Read Online Singing in the Wilderness by Isobel Chace - Free Book Online

who worked abroad should live alone, but now I’m not so sure. What do you think about that?’
    Stephanie pulled the glass out of her bag and studied herself for a long moment before replying. She looked completely different! Less the perfect secretary and more—More what? More like a girl who wanted to please, she thought, and was not very sure how to go about it. She looked—there was no doubt about it!—very much more like herself!
    ‘I don’t think anyone should live alone,’ she said.
    ‘And Iran is hardly the back of beyond these days,’ he added, watching her closely.
    ‘But you may not be here very long,’ she objected. ‘They may send you somewhere else and bring my father back to finish here.’
    He took the mirror from her. ‘No, they won’t do that. Was that what all the tears were about, Stephanie? Were you missing your father?’
    ‘Not really.’ She was too honest to pretend about a thing like that. The memory of the letters she had found gave her a nasty jolt, though, and she wondered yet again what to do about them. ‘Cas, how important is all this equipment to the project? Can we manage without it?’
    ‘Not a hope. They’re laying the cables now between the Russian border and the eastern part of the country, and the stocks are running low. Still, it isn’t the only trouble we’re having. Some of the nomads don’t care for the way the wires sing when the wind gets into them. They think they’re voices from another world and want them taken away. Sooner or later we may have to sort something out about that.’ He grinned. ‘If I go on tour, shall I take you with me ? ’
    Her breath caught in her middle and her eyes were wide with excitement. ‘Would you? Could you? I’d love to go anywhere !’
    ‘It would mean roughing it,’ he warned her. ‘You like to have everything in apple-pie order, don’t forget, and camping isn’t always like that.’
    ‘I should think it’s more necessary than ever in difficult conditions,’ she retorted. ‘If everything is put away properly fewer things get lost. It stands to reason!’
    ‘So it does!’ he teased her. ‘You haven’t said what you think of your new hair-style.’
    ‘Haven’t I ? ’ She averted her face, blushing a little. ‘I like it. I didn’t know you were a hairdresser as well as everything else.’
    His smile grew wider. ‘I wanted to change your style right from the start!’ He looked up as there was a knock at the door. ‘Come in!’ He was not smiling now. On the contrary, he looked downright grim.
    The door opened a few inches to admit the most beautiful girl Stephanie had ever seen. She crossed the room with sinuous grace, her feet completely silent, with eyes only for Cas. Voluptuous was the adjective that first came to mind, with a fantastic, curvaceous figure that bordered dangerously on being overweight, but so far was just teetering on the brink of a description that Stephanie knew without being told would reduce the figure’s owner to hysterical despair.
    ‘Meet Amber,’ he invited Stephanie laconically.
    Stephanie shot him a bewildered glance. ‘Amber?’
    ‘My professional name,’ the girl put in with a complacent smile. ‘I’m a singer.’
    ‘She dances too,’ Cas added.
    ‘The two go together,’ Amber retorted. ‘You may see me anywhere in the Middle East. I am very much in demand!’
    ‘Yes, but what is your real name?’ Stephanie asked. Amber shrugged her magnificent shoulders. ‘It’s too long ago for me to remember. Amber is more me. My other name didn’t suit me at all.’ She managed to drag her eyes away from Cas’s face and stared with surprise first at Stephanie and then at the little pile of hair on the floor. ‘What strange things one does in offices nowadays!’
    ‘We had a burglar,’ Stephanie muttered.
    ‘So I see. What else was taken besides pieces of your hair?’
    ‘Oh, that!’ Stephanie raised a muted laugh. ‘That was Cas—Mr. Ruddock, I mean. He was