The Bride Wore White


 
 
 
 Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Amanda Quick
 
 The Bride Wore White
 When She Dreams
 The Lady Has a Past
 Close Up
 Tightrope
 The Other Lady Vanishes
 The Girl Who Knew Too Much
 ’Til Death Do Us Part
 Garden of Lies
 Otherwise Engaged
 The Mystery Woman
 Crystal Gardens
 Quicksilver
 Burning Lamp
 The Perfect Poison
 The Third Circle
 The River Knows
 Second Sight
 Lie by Moonlight
 The Paid Companion
 Wait Until Midnight
 Late for the Wedding
 Don’t Look Back
 Slightly Shady
 Wicked Widow
 I Thee Wed
 With This Ring
 Affair
 Mischief
 Mystique
 Mistress
 Deception
 Desire
 Dangerous
 Reckless
 Ravished
 Rendezvous
 Scandal
 Surrender
 Seduction
 
 Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz
 The Lost Night Files Trilogy
 
 Sleep No More
 
 The Fogg Lake Trilogy
 
 Lightning in a Mirror
 All the Colors of Night
 The Vanishing
 Untouchable
 Promise Not to Tell
 When All the Girls Have Gone
 Secret Sisters
 Trust No One
 River Road
 Dream Eyes
 Copper Beach
 In Too Deep
 Fired Up
 Running Hot
 Sizzle and Burn
 White Lies
 All Night Long
 Falling Awake
 Truth or Dare
 Light in Shadow
 Summer in Eclipse Bay
 Together in Eclipse Bay
 Smoke in Mirrors
 Lost & Found
 Dawn in Eclipse Bay
 Soft Focus
 Eclipse Bay
 Eye of the Beholder
 Flash
 Sharp Edges
 Deep Waters
 Absolutely, Positively
 Trust Me
 Grand Passion
 Hidden Talents
 Wildest Hearts
 Family Man
 Perfect Partners
 Sweet Fortune
 Silver Linings
 The Golden Chance
 
 Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle
 
 Sweetwater and the Witch
 Guild Boss
 Illusion Town
 Siren’s Call
 The Hot Zone
 Deception Cove
 The Lost Night
 Canyons of Night
 Midnight Crystal
 Obsidian Prey
 Dark Light
 Silver Master
 Ghost Hunter
 After Glow
 Harmony
 After Dark
 Amaryllis
 Zinnia
 Orchid
 
 The Guinevere Jones Series
 
 Desperate and Deceptive
 
 The Guinevere Jones Collection, Volume 1
 The Desperate Game
 The Chilling Deception
 
 Sinister and Fatal
 
 The Guinevere Jones Collection, Volume 2
 The Sinister Touch
 The Fatal Fortune
 Specials
 
 The Scargill Cove Case Files
 
 (writing as Jayne Ann Krentz)
 
 Bridal Jitters
 
 (writing as Jayne Castle)
 Anthologies
 
 Charmed
 
 (with Julie Beard, Lori Foster, and Eileen Wilks)
 Titles written by Jayne Ann Krentz and Jayne Castle
 
 No Going Back
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 BERKLEY
 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
 penguinrandomhouse.com
 
 Copyright © 2023 by Jayne Ann Krentz
 Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
 BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Quick, Amanda, author.
 Title: The bride wore white / Amanda Quick.
 Description: New York : Berkley, [2023]
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022054535 (print) | LCCN 2022054536 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593337868 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593337899 (ebook)
 Classification: LCC PS3561.R44 B75 2023 (print) | LCC PS3561.R44 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022054535
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022054536
 Cover design by Rita Frangie
 Cover image © Mohamad Itani / Trevillion Images
 Book design by Laura K. Corless
 Adapted for ebook by Kelly Brennan
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 pid_prh_6.0_143390428_c0_r0
 
 
 
 For Frank, as always, with love
 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 The moment she removed one long black glove and touched the rim of the crystal bowl, Madame Ariadne knew the client on the other side of the table intended to murder her.
 Damn. As if she didn’t have enough problems at the moment. She’d had it with the profession. If she survived the night, Madame Ariadne, Psychic Dream Consultant, was going to disappear forever.
 Her real name was Prudence Ryland, but those who paid to have her interpret their dreams knew her only as Madame Ariadne. She had never really felt that the dream reading business was her true calling. Yes, there was very good money in it, and yes, she had a talent for it, but she had never liked the work. Tonight it might get her killed.
 “This is the first time I have consulted a psychic about the meaning of my dreams,” Thomas Tapson said. In the shadows of the darkened room, his eyes glinted with the reflected light of the old-fashioned lamp in the center of the round table. “I look forward to the experience.”
 He had walked into the reading room with an air of amused curiosity. He had stopped in the center of the shadowed, heavily draped surroundings and removed his expensive fedora with a gracious gesture. The perfect gentleman. His hand-tailored suit, elegantly knotted tie, and gold signet ring were the hallmarks of wealth and high social status.
 On the surface, his voice carried the unmistakable accent of an upper-class boarding school education. It was the voice of a man who had been raised in the rarefied world of San Francisco society. But if you knew how to listen, you could detect the sick lust he was working hard to conceal.
 She knew how to listen—it was a requisite skill in the psychic trade. The question was whether or not she knew how to survive the night.
 “I will certainly do my best to interpret your dreams, Mr. Tapson,” she said, managing to keep her own voice cool and professional with just the right touch of mystery and drama.
 The ability to put on a good performance was another skill essential to success in her profession. She had been raised in the dream reading business. She