Black Ice - Anne Stuart [96]
“I know this conference is going to be a total bore for anyone not in the medical profession, but your brothers and sister will be there, as well as their families. It’s being held in a charming resort on the coast, and I know you’d have a lovely time….”
“Not yet,” she said, her voice so quiet her mother had to lean forward to hear her. “You go on and have fun. I’ll be fine here. You haven’t gone anywhere since I came back, and I know how you like to travel. Trust me, it’s perfectly safe. No one’s going to bother me, and I’ll just enjoy a few days’ solitude.”
“You’ve been enjoying too much solitude.” She turned to her husband who’d just entered the kitchen. “James, talk her into coming with us!”
James shook his head. “Leave the girl alone, Claire. She’ll be fine. She’s just tired of having us hanging around all the time. A few days of quiet will be the best thing for her. Right, Chloe?”
Chloe managed to rouse her voice for that one. “Absolutely. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Claire Underwood looked between her husband and youngest child, equally frustrated. “I can’t fight the both of you,” she said. “Just make sure you have the security system on, you understand?”
“We never use the security system,” Chloe protested.
“We paid a huge amount of money for it, we might as well use it,” her father said, the traitor. “That sounds like a good compromise. Promise to leave the security system on and I’ll make sure your mother comes with me.”
Chloe had never considered that her mother might refuse to go at the end. The very notion of a weekend of mother-daughter bonding gave her cold chills. Not that she didn’t love her mother, but Claire’s attempts at bonding were notoriously inept. “I’ll use the security system,” she said. “I’ll even go buy a gun and a pack of guard dogs if you think it’s necessary.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Chloe.” Her mother had given up at this point. “Besides, I think your father has an old twenty-two somewhere up in the attic.”
“Great. I’ll go make sure I know where to find the weapons when the Mongol hordes attack.”
“Very funny,” her mother muttered. “I know the two of you think I worry too much….”
“And we love you for it,” James said. “But in the meantime we’ve got to go. You’ve got a paper to deliver and I’ve got grandchildren to see.” He glanced over at Chloe, sitting on the stool with both hands clasped around the glass of orange juice. “Speaking of which, I wouldn’t mind some more eventually. No hurry, of course, but you might just keep it in mind. I hear Kevin McInerny’s back from New York, setting up a law firm in Black Mountain. You used to date him, didn’t you? Nice young man.”
“Yes, he was nice,” Chloe said. She couldn’t even remember him.
“Maybe I’ll invite him out to dinner when we get back,” her mother said. “You wouldn’t mind that, would you, Chloe?”
She’d rather have her toes eaten by lizards. “That would be fine.”
Her mother swallowed it whole, and by that time her father had reappeared with the luggage. “Have a good time,” Chloe said brightly. “I’ll be fine.”
Her mother gave her a quick hug, pulling back to search her face one more time. She didn’t like what she saw there, Chloe thought, but there was nothing she could do about it.
“Be careful,” her mother said.
Ten minutes later they were gone, blissful silence filling the huge old house. She dutifully set the security system, once she knew they were off the grounds, and then forgot about it. There was an odd chill in the air. The soft ripe scent of spring had been temporarily halted. She should have paid attention to the Weather Channel, but scenes of snowstorms in more northerly climates tended to make her shake, so she usually avoided it completely. The sky was overcast, threatening, and the wind had picked up, laced with an edge of ice. A cold front must be coming through, she thought, trying to still her instinctive nervousness. It wouldn’t affect her traveling family—they were well ahead of whatever storm was blowing in. And it wouldn’t affect her—she had no intention of going anywhere. Instead she was