Nightfall by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online

the bright day and the brightness of the one person she hadn't seen yet. "Bridget!" she cried, flinging her arms around the woman who'd been the bastion of sanity in her childhood.
    Bridget put her burly arms around Cass, patting her. She smelled like vanilla and coffee and soap, that familiar-Bridget smell, and for the first time since she'd decided to come to New York, Cass felt a sense of well-being. "And where else would I be, missy?" Bridget demanded sternly. "You don't think I'm the type to retire and sit on my can all day, do you? I've been working all my seventy-six years, and I don't intend to stop now. As long as your father's raising hell and your stepma is more decorative than useful, I'll be here."
    Mabry, who was comfortably seated at the kitchen table, smiled sweetly, taking no offense. "Actually, Bridget doesn't come in as often as she used to, but once she heard you were coming, there was no holding her back."
    "Faith, they'd let you starve to death," Bridget said sternly, putting Cass at arm's length and peering up at her. "You look as if you'd lost weight already."
    "It's no wonder I love you," Cass said with a grin. "Why don't you tell Sean you're worried I'm too thin?"
    "That man!" Bridget said with a sniff. Their enmity was long-standing and mutually enjoyable. "You're not going to pay attention to the taste of a man who's been married five times, are you?"
    Mabry smiled sweetly. "But it simply took him five tries to get it right."
    "True enough. He certainly started out with two of the worst," Bridget said with the brutal frankness that was her hallmark. "And how is your dear mother? Still drinking too much?"
    Cass took the cup of coffee Mabry poured for her. "You know mother. Same as ever. She sends her love."
    "Not likely," Bridget said, returning to the stove. Bacon was sizzling in the cast-iron frying pan that had been in Sean's household since the beginning of time. "She's never forgiven me for staying with your father."
    Cass took a deep, appreciative sip. She never had the energy to make more than instant coffee on the way to work, and she'd forgotten just how wonderful fresh-brewed could be. "I think they fought more over custody of you than me and Colin," she said ruefully.
    "It's possible, knowing the two of them," Bridget said. "They never did have their priorities straight. You still like your eggs fried?"
    "I still like everything fried," Cass said mournfully.
    "At least I'll have someone to cook for. Mabry there doesn't eat enough to keep a bird alive, and your father's been just as picky recently. As for Richard…" Bridget rolled her eyes. "That man is impossible to tempt. I'm counting on you, Cassie, love."
    Cass sloshed her coffee as she sat. She very carefully avoided Mabry's curious gaze. "How's that?" she murmured with remarkable innocence.
    "He won't eat."
    "That's his choice."
    Bridget turned on her, fist on one sturdy hip. "Now listen here, missy. You know better than to pass judgment on your fellow man. I raised you better than that. He's a good man."
    Cass choked on her coffee. She raised incredulous eyes. "Are we talking about Richard Tiernan? The man convicted of murdering his pregnant wife? The man suspected of killing his children as well? A good man?"
    "You know better than to read those kinds of newspapers," the old woman said severely.
    "
The New York Times
?" Cass said.
    "Things aren't always what they seem."
    "He's told you that, has he?"
    "In case you haven't noticed, Bridget," Mabry said in her cool, tranquil voice, "it hasn't been a case of love at first sight." She took another sip of her coffee. "Cassidy doesn't approve of Sean's latest project."
    "It's not for me to approve or disapprove."
    "No," said Mabry. "It isn't."
    "Cassidy!" Sean's voice bellowed through the hallways.
    "He's up already?" Cass managed to say in a neutral tone of voice.
    "He hasn't been sleeping much," Mabry said. "They've been waiting for you."
    They. Another one of those inclusive words, as