Rachel fetched the iced tea as they all sat down at the table.
“First,” Lacey said, “I think the best way to head Nicolai off is to give him no ammunition. I mean absolutely nothing. If people in town feel they have to start giving comments, fine. I’m not too happy about that, but anything anyone else says is minor to getting the scoop from one of us, you know?”
“But, Lacey—” Lee began.
“I know it’s a lot to ask,” she said to him, her father, too, “but I’m going have to count on you two to run the gauntlet outside for Mother and me when it comes to getting supplies and such. I don’t want to give the media even a chance at me. And I don’t want to put Mother through that sort of experience.”
She turned to Rachel. “I’m sorry, Mother. It’s going to mean you’ll be confined here with me for who knows how long. But I really think the media will get tired of getting nothing from me pretty quickly and go off in search of more exciting prey.”
“But that’s what I was just going to say,” Lee said uneasily. “I don’t think your
keepin’ mum is necessarily going to make the story die.”
Lacey shook her head. “Why wouldn’t it?”
“Well, the reason I came over was because I’d gotten word of how Laslo is now tellin’ everyone that he’s prepared to come to Abysmal and win you back on bended knee.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
LACEY’S GLASS HIT THE TABLE with a crash, breaking it and spilling tea all over the tablecloth and lone newspaper which hadn’t made it into the trash. The amber liquid spread quickly, darkening the newsprint as if to seal her fate.
“Honey, you’re bleeding!” Rachel cried.
Hank grabbed Lacey’s wrist and pulled her over to the sink, where he stuck her hand under running cold water before pressing a clean towel to it.
After a moment he drew back the edge to reveal a jagged cut on her index finger. She stared at it with detached interest, as if she were looking at someone else’s hand.
Hank examined the wound. “Doesn’t look like you’ll need stitches although it wouldn’t hurt to take you on down to Dr. Wolf and have him confirm that.”
That jolted Lacey out of her detachment.
“No!” She jerked her hand out of her father’s grasp. “I’m not going out there! I won’t! I can’t!”
She whirled away from his puzzled gaze, and her mother’s frightened and Lee’s apologetic ones, clutching her injured hand, towel wrapped around it, to her middle.
“Why would he come here?” she cried, bending over her swaddled hand, cradling it like a baby. “I just want to be left alone.”
Her father’s fingers gripped her upper arms from behind. “Now, now, Lacey, it’ll be all right. I promise it will.”
Oh, how badly she wanted to believe him! Wanted to be the little girl who could trust with all her heart again. Could she? Just for a while?
“You don’t know how Nicolai thinks,” she whispered.
“I tell you what,” Hank continued. “Let’s see if we can get a hold of Nicolai and sit down and talk things over. I’m sure if we jest tell him you’re done with him and there’s no goin’ back, he’ll see he’s got to give this fool notion up.”
Drawing herself up with a deep breath, she turned around. “It wouldn’t work, Daddy. Nothing will work. You don’t know Nicolai. But he knows me. He made a science of studying me and my reactions, like I was a bug in a jar! He lives to manipulate me just this way, putting me on the spot and making me dance to his tune whether I want to or not!”
“That’s what you can do,” Lee spoke up. “You can tell the media your side of what happened. Tell ’em how Laslo treated you.” He gave a short nod. “After all, this is the good ol’ U.S. of A., and you’re America’s Cinderella. The public’s sympathy’ll go straight to you.”
Sadly, Lacey looked from Lee to Hank. They were such good men—good and honest and straightforward and sincere. She didn’t want to have to tell them, too, try to make them understand the kind of unscrupulous and downright diabolic motivations Nicolai operated under. Why, they must still be inconceivable even to her, for why else would she not have anticipated that he wouldn’t let her go so easily?
And even knowing the lengths he had gone to to control her during their marriage, she had a feeling, with this new ploy, that until now she’d seen only the tip of the iceberg.
That desperation gripped her again, worse than ever before. She couldn’t escape it, couldn’t escape him.
Lacey looked beseechingly at her mother, the last person in the room who might understand her predicament, if only by virtue of having knowledge of her daughter’s anguish. “Mother, you know what Nicolai is like, what he did to me. I told you, it’s all about gaining power over me. Surely you can see how impossible it would be to have anything to do with him.”
A war of uncertainty clashed in Rachel’s eyes. Then she burst out, “Oh, Lacey, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know what he’d done! How could I? I was only thinking of you, especially when Nicolai said he’d do anything for a second chance with you—”
Lacey went cold as ice. “He said that? Where? When?”
“He called a few weeks ago!” Rachel confessed, clearly beside herself. “I didn’t tell him about your center, only that you were working very hard to keep us in this house! I wouldn’t do you that way, honey, you’ve got to believe me. I just couldn’t stand seein’ you unhappy and I didn’t want to see you walk away from what might be a real nice life, if it could be saved at all.”
Lacey dropped her chin, shoulders slumping, her heart heavier than it had been in months. She knew she was right about Nicolai’s motives, knew she wasn’t being overly suspicious or unduly unfair. She knew it to the bottom of her feet and the tips of her fingers. And honestly, she wasn’t asking for someone to bail her out, solve her problems for her. She wasn’t even asking for advice. She just wanted someone to understand! Just one person, and somehow she knew it would make all the difference in the world to her.
Just one single person, she hoped, that’s all. Just one—
“Lacey!”
Her head shot up. Someone was pounding on the front door so hard it creaked on its hinges.
“Lacey, open up! It’s Will!”
She flew to the door and flung it open, heedless of the crowd waiting for just such an event. But Will, with the strategic jab of an elbow here and the shove of a sturdy shoulder there, kept the reporters from getting even a foot inside.
He lunged across the threshold and slammed the door shut behind him.
“I just heard,” he said, breathing hard. “I would have been here sooner but I’ve been out on the northeast section since before dawn trying to save a mama cow and her calf that’d gotten through a fence and were stuck in a wash.”
She gaped at him. A bead of perspiration trickled down one temple, his hat was askew on his head and his shirt was torn at the shoulder seam. He was dusty and dirty, smelled of horse and cow, and the rowels on his spurs were gouging divots in the thick oriental carpet underfoot, but she didn’t care! It took every bit of her willpower not to throw her arms around him and kiss him.
His gaze took in hers and grew dusky and intense. Then it fell to her hand, still wrapped in a towel.
“Lacey, are you all right?” Without asking, he reached for her arm and unwrapped it. He examined her finger grimly. “Where’s a first-aid kit?”
“Th-there’s one in my bathroom,” she replied. “Upstairs.”
Will swept her past the rather surprised-looking threesome at the foot of the stairs and took her down the hall to the bathroom off the bedroom she had moved into when she’d come home. He sat her down and quickly found the first-aid kit in the gilded French provincial armoire standing again
st the far wall.
He washed his hands clean in the sink, then knelt on one knee in front of her, the kit at her side. He took a leisurely glance around the room as he unrolled a length of gauze, his gaze finally coming to rest on the pink velvet chaise longue she sat on.
“If I didn’t know better I’d think I was in Las Vegas,” he observed.
Lacey had to smile. “It’s rather overdone, isn’t it?”
He held her hand in his as he daubed antibiotic cream on her cut with a swab. “To say the least. How’d this happen?”
“I broke my tea glass.”
He raised his eyebrows in question.
“Lee had just come in with the news that Nicolai had told the press he was prepared to come to Abysmal to g-get me.”
Lacey ducked her head, batting her eyes to keep sudden tears from falling. She heard Will muttering above her.
“Why’s he doin’ this, Lacey?”
“As if he needs a reason!” she said bitterly. She pushed her hair back on a sigh. “I’ve got to think, though, that his popularity abroad has gone down since the divorce. Prince Charming sort of loses his charm without Cinderella at his side. And so far as his popularity in the States, it always seemed to me that while he was the real nobility, it was my pauper-to-princess story that people related to.”
She lifted her chin and tried a weak smile. “Sort of an Americanized version of Kate Middleton. Except I wasn’t the daughter of wealthy parents. I was the everyday, average girl next door, and that made it even more fascinating, I think.”
Lacey watched him bind the cut snugly but not too tight, then secure the gauze with tape. “So now it seems I’m in for a battle royale of some kind, because I’m not giving in. I can’t. And I know Nicolai enough to know he won’t give up.”
She rubbed her forehead wearily. “I’d so hoped to avoid such an ugly, very public scene. But it seems unavoidable at this point.”
“I know your divorce wasn’t exactly time capsule material, but I’m surprised you escaped the media’s scrutiny as long as you did,” Will commented. He scrutinized his handiwork, then dropped the roll of tape and scissors back into the kit and closed the lid.
“I know. I think that’s mainly due to the divorce being so quiet. There were no affairs to expose, and no nasty custody battles or settlements. And because I came here, to Abysmal.”
She concentrated on smoothing down a wrinkle in the white tape on her finger. “I’ve wondered if maybe, too, leaving him was the one action Nicolai hadn’t banked on my taking, and it’s taken him this long to work all the angles out again. I don’t think it occurred to him that I wouldn’t want at least one thing from him he could leverage against me.”
“Then it seems the man has a blind side,” Will said. “And that means he can be defended against. The question is how.”
“I’m afraid, though, it’s going to take more of a countermove than just sitting tight.” Lacey looked at him. “My parents think I should meet with Nicolai, Daddy for me to tell Nicolai there’s no chance of a reconciliation, and Mother for me to hear him out in case there is. I c-can’t do either of those, Will. They don’t understand that to give an inch where Nicolai is concerned would be emotional suicide. He’s a master at twisting and turning around every little thing you say. There’s no way to win.”
He brushed her hair back, his palm coming to rest against her cheek. “Then don’t say one word to Laslo.”
She couldn’t prevent herself from leaning into his caress. “And Lee thinks I should tell the media everything Nicolai has done, just spill my guts and let the press run with it. Try to style myself as some kind of heroine! I can’t do that, either. Put the entire history of my personal torment and pain out there for everyone to see?” Even now, the thought brought back every bit of her terror. “I can’t.”
“Of course you can’t,” Will told her quietly.
“But I have to do something!” She gripped his wrists as he took her face between both hands and gazed at him in appeal. “I have to, or he’ll come here to Abysmal. I don’t think I could stand that, Will, if he did, and found out about my center for girls. He’d destroy it, I know he would, because he’d know it was the one thing I couldn’t stand to have destroyed.”
“He won’t get that chance—”
“This is my town, my corner of the world. My safe place. He can’t come here, do you understand?”
His hands were large and warm on her face as he shook her gently. “I understand, Lacey. And don’t worry, he won’t.”
He hadn’t given her a way to keep that from happening, but somehow she believed him. Believed they’d come up with some plan.
Will chewed on the corner of his mouth for a moment. “So you’re not sure what to do to keep Laslo from getting a toehold in your life again. Then let’s go over what you won’t do—like sit down and talk with him, or tell your side to the world.”
That seemed like a good approach. “I don’t want to fight him, either. I refuse to sink to his level. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did. And I truly don’t want my parents or Lee or people in town to be harried into hiding out in their own homes, but the media is not going to go away empty-handed, especially as long as there’s the prospect of Nicolai arriving.”
Will scraped the edge of his index finger across his chin. “Let me get this straight. What I’m hearin’ is that the press won’t leave without a story—but it doesn’t have to be the real story. And Laslo’s going to come to Abysmal in hopes of makin’ a scene that’ll flush you out into the open—unless he’s given a pretty good reason not to. So—” he cocked one purely devilish eyebrow “—why not top him by makin’ a scene of your own? A scene to end all scenes. And one that keeps your real private business out of the news for good.”
“Like what?” Lacey asked warily.
“Well, Laslo’s not going to rest till he’s got you back as his countess, right?”
“Yes—”
“And he’s going to try every trick in the book to wangle you into makin’ such a commitment, isn’t he?”
“Yes, but—”
“Yes, but everything hinges on you bein’ available at this point. I mean, a man can stomp and threaten all he likes, but the fact is he can’t bid on a comely young heifer if she’s already been sold, you know what I mean?”
Lacey blinked as comprehension hit her. “You aren’t suggesting...”
He grinned wickedly. “Oh, but I am. And since it seems I’m already in the proper position...”
Still on bended knee, Will grasped her fingers in his and whipped off his hat, pressing it to his chest like some cowboy come a-courting. “Lacey McCoy, will you do me the great and glorious honor of becoming my bride?”
“You can’t be serious!” She tried to tug her hand from his, but he was having nothing of it. “Really, Will, we can’t get married just to force Nicolai to abandon his game.”
“No, that’s true.” He looked charmingly disappointed. “But we can get engaged. That’ll work just as well, I should think. ’Sides, you got a better idea?”
Lacey frowned. “Not at the moment, certainly, but you must realize it’ll be a long time before this all dies down in the media. Months, at the very least, during which we’ll have to keep up a pretty extensive charade.”
He shrugged. “I’m game if you are.”
“And what happens afterward? I mean, we can’t stay engaged forever. People’ll start to wonder. Sooner or later we’d have to, you know, d-do something—”
“Do something?” he asked innocently. “Like what?”
Her face heated up like an oven turned on full blast. “Honestly, Will, the whole idea is insane!”
“Is it?” He set his hat on his head and took her other hand in his, squeezing them reassuringly. “I don’t see any other options, and yo
u don’t have much more time. Why not just go with this plan for now and hope some better idea occurs to you when you’re not under the gun? You’ll think of something, and when you do then we’ll just announce we’re callin’ off the engagement. Sound fair?”
He was right there. She didn’t think she’d be able to come up with anything better, and she was running out of time before Nicolai would make his next move. Still...
She gazed at him solemnly. “I told you before, Will Proffitt, I don’t need someone to rescue me.”
“Then don’t consider it rescuin’. Think of it as...as my returning a favor you did for me.”
“I did you a favor?” Lacey asked in amazement.
“Sure you did. A couple of ’em. In gettin’ to know you, you’ve spurred me into takin’ a look at myself and takin’ care of some old business that’s been hanging around for years now. Business with Lee.” His lashes flickered and faltered slightly. “And with myself.”
“Such as?” she prompted softly, on tenterhooks at the prospect of at last getting a glimpse inside Will Proffitt.
“Oh, I’m not for tellin’ you just right this minute,” he said with one of those self-reproaching half smiles.
She nodded. For some reason at that moment, she was willing to trust that what she wanted to know, needed to know, would be revealed to her in its proper time.
“In that case,” Lacey murmured, “thank you, Will, for helping me out. I appreciate it.”
Gray eyes glowing like coals, his gaze roved over her features in a way that stole her breath away. “Not a’tall, Lacey. Not a’tall.”
She didn’t know how long she sat there in the thrall of his perusal until she found herself drawing in a shuddering breath.
“So,” she said with a nervous glance toward the doorway, “you’re absolutely positive it’s going to take a full-out, attention-stealing, cover-Grandma’s-eyes scene to thwart Nicolai?”
“Like I already told you, darlin’, my experience proves it takes nothin’ less if you’re serious about gettin’ your point across. And the more you act like you’ve settled right back into the routine here, the better. Which means—” he trailed a fingertip down the bridge of her nose “—just be yourself, Lacey McCoy.”
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