"Not any that I'd care to remember," she said. "I have a feeling that most of my ancestors were nothing but trou ble."
He laughed as though everything she said was completely charming, but he still pulled away.
"You stay here," he said. "I'll be back in no time."
She felt very nervous, but she sat down gingerly on the edge of a chair and waited. There wasn't a sound in the big old house, but perhaps that was just because the walls were so thick that none penetrated. Suddenly, the door flew open, and a man in a tuxedo stepped inside.
He stopped short when he saw her, then frowned. "Who are you?" he demanded.
Startled, she echoed, "Who are you?" without answer ing his question.
"The butler," he said bluntly, and she breathed a sigh of relief. After all, this might have been Ross's father.
"Oh," she answered, then didn't know what else to say. Something told her one didn't make casual conversation with butlers, but she wasn't sure just what one did do.
He looked her up and down.
"I didn't know they'd hired Hawaiian entertainers for tonight." His brow furled. "But you shouldn't have come in this way. You should have come in through the servants' entrance. Don't you know anything?"
He jerked his head in the direction he thought she should be moving.
"Come on along with me," he said with weary patience. "I'll take you to where you belong."
Her impulse was to follow him. She felt an outsider. Obviously she looked an outsider. But her rebellious na ture surfaced at his imperial tone.
"What if I were to marry Ross," she thought impishly, "and have this guy fired?"
She raised her chin and replied in what she hoped was a manner that would put him in his place.
"I belong right here," she said firmly. "I'm not part of the entertainment. I'm with Mr. Carrington. Mr. Ross Carrington."
The man wasn't fazed at all.
"Oh." He raised his eye brow, looking her up and down again. "I see," he said significantly, his disdain obvious. "One of Ross's girls."
He shrugged and seemed to be holding his nostrils closed as though something didn't smell very good. "Very well. Stay if you like." And he disappeared around the corner.
His scornful assessment did wonders for her already wobbly self-esteem. She tried to look at herself in the re flection of the windowpane to see if she really looked like a Hawaiian entertainer, but Ross returned before she was sure.
"Here I am," he said as he entered the room, then opened the door wider and ushered in a tall, lovely lady with shiny jet-black hair and a friendly smile. "This is my sister Marlena. Marlena, meet Charity Ames."