Duet for Three Hands Read Online Free Page B

said Mrs. Bellmont to her daughter.
    Frances gave Nathaniel her hand. “Something to look forward to then, even though it seems terribly far away.” She paused, looking up at him from under thick lashes. “I can’t remember a better evening.”
    Nathaniel kissed both women’s hands and bid them good night. After he closed the door, he turned toward Walt, grinning. “She wants to see me again. I can hardly believe it.”
    “I don’t think Frances Bellmont’s a good idea.” Walt went to the table and poured a last bit of champagne into his glass from the open bottle on the table.
    “Why? Did something happen between you?”
    “Let’s just say I know women, and she’s trouble.” Walt downed the champagne in one gulp and thumped the glass down on the table. “You could have your pick of women, you know, if you could conquer this shyness.”
    “I tried tonight, Walt. I thought you’d be pleased.” He deflated, like a cake just taken from the oven into a cold room.
    “I want you to be happy. I know you’re lonely, the way we work all the time. Hell, so am I. But you have to be careful of beautiful women. They come at a price.”
    “They do?”
    “The most important decision of any man’s life is who he chooses as his wife. Remember that.” Walt picked up his jacket from one of the chairs and draped it over his arm. “Miss Bellmont is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. That also makes her the most dangerous.”
    Walt was out the door before Nathaniel could think of what to say.

    L ater , he tossed about in the large bed, fluffing pillows and then flattening them, moving from one side of the bed to the other in an attempt to get comfortable, thinking about Frances. He thought he heard a knock on the door. Surely he hadn’t? No one would call this late. The knock came a second time. He sat up. It must be Walt. Perhaps he’d forgotten something. Pulling on his dressing gown, Nathaniel walked to the door. “Walt, is that you?”
    “It’s Frances Bellmont. I’ve left a glove.”
    His pulse quickened. He opened the door a crack. She was in the hall, wearing the dress from earlier, but without shoes. Her feet, beautiful like the rest of her, he thought. The sight of them made him almost light-headed. “Come in.” He opened the door wider and searched the hallway behind her, expecting to see Mrs. Bellmont. It was empty.
    “I’m awfully sorry to bother you.” She raised her voice a half octave and put her hands in front of her like a cat batting a string and backed him all the way into the room. She closed the door behind her. “I’m the little kitten who’s lost her mitten.”
    He looked around the suite. The glasses were stacked neatly on the table, the bottles taken away by Walt. “I haven’t seen it.”
    She made her lips into a pout. “Oh, that’s too bad for me, I guess.”
    “I’ll send you a new pair tomorrow.”
    “How thoughtful.”
    I’d spend a lifetime buying you gloves or anything else you want, he thought. Anything to please you.
    “I wish you didn’t have to go tomorrow,” she said.
    “You do?” He stared at her, a flicker of happiness in his gut.
    She looked into his eyes. “I confess I have a schoolgirl crush on you, Nathaniel Fye.” She smiled without showing her teeth and shrugged her slender shoulders. “Do I sound awful?”
    “It makes me sound like an old man when you say it like that.” Why had he said that? He meant to have said something about how nice that was, how much he liked her, instead of another idiotic utterance.
    She came closer until she was only inches away. He smelled talcum powder and the now almost familiar scent of her skin. Gardenias. “You’re awfully handsome for an old man. Yet you have no idea that you are. Do you see how women look at you like they want to eat you?”
    “No, not exactly.”
    She took hold of the bottom of his sleeping shirt, eating the space between them so his thighs brushed the fringe on her dress. “I