True Love by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online

once decking on a ship. Alix knew that she used to sit there and color while someone made her a sandwich. Again she had a vision of an older woman. If that was Aunt Addy, the owner of the house, where was her mother? And if they were guests of Aunt Addy, why had they stayed in the maid’s quarters? None of it made any sense.
    “Doesn’t this make you itch to tear it out?” Izzy asked as she looked around the kitchen. “I think there should be granite countertops and maple cabinets. And I’d take down that wall into the dining room.”
    “No!” Alix said with too much force, then calmed herself. “I’d leave it just as it is.”
    “I think this place is taking you over,” Izzy said, then exclaimed over finding a frozen pizza. “We’ll feast tonight! Think this thing works?” She was referring to the oven in the old range.
    To the amazement of both of them, Alix knew how to ignite the pilot light in the oven, knew that the knobs were quirky and just how to jiggle each one.
    Izzy stood back, watching her, but refused to comment.
    Alix was looking around the kitchen and again she had the idea that she knew something but couldn’t remember what it was. When she saw the doorknob of a pirate’s head next to the fridge, she said, “Ah-ha!” and gave a pull.
    Izzy went to see what she’d found.
    “This cabinet was always locked and I was fascinated by it. I even tried to steal the key but I couldn’t find it.” She had a vague memory of a man with a deep voice telling her that she couldn’t have the key, but Alix didn’t tell Izzy that.
    For a moment the two women stood there staring in disbelief. The cabinet held bottles of booze and mixers. What was unusual was that nearly all the bottles were rum: dark, light, gold, white, andat least a dozen flavored varieties. In the middle of the cabinet was a marble-topped surface, and below it was a single-drawer refrigerator full of fresh citrus fruits. The kitchen may not have been modernized in nearly a century, but the bar was straight out of a decorating magazine.
    “We can see where Miss Kingsley set her priorities,” Izzy said.
    Alix wondered if the reason she’d associated rum with Nantucket was from having seen people drinking it in this room. Whatever the logic behind the cabinet, there were drink recipes taped to the back of the doors and she wanted to experiment. “How about a Zombie?” she asked Izzy. “It takes three kinds of rum. Or maybe a Planter’s Punch?”
    “No, thanks,” Izzy said. “I’ll stick to champagne.”
    It didn’t take them long to get their food and drinks into the TV room. For tonight the other rooms were too big, too intimidating for them to use.
    “You have three days,” Izzy said and they both knew what she meant. “He” would return in three days. “I wonder if today is one of the three? Which means that you only have two left. I’ll have to do a lot of shopping quickly.”
    “The luggage should be here tomorrow and I have plenty of clothes.”
    “I saw what you packed. All you have are sweats and jeans.”
    “Which is what I’ll need,” Alix said. “I plan to work while I’m here. I thought about asking my dad if he knows anyone who summers here and if I can get a job. It would have to be under his license, and his approval, but maybe it could work out.”
    “I’m not talking about your father,” Izzy said.
    Alix took a deep drink of her Planter’s Punch. Usually she got drunk easily but she was on her second rum drink and wasn’t even feeling a buzz. “I want to learn from Jared Montgomery. If I show up in shorts and a halter or some designer concoction, he’s going to look at me like he did at that girl today.”
    “So where’s the problem with that ?” Izzy asked.
    “I don’t think he took her seriously as an intelligent being, do you?”
    Izzy sipped her champagne. “You and work! Don’t you ever think of anything else?”
    “And what’s wrong with that?”
    “What’s wrong with you