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"For me?"
"Yes." He took a slip of paper out of his ja
cket pocket and handed it to me. It was a message from Mr. Bassinger. It just said everything was fine, but I should call him whenever I had an opportunity to do so.
"I hope there aren't any problems." Thatcher said.
"No. Its just the family attorney. He checked on my property while I was away."
"I see. Must be a family friend, too, for him to take a personal interest."
"Yes."
Thatcher's eves lingered on me like the eves of someone searching for hidden truths. I avoided his gaze and considered the food.
"Everything looks and smells so wonderful." "I'm sure it is my parents have a great chef."
They have their own chef?"
"Just for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," he remarked. "The only things my mother has ever cooked up are scandals and little social intrigues."
I laughed. We had a nice dinner and talked quietly. He told me more about his youth, a little more about his sister and her family and about some of his travels. He had been to just about anywhere I would have wanted to go. I had the impression he often had gone with someone. although I didn't think that someone was ever the infamous Mai Stone,
Afterward, we took a walk on the beach, held hands, kissed occasionally, and then, when he saw my eyes were closing, he suggested we go in and get some sleep.
"Too much sun and too many margaritas," I said. "As long as it isn't too much of me," he teased.
"Hardly," I said. His eves brightened, and then we walked back to the house. He saw me to my room and left to go to his suite.
I was asleep even before I pulled the blanket toward my chin.
But I woke up abruptly in the middle of the night as if I had a sixth sense that never slept, one that heard and saw and felt things beyond my body. I gazed at the clock and saw it was two o'clock in the morning. Looking out my windows, I saw the moon was long gone, and the stars it had captured in its glow were free to blaze. I rose slowly, almost like a sleepwalker who heard a voice calling to her. I felt myself drawn to the balcony and stepped out into the cooler night air. The sea breeze swirled around me and played with the hem of my nightgown. I took a deep breath and prepared to go back to bed when a light caught the corner of my eye, and I moved to the railing.
At first, I could see only the light. It looked as if it was moving, but what I understood a moment later was that the light came from a lantern someone was holding and swinging gently from right to left. As my eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness. I realized it was my mother standing out on the dock. She was dressed in a sheer white nightgown that seemed to absorb the starlight and glow.
What was she doing?
I studied the inky dark sea before her but saw only the lights of an ocean liner way off. against the horizon.
Whom was she expecting? How strange it all looked.
Impulsively. I went back inside. slipped into the robe and slippers Bunny had provided for me. and hurried out. There were lights on throughout the house. but it was very quiet, so quiet I could hear the sound of the surf through an open window. I tiptoed down the stairway and through the corridor to the rear loggia.
I could see the lantern still swinging in the darkness below, and I started down the walkway toward the beach house, my heart thumping. Almost halfway there, I stopped. What was I doing? How could I just come upon her in the middle of the night like this? Did she even know I was here? Did Linden tell her?
Would I frighten her so badly she would flee, embarrassed perhaps that I had discovered her out here this late at night? She wouldn't want to see me tomorrow, I thought.
I stood there debating with myself too long. By the time I started toward the dock again, she had turned away and was heading back toward the beach house. I thought about calling out to her. but I didn't. I just walked more slowly. She disappeared around the corner of the house before I arrived.
Now that I was down here in a nightgown, robe, and slippers myself. I felt foolish. I started to return to my bedroom, even though I knew it was going to be very difficult to fall asleep after this, Suddenly. I heard a movement and froze, Gradually, I turned back, studying the darkness, perusing every shadow.
I saw nothing and was about to give up when I heard the sound again and focused my eyes on the dark corner where it seemed a shadow lifted off the walls of the house and took three-dimensional form right before my eyes. Seconds later. Linden walked into the light. The sight of him took my breath away. I gasped and brought my hand to the base of my throat as I stepped back.
"What are you doing there?" I managed to ask in a very deep whisper.
"I was going for a walk," he said quickly. "What are you doing out here this late?"
"I saw... I was on my balcony, and I saw your mother out on the dock."
