By The Sea, Book Two: Amanda by Antoinette Stockenberg Read Free Book Online Page B

in the July heat so unlike his
cool, damp England, lost two straight sets. He began to think life
might be easier in New York.
    "Why are you really over here,
Geoff?" asked Matt later as he poured drinks on the shaded
veranda.
    Geoff leaned back in his wooden lounge
chair, tore his gaze away from the blue ocean at the foot of the
rolling lawn, and put on a comic leer. In a heavily Slavic accent
he said, "I vant a vooman. Rich vooman," he said, rolling his r's
devilishly.
    "The old homestead needs a new roof, I take
it?" asked Matt.
    "Something like that," Geoff answered. "Did
you know that a decade ago it was estimated that a few hundred
American heiresses had combined to export two hundred twenty
million dollars in dowries abroad? That could affect your country's
balance of payments. And, of course," he added wryly, "Seton
Place's."
    "They're still around, the heiresses. But
there's been a backlash against the selling of white flesh for an
empty title; it's not the same as before the war," said Matt,
crossing his feet on the stone banister.
    "I can't imagine why not," said Geoff.
"Divorce is so common nowadays. The beautiful white slave gets to
dump the man but keep the title—which is all she wanted in the
first place—while the young Count skulks back to the Black Forest
with nothing but the clothes on his back. I call it bloody unfair
to the fortune hunters," he added ruefully.
    Matt laughed. After a comfortable silence he
said, "Must your prospect be well-born?"
    Geoff shrugged. "I don't care. My mother
might."
    "Oh, indeed. Otherwise, I'd have a prospect
for you. The little 'cottage' I pointed out that's just been
sold?"
    "The one with a dozen bedrooms overlooking
the sea? What about it?"
    "'Beau Rêve' went—for a song I might add—to
a very shrewd and very single businesswoman. She hasn't moved in,
yet, of course. But the Avenue is agog over the transaction."
    "Because?"
    "Yup, there's a story, all right. As it
happens, she worked in the very same mansion when she landed here
as a girl from Ireland. As a laundry maid or a lady's maid, the
versions vary. Worked her way up from there—with the help of a
lover, of course. He shot himself, no one quite knows why, but he
left her well provided for. The rest, as they say, is history.
She's done well for herself, apparently, making a bundle in
textiles; she owns a string of mills in Fall River. Anyway, we do
know that she's never married. How old are you?"
    "Must you ask?" Geoff said, reminded anew
that he was thirty-one and what a mess. "Just past the three-decade
mark."
    "Hmm. No, it wouldn't really work. She must
be—doing the math—in her mid-forties. And then, of course, you do
have your mother's wishes to answer to."
    "Or ignore."
    "Oh, yeah. Just the way I do." Matt smiled
at his friend and tossed him a cigar. "So. Want me to line you up
with some of Newport's finest?"
    "Actually, I wish you would. All I've been
able to come up with so far is a hopelessly ill-bred ruffian whose
money is so new it sizzles."
    "Really! I don't suppose I know her?"
    "Not a chance. The father's humming along
building ships for the Navy, but that's a hell of a volatile
industry; I have to wonder whether he won't fall on his face sooner
or later. The girl's a sculptor, and her brother works—when he
works—in the brokerage end of the company."
    "Any extenuating circumstances for pursuing
the girl—extraordinary beauty, brilliant wit, loose morals?"
    "No, no, and maybe. Really, she's not worth
mentioning. My encounter with her left me with an odd … afterburn,
that's all."
    The following evening Mrs. Matthew Stevenson
was having an at-home. Geoff had his first real chance to look over
Newport's white slave market. On the whole, he found the offerings
reasonably presentable: pretty, bubbly, mostly blond, not a
Bolshevik among them. They were irreverent and high-
spirited—"frisky" and "coltish" came to mind. One or two played a
decent hand of bridge. Geoff decided to stay in Newport