Carolina Isle Read online

  Ariel misunderstood her look. “It’s not that bad,” she said. “I mean, the part about my house and my mother isn’t so bad. King’s Isle is horrible, but the rest will be all right. You’ll see. Gather your courage and do it.”

  Ariel meant that Sara was to gather her courage to be able to jump into David’s waiting arms. Golly gee, Sara thought. I hope I can do it.

  Sara wiped the smile off her face, replaced it with a look of resignation, put the wig on, then fell out the window as gracefully as she could. It would have worked better if her foot hadn’t caught on a vine that was devouring the building. She ended up upside down, with one foot in the vine, one flailing about, and the top half of her in David’s strong arms.

  “Really, Sara!” Ariel hissed from the window. “You’re going to wake everyone up.”

  So much for sympathy from my dear cousin! Sara thought. She wanted to make a snappy comeback, but the sensation of being held by David rendered her incapable of speech. He leaned across her to disentangle her foot, then pulled her more fully into his arms—strong arms—all while apologizing for not catching her properly.

  As he carried her to his car, she snuggled her head against his shoulder, and thought that maybe she could forgive him for quite a few things.

  “How’s your foot?” he asked as he gently set her inside his car. She didn’t know what make the vehicle was, but she could smell the leather seats.

  “Fine,” she said and wished she had on one of Ariel’s designer dresses instead of cotton slacks and a polo shirt. David made her feel like a lady.

  He smiled and even in the dark she could see his white teeth. He closed the door, then got into the driver’s seat and started the car. “So you’re Sara.”

  “Actually, I’m supposed to be Ariel. Maybe once I get her clothes on I’ll look more like her. By the way, thank you for helping me back there. I’m not usually quite that clumsy.”

  “The first thing you’ll have to do is stop being so nice. Everyone will know you’re not Ariel!”

  Sara laughed and relief flowed over her. She knew that Ariel wasn’t in love with David, but she’d wondered why a man like him put up with her if he wasn’t in love with her. Now she saw that he wasn’t and all she felt was relief.

  “How about this: ‘David! You idiot! If you’d caught me when you should have, I wouldn’t have entangled my foot in that vine. Do you think that was poison ivy? Do you think we should go to the hospital?”’

  When David laughed again, she wanted to go on all night.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

  “I’ve never wanted to do it, but …” She shrugged to let him know that she had her reasons. “Did Ariel have time to tell you that R.J. agreed to all four of us going to King’s Isle tomorrow?”

  Sara wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard him mutter, “R.J.!”

  “So tell me about this King’s Isle,” she said, smiling. There wasn’t another car on the road. “Is it as bad as Ariel says?”

  “In Arundel, they don’t have the boogie man to scare the kids, they have King’s Isle,” he said. “Truthfully, the waters around there are full of reefs and there are a couple of buried ships. And there’ve been quite a few wrecks over the centuries. It’s tradition around here to make up stories about the islanders luring ships to their deaths.”

  “Shades of Daphne du Maurier,” Sara said, relieved to hear that Ariel’s fears were unfounded. She had almost started to believe Ariel’s paranoia.

  “So how did you get Brompton to agree to let Ariel and me go with you? I mean, let you and me go?”

  “Confusing, isn’t it?” she said and he nodded. “R.J. will give me whatever I want, but I make sure I don’t ask for much.”

  David gave her a sharp look. “Why would your boss give you anything you want?”

  “Because he can’t run his life without me.” Sara could hear her voice rising. “I coordinate everything in his life and do everything for him, from programming his cellphone to buying his underwear. The last time he gave a party, the bartender’s three kids came down with measles and I had to serve the drinks. He wanted me to wear a short skirt and a frilly white apron, but I told him he could take his sick fantasies somewhere else. You know what he gave me for my birthday? A pair of lovebirds. I gave them to a hospice. I tell you, that man—”

  Embarrassed, Sara broke off and looked at David. He was looking straight ahead, his face expressionless. Wow! she thought. He doesn’t give anything away, does he? He’d make one heck of a poker player, or a …

  “Have you ever thought about going into politics?” she asked.

  David’s beautiful face broke into astonishment and he briefly swerved into the next lane. “Found out,” he said. “Not even my mother knows my secret ambition. How did you figure it out?”

  Sara used all her acting training to keep a straight face. She’d been making a joke—or an insult. He was so stoical that he looked like one of those old presidents on paper money. “You want to save the world?” she asked, trying to sound earnest and not sarcastic.

  “More or less.” He glanced at her and his eyes were twinkling. “Save the environment, anyway. I’ve thought about trying to be secretary of the Interior.”

  “Why not president?” she asked flippantly, but even in the dark car she could see his face turn red.

  Turning away, she looked out the windshield. President. This man wanted to be the president of the United States. He was from a good family, had lots of money, an Ivy League education, and he wanted to be president. She looked at his strong arms inside his beautifully ironed shirt and knew that the women would vote for him.

  David pulled into a driveway and at last she saw the house she’d dreamed of for so long. He turned off the engine, then picked up her hand and held it. “You’ll be okay. When Ariel told me this is what she wanted to do, I said she couldn’t pull it off. How could anyone impersonate anyone else? But now that I’ve seen that you are a woman of great sensitivity and insight, I think you might be able to do it.”

  When he kissed her hand, Sara felt her knees turning to jelly. Worse, she felt herself sliding down into the seat. She’d daydreamed about this man for so long that it would seem natural to have a little make-out session in the car. Besides, she was supposed to be Ariel, so she and David were an item, weren’t they?

  But then an expression flickered across his eyes and it so reminded her of R.J. that she sat upright and snatched her hand out of his grasp. “David, really!” she said, imitating Ariel. “You’re not going to start that again, are you?”

  Instantly, his expression changed and he sat back in his seat. He blinked at her a few times, then smiled. “You are a good actress, aren’t you? For a minute there, I thought you were Ariel.”

  Sara did some blinking of her own because she’d just discovered that what the self-help books told you was true: Men treated you as you allowed them to treat you. When he knew she was Sara, a girl whose father was from the wrong side of the tracks, and she was melting at his touch, he was smirking at her in that way that R.J. smirked at women. But when she became Ariel, aka the Queen of the World, he sat up straight and minded his manners.

  “I think that from now on, even in private, we should play our proper roles,” Sara said, realizing for the first time that if she ever had a chance of winning this fabulous man, she was going to have to keep him from knowing that she wanted him. Mindful of that revelation, she put her hand on the car door handle. David stopped her.

  “You know that Miss Pommy will be waiting up for you, don’t you?”

  “Ariel’s mother? Tonight? But it must be—”

  “After two A.M. Yes, I know, but she’ll be there. You’ll just have to stand your ground.” He looked her up and down. “She’s going to hate what you have on. Can you brazen it out?”

  Sara opened her mouth to say that of course she could, but then her whole body turned the yellow of a coward. “Are Ariel’s suitc