Storm Over the Lake by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

“When you’re through having hysterics, I’ve got another letter to dictate.”
    Hysterics! She raised a trembling hand to her face, brushing away the tears. Her heart felt like a dead weight in her chest. She wanted to lie down someplace quiet and just die.
    He was behind her suddenly, his big hand outstretched with a soft white handkerchief. “Dry your eyes, little girl,” he said, and his voice was almost kind.
    She took it wordlessly and dabbed at her eyes, blowing her nose. She clutched it in her hand like a lifeline.
    â€œI’ll get my pad,” she said, raising her face proudly, her red-rimmed eyes meeting his levelly.
    He watched her walk into the house, her spine as straight as a slide rule, her carriage faultless. With her back to him, she didn’t see the look that was carved on his dark face.

Four
    T he drive up to Devereaux’s cabin on Lake Lanier took barely an hour, even in the weekend traffic, but to Dana and Lillian it seemed much longer.
    â€œI hate riding,” Lillian confided as Frank helped them unload their preparations from the sleek Lincoln. “I like being there and being back, but I hate the in-between.”
    Dana only laughed, her eyes on the redwood cabin, so spacious and majestic inits woodsy setting on the lakefront. It boasted huge picture windows and sliding glass doors and a fireplace that must have been heaven to sit by in winter.
    It was the perfect setting for a party, with the wide pier on the lake and the boat dock next to it, and the beautiful clean silence of bark and grass and brown earth.
    Dana paused on the wide front porch overlooking the lake and let the cool wind tear at her loosened hair. She’d stood here with him once, at night, and listened to the sound of dogs baying in the distance. And listened to his deep voice as he told her about the old days when he hunted the Georgia mountains with his father in the fall, while he was growing up in Chicago.
    â€œBeautiful, isn’t it?” Lillian sighed, pausing beside her. “Peace and quiet and birds and wind rustling the trees. This place keeps the Mister sane, I’ll tell you. It’s his refuge.”
    â€œWhy does he want to ruin it with a houseful of drunk people?” Dana wanted to know.
    â€œStill a teetotaler, are you?” Lillianteased. “Baby, you just can’t understand why people drink, can you?”
    Remembering last night, Dana felt a shudder run through her. “Oh, I’ve got a good idea. Lillian, do you think that band’s reliable?”
    â€œSure they are. Don’t worry, now, everything’s going to be just fine. Trust me. Nothing’s going to go wrong.”
    Sure, Dana thought to herself when the band leader called fifteen minutes before he was due to arrive with his group and told her there’d been a car wreck. Fortunately, no one was hurt badly, but they wouldn’t be able to perform.
    That was just the tip of the iceberg. She’d forgotten to get a bag of ice, and there was none in the refrigerator. The ham she’d wrapped so lovingly flew out of her hands as she tripped on the steps and went rolling down into the lake.
    She sat down on the front stoop, her face in her hands, with ten minutes to get everything ready before Devereaux and his party arrived.
    â€œDana, what are you doing?” Lillian called, her apron waving in the wind.
    â€œI’m having a nervous breakdown?!” she replied.
    â€œWhere’s the ham?”
    Dana pointed toward the shore, where the lake was lapping gently around the lovely huge party ham.
    â€œAnd the band?”
    â€œThey were in a wreck and they can’t come. They’re very sorry,” she added.
    â€œMy God!”
    â€œIt’s all right,” Dana told her reassuringly. “He’ll only drown me once, you know.”
    â€œWhat will we do?” Lillian was muttering to herself, as if she could hear the funeral dirge being