The Vixen's Kiss

by Jackie Black

  “Wonderful!” Elizabeth said fervently. “I can meet you at Logan Airport.”

  “Oh, really, you don’t have to . . . ,” Darla started to say, but Elizabeth cut her off with a happy chuckle.

  “Darla, believe me. It’s no trouble at all. And don’t worry about where you’re going to stay, either. There’s room here at my house. Now what time is your plane due in?”

  A few minutes later, Elizabeth hung up the phone, and with a song on her lips and a sparkle of anticipation in her large eyes, she hopped out of bed to take a shower, dress, and figure out a plan of action to confront Danny with her successor.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Darla said a few hours later as she stood in front of the mirror in Elizabeth’s bedroom eyeing her Vixen costume and makeup. “I don’t look enough like you, even with all the camouflage.”

  Elizabeth looked at her in astonishment. “You’re kidding!” she exclaimed, switching her gaze to the image in the mirror. “You’re a dead ringer for the Vixen.”

  Darla frowned. “Are you sure you’re not just indulging in wishful thinking?” she said skeptically, peering closer at her own image.

  “Well, it’s possible, I suppose—” Elizabeth shrugged “—but I don’t think so. And anyway, it doesn’t matter what I think. The real test will be whether you can pull things off tonight.”

  Darla turned and grinned at Elizabeth, “Well, she said brightly, “in for a penny ... in for a pound. Is it time to go yet?”

  Elizabeth glanced at her watch just about the time a knock came on her bedroom door.

  - “Come on, sis!” Danny called impatiently, and Elizabeth was extremely grateful that she’d locked her door, for Danny was rattling the knob. “Get with it! We’ll be late.”

  “I’ll be with you in a minute!” Elizabeth called out. “Go start the car.”

  Elizabeth ran to her closet to get one of her coats for Darla to wear. “Now, remember,” she said as she held it while Darla slipped her arms in the sleeves. “Even if this blows up in our faces, it’s no big deal. This is just an impromptu, gig at the club that gave Danny his start. And I know he won’t make a public scene even if he discovers that you’re not me. He’ll wait until he gets you home and take on both of us at once.”

  Darla rolled her eyes. “Thank goodness, he doesn’t even know I exist yet. If he’d been home when you brought me here, he’d be wondering why I wasn’t invited to come along for the show tonight.” “Why do you think I slipped you in here like a thief in the night?” Elizabeth said smugly. “This is the perfect opportunity to show Danny you can take my place. What can he say if you fool even him? He won’t have a leg to stand on about protesting the arrangement.”

  “You seem to forget that I may not fool him,” Darla said dryly. “If nothing else, I haven’t had time to memorize all the songs the group does.”

  “If he wants to do something you don’t know, improvise,” Elizabeth suggested. “Or better yet, pretend you’re coming down with appendicitis or something and make yourself scarce.”

  “You’re a big help.” Darla grimaced, but Elizabeth paid her no mind. Instead she pushed her toward the door of the bedroom.

  Cautiously, Elizabeth opened the door and peered out to make sure the coast was clear. It was, and she shoved Darla out into the hall.

  “Break a leg!” she whispered, then slammed the door between herself and the woman she fervently hoped was going to be a better Vixen than Elizabeth herself had ever hoped (or wanted) to be.

  A few moments later, she watched from her window in her darkened bedroom as Danny’s car sped down the street, and she breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief. So far, so good.

  Then she settled down with one of her father’s medical tomes and tried to concentrate on it while she waited to see if she was at last going to be released from Danny’s dream and given the opportunity to pursue her own.

  A few hours later, Elizabeth jerked awake in her chair when she heard voices outside in the hall . . . raised, angry voices that sent a chill down her spine. Then the door to her bedroom was shoved open and Danny, his face darkly thunderous, shoved Darla into the room in front of him. Jay and Jerry crowded in behind them.

  “What the hell do you mean setting us up like that?!” Danny demanded angrily. He ignored the furious look he was getting from Darla.

  “Setting you up?” Elizabeth echoed faintly, trying to get her jumbled thoughts together and calm her racing heart so that she could hold her own in the fight. She got to her feet, then had to take a step backward as Danny paced forward.

  “Don’t play innocent with me!” he snarled. “You know what you did, and it was a disaster!”

  Elizabeth frowned and glanced at Darla, Jay, and Jerry, in turn. She was encouraged that Darla looked stubbornly outraged at Danny’s description, while Jay and Jerry looked not only embarrassed, but as though they disagreed with Danny’s assessment.

  Before she could answer her brother, Darla stepped forward.

  “It was not a disaster!” she said heatedly. “You didn’t have a clue I wasn’t Lissa until you wanted to sing that new song I don’t know yet, and . .

  “I’ll decide what works and what doesn’t with the Foursome,” Danny interrupted in a hostile voice, never taking his eyes from Elizabeth’s face. “I just thought you weren’t up to par tonight, that’s all. I didn’t realize it wasn’t you until I started the intro to ‘Fall Time’ and you . . . she . . . didn’t join in!”

  “Baloney!” Darla snorted. “There wasn’t a person in the audience who suspected a thing, and where do you get off saying I wasn’t ‘up to par’?” She turned to Jay and Jerry with a glare on her painted face. “What about you two? You know I was up to par, don’t you?!” Danny immediately turned and gave Jay and Jerry a menacing look of warning, whereupon his two partners squirmed.

  “Well, actually, she wasn’t bad, Danny boy,” Jay said with courageous breeziness. “She had me fooled.”

  “Then you’ve got a tin ear!” Danny snarled, but when he turned back to face Elizabeth, she had assessed the situation and gathered her own courage. She wasn’t about to let Danny’s reluctance to face change spoil her chance.

  “Come off it, Danny,” she said with level firmness, looking him steadily in the eye. “Admit you were completely fooled until Darla didn’t know the words to your new song.”

  “Never!” he said coldly. “Unlike some people, I have an excellent ear, and I knew from the beginning that there was something wrong with your voice tonight.”

  Knowing Danny’s talents, Elizabeth suspected he was telling the truth ... but that didn’t mean he wasn’t twisting the truth for his own benefit.

  “All right, so you knew there was something different about my voice,” she said with a shrug. “But different doesn’t mean worse, does it? I’ve heard Darla sing myself, and while there might be a shade of difference in our voices, as far as I’m concerned, Darla’s voice is as good or better than mine.”

  Danny didn’t give an inch. His blue eyes fairly blazed with anger and determination.

  “I repeat,” he said gratingly. “I make the decisions where the Foursome is concerned, and I say she’s not good enough.”

  Elizabeth seldom lost her temper, but she did now, and her violet eyes blazed right back at Danny.

  “Then that’s just too damned bad!” she stormed at her brother. “Because I’m finished with the Foursome, Danny, as of tonight! And if Darla isn’t good enough, then you’re stuck, brother dear, because it’s either her or no one! You can make up your mind to that!” Danny’s expression changed as he began to take her seriously, but before he could begin one of his attacks on her better nature, Elizabeth cut him off.

  “Jay . . . Jerry!” she demanded, stepping around Danny. “Tell the truth! Can Darla fill my shoes or do you two want to cancel all of your engagements for the next few years while you try to find someone to replace her?”

  Jay and Jerry looked startled and dismayed. They exchanged a
glance, then looked at Danny, who was glaring at them, but before they could answer, Darla stepped in again, her hostile gaze fixed on Danny’s face as though she’d like to hit him.

  “Maybe the question is academic, Lissa!” she snapped. “Maybe I wouldn’t take this job if your high and mighty brother got down on his knees and begged me to!”

  “Don’t hold your breath!” Danny immediately responded, his expression and voice as hostile as Darla’s.

  Elizabeth was dismayed, but she forced herself not to show it.

  “Whatever you say, Darla,” she said calmly, and fixed her eyes steadily on Danny again. “But whatever Darla does or doesn’t do, Danny, I’m through. And don’t give me any of your smooth talk about family loyalty,” she quickly added when she recognized the shifting expression in her brother’s eyes. “You haven’t been the least bit interested in displaying any of that loyalty you claim for yourself toward me. You’ve known how I feel all along, and you made me promises you had no intention of keeping. I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t auditioned even one person to take my place, much less the hundreds you claim to have seen.”

  Danny had the grace to look slightly guilty, but instead of apologizing, he merely shrugged his broad shoulders and attempted an explanation.

  “I was going to,” he said quietly. “I just needed a little more time. In six months or so . .

  “In six months, I’ll be in medical school,” Elizabeth said equally as quietly, but with no lack of firmness. “Now, make a choice, Danny. Are you going to apologize to Darla and ask her to work with you, or are you going to shut everything down until you find a replacement for me? I warn you . . . unlike you, I have been holding auditions, and I can tell you, it isn’t going to be easy to fill my shoes.”

  “You’re telling me,” Danny snorted. Then he stood for a moment, his firm jaw tensed, as he inspected Elizabeth’s expression for any sign of weakening.

  Elizabeth was careful not to give any such sign, and when Danny at last looked toward Darla, Elizabeth looked at her as well.

  Darla was standing with her arms folded, staring back at Danny with no sign of weakening on her face either. Elizabeth felt a surge of affection for her. She was delighted that Darla wasn’t the type to let Danny run all over her, the way most females did. All Danny usually had to do was smile or wink and his female companions forgot his latest show of neglect or bad temper as though it had never happened.

  “Sorry, Darla,” he said grudgingly, and then treated her to one of his devastating smiles. He seemed disconcerted when Darla didn’t respond to his charm the way most other women did.

  Darla stared hard at him for a moment, then spoke in a flat, convincing voice.

  “You’re not sorry at all, Danny Farrell, but I don’t care. If you’re offering me Lissa’s job, I’ll take it for reasons of my own. But don’t think I’m desperate enough for it to put up with any disrespect or tyrannical behavior from you. I’ll take your direction where music and the band are concerned, as long as it’s given in a professional manner. But don’t you ever speak to me the way you did earlier tonight again, or I’ll walk out on you in the middle of a concert.”

  With that, Darla threw Elizabeth’s coat onto her bed, stalked to the bathroom, and slammed the door behind her.

  “Whew!” Jay said, trying to break the tension he felt quivering in the room. “She’s a little fireball, isn’t she?”

  Danny gave him a hard, disgusted look, then turned back to Elizabeth.

  “It wasn’t right to do this to me, Elizabeth.”

  “On the contrary, it was the only way,” Elizabeth countered quietly. “If I’d tried to handle things in the normal manner, you wouldn’t have given Darla or any other prospect a chance, and you know it. I think you should be grateful that I didn’t leave you completely high and dry. This way, you can keep the Foursome’s commitments, and you can keep them with honor. Darla won’t let you down ... as long as you don’t let her down.”

  Typically, when faced with a situation he didn’t like but couldn’t change, Danny temporarily withdrew inside himself. Without answering Elizabeth, he shrugged his shoulders, and with a cold, distant look on his face, he left the room.

  Jay and Jerry hesitated in the doorway.

  “I’m sorry, fellows,” Elizabeth said sincerely. “But I just had to get my life back. Surely you understand.”

  Jerry hesitated, then smiled at her and nodded.

  “Sure, kid,” he said affectionately. “In fact, when you get that medical degree, I’ll bring my kids in to see you. If you’re any good, you got some patients right off the bat.”

  Elizabeth grinned at him. “I’m going to be good, Jerry,” she promised confidently. “There’s no way I’m going to let Dad—or myself— or my patients down.”

  “I believe you, kid.” Jerry shrugged, and lifting a hand in farewell, he left the room to go home to his family.

  “Jay?” Elizabeth asked when she saw that Jay wasn’t certain how he felt about the whole thing yet. “Don’t you really think Darla can do it?”

  “Oh, hell,” Jay said flippantly. “Sure she can. It’s just that, well, it doesn’t matter all that much what I think. Danny’s the one who needs convincing, and I don’t look forward to his moods until he gets over what you did.”

  Elizabeth sighed and shook her head at him. “Jay, why is it that everyone spoils Danny?” she asked forlornly. “Oh, I do it, too,” she admitted before he could respond. “But I’m not so sure it’s good for him.”

  “Good for him or not, it’s easier.” Jay grinned wickedly. “But, like the rest of us mere mortals, I guess even he can’t have everything his own way all the time. So don’t worry, babe,” he said, coming to give her a hug. “We’ll get through this. And in spite of everything, I’m happy for you now that you’re going to go after what you’ve always wanted.”

  “Thanks, Jay.” Elizabeth smiled and reached up to kiss his cheek. But when Jay had gone, and before Darla came back into the room, she took a moment to brush a tear from her cheek as she wondered why Danny couldn’t be happy for her as well ... the way their mother and father would have been happy for her.

  For the first time in a long while, Elizabeth wondered what it would be like to have one special person pulling for her, supporting her . . . sharing her triumphs and failures. But since that was out of the question for the time being, she put her wistful wonderings aside in favor of soothing Darla’s feelings, feelings that Danny had trampled on as though they didn’t exist.

  Chapter Six

  As Elizabeth hurried toward her godfather’s office in order to be on time for lunch with him, she felt better than she had since graduating from college—before her father had become ill and she’d had to put her goals on hold for far longer than she had suspected would be necessary at the time. She was back on track, free of any distractions or responsibilities other than concentrating totally on her studies.

  Thanks God for Uncle Ferris, she thought affectionately, as she entered the building where her godfather, Dr. Ferris Cabot, had his medical offices. Without him to smooth the way for me, it might have been a lot harder to get accepted into Harvard a second time.

  Elizabeth wasn’t really ignoring the fact that her grades in college were outstanding, nor that she’d had no difficulty collecting sponsorship from past associates of her father. But since Ferris Cabot was on the faculty as a part-time lecturer in pediatric medicine at Harvard, as well as having a solid reputation as a practicing physician in that field, his efforts on her behalf had helped the most.

  “Hello, Iris.” Elizabeth smiled at Ferris’s receptionist as she greeted her.

  “Lissa, dear! How nice to see you!” The petite, gray-haired nurse smiled back and stood up to lean over the partition to grasp Elizabeth’s extended hand. “Doctor has someone with him right now,” Iris then said, “but he’ll be with you in a few minutes. Now tell me all about your travels in Europe. You must really have enjoyed yourself to stay away so lon
g.”

  Elizabeth immediately felt guilty at having to back up the fiction that, after the strain of her father’s illness and death, she had taken off for Europe for a year to heal her battered emotions. Only Ferris Cabot knew the truth about what she’d really been doing, but she trusted him completely to keep the truth to himself.

  “Oh, there’s so much to see and do in Europe,” Elizabeth said awkwardly, “I hardly know where to start.”

  Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief when a buzzer sounded, signaling Iris that Ferris wanted to talk to her.

  Saved by the bell, she thought wryly.

  “Yes, Doctor,” Iris said over the phone, then hung up and smiled at Elizabeth. “He wants you to come into his office, dear. You know the way.”

  Elizabeth smiled back. “I ought to,” she said teasingly. “I’ve spent some of my best and my worst times there.”

  She was referring to the fact that Ferris was not only her godfather, and as such had been delighted to talk to Elizabeth about medicine when he could spare the time, but that he had been her pediatrician as well, dispensing examinations, shots, and treatment when she needed them.

  Ferris’s office door was open, and she could see him sitting behind his familiar desk reading a medical journal and talking to himself out loud. And suddenly, she was so glad to be with someone whom she knew cared about her personally, as well as her ambition to be a doctor, that she rushed into the room, swept behind his desk, and threw her arms around his neck.

  “Uncle Ferris, you darling!” she exclaimed with spontaneous affection. “It’s so good to be back here with you.”

  Ferris started chuckling as he put down his journal. “Whoa,” he said with mock gruff ness. “Don’t strangle me, girl!”

  An instant later, he was on his feet giving Elizabeth a proper hug, then he held her away from him and looked her over.

  Elizabeth’s natural taste in clothes was conservative, and she was wearing a wool charcoal-gray tailored jacket, a white silk blouse with a red-and-black silk scarf loosely knotted at the neck, a pale gray straight skirt, black pumps, and silver earrings and bracelet.