certain sense of poignancy.
    Maria bustled across the room and opened two more doors. "Bathroom, dressing room," she indicated smilingly, obviously pleased by Charlotte's appreciation. "When suitcases arrive, Sophia will unpack for you."
    "I can unpack my clothes," Charlotte protested, peering into the dressing room which was easily as big as her bedroom had been at Glebe Square. It possessed a bed too, and she wondered why.
    "Sophia will unpack for you," said Alex's voice, unexpect edly deep and male after Maria's gentle tones. "Can we have some coffee, Maria? I'm sure my wife is tired after the journey."
    Charlotte moved awkwardly back into the bedroom as Maria smiled and went away, and Alex dosed the door behind her with a definite little