Read Online Tell Me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon - Free Book Online Page B

state-of-the-art building that can accommodate thousands of conventioneers. At nine o’clock in the morning, the vast halls were crowded with computer experts from all over the world, exchanging information on up-to-the-minute developments. They filled multimedia rooms, exhibit halls and video-conferencing centers. There were half a dozen seminars going on simultaneously. Toni was bored. All talk and no action, she thought. At 12:45, she slipped out of the convention hall and took a taxi to the restaurant.
    Jean Claude was waiting for her. He took her hand and said warmly, “Toni, I am so pleased you could come.”
    “So am I.”
    “I will try to make certain that your time here is very agreeable,” Jean Claude told her. “This is a beautiful city to explore.”
    Toni looked at him and smiled. “I know I’m going to enjoy it.”
    “I would like to spend as much time with you as I can.”
    “Can you take the time off? What about the jewelry store?”
    Jean Claude smiled. “It will have to manage without me.”
    The maître d’ brought menus.
    Jean Claude said to Toni, “Would you like to try some of our French-Canadian dishes?”
    “Fine.”
    “Then please let me order for you.” He said to the maître d’, “Nous voudrions le Brome Lake Duckling.” He explained to Toni, “It is a local dish, duckling cooked in calvados and stuffed with apples.”
    “Sounds delicious.”
    And it was.
    During luncheon, they filled each other in on their pasts.
    “So. You’ve never been married?” Toni asked.
    “No. And you?”
    “No.”
    “You have not found the right man.”
    Oh, God, wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were that simple. “No.”
    They talked of Quebec City and what there was to do there.
    “Do you ski?”
    Toni nodded. “I love it.”
    “Ah, bon, moi aussi. And there is snowmobiling, ice-skating, wonderful shopping…”
    There was something almost boyish about his enthusiasm. Toni had never felt more comfortable with anyone.
    Shane Miller arranged it so his group attended the convention mornings and had their afternoons free.
    “I don’t know what to do here,” Alette complained to Toni. “It’s freezing. What are you going to do?”
    “Everything.” Toni grinned.
    “A piil tardi.”
    Toni and Jean Claude had lunch together every day, and every afternoon, Jean Claude took Toni on a tour. She had never seen any place like Quebec City. It was like finding a turn-of-the-century picturesque French village in North America. The ancient streets had colorful names like Break Neck Stairs and Below the Fort and Sailor’s Leap. It was a Currier & Ives city, framed in snow.
    They visited La Citadelle, with its walls protecting Old Quebec, and they watched the traditional changing of the guard inside the walls of the fort. They explored the shopping streets, Saint Jean, Cartier, Côte de la Fabrique, and wandered through the Quartier Petit Champlain.
    “This is the oldest commercial district in North America,” Jean Claude told her.
    “It’s super.”
    Everywhere they went, there were sparkling Christmas trees, nativity scenes and music for the enjoyment of the strollers.
    Jean Claude took Toni snowmobiling in the countryside. As they raced down a narrow slope, he called out, “Are you having a good time?”
    Toni sensed that it was not an idle question. She nodded and said softly, “I’m having a wonderful time.”
    Alette spent her time at museums. She visited the Basilica of Notre-Dame and the Good Shepherd Chapel and the Augustine Museum, but she had no interest in anything else that Quebec City offered. There were dozens of gourmet restaurants, but when she was not dining at the hotel, she ate at Le Commensal, a vegetarian cafeteria.
    From time to time, Alette thought about her artist friend, Richard Melton, in San Francisco, and wondered what he was doing and if he would remember her.
    Ashley was dreading Christmas. She was tempted to call her father and tell him not to come. But what