The Body in the Boudoir by Katherine Hall Page Read Free Book Online Page B

distant memory as she looked at the face she wanted on the pillow next to her now and always.
    â€œI’m taking your inability to answer coherently as a yes, et cetera.”
    Hope should have gone into law, Faith thought fleetingly before the matter at hand crowded everything else out.
    â€œNow this is very important, Fay. Has he actually proposed?”
    â€œYes, on the back of a watch.”
    â€œWhat!”
    â€œIt’s a very nice one. Vintage Longines. Gold. He had ‘Will you marry me?’ engraved on the back,” Faith said defensively.
    â€œAnd you said yes? Otherwise quite a pain to get off, although I suppose he could save it for another prospect.”
    Hope was nothing if not practical.
    â€œI said yes, but.”
    â€œYes, but what?”
    â€œBut I’d have to come spend some time in Aleford. That’s where he lives. It’s not far from Boston, though.”
    The moment she’d seen the words and heard Tom say them aloud, she knew she was betrothed to him—knew she had probably loved him from the start as well—but she just couldn’t take the plunge without testing the water.
    â€œCan’t he move here? What does he do anyway? You never said. You’re talking about giving up a thriving business, although you could start it up again someplace else, but, Fay, are you sure? Leave New York!”
    An impediment, but this wasn’t the biggie. Faith took a deep breath.
    â€œI don’t know how to say this, but, Hope, he’s a minister.”
    â€œLike Dad! And Grandpa? You mean he has a church in this Aleford place? You’d better be crazy about him, because you have definitely gone crazy. I thought we had an agreement.”
    â€œI know. Believe me, I’ve thought of nothing else since we met. How was I to know he’d come into town to perform the ceremony? He’d changed his clothes before the reception.”
    â€œDefinitely not fair. Call me when he leaves. We have to talk.” Hope lived on the Upper West Side, too, but in a considerably larger apartment across from Lincoln Center with not only a full retinue on the ground floor at the door but an indoor pool on the top floor with a killer view of the city.
    When push came to shove, there was no one like a sister, Faith thought a few hours later, after seeing Tom off, reluctantly on both their parts, and he’d come back once for what was supposed to be a quick kiss and wasn’t.
    She made coffee, something she seemed to be doing with greater frequency lately, and put out what was left of the cheese and pâté. Hope was always hungry, the result of an extremely irregular eating schedule. She was touched that her sister was going in to work late—it was already six A.M. —in order to stop by.
    The two had always been close. Faith couldn’t remember life without Hope, and they made a nice pair, although Jane had never dressed them at all alike. Faith was a blue-eyed blonde, her thick hair curved below her chin. Hope’s chestnut hair was shorter and she’d inherited the Sibley deep green eyes. Tall and slender, they still shared clothes.
    She buzzed her up, and an hour later, they were still not talked out. Hope had devoured the leftovers and the croissants she’d picked up on the way. Faith wasn’t hungry, but sipped at her coffee as the torrent of words came spilling out—all the reasons why she was head over heels and all the reasons why the whole thing was, to use Tom’s word, “insane.” Blissfully so.
    â€œTo be continued,” Hope said. “I have a client coming into town for a breakfast meeting at the Mark, and I have to get going.” At the door, she gave her sister a big hug. “So this is what it looks like.”
    â€œWhat?” Faith asked, hugging her back.
    â€œTrue love.”
    â€œP oppy wants to give you a shower, and it has to be before we go away.”
    Emma Morris was sitting at