Read Online Twisting Topeka by Lissa Staley - Free Book Online Page B

her imaginary fountain.
    Before she’d even closed the front
door behind her, Beau leapt from her arm and ran up the stairs.
This was unexpected, as he normally headed straight for his water
dish in the kitchen. A wonderful smell caught her attention, and
she moved quickly through the dining room and into the kitchen, but
Mrs. Lewis wasn’t there. Opening the oven door revealed rosemary
chicken, a longstanding special occasion dinner. She strolled
through the house and was almost to her bedroom at the top of the
stairs when Mrs. Lewis popped out from behind the hall wardrobe
door. She rushed toward Melanie with a stack of sheets and towels
but went right on by her and into Melanie’s bedroom.
    “ Are you okay, Mrs.
Lewis?”
    “ No child.” She threw the
stack of linens on the upholstered chair next to the bed. “Next
time you decide to come home for dinner please give us more warning
than a note on the kitchen counter.”
    “ You don’t need to do
anything special for me,” Melanie insisted. Mrs. Lewis pulled a
sheet off the top of the stack and quickly tucked it around the
bare mattress as Melanie rushed around the bed to help.
    “ Well, we are doing something
special, so you need to dress appropriately.” She grabbed the next
sheet, unfolding it across the bed with a quick flick of the
wrists. Melanie grabbed the hem on her side and began
straightening.
    “ Why?” Melanie
asked.
    “ Orders from your father,”
the maid snapped. “Oh…” She slapped her hand on her forehead, “I
forgot about the asparagus.” Melanie stepped toward her, but Mrs.
Lewis waved her away.
    “ I can finish this,”
Melanie insisted. “You go back to the kitchen, and I’ll be down to
help in a minute.”
    “ There’s not time,” Mrs.
Lewis explained, walking to the door. “Look your best,” she said.
“And for goodness sakes, be at the table by eight.” She hurried out
of the room, closing the door.
    Melanie moved the bedspread and towels
from the chair to her bed and sat down. She picked up her alarm
clock, then tossed it on the bed. Seven-fifty. She had nine minutes
to freshen her hair and makeup and see what might be hanging in her
closet.
    As she hurried down the stairs,
Melanie reached behind her and tugged the zipper on her white
shimmering gown all the way up, to the middle of her back. She was
ecstatic that this dress, which she had worn to the hospital’s
fundraising gala, was still in her closet. She swayed across the
marble in the foyer, almost gliding to the dining room entrance.
The dining table, which she could see from the foyer, looked
glorious, set with her mother’s silver rimmed china. She caught a
whiff of the soup, probably a broth laced with herbs and, maybe,
mushrooms. About to step into the dining room, Melanie realized the
man sitting in her father’s seat was not her father. She did a
quick spin and leaned against the foyer wall.
    Melanie searched her mind for all her
father’s friends and the other doctors at the hospital, but no one
looked even similar to the man she had just seen. His dark hair,
brown eyes, and handsome features would be unmistakable. She had
never met this man.
    She ran through the foyer straight to
the other kitchen entrance. Mrs. Lewis was about to push through
the swinging kitchen door to the dining room. She held a silver
tray which carried the soup bowl and silver ladle, but when she saw
Melanie she stepped away from the door. “Why aren’t you at the
table?” Mrs. Lewis whispered.
    “ Who is that man?” Melanie
demanded.
    “ Shhh….” Mrs. Lewis placed
her finger over her lip. “I don’t know.”
    “ What?”
    “ He’s our guest. Staying
with us tonight. Very important man. You need to impress
him.”
    “ Where’s
Father?”
    “ Delayed. One of his
patients…I don’t know,” Mrs. Lewis finally said. “There’s a problem
at the hospital.”
    “ So I’m entertaining this
man—a complete stranger—alone?”
    “ Yes.” Mrs. Lewis