Twin of Ice (Montgomery/Taggert 6)

Houston only had time to look into a large white room, completely empty of furniture, before he showed her a small drawing room, a dining room painted the palest green, then led the way down a hallway to the service area.

“This is the kitchen,” he said unnecessarily. “Have a seat.” He nodded toward a big oak table and chairs that must have come from the same place as the desk in his office.

As she took a seat, she saw that there was grease on the table edge. “Your table and desk seem to match,” she said cautiously.

“Yeah, I ordered ’em all from Sears, Roebuck,” he said as he filled bowls from a huge pot on the cast-iron stove. “I got some more stuff upstairs. Real pretty, too. One of the chairs is red velvet with y

ellow tassels on it.”

“It sounds like an interesting piece.”

He put before her a bowl of stew with enormous pieces of meat swimming in grease, and sat down. “Eat it before it gets cold.”

Houston picked up her big spoon and toyed with the stew. “Mr. Taggert, who designed your house?”

“A man back East, why? You like it, don’t you?”

“Very much. I was just curious, though.”

“’Bout what?” he asked, mouth full of stew.

“Why it’s so bare. Why is there no furniture in the rooms? We, the people of Chandler that is, saw crates delivered after the house was finished. We all assumed they contained furniture.”

He was watching her as she moved the meat around in her bowl. “I bought lots of furniture, and rugs, and statues. Actually, I paid a couple of men to buy it for me and it’s all in the attics now.”

“Stored? But why? Your house is so lovely, yet you live here, I believe, alone, with only one employee, and not even a chair to sit on. Except what you bought from Sears, Roebuck, of course.”

“Well, little lady, that’s why I invited you here. You gonna eat that?” He took her bowl away and began to eat the stew himself.

Houston had her elbows on the table, leaning forward in fascination. “Why did you invite me, Mr. Taggert?”

“I guess you know that I’m rich, real rich, and I’m good at makin’ money—after the first five million the rest is easy—but the truth is, I don’t know how to spend money.”

“Don’t know how . . . ?” Houston murmured.

“Oh, I can make an order from Sears all right but when it comes to spendin’ millions, I have to hire other people. The way I got this house was I asked some man’s wife who I should get to build me a house. She gave me a man’s name, I called him to my office and told him I wanted somethin’ that’d be beautiful and he built me this place. He hired those two men I told you about to buy furniture for it. I ain’t even seen what they bought.”

“Why didn’t you have the men arrange the furniture?”

“Because my wife might not like what they did and she’d want it rearranged, and I didn’t see no reason to do it twice.”

Houston leaned back in her chair. “I didn’t know you were married.”

“I ain’t, yet. But I got her all picked out.”

“Congratulations.”

Kane smiled at her through his beard. “I can’t have just any woman in this house. She has to be a real, true, deep-down lady. Somebody once told me that a real lady was a leader, that she’d fight for causes and stand up for the underdog and still keep her hat on straight. And a real lady could freeze a man with a look. That’s what you done today, Houston.”

“I beg your pardon.”

He pushed the second empty bowl out of the way and leaned toward her. “When I first come back to this town, all them women made fools of themselves over me, and when I ignored ’em they started actin’ like the bitches they was. The men all stood back and laughed, or some of ’em got mad, but they never said nothin’ to me. And not one of ’em was ever just plain nice to me. Except you.”

“Surely, Mr. Taggert, other women—.”

“None of ’em defended me like you done today, and the way you looked at me when I touched you! Near froze me to death.”

“Mr. Taggert, I believe I should go.” She didn’t like the turn this conversation was taking. She was alone with this huge, half-civilized man; no one even knew where she was.