“I should have known from the first: how well she handled that suicide and she didn’t even know it was the house I’d bought for her—you. I don’t think I wanted to see. From the moment she said she wanted to go on the case with me to see if she could be of any help, I was so stupidly pleased that I never questioned anything after that. I should have known when I kissed her . . .
“Damn both of you! I hope to hell you enjoyed making a fool of me.”
“Lee,” Houston said, her hand on his arm. She didn’t know what she could say to him, but she wanted to try.
The face he turned to her was frightening. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t say a word. I don’t know what possessed either of you to play such a dirty little trick, but I can tell you that I don’t like being the butt of such a joke. Now that you and your sister have had a good laugh at my expense, I have to decide what to do about last night.”
Leander took her home and nearly shoved her from the carriage before driving away.
Blair was standing on the porch.
“We need to talk,” Houston said to her sister, but Blair only nodded, following her sister mutely into the little rose garden, away from the house.
“How could you do this to me?” Houston began. “What kind of morals do you have that you can go out with a man once and sleep with him? Or am I assuming too much? You did sleep with him?”
Mutely, Blair nodded.
“After one evening?” Houston was incredulous.
“But I was you!” Blair said. “I was engaged to him. I assumed you always . . . After he kissed me like that, I thought for sure that the two of you . . . ”
“We what?” Houston gasped. “You mean you thought we repeatedly . . . made love? Do you think I would have asked you to trade places if that had been true?”
Blair hid her face in her hands. “I didn’t think. I couldn’t think. After the reception, he took me to his house, and—.”
“Our house,” Houston said. “The one I’ve spent months decorating, preparing for my marriage.”
“There were candles and caviar and roast duck and champagne, lots of champagne. He kissed me and I kept drinking champagne and there were the candles and his eyes and I couldn’t stop myself. Oh, Houston, I’m sorry. I’ll leave Chandler. You’ll never have to see me again. Leander will forgive us after a while.”
“No doubt he kissed you and you saw red,” she said in a voice heavy with sarcasm.
“With little gold and silver sparks.” Blair was quite serious.
Houston was gaping at her sister. What in the world was she talking about? Champagne and candles? Had Lee tried to seduce his fiancé? Had he planned something that had backfired so that he’d spent the night with the wrong sister?
Or was Blair the wrong sister?
“What was his kiss like?” Houston asked softly.
Blair looked shocked. “Don’t torture me. I’ll try to make it up to you, Houston, I swear I will, no matter what I have to do. I’ll—.”
“W
hat was his kiss like?” she asked louder.
Blair sniffed and her sister handed her a handkerchief. “You know what they’re like. I don’t need to describe them.”
“I don’t think I do know.”
Blair hiccupped. “It was . . . It was wonderful. I never thought a man as cool as Lee could have so much fire. When he touched me . . . ” She looked up at her sister. “Houston, I’ll go to Lee and explain that it was all my fault, that it was my idea to trade places and that you were entirely innocent. I don’t see why anyone but the three of us should ever know what happened. We’ll sit down together and talk and he’ll understand what happened.”
Houston leaned forward. “Will he? How will you explain that I wanted to spend the evening with another man? Will you tell Lee that his mere touch enflamed you so that you couldn’t control yourself? That will certainly be a contrast to the frigid Miss Houston Chandler.”
“You’re not frigid!”
Houston was silent for a moment. “All Lee could talk about was how magnificent you were last night. He’s not going to like someone inexperienced after you . . . .”
Blair’s head came up. “I’d never made love to anyone before. Lee was the first.”