Read Online Copper Kingdom by Iris Gower - Free Book Online Page B

cheek, laughing as the coarse hair of his sideburns tickled her nose.
    â€˜I’m going to my room to change, I refuse to be seen looking like a frump,’ she said in mock reproof. ‘You really should let me know when anyone is coming to call, you know I want to be a credit to you always.’
    She was aware of her father’s quick look. ‘You don’t have to make any special effort for Sterling,’ he said gruffly. ‘You played together as children, if you remember.’
    â€˜Well there’s no harm in me wanting to look pretty, is there?’ Bea asked lightly and at last, James shook his head. ‘I think you look perfectly well as you are but go and change if you must.’
    Bea blew him a kiss and hurried through the hall and up the wide staircase towards her room. Once inside, she closed the door and went directly to the window and looked down into the gardens. The grounds were swathed now in misty rain and far below, she could hear the wash of the sea against the shore.
    She rested her face against the cold of the glass pane, closing her eyes, picturing Sterling’s sensitive, handsome face. She wondered, as she did frequently these days, how it would feel to have his lips capturing her own. She moved impatiently from the window and looked at the bare third finger of her left hand. Marriage to Sterling had been a dream that had sustained her for some time now. He was the only man she would ever want but he had never said anything to make her believe her dream would one day become a reality.
    Bea opened the heavy door of the wardrobe and drew out a soft velvet skirt and a jacket of baby blue angora. The blouse she was wearing was of thick, creamy lace and would do very well, she thought.
    She was a woman who had come to full maturity. Her mouth and the droop of her heavy-lidded eyes revealed a sensuality of which she was not entirely unaware. Her hair was glossy and dark, drawn away from a high intelligent forehead. About her was an air of waiting, like a bud before it comes to its full-blown glory.
    Bea had just finished dressing when she heard the chiming of the doorbell. Quickly, she slipped on her soft leather shoes with their small, baby Louis heels and hurried downstairs.
    Sterling’s face shone with cold and his bright hair was diamonded with droplets of rain. He brought into the hallway with him the feeling of the outdoors, of air fresh and balmy. He smiled down at her and absurdly, Bea felt suddenly shy.
    â€˜You look very lovely today.’ He spoke lightly but his eyes rested on her with such approval that Bea felt breathless with happiness. He was so close that she could have reached out and touched him and yet it was as though a great divide separated them.
    â€˜Thank you, Sterling.’ The words sounded stilted even to her own ears and she wondered where the easy relationship they had enjoyed in their childhood had vanished.
    â€˜Come into the drawing room,’ she added quickly, ‘Daddy won’t be long – I left him in the conservatory.’
    Together, they moved into the warmth of the spacious room where a huge fire roared and crackled in the ornate hearth. A carpet of rich Indian weave covered the floor and a grand piano occupied pride of place near the large window. Against one wall stood a high-backed sideboard upon which rested a set of lead crystal decanters and matching glasses.
    â€˜Would you like some brandy?’ Bea asked, her face turned away from him. ‘Please, Sterling, sit down, don’t stand on ceremony with me.’
    As she approached him with the glass, he patted the sofa beside him and she felt it would be churlish to refuse.
    â€˜I’m very fond of you, Bea,’ he said softly. ‘But I’m sure you know that already.’
    â€˜Do I?’ She wanted to cry to him that she was growing older, that friendship was no longer enough. She longed for him to speak to her father to ask for her in