Twin of Fire Read online

  Houston leaned toward her sister. “Leander may set your body on fire, but he never did anything for me. If you hadn’t been so involved with yourself lately, and could think that I do have some brains of my own, you’d have seen that I’ve fallen in love with a good, kind, thoughtful man—admittedly he’s a little rough around the edges, but then, haven’t you always complained that my edges are a little too smooth?”

  Blair sat down. “You love him? Taggert? You love Kane Taggert? But I don’t understand. You’ve always loved Leander. For as long as I can remember, you’ve loved him.”

  Some of Houston’s anger seemed to leave her and she turned away to look out the window. “True, I decided I wanted him when I was six years old. I think it became a goal to me, like climbing a mountain. I should have set my sights on Mt. Rainier. At least, once I’d climbed it, it would have been done. I never knew what I was going to do with Leander after we were married.”

  “But you do know what you’ll do with Taggert?”

  Houston looked back at her sister and smiled. “Oh, yes. I very much know what I’m going to do with him. I am going to make a home for him, a place where he’ll be safe, a place where I’ll be safe, where I can do whatever I want.”

  Blair stood and it was her turn to clench her fists. “I guess you couldn’t have bothered to take two minutes to tell me this, could you? I have been through Hades in the last weeks. I have worried about you, spent whole days crying about what I’ve done to my sister, and here you tell me that you’re in love with this King Midas.”

  “Don’t you say anything against him!” Houston shouted, then calmed. “He’s the kindest, gentlest man and very generous. And I happen to love him very much.”

  “And I have been through agony because I was worried about you. You should have told me!”

  Houston idly ran her hand along the edge of the desk that sat in the middle of the room. “I guess I was so jealous of your love match that I didn’t want to think about you.”

  “Love match?!” Blair exploded. “I think I’m Leander’s Mt. Rainier. I can’t deny that he does things to me physically, but that’s all he wants from me. We’ve spent days together in the operating room, but I feel there’s a part of Leander I don’t know. He doesn’t really let me get close to him. I know so little about him. He decided he wanted me, so he went after me, using every method he could to get me.”

  “But I see the way you look at him. I never felt inclined to look at him like that.”

  “That’s because you never saw him in an operating room. If you’d seen him in there, you would have—.”

  “Fainted, most likely,” Houston said. “Blair, I am sorry that I didn’t talk to you. I probably knew that you were in agony, but what happened hurt. I had been engaged to Leander for, it seemed to me, most of my life, yet you walked in and took him in just one night. And Lee was always calling me his ice princess, and I was so worried about being a cold woman.”

  “And you’re no longer worried about that?” Blair asked.

  The color in Houston’s cheeks heightened. “Not with Kane,” she whispered.

  “You really do love him?” Blair asked, still not able to comprehend this fact. “You don’t mind the food flying everywhere? You don’t mind his loudness or the other women?”

  Blair could have bitten out her tongue.

  “What other women?” Houston asked, eyes narrowed. “And Blair, you’d better tell me.”

  Blair took a deep breath. It would have been all right to tell Houston what she had seen before she’d married the man, but now it was too late.

  Houston advanced on her sister. “If you even consider managing my life again as you did today at the altar, I’ll never speak to you again. I am an adult, and you know something about my husband, and I want to know what it is.”

  “I saw him in the garden kissing Pamela Fenton just before the wedding,” Blair said all in one breath.

  Houston whitened a bit, but she seemed to be under control. “But he came to me anyway,” she whispered. “He saw her, kissed her, but he married me.” A brilliant smile lit her face. “Blair, you have made me the happiest woman alive today. Now, all I have to do is find my husband and tell him that I love him and hope that he will forgive me.”

  She stopped suddenly. “Oh, Blair, you don’t know him at all. He’s such a good man, generous in a very natural way, strong in a way that makes people lean on him, but he’s…” She buried her face in her hands. “But he can’t stand embarrassment of any kind, and we’ve humiliated him in front of the entire town. He’ll never forgive me. Never!”

  Blair started toward the door. “I’ll go to him and explain that it was all my fault, that you had nothing to do with it. Houston, I had no idea you really wanted to marry him. I just couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to live with someone like him.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about that anymore, because I think he just walked out on me.”

  “But what about the guests? He can’t just leave.”

  “Should he stay and listen to people laughing about how Leander can’t decide which twin he wants? Not one person will think that Kane could have his choice of women. Kane thinks I’m still in love with Lee, you think I love Lee, and Mr. Gates thinks I’m marrying Kane for his money. I think Mother is the only person who sees that I’m in love—for the very first time in my life.”

  “What can I do to make it up to you?” Blair whispered.

  “There’s nothing you can do. He’s gone. He left me money and the house and he walked away. But what do I want with this big, empty house if he’s not in it?” She sat down. “Blair, I don’t even know where he is. He could be on a train back to New York for all I know.”

  “More than likely, he’s gone to his cabin.”

  Both women looked up to see Kane’s friend, Edan, standing in the doorway. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but when I saw what happened at the wedding, I knew he’d be in a rage.”

  Houston expertly wrapped the train of her wedding dress about her arm. “I’m going to him and explain what happened. I’m going to tell him that my sister is so in love with Leander that she thinks that I am, too.” She turned to smile at Blair. “I can’t help but resent the fact that you thought that I was low enough to marry a man for his money, but I thank you for the love that made you willing to sacrifice what has come to mean so much to you.” Quickly, she kissed her sister’s cheek.

  Blair clung to her sister for a moment. “Houston, I had no idea you felt this way. As soon as the reception is over, I’ll help you pack and—.”

  Houston pulled away with a little laugh. “No, my dear managing sister, I am leaving this house right now. My husband is more important to me than a few hundred guests. You’re going to have to stay here and answer all the questions about where Kane and I’ve gone.”

  “But Houston, I don’t know anything about receptions of this size.”

  Houston stopped at the door beside Edan. “I learned how in my ‘worthless’ education,” she said, then smiled. “Blair, it’s not all that tragic. Cheer up, maybe there’ll be an attack of food poisoning, and you’ll know how to handle that. Good luck,” she said and was out the door, leaving Blair alone to the horror of having to deal with the enormous, elaborate reception.

  “Why did I ever open my big mouth about that school Houston chose?” she mumbled, as she straightened her dress, tried to breathe inside the tight corset, and left the room.

  Chapter 18

  The reception was worse than Blair had imagined it could be. People were always running out of this or that and, the minute Houston was out of sight, no one seemed to know what to do. And then, there were what seemed to be hundreds of Lee’s relatives to meet, all of them asking questions about the unusual exchanging of twins. Opal began spreading the rumor that Houston’s husband had taken her away on a white horse (probably one with wings, Blair thought), and all the young ladies were whispering that Kane was the most romantic of men. All Blair could t