Amanda by Kay Hooper Page B

simply considered it politic to accept Jesse’s decree on that point. But she was less interested in that than in what had sounded like a verbal slap at Kate.
    “I don’t know why anyone would prefer short over tall,” she said dryly. “At least, not when tall looks like Kate.”
    Victor smiled and, very gently, said, “Different strokes for different folks—and I like my ladies delicate.”
    So much for my fishing expedition.
Victor, she thought, would nibble at bait dangled before him and would even dangle some of his own, but it seemed to her that he was too smart to sabotage his position here by openly insulting one of the Daultons, whatever his opinion of them might be. Amanda didn’t know why she was so sure of that, but accepted instincts that had more than once proven themselves reliable.
    She was also reasonably sure that while Victor clearly relished suggestive remarks and no doubt enjoyed an active sex life, he would probably be cautious about going beyond words with her, since that too could be a quick way of derailing his career. So his sensual way of speaking and the deliberate leer in his stare didn’t disturb her as much as they might otherwise have done. In fact, she was able to smoothly change the subject without a blink and without responding to his declaration of his preferences.
    There was, after all, no time like the present to start looking for her answers.
    “Have you been here long?”
    “More than twenty years. I started out working for Jesse as a stablehand and exercise boy while I was still in high school. Don’t you remember me, Amanda? I remember you. You were a skinny little thing with tangled hair and skinned knees, and you always seemed to be missing a tooth. You spent most of your time here underfoot down at the barns, and if I wanted to run you off, I just called you Mandy. You hated that.”
    “I still do.” She spoke absently, but he had her full attention now. “Were you here that summer? That night?”
    “You don’t remember?”
    She shook her head. “Nothing specific, just bits and pieces. Were you here?”
    “I was here.” He shook his head a bit and frowned, then said suddenly, “You remember Matt, of course.”
    “Matt?”
    “Matt Darnell. At the time, he was the senior trainer.”
    It was Amanda’s turn to frown, though she hoped the sunglasses hid the depth of her puzzlement. “I guess kids don’t pay too much attention to the adults around them,” she offered.
    “Now, I find that definitely odd.” His smile was different now, almost mocking. “Because you should remember him, you know. If you’re really Amanda Daulton, that is.”
    She kept her body relaxed with an effort, even though tension was seeping into every muscle. “Oh? Tell me, Victor, do you remember every person in your life when you were nine years old? Even the people you hardly knew?”
    “No. But I think I’d remember a step daddy. Or didn’t Christine make an honest man of him after Brian was killed?”
    The sunlight shimmering off the pool seemed to dance before Amanda’s shaded eyes, so sharp and bright it made her dizzy. She heard her voice, steady beyond belief, and it seemed to come from someplace far, far away. “What are you talking about?”
    “I’m talking about the affair your mother was having with Matt Darnell, Amanda. The affair that must have continued after she left here—because he left with her.”
    The light was so
bright.
It hurt her eyes. It hurt her head and made thinking so difficult. “you’re wrong,” she heard herself say. “She—we left alone that night. Just the two of us.”
    “Sure you did. And Matt packing all his things and leaving that same night was a coincidence. Look, I
know
Matt was in love with Christine, because it was painfully obvious and because more than once I heard him begging her to run away with him. And I know they were screwing because they did it down at the barns. Hell, I’d seen them at it not two days before, in a