Deadly Valentine by Carolyn G. Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

Summersby?” … “You mean Columbus actually had red hair?” … “Listen, everybody, I’ve got Romeo and I’ll trade for Rhett Butler.”
    The papier-mâché masks were light enough to wear comfortably. Velvet straps, with Velero strips, extended from the temples of each mask, making it possible to adjust for size when they were fastened.
    Annie rejected the Bonnie and Clyde masks. There were, she felt, definite limits to her enthusiasm for crime. Actually, she didn’t care at all for true crime and Bonnie and Clyde had been distinctly unattractive. Just about as charming as Billy the Kid, despite the varied literary efforts to make that teenage killer seem appealing. Apologists might see him as the avenger of his patron’s murder. Annie saw young Billy as a cold-blooded murderer, who had as much empathy for his victims as a stalking gray fox for marsh rabbits.
    As the masks were snatched up and passed around, matching pairs were quickly separated. Annie ended up with Marie Antoinette and Max with Lord Byron. Not, Annie decided, the most propitious possibilities.
    That’s when the evening began to get complicated.
    A trumpet tattoo erupted from the bandstand. Sydney Cahill hurried up the steps as a spotlight centered on her. She turned to look down at the guests, and the trumpet sounded again. Most women would look wan, their color leached out by the sharp brightness of the spotlight. Not Sydney. The diamond-white light merely enhanced her vibrant dark beauty. A faint flush of excitement stained her cheeks becomingly.
    “Everyone, it’s time for adventure.” Her voice, deep and soft and eager, held the promise of torrid nights and languid mornings. “So often we don’t know where we can find love. Just for tonight, let’s search for the heartbeat of love.We are all so afraid to be open, to reveal ourselves, so let’s see what chance can do and what we may discover behind the masks.” She leaned forward and the necklace of rubies and diamonds and emeralds glittered against her softly rounded breasts. “Here’s what we are going to do. I want all the ladies to gather in a circle.” She gestured encouragingly and the matching bracelet on her arm flashed like city lights sliding beneath a midnight flight. “Gentlemen, form a circle around the ladies.” The drummer tapped lightly but steadily. “And now,” Sydney called out, “ladies, send your masks three to the right. Gentlemen, send your masks three to the left, then”—she paused for dramatic emphasis, her voice dropping lower—“then seek out the proper match and discover the partner fate has chosen for you tonight!” The band broke into “Some Enchanted Evening.”
    Amid a great deal of laughter and false starts, the newly remasked guests milled about, merrily seeking their partners.
    Annie was next to the bandstand, adjusting her new mask as Queen Victoria, when Sydney started down the steps. The tousle-haired young man, a pettish look on his face, stepped forward, his hand outstretched, offering a mask to Sydney.
    After an instant’s hesitation, surprise evident in her arching brows, Sydney reached eagerly for the mask with its ice blond hair piled high in a careful coiffure, then looked hopefully at the giver. “Carleton?” she asked tentatively. Annie saw uncertainty in her soulful green eyes. And a hunger for kindness.
    “Madame de Pompadour,” the tousle-haired young man enunciated carefully. Too carefully. He held an empty drink glass in one hand. Annie felt sure it wasn’t the first.
    Sydney looked from his face to the mask and back again.
    “Slut,” he said distinctly. “Perfect for you.”
    Sydney’s emerald eyes filled with tears. Her lovely mouth trembled. She said pleadingly, “Carleton, please. Please don’t.”
    “One slut deserves another, right?”
    “Carleton.” Her voice shook. “I’ll tell Howard.”
    “‘Carleton, I’ll tell Howard,’” he mimicked in a high,drunken voice. “You just go right ahead