Chain of Love by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online

remained
    silent.
    In the meantime she was torn. Part of her hated the thought of leaving the apartment and possibly missing a phone call, but the overwhelming emotion that
    haunted her was a need to escape. After three months of immuring herself in the four walls of her luxurious Georgetown flat, she found that she would go
    mad if she didn’t get out for at least part of the day. She went shopping, buying unsuitable clothes that she would never wear, food that turned bad
    in the refrigerator and had to be thrown out. And for some obscure reason, she always kept a supply of imported German beer in the sparsely filled
    refrigerator.
    By the second weekend after her daylong sail, the inactivity broke her will, and throwing her bathing suit and a change of clothes in the back of her small
    red Honda, she drove the forty miles to her father’s estate in Virginia. Brandon Whiteheart’s health had not been good, and Cathy never thought
    of him without a pang of worry.
    As the youngest of Brandon Whiteheart’s large brood, she had always held a special place in her father’s affections, affections she returned
    fully. Her mother’s death when Cathy was two years old had sealed her close dependence on her father, and Brandon had always found time to be there
    for her, despite his myriad interests. A brusque businessman, it had taken the gentle vulnerability of his youngest to pierce his hard-boiled exterior. Meg
    had still been young enough to benefit from his softening, but the three elder siblings—snobbish and overbearing Georgia, always so aware of her
    position as the daughter of one of the wealthiest industrialists in America; pompous Henry; and venal Travis, Cathy’s least favorite of all her
    siblings—had been too well set in their ways. Too many years of parental disinterest had done their damage, and the three elder Whitehearts viewed
    their father’s absorption with Cathy and her elder sister Meg with jealous exasperation.
    All this was going through Cathy’s mind as her little red car sped across the countryside. There was little doubt all three of them would be in
    residence.
    Georgia and her husband Allen had moved in with Pops when Allen’s business had gone bankrupt. Henry and his wife Milly were in the midst of moving,
    and were staying at Whiteoaks until their extravagant new house was completed. And Travis, dear, darling Travis with his little ways that bordered on
    sadism, came every weekend to ensure his inheritance. Despite the fact that Brandon Whiteheart had always been scrupulously even and fair in his dealings
    with his children, Travis could never find it in his heart to trust either his father’s fairness or his siblings’ greed. Since the heart spasm
    last winter Travis had raced down to Whiteoaks each and every weekend, eyeing his siblings with a jealous sneer and confining his conversation to snide
    remarks and sycophantic fawnings on his father. The absurdity of it was, Cathy thought as she pushed her silver-blond hair back from her face, that of all
    the wealthy Whiteheart children, Travis had done the best with his inheritance, more than tripling it in the last twelve years. Yes, she thought with a
    sigh, Travis would be there, and all the others, with the lamentable exceptions of Meg and Charles. They were too busy getting ready for their Caribbean
    trip. Maybe one afternoon with her father would be enough, she thought. Surely she could manage a few hours alone with him, long enough to assure herself
    that he was in good health, and then she could dash back to town before she got roped into one of those noisy, backbiting, unappetizing orgies known
    euphemistically as a family dinner.
    As she turned into the long, winding driveway that led to Whiteoaks, a dark green BMW sped past her, too quickly for her to see the driver, but long enough
    for a shaft of unhappiness to mar her determinedly cheerful state of mind. Seeing a car so similar to his brought Sin back full force. Perhaps she