Two Down Read Online Free

stint into married life?”
    “I make my own decisions about domestic relationships,” he answered a little stiffly.
    She smiled again. “I wouldn’t be so boastful, if I were you. It sounds as if you get a lot of help.”
    “Greek women are pros when it comes to dispensing advice.”
    Belle finished looping Rosco’s tie into a perfect bow. “You’re right, an evening with Sara Crane Briephs is beginning to sound like child’s play. At least she speaks a language I can understand.”
    “That’s what you think.”
    “And on your next ‘Third Tuesday,’ I vow to positively resist all temptation to say, ‘It’s Greek to me.’ ”
    “Smart choice.”
    They strolled toward the Jeep hand in hand. But when Rosco opened the door for Belle, she suddenly balked. “I don’t know, Rosco . . . Do you think you should have rented a car for this evening?”
    “This is a car.”
    She sighed. “Well, yes, if you want to get picky about definitions, it is . . . What I meant was . . . would it have been advisable to consider renting something a bit more . . . more—”
    “Upscale? I asked Sara that very question. She knows about the Jeep, but insisted it’s nouveau to rent limousines.” Rosco attempted a Sara Crane Briephs voice: “If you don’t own one, my dear boy, you have no business riding around in one.”
    Belle laughed, then turned serious. “I hope I pass muster. She sounds dreadfully overbearing.”
    “You’ll do fine, Belle. She’s very ‘fond’ of me. She’ll be just as crazy about you.”
    Belle groaned. “Is that the type of specious reasoning they spout at the police academy? That women who share affection for the same man are the best of friends? I would imagine the idea would raise the hackles of any criminal investigator.”
    “I’m talking about Sara. Not an ax murderer.”
    “What’s that line about a jealous woman from Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors ? ‘Poison more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth . . . ’?”
    Pride spread across Rosco’s face. “I’ll never understand how you know all this peculiar stuff. You’re basically a walking encyclopedia, aren’t you?”
    In the rosy darkness, Belle’s bare neck and shoulders blushed a shining crimson while her lips formed a small, self-deprecating smile. “I told you, I had an eccentric childhood . . . Just don’t ask me to quote Nancy Drew.”
    “How about the Hardy Boys?”
    “Don’t tell me you read the Hardy Boys?”
    Rosco chortled. “Hey, just because I have relatives who don’t speak English doesn’t mean I didn’t have a normal American childhood.”
     
    They pulled into White Caps’ sweeping circular gravel drive at five minutes before seven. The Briephs estate sat high on Liberty Hill, overlooking Newcastle and the harbor beyond. Sara’s brother, Hal Crane, a United States senator, owned the adjacent property. Both pieces of land had been in the Crane family for over three hundred years and were a dominant feature on the city’s landscape. The exterior of the homes, their manicured gardens, and brick outbuildings had been only slightly altered since they’d beenbuilt in the mid-1700s, creating the impression that the Federal era in a prosperous Massachusetts whaling city was still at hand.
    Emma, Sara’s faithful maid, opened the door for Rosco and Belle, then led them toward the parlor where the great lady was waiting. Over the years, Emma had assumed many of her mistress’s mannerisms, making her a shorter, squarer, slightly younger version of the home’s doyenne .
    Walking behind the maid’s starchy form and listening to the taffeta rustle of her black uniform, Belle experienced the same unease Rosco had encountered during his initial visit to White Caps, although to Belle the engendered memories were of sojourns to the unconventional homes of her professor parents’ friends. She recalled similar dimly lit and foreboding hallways, the slow tock of a grandfather clock, paneled