Lacy (30 page)

She did it before she realized what he was
inviting her to see, and she averted her eyes with a gasp.

"Short skirts,"he said with black
humor. "Charleston music, lip rouge.. .I thought you were
sophisticated."

"Not with you." She laughed at her own
embarrassment. "We're married, but I still feel like a girl with
you."

"Lacy, I hope you always do." He
pushed back her hair. It was wavy from the curling iron and had a lovely black
sheen. "I shouldn't tease you. I simply can't resist it."

"As long as it's only me that you tease..
.like that," she replied demurely.

"That's a safe assumption. I'm not
comfortable with other women. I never have been." He linked her fingers
with his and sighed. "Shall we go back out and brave the lions?" he
invited. "I think I've recovered enough not to draw unwanted attention."

She didn't look this time, but she flushed.
"Honestly, Cole," she murmured.

His fingers caressed hers. "It's all part
of marriage,"he assured her.

"Don't let Jessica unsettle you," she
cautioned. "If worse comes to worse, I have an ace in the hole that she
doesn't know about."

"Do you, indeed?" he asked. "What
is it?"

She whispered to him, and he chuckled. "You
won't mind, if I have to come out with it?" she added, worried.

"No," he said, surprising her.
"But Ben will. So make it a last resort."

"Okay, boss," she said pertly.

"Tease me and I'll back you up against the
wall again "he threatened. "And this time, I won't stop."

"In a houseful of people?" Her eyes
kindled with humor. "You wouldn't dare."

"Yes, I would."

She didn't really believe him, but she moved
quickly into the living room, just in case.

Marion
was wringing her hands.
It wasn't going well. Jessica was making her opinion of the ranch so obvious
that people were beginning to murmur. Even Ben looked uncomfortable when
Jessica began playing up to Turk and trying to get him to talk about the planes
he'd shot down in the war.

Ben moved her to one side, nervous. "Don't
do that, please," he asked, avoiding Turk's blazing eyes. "He and
Cole never speak of France. You're asking for trouble. Turk isn't quite
civilized even now, and my brother is a cougar when he's pushed."

"How exciting." She glanced toward the
kitchen doorway, where

Lacy and Cole were briefly silhouetted. Cole was
quite something. Jessica found herself actually envying Lacy. That man would be
more than enough for any woman, and he'd wear the pants, not his wife. Ben was
easily managed, almost childish. Coleman Whitehall would be his exact opposite,
stubborn and masculine and very exciting.

"How long have they been married?" she
asked, nodding toward Cole and Lacy. "Almost a year."

"Really?" Jessica laughed, with faint
envy. "My, my. They act like newlyweds, don't they? She's rather docile
and backward. You'd think he'd prefer a different kind of woman."

Lacy was Ben's Achille's heel. He didn't like
having her described in those terms. He was getting nervous about the whole
affair. He hadn't wanted to let Marion give him this party. Jessica tended to
be abrasive, and she was every inch a snob. As much as Ben enjoyed her in bed,
she was an embarrassment in public. If it weren't for the job, he wouldn't have
let himself be coaxed into giving her that engagement ring at all.

His mind kept flying back to Faye, to poor
little Faye who loved him, who would have died for him. So sweet, and so
different from this cold-eyed woman who used her body like a weapon to extract
what she wanted from men.

"Is Turk married?" Jessica was asking,
her acquisitive eyes moving slowly over the blond ace as he stood alone at the
punch table.

"No."

Jessica's pretty lips pursed. "What a waste.
He has bedroom eyes. I'll bet he's built as well as you are, Ben."

He shifted uneasily. That wasn't the kind of
thing a lady said. But, then, Jessica was no lady.

"Let's circulate," he said. "I
see—"

He stopped dead and went pale as Faye Cameron
came in the front door. She wasn't dressed for a party. She was wearing a
simple gingham dress with a worn sweater over it. Her blond hair was disheveled
and she'd been crying.

She went up to Ben, a scene he hadn't imagined
in his worst nightmares, and stared at him.

"Well?" he asked, his eyes pleading
with her not to start anything. The neighbors all seemed to suspect why she was
here, and some people, including Cole, were actually staring.

"Is this her?" Faye asked, staring at
Jessica.

"This is my fiancee, Jessica "he said
stiffly. "What do you want?"

Faye should have run at the tone—and the look
that accompanied it—but she stood her ground. She was very pale and quiet. In
fact, she was shaking. But she didn't back down an inch.

"I want to know if you still intend to
marry her," Faye said quietly, "when I'm carrying your child?"

"That's a lie," Ben said easily.

"It was a few weeks ago," Faye agreed.
"Now it isn't. You know why. And when."

His face went stark white. So that afternoon had
paid dividends. But why now, for God's sake, when he was on top of the world?
Why had she come here to destroy him in public, in front of his fiancee and his
employer?

He started to speak, to ask her to go outside
with him so they could talk. But Jessica beat him to the punch.

"Get rid of it, honey," Jessica told
her—with cold insolence and a look that spoke volumes. "Girls like you
know how, don't they? Ben can pay for it."

"What—what do you mean?" Faye
stammered.

"Get an abortion." Jessica shrugged.
"It's easy. Any madam can show you. But you won't get Ben, because I need
him and he's marrying me. Shopworn little creatures like you can always get
hicks. In a place like this, you'll strike paydirt," she added, with a
meaningful glance around the crowded house.

The room had gone very quiet. Jessica didn't
care. This creature had to be got rid of before she played on Ben's sympathies.

"Now get out," Jessica told the girl.
"We don't want poor white trash like you in here—"

"Who the hell do you think you are,
lady?" Cole's deep voice bit into her speech.

He resisted Lacy's frantic pull and went to
tower over Jessica. "Faye, come here." He held out his arms, and
Faye, frightened, ran to him. He pulled her close and looked at Jessica's
shocked face with unrefined contempt. "This is my home,"he told her.
"I decide who goes and who stays. Faye Cameron is a sweet, nice girl who
never did anything wrong in her life until she landed in the orbit of my
licentious brother! If she's pregnant, the child will be a Whitehall, and will
be provided for—not scraped out of her like some fungus! And if you open your
mouth again in that venomous manner, you will regret it."

"You can't speak to my daughter like
that," Randolph Bradley said haughtily.

"Oh, but he can," Lacy said. She moved
forward, putting her arm around the other side of Faye to give her support. It
had taken guts for Faye to come here. She wasn't going to let those people
savage her, either.

"I hardly think a rancher has any right to
treat people of our station in this manner," Jessica said sarcastically,
getting her poise back. "Especially when we did Ben a favor just to come
here. You're a nobody in San Antonio, Mr. Whitehall."

"The husband of the heir to the Jacobsen
fortune?" Lacy replied. "You must be mad if you think Cole lacks
social standing." She felt Cole's rage and saw Ben's anguish, but it was
her turn now. She lifted her chin. "You didn't know that my great-uncle
Horace Jacobsen founded Spanish Flats, I suppose?"

Randolph Bradley hesitated. "Horace
Jacobsen?
The
Horace Jacobson, the railroad tycoon?"

"Why, yes," Lacy said pleasantly,
aware of Cole's stiffness. She hated doing this to his pride, but it had become
necessary to save Faye. "He left his fortune to my great-aunt, his wife,
and it passed to me on her death." She fingered the diamonds. "These
rhinestones
were
hers," she told Jessica. "Except that they are not costume jewelry.
They once belonged to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, as legend goes. She was an
ancestor of mine. And the dress I'm wearing, my dear isn't something I whipped
up on my treadle machine." Her eyes glittered. "It's a Paris original; one which, I daresay, is quite beyond your pocket!"

Jessica was looking drawn. Ben tried to feel
sorry for her, but it wasn't easy. Faye looked shattered, and he was going to catch
hell from Cole; he could see it in the older man's furious expression. Lacy
was just getting warmed up.

"There's just one more little piece of
information I have to impart to you, Mr. Bradley," Lacy continued, with
venomous politeness. "You number among your biggest advertisers two of my
cousins who dote on me. One word from me, and I can close your newspaper down
overnight!"

Randolph Bradley had never groveled in his life,
but he came close to it then. Apologies for himself and his daughter flowed from
his lips. Lacy wasn't listening. She was staring at Jessica with eyes that made
vicious demands.

"You surely don't expect me to
apologize," Jessica said icily. "That little slut isn't pregnant;
she's just making it up to get Ben. But he belongs to me, now.. .and I'm not
sharing him. Take me home, Ben. And don't ever expect me to come back here
again."

"How could you?" Ben asked huskily,
staring at Faye. "How could you do this to me, knowing what my career
means? You vicious little liar!"

Faye leaned her tearful face against Cole's
chest.

Cole's eyes flared at his brother. "You
made her pregnant and cast her off, and you think
she's
vicious?"
he asked, his voice threatening. "You cold-blooded, mercenary
opportunist!"

Marion
came forward, white as
a sheet. "Bennett, please don't spoil the party. All of you, please!"

She clutched her chest. Lacy quickly got her
into a chair while people gathered around. Lacy ran for one of the pills the
doctor had prescribed and came back to slip one under Marion's tongue. The pain
seemed to subside fairly quickly, but she was still pale and sickly.

Cole looked at Ben over her head. "Take
your streetwalker out of my house," he said, with icy fury. "If you
come back, I'll beat you bloody. I swear to God I will!"

Ben hesitated, but only for a minute. He'd never
seen Cole look at him like this before, as if he were a stinging insect. Even
his mother's eyes were accusing, and Lacy and Faye wouldn't look at him. He was
the wronged party here, so why did he feel so wretched and sick at heart? With
a rough sigh, he took Jessica's arm, ignoring her affronted raging, and pulled
her out of the house.

Randolph Bradley hovered uncertainly. "I
apologize for my daughter..." he began.

Lacy looked up at him. She was all but shaking
with indignation because of Ben's treatment of Faye. This man had manipulated
Ben and put them all in this shameful position. "I wouldn't count on being
in San Antonio too much longer, if I were you. In fact, I'd consider cutting my
losses while I had the time."

He swallowed. His new enterprise was going to
end in ruin because of his spoiled daughter. He didn't know how he was going to
cope. "Your brother-in-law will be out of a job." He used his last
hole card.

"My brother-in-law deserves to be,"
she said curtly. "Please leave my home."

He did, rather hesitantly. The guests murmured
among themselves. They'd take home enough gossip to carry them through the
winter. Lacy grimaced.

Cole stood up. "Well, don't just stand
there," he said, glaring at them. He pulled Faye to his side and smiled
down at her. "I'm going to be an uncle. Sure as hell that's a reason for
celebration! Put that music back on!"

The incredible statement saved the day. No one
mentioned that the niece or nephew would be born out of wedlock, or that Faye
was disgraced, or that the guest of honor had just been thrown out the door.
The party began again, with pure revelry.