"They're friends, you see. Oh, dear, I did try to stop him. He invited Kane's woman friend, too. They're almost inseparable these past few weeks since he's had such terrible problems-not that Clayton should be blamed for them, of course." She sighed. "Oh, Nikki, Claude doesn't think. He means well. It's those four cats," she added darkly. "Two Siamese and two Persians, and they drive me mad! How he can write with those furry a.s.sa.s.sins all over his desk is beyond me!"

Nikki's heart was beating madly. Kane was coming here. He'd see her. He'd find out who she really was. She'd have to watch him with the lover he'd told her about, the faceless woman who had part of him that Nikki would never know.

"Perhaps you should go and lie down," Madge suggested.

Nikki's wide eyes met the green ones of her blond friend. "No. Really. I'm fine. I just got a little dizzy. I haven't eaten anything."

"Then you must have a sandwich. Come with me. I'll have Lucie make you one of her famous Philly steak sandwiches and cottage fries."

"Thanks just the same, but I really don't want to die of cholesterol poisoning," Nikki chuckled. "Make that a small salad and some bread sticks instead, if you could."

"You sparrow, you." Madge smoothed her hands over her ample hips with a grimace. "If I liked lettuce leaves, I could look like you in places, at least."

"You're very nice as you are, as I'm sure Claude tells you constantly." She linked her arm with Madge's. "Now, let's go over these catered items just once more."

The day's activity, frantic though it was, didn't take her mind off the coming confrontation with Kane. She nibbled at her fingernails until she almost gnawed one into the quick. She looked around the room at the arrangements, satisfied, and went toward the staircase. It was nearing time for people to start arriving. If only it would go smoothly. She always worried about the food and musicians arriving on time.

"I can see the wheels turning in your head," Claude observed, coming into the hall with a cat under one arm. One of the felines was a big, chocolate-point Siamese with blue eyes that appraised Nikki and found her uninteresting. He closed his big eyes and curled closer into Claude's jacket.

"Mudd is hopeless," he remarked, nodding toward the sleeping cat. "He only wakes up to eat. He's so lazy that he even lets the others bathe him. His psychologist says it's because he's depressed. He isn't let outside you know, and it's frustrating him."

Nikki didn't dare grin. Claude took Mudd's therapy sessions very seriously indeed.

"How is he progressing?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, I don't notice much change, but at least he's stopped chewing on my computer keyboard. d.a.m.nedest thing, all those toothmarks. Jealousy, you know. Yes, that's right, he's jealous of the computer when I'm writing."

It was impossible to be mad at Claude for long. Nikki, like everyone who knew him, adored him. She'd manage to stay out of Kane's way. He didn't know who she was, really, and in costume, perhaps she could go unrecognized. "Are you coming to the party?" Nikki asked her host.

"I might. I think I'll come as Ravel, with a cat under each arm," he added. "Ravel kept cats, you know. Dozens of cats. He even spoke to them."

"I used to speak to my cat," Nikki pointed out.

"Not in its own language," he returned with a wicked grin.

"Puff understood me well enough. He could hear the sound of a can being opened from the balcony upstairs," Nikki recalled wistfully. Puff had died of old age a few weeks back, and she was still sad about it.

"You need a new cat," he said gently.

She shrugged. "I'm too busy for cats," she lied. It was unthinkable to replace Puff so soon.

"Why do you look so sad?" he remarked. "Clayton won the nomination."

"That isn't what I feel sad about."

"He'll discover that Bett isn't right for him and marry that Derrie of his one day," Claude chuckled.

"Derrie quit, and Bett's already announced their engagement. She isn't so bad."

"She's a lobbyist. If she marries Clayton there will be a major conflict of interest and she'll lose her job. She's an ambitious lady. When she had to make the final choice, she'll leave him."

"How do you know so much about people?" Nikki asked, aghast.

"My dear girl, I'm a writer. Who knows more about people than we do?"

"Good point."

"Didn't Camille have a cat?" he asked, frowning. "Madge told me that's who you're going dressed as. You could carry a cat, too."

"I think having a woman with tuberculosis carry a cat would be a bit...how shall I put it...unexpected?"

"Oh, yes. I see." He chuckled. "Bad suggestion. I know! I'll see if I can get Madge to dress as something Egyptian or even Babylonian-from the Rossini opera Semiramide, you know-and she can carry a cat under each arm."

"Why does someone besides you have to carry a cat?"

"Two cats," he corrected. "I have four. They get in my box of fanfold paper and eat it if I leave them alone. Or they chew up ma.n.u.scripts. Mudd can open the cabinet under the desk, remember."

"You need a filing cabinet."

He frowned. "That's cruel."

"What is?"

"Suggesting that I lock my cats up in a filing cabinet!"

Nikki gave him an exasperated look and dashed upstairs to the sound of mischievous laughter. Poor Madge, she had to live with him!

The gauzy white costume suited Nikki. She felt as if she were a floating island of sand among all the brightly colored costumes of the guests. Clayton and Bett had arrived, dressed as Carmen and her soldier. Clayton looked uncomfortable in the high-collared uniform while Bett was unconvincing as a peasant girl in the revealing blouse that showed little more than her extreme emaciation.

There was no sign of Kane as yet, and Nikki entertained a faint hope that he might not come. He didn't like Clayton, after all, and he must know that the party was being given in Clayton's honor. Nikki hadn't told Clayton that his archenemy was expected. She might not have to, she thought, as time pa.s.sed and still Kane didn't make an appearance. She began to relax a little.

Claude and Madge were exceptionally colorful as Maurice Ravel and Madama b.u.t.terfly. Claude had Mudd under one arm. A quick scrutiny of the other guests revealed three more carrying cats. She smiled to herself. Claude was exceptionally persuasive, and the cats were like children-they loved being held.

"It's the odd couple," Nikki quipped when they joined her.

"Look who's insulting whom, the coughing courtesan," Claude returned, clutching Mudd under an arm. Mudd was wide-awake and very obviously irritated at the company he was having to keep. He gave his human friend a pie-eyed glare and suddenly sank his teeth into Claude's arm.

"Ouch!" Claude cried.

"Repressed hostility can stunt mental growth," Nikki said, nodding. "Better allow him freedom of expression. We wouldn't want to inhibit him."

"I'll inhibit him into a boeuf bourbonnais if he does that again," Claude said, glaring at the cat.

"Don't be absurd, dear, you can't cook a cat with red wine, it's so bourgeoisie," Madge told him.

Nikki laughed. These two were the closest friends she'd ever had, and the most loyal. They didn't know of her background, but it wouldn't have mattered if they had. They were the least judgmental people she'd ever known.

"What a crowd," Clayton murmured, joining them. He scowled at his sister with her stark white complexion and painted cheeks. "What are you supposed to be, Vampira?"

"I'm dying of tuberculosis, can't you tell?" she muttered at him. "I'm Camille."

"I hate opera," Clayton remarked to no one in particular.

"You'll learn to like it when we're married," Bett said carelessly. "I love opera, so we'll be going quite often."

Nikki didn't say a word, but she raised an eloquent eyebrow for her brother's benefit. He gave her a hard glare.

"Why isn't Derrie with the two of you tonight?" Claude asked suddenly. "Did she have other plans?"

Bett looked murderous. Clayton cleared his throat.

"Derrie quit and went to work for the compet.i.tion," Nikki replied. "She found that her job description didn't quite cover what the boss expected her to do."

"She wouldn't follow orders so I fired her," Clayton said, daring Nikki to argue. "She was a turncoat."

"Indeed she was," Bett agreed eagerly. "I never trusted her."

"I did," Nikki replied, staring at them both levelly. "She was the most loyal employee Clay ever had. She stayed with him through thick and thin, even when his office was attacked because of some unfavorable legislation he introduced in the state house of representatives, before he even dreamed of going to Washington. Derrie was threatened, but she still wouldn't quit." Her tone became fierce as she stood up for her friend. "She worked twelve-hour days without complaint, gave up her home to move to Washington with Clay to oversee his personal and const.i.tuent staff. She even sacrificed her personal life to do it. Untrustworthy? Well, if that's how you define it, I think we need more people like her."

Clayton fidgeted uncomfortably under his sister's hot glare. "You're very loyal to your friends, Nikki, but you don't understand the situation at all."

"Do explain it to me," she challenged.

"Please," he laughed. "Don't rock the boat, sis. A lot is riding on this. I need more support if I'm going to get back in the saddle come January."

"Mosby and I are drumming up all sorts of support for you," Bett told him.

"Where is Mosby?" Madge asked.

"He had other plans and sent his regrets," Clayton said quickly. "He's not much of a mixer. Parties make him nervous."

"It's because all the women throw themselves at his feet," Madge said with a wicked smile. "He's so handsome, isn't he? Oh, my, even my knees go weak when I look at him."

Nikki's had once, too. But now she thought of Mosby with sadness and pain. She didn't reply. Bett knew about the marriage, but only that it had existed. Apparently Clayton didn't trust her very much, either.

"Look, more guests are arriving," Claude said enthusiastically. "I must mingle, my dears. Here. Have a cat."

He handed Mudd to a protesting Clayton, who promptly dumped him into Nikki's arms with a grin.

"You know you love cats," he reminded her. "You have Puff."

"I had Puff," she amended. "I do miss him." She petted Mudd, who narrowed his eyes and began to growl.

"He's expressing his buried hostility," Clayton pointed out.

"He's asking to be put down. I wonder if I dare?" she mused, looking around for Claude.

"If you do, and he gets into Claude's ma.n.u.script, you'd better have an escape plan," her brother said.

"Why can't you hold him?" she muttered.

"He doesn't like me."

He was growling louder now, and Nikki held him out from her dress. His gleaming claws began to flex.

"Take him, Clay," she pleaded.

"He matches your costume better than he matches mine," he protested. "Spanish officers hated cats, didn't you know?"

"They did?"

"How many paintings of Spanish officers holding cats have you ever seen?" he queried.

Nikki had to admit that she hadn't seen any. She was about to protest his sly escape when she heard a voice she'd never expected to hear again.

Catching Mudd from behind so that he couldn't bite or claw, she turned and looked straight into a pair of black eyes that held no shock or surprise whatsoever.

Chapter Twelve.

Nikki felt her knees go rubbery underneath her. It was Kane. He wasn't paying much attention to the elegant woman standing close at hand that he was with. His whole attention was focused on Nikki, and there was accusation and anger and pain in his dark eyes.

She didn't understand the anger. He couldn't know she was Clayton's sister. Her own heart was turning over. She'd hoped to avoid him, although that was absurd. There weren't so many guests that she could have gone unrecognized.

"h.e.l.lo, Kane," Claude greeted, clapping the other man on the shoulder. "No costume, I see."

"He wouldn't put one on," Chris said carelessly. "I see that I don't have dibs on Semiramide," she added with a raised eyebrow at Madge's costume. They were both wearing the same colors, but Chris's smug smile was justified. Madge looked too chunky in her gear, while Chris's showed off her slender figure to advantage.

"Ah, but you don't have a cat, my dear," Claude purred.

She gave the cat in his arms an unpleasant look. "I hate cats," she said. "Nasty, sneaky things."

Claude was affronted. He clutched Mudd closer and started to speak.

"Why, there's Ronald!" Chris said suddenly, brightening as she waved to a dark young man across the room. "Kane, do come and meet him. His father is chairman of an oil company."

"I'll be along," Kane said, refusing to be led.

Chris shrugged and went off by herself, her whole expression seductive as she wrapped herself around the younger man and then spoiled the effect by looking back to see if Kane noticed.

He didn't. His eyes were on Nikki.