Free Keys to the Castle by Donna Ball Page A

“You do know who holds the controlling interest in Château Rondelais, don’t you? What I mean to say is, Daniel did tell you that at least?”
    She really didn’t like the way he was looking at her, and his tone, so crisp and British and lawyerlike, made her bristle. But he was her host, and he had sent her flowers and champagne, so she was determined to be polite. “Okay, I give up,” she said. “Who owns the other part of the castle?”
    He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees, and fixed her with that watchful gaze. “As a matter of fact,” he answered her carefully, “you do.”

SIX
    Sara simply stared at him, without speaking, without blinking, without, it seemed, even breathing, for an intolerable moment. Ash sat back heavily in his chair. “Good Christ,” he muttered. Then, lips tightening, “I’ll have Winkle’s scalp for this.”
    Sara set her glass very carefully on the small table beside her chair. She blotted her fingers on her skirt. She said, “Is this a joke?”
    Ash lifted his glass, and took a drink. He said, “It is not.”
    Her expression was immobile, her gazed fixed on him. Clearly she was waiting for an explanation, but he hardly knew where to begin. He decided, at length, on the beginning.
    â€œChâteau Rondelais has been in the Orsay family since 1715,” he said, “when it was awarded to the marquis of the day for some service to the crown, or perhaps to pay off a gambling debt; no one has ever been clear on that part of the story. Family fortunes declined over the generations, as they’ve a tendency to do, and châteaux are expensive to maintain. Daniel’s parents practically bankrupted themselves trying to put the place into the shape it is now, and sold most everything that was disposable to keep it up and pay the taxes. Unfortunately, a condition of Daniel’s inheritance was that the property itself could not be sold, so when he needed money a few years back I managed to get around that encumbrance by offering to purchase an investment share. Which is how I came to own part of a castle and how you . . .” He took another drink. “Came to inherit one.”
    Sara stood up and walked across the terrace. He watched as she reached the stone wall and paused there for a moment, her hands resting lightly on it, gazing out over the valley. She stood stone still, her face in profile, the curve of her shoulder and the fall of her skirt in perfect alignment, and in the pinkish twilight she almost could have been a sculpture: a piece of modern art designed to complete the terrace, a part of it. Woman Surveys the Future , it would be called.
    Ash took another drink to clear his head, and was surprised to find his glass almost empty.
    She turned after a moment and walked back toward him. She was wearing sandals with a low heel, and her footsteps made almost no sound on the stone. She sat down again and picked up her glass, looked at it for a moment, then returned it to the table with very great care. He could see that her hand was unsteady.
    â€œI see,” was all she said.
    â€œThere’s no excuse for your not having been told all of this from the start,” Ash said, his voice harsh. “It was our job, as executors of the estate, to make certain that all the paperwork detailing your inheritance was clear and in order. Unpardonable that we shouldn’t have done so. I assure you that there will be an accounting—”
    She held up a hand to stop him. “No, don’t. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. I’m sure it was all explained perfectly . . . I just wasn’t paying attention. I hardly read the letters your office sent. And all Daniel ever told me about his family home was that it was old and falling apart. I . . .” She stopped on a sharp inhalation of breath, pressing her fingers to eyes. “We were married for