Glittering Fortunes by Victoria Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

Addy’s year, yes, possibly: shirt untucked, messy hair, the big polished car that used to drop him off at the gates...
    ‘Silly question.’ Beth’s expression was wry. ‘You wouldn’t remember because you were so obsessed with Addy that you never even noticed anyone else.’
    ‘I was not.’
    ‘You were, too.’
    ‘He didn’t hang out with Addy. I’d have noticed if he had.’
    ‘That’s ’cause he didn’t like Addy.’
    ‘How would you know?’
    ‘It might be an impossible concept for you to grasp,’ Beth sighed, ‘but not everyone does. It’s just you who’s got this massive blind spot.’
    ‘All right, all right!’ Olivia bristled. ‘Anyway you should have seen him with Cato. They were at each other’s throats, standing there yelling at each other. No,’ she frowned, ‘not yelling, it was more restrained than that—and kind of more intense for it. At one point I thought they were going to strangle each other!’
    ‘Sexy!’
    ‘Hmm.’
    ‘Is it any wonder, though?’ Beth resumed grooming her horse, taking the brush in long slow strokes across the animal’s flank. ‘Of course they can’t stand to be in the same room, what with Cato shooting off the second their parents disappeared. Poor Charlie ,’ she grinned, ‘got left behind to look after everything.’
    ‘I suppose.’
    ‘What age was he back then, thirteen?’
    Olivia shrugged, trying to work it out in her head. Charlie would have left Towerfield at twelve, when the boys had gone into senior school. He would have been at Harrow a year before his parents vanished, and she guessed that the housekeeper had taken care of him after that. He definitely hadn’t been at Towerfield when it happened because if he had then Addy would have talked about it; and she would remember Addy talking about it, if nothing else.
    ‘It would have been bad for Cato, too,’ Olivia argued. ‘I expect running away was easier, maybe he just couldn’t face things here.’ Cato had been far nicer to her in their brief acquaintance, and she felt the need to defend him.
    ‘Maybe.’
    Olivia narrowed her eyes.
    ‘Between you and me,’ she confided, ‘I can’t help feeling the animosity’s about more than the parents dying. Something else, something deeper...’
    Beth leaned against the stable door. ‘Here’s an idea, Oli,’ she suggested. ‘How about you take this job for what it’s worth—just like I and every other girl at Lustell Cove would—and not get in way over your head like you always do?’
    ‘I have my head perfectly above water, thank you very much.’
    Beth giggled. ‘Only you could get run over by Cato Lomax in your first week back.’
    ‘It was an accident! Besides he was lovely to me, very apologetic.’
    ‘For fear you’d sue his arse—sorry, ass —all the way back to America?’
    Olivia nudged her. ‘Cynic.’
    ‘Oh, great.’ Beth groaned. ‘Look who it is.’
    With sinking hearts they spotted the Feeny twins making their way across the courtyard. Thomasina and Lavender had been in their form at Taverick Manor, and had stayed at the cove ever since, living off Daddy’s pocket money. They were snotty, spoiled little madams, with upturned noses like piglets. One was riding a black stallion; the other a white mare, like a pair of evil chess queens.
    ‘Hell-air!’ called Thomasina, easing her beast to a stop. Olivia could tell it was Thomasina because her nose was slightly more piggy than Lavender’s.
    ‘Hey.’ Olivia gave them the benefit of the doubt: perhaps they’d changed.
    ‘Good to see you settling back into your old life,’ commented Thomasina, peering snootily down at Olivia as if she were something growing mould in a petri dish. ‘There must be terrible competition in London to look thin.’
    They hadn’t changed.
    ‘Though I’d imagine Cato Lomax being back in town would be diet incentive enough for anyone,’ she finished. Next to her, Lavender tittered.
    ‘What do you want,