He looked up, his brown eyes stormy. “When he joins us this evening, I expect you to keep your distance.”
I paused, teacup midway to my mouth. He had never warned me away from Knox before. “What? Why?”
“Do I need a reason?” he hissed.
His words were like a slap. My father never spoke to me that way. In fact, he rarely spoke to me at all.
“Of course not,” I said, keeping my tone steady so he didn’t hear the hurt.
My father sighed, setting his coffee mug down. “While Knox is here … just give him space. We’re dealing with … things.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I stared at my father, wishing he would open up to me. It would’ve been the first time in my life, but I’d always held out hope that we might one day form a relationship that didn’t involve him looking down his nose at me or passing me off to someone else.
Like every day before, I was left with a heart full of disappointment when my father simply said, “I expect you’ll be on your best behavior, Emily.”
I glanced at my father and nodded. Of course I would. I didn’t really have any other choice.
2
Emily
Several hours later, after a torturous sessionof ballroom dancing with Augustine, the seventy-five-year-old instructor who’d lost his edge, not to mention his grasp on reality, a couple of decades ago, I found out Kitty and my father had gone out for the afternoon, which meant I had some time to myself, alone with my thoughts.
As alone as one could be on an estate with twenty-some-odd people wandering about anyway.
Now what to do with that time.
Hmm.
When Rhett and Kitty weren’t in residence, I tended to do the things Kitty frowned upon. From time to time, I would sneak a movie in the theater, but since the titles on hand were mostly G-rated—hence my knowledge ofAnnieand101 Dalmatians—or documentaries, it wasn’t usually my first choice.
On occasion, I would read a book in the library. Again, the selection was limited to nonfiction and motivational books—literary fiction, including the classics, was prohibited by my stepmother. More often than not, I would select a book and use it to disguise one of the magazines Hannah snuck in for me.CosmopolitanandWomen’s Healthcould be credited for what little knowledge I’d acquired about fashion trends, sex, and celebrity gossip over the years.
Reading held little appeal today.
Mostly I enjoyed working in the kitchen. In my humble opinion, GuillermoBerlusconiwas a phenomenal chef—not to mention very easy on the eyes—and should’ve been ruling the kitchen in some famous restaurant somewhere. Instead, Kitty plucked him right out of the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland, hand-selecting him as her own personal chef, having gone through numerous before him. Despite the fact he was destined for greater things, Guillermo had worked for my family for nearly a decade now, and from what I could tell, he enjoyed the position. He was a decent teacher, too, helping me to master the art of not burning everything. And because I ensured Kitty and Rhett never learned of my brief sessions with him, I was always welcome to come back to his kitchen.
Only I didn’t want to cook, either.
I glanced out the window of my bedroom, watched the sun sparkle on the ocean.
Being that it was early November in Texas, the sun was bright, the temperatures still seasonably warm—low eighties was the average for us—but most importantly, not too hot. A perfect day to spend at the water’s edge. The pool water, of course. I was not one to venture into the ocean. I didn’t care for the saltwater or the sand, which probably had to do with the fact the stepmonster frowned upon it. God help all who had beachfront property and tracked sand into the house.
It took some effort, but I managed to sneak past the horde of housekeepers and groundskeepers and headed for the outdoor pool. I avoided the indoor one at all costs, mostly because I despised the humidity as well as the overwhelming scent of chemicals that lingered in there.
I’d just missed Harold, the man responsible for maintaining the pool, by half an hour, which meant I had a good five hours before he would return. Meticulous was Kitty’s middle name and those who worked on the Campbell estate had learned to do their jobs well and often; otherwise, they would be seeking employment elsewhere—her favorite threat. Hence the reason the pools were cleaned three to four times a day and maintained at a comfortable eighty-two degrees during the off-season. Overkill if you asked me, but hey, what did I know?
Because this wasn’t my first time sneaking in some leisurely time in the sun, I’d hidden my bathing suit in the pool house. It was rare for me to get anything past my stepmother, but every now and then I would get lucky. This particular indulgence—a sexy white bikini—had caught my eye in a magazine, and I’d managed to sneak it onto the last order Hannah had placed, smuggling it out of the delivery before anyone was the wiser. And because Hannah was preoccupied with morning chores, I was able to avoid her, too.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like Hannah. I did. Quite a bit considering she was the closest thing to a friend that I had, even though she was twelve years older than me. At thirty-two, Hannah was cool and far more understanding than most of the people in my father’s employ, plus she’d been here almost six years now—longer than anyone else except for Daniel, Stewart, and Guillermo—which meant she knew most of the Campbells’ deep, dark secrets.
I suspected that, had it not been for Kitty’s insane desire to restrict my every activity, Hannah and I could’ve been real friends. Instead, Hannah was tasked with not only managing my appearance by doing my hair and makeup and selecting my wardrobe but also keeping tabs on my day-to-day, all of which she had to report back to Kitty on a regular basis.
If Kitty only knew that Hannah was known to overlook quite a bit, namely my futile and desperately lacking attempts at raising hell from time to time, she would’ve been cast out of the Campbell compound long ago.
Speaking of the Campbell compound…
I got the feeling even the house exhaled heavily when Kitty left the premises, so for a while, I was home free. Which was part of the reason I wasn’t worried about wearing the little white bikini. Since Kitty preferred I wore one-piece suits that were boxy and ill-fitting, I couldn’t resist something that was flattering to my figure but, most importantly, allowed me to get sun with very few tan lines.
