The Best Way to Lose Read Online Free Page B

later.”
    It was very difficult to argue with his logic. Pilar wavered indecisively, a darkly troubled glance straying in the direction of Elliot’s room, blocked from her view by intervening hospital walls.
    No matter how superstitious it sounded, she couldn’t help wondering if Elliot might not have suffered that attack if she’d gone with him to play tennis. And it was a different face of that same superstition that insisted she stay at the hospital if she didn’t want something else to happen to Elliot. In the light of his son’s argument her reason sounded crazy and childish.
    “The hospital will call if there is any change in his condition.” Trace added a further argument while he watched her struggling to make up her mind.
    “All right.” Pilar gave in, refusing to be ruled by ridiculous superstition.

    *   *   *
    The imposing two-and-a-half-story house was a white blue in the night’s darkness, surrounded by gardened lawns shaded by live oaks draped with ghostly Spanish moss. Its architecture was generally considered as fairly typical of the southern planter style, with a porch circumventing the house on three sides and supporting a balcony above it, protected by the wide overhang of the house’s slanting roof.
    In its history it had gone by many names. The first Mrs. Santee had resurrected the name of Dragon Walk, given to it by one of its previous owners, an amateur archaeologist. The chain of steep loess hills, which stretched northward from Natchez to Vicksburg, were fossil-rich in the skeletal remains of mastodons and giant sloths, mammoth prehistoric beasts upon which the dragon myth was based. The old plantation home was located in these hills on the northern edge of Natchez, hence its colorful name, Dragon Walk.
    When the car turned into the carriage-wide driveway, the front porchlight came on. It was a welcoming touch and Pilar experienced a moment’s relief that she wasn’t going home to an empty house. Cassie Douglas was there to fill the large, rambling home with her warmth. Pilar stopped the car at the head of the circular drive and reached for her purse in the middle of the front seat.
    “Do you want me to put the car away for you?” The inquiry came from the shadowyfigure sitting in the front passenger seat. During the ride from the hospital their conversation had been desultory at best.
    “No. I’m leaving it here in case the hospital calls in the night.” The interior light flashed on when she opened the car door, giving her side vision a glimpse of the craggy planes of his sun-browned face.
    The slam of the passenger door echoed the closing of her side door. She paused to adjust the knotted sleeves of the lavender sweater tied loosely around her neck while he pulled his duffel bag from the rear seat. There was a chilling coolness in the air, fragrant with the sweet scent of gardenias.
    Dragon Walk was famous for its floral gardens and flowering trees. Something was always in bloom year-round. Gardenias and camelias in the winter, azaleas and crocuses in the spring, roses and water lilies in the summer, and a profusion of chrysanthemums in the fall.
    After sliding an absent glance in Trace’s direction to assure that he was coming, Pilar followed the short sidewalk to the fanned steps rising to the wooden porch. The upright pillars supporting the porch roof and second-floor balcony were carved from the trunks of cypress trees and layered smooth with coats of white paint.
    White wicker chairs, sofas, and tables extended the living area of the large house onto the porch, with some of the hardier potted plants left outside to add life. The exposure ofthe porch on three sides of the house insured that there would always be a place to enjoy a breeze in summer’s sultry season or sunshine during winter’s cooler days. It was one of the most frequently used areas of the house.
    Her heels made clicking sounds on the gray porch decking as Pilar crossed to the massive, solid mahogany