“Why not?” Merlyn grinned. “A fictional character patterned after him would be a natural. And the period is fascinating, as you’ll see when we get further into it. I’m getting so caught up in it that I actually feel as if I can experience it in my mind.”
“You should try writing,” Lila told her. “I feel the same way about my fictional people and the periods they inhabit. This is the first time I’ve dabbled in this particular period of English history, but I’m delighted that we discovered each other.”
“So am I,” came the fervent reply. “I’m enjoying it more than I can tell you.”
“I’m very glad.”
“I’ve been a fan of yours for years,” Merlyn told the older woman. “I do so enjoy the love scenes,” she confessed sheepishly.
Lila laughed. “And I still do them blindfolded, because they embarrass me so!” she confessed.
“I’ll bet they don’t embarrass Miss Forrest,” came a deep, unpleasant voice from the walkway between the rose garden and the patio.
Merlyn looked up with arched eyebrows. “Is that wishful thinking?” she asked conversationally, “because you’d like to do one with me? Well, Mr. Rochester, you’re not bad-looking at all, but, honestly, I did come up here to work,” she told him with a sly smile.
His eyes got darker. He was wearing a green pullover knit designer shirt with tan slacks, and despite his size he looked trim and elegant. “Are you ever serious?”
“When I balance my bank statement. It’s enough to make me grim,” she lied.
“Did you want something, dear?” Lila asked before the conversation had a chance to deteriorate even more.
Reluctantly, he shifted his gaze to his mother. “Delle and Charlotte are on their way up. I thought you’d like to know before they walked in. They can only stay overnight. Delle has to fly to France in the morning to join her brother in Nice for a few days.”
“Lovely place, Nice,” Merlyn sighed. “Blue skies, white beaches…”
“How would you know?” Cameron scoffed.
Oops, she thought, smiling to conceal her lapse. “You don’t believe that I might spend holidays there?” she asked innocently.
“I do not,” he said bluntly, and his stare told her that he didn’t think she could afford a bus ticket to Atlanta, much less a plane ticket to France.
She shrugged. “Well, then, I won’t bore you with tales of summers in my father’s villa there.”
He ignored her. “I’ve asked Tilly to go to extra pains for dinner this evening,” he continued. “And we’ll dress. Charlotte and Delle are used to proper attire at dinner.” He gave Merlyn a hard look. “They’re from Charleston. Old money.”
Merlyn let her jaw drop to show that she was suitably impressed.
“I would appreciate it, Miss Forrest,” he added, “if you could manage to control your rather unusual sense of humor during the visit. The Radners are rather special to me.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, sir, I know my place,” Merlyn assured him.
He looked as if he’d never smiled. Poor man, she thought, probably he never had. She wondered what he was like in bed. He probably was less adventurous than Merlyn, and Merlyn was a virgin. She grinned at the thought of Cameron without clothes.
“When I said dress,” he added, “I meant formal dress.”
“I have this neat sweat shirt with lace on it.…” Merlyn began.
“But, Cameron,” Lila was protesting, “Merlyn shouldn’t be expected to…”
“Oh, really, I have plans for the evening,” Merlyn assured them, with a smile for her dark adversary. “In any case, since I came without my Bill Blass originals, it’s probably for the best. Don’t worry, I won’t be around to embarrass you in front of the Radners. I like staying out late at night. Until the wee hours.”
“Not here,” he told her. “You’ll be in by midnight, Miss Forrest. House rules. I don’t intend having my routine interrupted by you.”
She glared up at him hotly. “I will stay out as late as I like, Mr. Thorpe,” she returned. “These are not Victorian times, and you are most certainly not my master. As for dressing up for dinner…”
“Merlyn, you are most welcome to sit down to my table naked, if you like,” Lila interrupted.
“What a marvelous thought!” Merlyn laughed, rising to the occasion. She grinned at Cameron, who was getting madder by the minute. “You’re turning purple,” she added.
He drew in a slow breath, and his black eyes made threats. “Keep pushing,” he said quietly, “and see what happens.”
Her eyes widened. “I can hardly wait!”
With a harsh sigh, he turned on his heel and stalked off.
Lila grinned. “What a repressed boy I raised,” she murmured. “I had such plans for Cam, but his father stole him away from me in his formative years. Being dragged around the world and ridiculed at every turn has left its mark on him, I’m afraid.” She stared after him wistfully. “His father hurt him, belittled him. He wanted Cam to be strong and shrewd—well, he’s that. But my husband managed to take almost all the tenderness out of him. And what he left behind, Marcia destroyed with her cruelty.” She shook her head. “Cam’s had a hard life. But if he marries Delle, it can only get worse.”
“Is she that bad?” Merlyn asked, momentarily sympathetic.
“Oh, my dear,” Lila sighed, shaking her head mournfully. “I had such high hopes that he’d settle down one day—he’s nearing forty, you know. But I had hoped for a daughter-in-law who would be…” She glanced warily at Amanda, who was lost in her doll and its expensive accessories. “…different from Delle.”
“Different, how?” Merlyn asked, fascinated.
“You’ll see, I’m afraid,” came the weary reply.
***
The remark turned out to be prophetic. Merlyn had already decided that the best thing for her to do would be to go into Gainesville for the rest of the day while the Radners were in residence. She’d had enough of Cameron Thorpe’s disapproving glare for one day, and Lila had already told her it would be impossible to get any more work done with the guests around. The older woman had sighed wistfully when Merlyn made her decision known, and muttered that she’d like to go, too.
Merlyn walked out into the hall in her tasseled Mexican poncho with a green long-sleeved cotton blouse and white slacks, and stopped dead when she got her first look at Delle Radner.
Thin and dainty, with Shirley Temple blonde hair and over-mascaraed blue eyes, Cameron’s girlfriend was dressed as if she’d just been to a cocktail party or was headed for one. Her dress was a black street-length silk Charmeuse, obviously a designer model,
