Page 11 (1/2)

When the doorbell sounded only a little after

twelve I knew it couldn't be my mother Grant and Aunt Veronica It was too early My first thought was it er, ive me advice

Instead Corbette Ada in at e Gibbs to h School production of Our Town that had earned me Mr MacWaine's ad arts at his school in London Easily the wood, the private school I had attended while living here with Grandmother Hudson-- Corbette hadin the swoons of so many of my classmates

He was the first boy ho hiuilt Who could bla beneath the power of his charood looks then, especially e he and all the others enjoyed? I had been lifted from one world and dropped into another with little or no preparation

Corbette's faht of me He didn't look much different from the last time I had seen him His brown hair with hints of copper was still unruly, curling upward at the nape of his neck, the only imperfection in his otherwise perfectly respectable appearance Despite the position of estee defiant in Corbette, a danger which irls, and admittedly, once to me

His strong lips opened and fell back in a soft smile

"You're even prettier now," he said "Or else I have just forgotten how beautiful you were"

"Hello Corbette" I said coldly

I stood there in the doorway not backing up to let hiht blue shirt, jeans and a pair of white tennis sneakers In his right hand he carried a bouquet of white roses and quickly extended them toward me

I didn't reach for them and the sht from one foot to the other

"Sorry about Mrs Hudson's death," he said "My fanified you looked Many people were iirl who only had been Mrs Hudson's ward and for so short a tiht have left you in her will," he added, still s with that unrestrained selfconfidence that I had come to despise

After all, once he had succeeded to have his ithand then treat me like some trophy he could cast off cavalierly

I still didn't take the roses Re unimpressed I looked from them to him

"What do you want Corbette?" I asked briskly

"Oh I just ca and pay my respects"