Free Blue Waltz by Linda Francis Lee

honor."
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    Without warning, a glimpse of naked white skin flashed through Stephen's mind. Silky smooth. Infinitely touchable. For one oppressive moment, the room stood silent. Still.
    "You would never dream of doing anything that didn't fit into your strict sense of what is proper and honorable."
    But Stephen hardly heard. He stared at his brother without seeing. He saw instead the image of himself, wrongly, sitting silently, not moving away. He sucked in his breath.
    "They could write a book about propriety based on the way you live!"
    His hand, extended above milk-white skin, longing to feel, as she slept, her mind in some safe nocturnal haven, unaware of his actions.
    "No one can live up to your expectations. No one!"
    Full breasts, slender waist, delicately rounded hips. Desire. Hard, aching desire.
    "Least of all me."
    Beautifully perfect—except for her leg. Stephen pressed his eyes closed and turned away, turned to his desk. When he opened them again, he saw the simple piece of ribbon he had found on the floor of the guest bedroom. He had awakened, stiff and disoriented. At first, he'd had no idea why he was sitting there in a hard-backed chair, in a room that he had given no more than a fleeting thought to in all the time he had lived in the house. But then he saw the rumpled sheets, and he knew, he remembered. Bluebell. Bluebell Holly, with eyes so blue it was almost painful.
    Practically jumping up from the chair, he had scanned the room, looking for her. He expected to find her looking out over the park, or curled up in a chair
    66Linda Francis Lee
    waiting for him to wake. But the park below remained unwatched and the chair across the room sat empty. She wasn't there. She was gone.
    Frigid cold seeped into his soul. He had been alone for so many years, but he had never felt as lonely as he had when he found Bluebell gone. But that was ludicrous. If he had felt cold, it was due to the fire dying out, and if he had felt alone, it was because the household had yet to awaken and fill his home with smells of freshly baking bread and respectful laughter. He should be thankful the woman had slipped out of his house on her own so he didn't have to deal with her that morning. Yes, he was thankful. He wanted nothing to do with Bluebell Holly, he reminded himself just as he had the night before. She was absolutely no business of his.
    He grabbed up the ribbon from the desk top and crumpled it in his fist, ready to throw it in the fireplace when Adam banged his fist on the desk.
    "When will you accept that, Stephen? When will you accept the fact that no matter how hard either one of us tries I will never be another you?"
    Stephen focused his gaze on his brother. He could hardly remember what they had been talking about. "Did I tell you they have a lead on the gunman?"
    Adam's eyes widened and his body tensed. "What are you talking about? I thought you weren't going to pursue it?"
    "Whatever gave you that idea?"
    "No authorities. No reports."
    "I didn't want it all over town. I'm not interested in having that little debacle talked about over afternoon tea by everyone in Boston. I'll not be fodder for the gossip mill. But I hired a man to look into it. He doesn't have much, but with little more from you than the name Tom
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    to go on," he eyed his brother suspiciously, "he has his work cut out for him. Are you sure you don't remember who he was?"
    "I told you," Adam replied, his voice tight, "I met him briefly, in a pub. All I know is his name is Tom. We had words over a card game."
    "I thought it was over a horse race."
    The two men, of equal height, though of two very different appearances, stood staring at each other.
    "Leave it alone, Stephen." Adam's voice was laced with stern resolve. "Just leave it alone. It's been taken care of."
    "Someone barges into my home, tries to kill you, shoots me instead, and I'm supposed to act as though it never happened?"
    "Leave it alone," Adam repeated.
    "Like hell I