Christie by Veronica Sattler Read Free Book Online Page B

features. She remembered feeling her father right in stating it was a beautiful face, not in any adherence to common standards of beauty, but in the way Charles had once said it commanded the onlooker to take notice of a certain near-wildness and individuality, instantly communicating the ethereally unusual. At the least, there was a regal bearing there, combined with a haunting allure that seemed at total odds with the rest of what she had so carefully scrutinized in that moment.
    The frame on which her head rested was indeed ... different. Beginning with her long, tapered neck, her eyes had moved on to inspect overly slim arms, a thin bony torso, and a pair of legs ever so long and lean. The body she had then found herself examining had been nothing like the one she had chanced to glimpse in prior years when she had caught her reflections in some woodland pool or stream while out riding Thunder. When, she asked, had all those extra inches been added? Why, if it had not been for the tiny waist which was indented sharply between a too-narrow chest and appallingly skinny hips, she'd have had no shape at all. It was all straight up and down. The slightly budding breasts which peeped out from beneath the thin fabric of her chemise were of no help, although they had just begun to form and might be expected to become fuller in time. But the rest! Was there no remedy, she had thought, for all those planes and angles?
    The sounds of Almeira returning upstairs has sent her scurrying back to her own room, but not before uttering quick maiden's prayer that somehow she might grow some curves. Not for snaring a husband, that couldnt have concerned her less ... but for her! She had grown up with the knowledge that her mother had been the most beautiful woman in Virginia ... everyone always said so ... and she had all long just naturally assumed that she would be beautiful like her, too, one day. It had been a comforting notion that a small female child had taken to sleep with her at night all those long, lonely years of childhood when most of the other comforts of having a mother had been so sorely missed. She might not have had a mother's presence as other girls had, but she had a mother's legacy of beauty to look forward to, hadnt she? Oh, why had Father to be so tall?
    But now, as she stood before her wardrobe mirror, Christie knew her adolescent worries about her figure had been unnecessary. Slowly, she slipped her chemise over her head and looked at her nude body. A still-slender form now supported the alluring curves of a perfectly shaped woman. Her always narrow waist now seemed even tinier in comparison with the curved roundness of breasts which were high and firm; and below the waist a pair of slenderly curved hips gave way to a set of long stemmed, shapely legs, entirely graceful, no longer gawky. It was a body to tempt any man, and Garrett Randall couldnt be blamed for responding more readily than most. What she had hoped to gain some insight into, however, was the reason for this body's reaction when she had been near Randall. Something had too account for the very definite physical responses he had aroused. Shouldnt there be some visible physical evidence of what had caused her to feel that way? But as much as she examined her image in the mirror, no answers came. So she climbed back into her chemise, and blowing out the lights, crept quietly to bed and went to sleep.

Chapter Five
    Mid afternoon, a few days later, Christie found herself saddled with a social obligation she had been unable to avoid. Shortly after the noon meal, as she had been about to change her clothes to go riding, Langston had announced the arrival of "some young people for Miss Christie." Asking him to show them to the terrace, Christie had grabbed the piece of embroidery she had been working on for the past six months ..."playing with" ... might have been a more apt phrase, for it was a piece Aunt Celia could have finished easily in a weekend ... and