Last Chance Beauty Queen

by Hope Ramsay

  Not to mention the whole Miriam Randall forecast.

  “So,” the senator said, “would you mind finding them and making sure Cissy doesn’t put her foot in it? And while you’re at it, if you could play matchmaker, that would be a huge help.”

  Yeah, it probably would. Cissy had enough money to fund just about any project Hugh could dream up. Which meant they were probably made for each other.

  “Sure,” she said, but her voice lacked enthusiasm.

  The senator chuckled. “I know you’re not a matchmaker. But you have been known to work miracles from time to time.”

  “I don’t make miracles. Only God does that, Senator.”

  “Well, you could give Him a run for the money. Which is the other reason I’m calling—I need you to hurry up and get this problem with the factory taken care of because Andrea has tendered her resignation. It was waiting on my desk this morning when I got in. I guess she’s decided to run off to Montana and marry that cowboy sooner rather than later. So it looks like I need an administrative assistant in Washington before the election. I know you’ve wanted that job for a long time.”

  Caroline’s heart skipped around her chest. “Uh, yes, I have.”

  “Well, I’m about to make your dream come true, and I’m going to give you a ten percent raise to go along with the new responsibilities. But I need you in DC just as soon as you can get there. Andrea wants to be on a plane to Big Sky country in two weeks.”

  “Senator, I’m so—”

  “Just say yes, Caroline.”

  “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” She was so relieved. Apparently getting pulled off a parade float by a demented cowboy had not wrecked her career. Now she just needed to be professional, handle Cissy and Hettie carefully, and she’d be in Washington before the month was out.

  “Good,” the senator said. “I need you in DC. Now you go fix that problem for that Englishman and see if you can give Cissy some help corralling him. Then get on back here to Columbia and start packing your bags.”

  After disconnecting with the senator, Caroline made one call to Miriam Randall that netted a wealth of information. Cissy had shown up early, roused Hugh out of bed, and taken him off to the Kountry Kitchen for breakfast. They had a meeting scheduled with Hettie Marshall at 9:00 a.m.

  Caroline didn’t have a minute to spare. She threw on one of her suits, pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and headed out to the home Jimmy and Hettie had built on a rise of rolling farmland just north of the town limits.

  She pulled Stone’s beat-up pickup onto the long, circular drive, took one look at the big antebellum monstrosity, and immediately felt out of her league. The shiny red Corvette parked in the drive didn’t make her feel any more sure of herself.

  Cissy Warren’s car was preemo-cool. Hugh was sure to lust after it, which was all for the good. He needed Cissy. Cissy wanted him. And Caroline needed her job.

  Of course, how she was going to sort through that muddle to make sure that Last Chance got a factory remained to be seen. One thing was for certain—Hugh and Cissy could really screw things up for Hettie. The Queen Bee might not know what her husband was up to. And someone had to break that news gently.

  Caroline killed the engine and set the brake. A gardener came running over just as she was getting out of the car. He opened his mouth, took one look at her business suit, and shut it. He gave Stone’s pickup the once-over, then shook his head and went back to pruning the azaleas.

  Good thing Caroline had dressed for success today. Otherwise she might have been forced to use the service entrance.

  She hurried to the big double doors and rang the doorbell, feeling the chip on her shoulder swell. A few moments later, the maid ushered Caroline into a bright parlor upholstered in yellow damask, filled with Civil War–era antiques, and occupied by Hettie Marshall wearing Carolina Herrera.

  And next to her on the priceless sofa sat Cissy Warren, in a pale pink Armani ensemble. Lord Woolham stood by the fireplace dressed in one of his beautifully hand-tailored business suits.

  His hair had tumbled down his forehead, his eyes looked sleepy, his mouth looked kissable, and his body looked hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch. Caroline experienced an erotic rush that left her feeling completely flummoxed.

  She needed to get over him. Right now. She concentrated on the fact that she was the only person in this room wearing ready-to-wear. It didn’t help.

  “Caroline,” Cissy said from her place on the sofa, “whatever are you doing here?”

  “Your father called me. I thought I would join the meeting.”

  Cissy gave Caroline the stink eye.

  Meanwhile, a spark of humor reached Hettie’s eyes as she glanced at Caroline and then at Hugh, who was standing there looking down at the Persian rug. “I gather you two had a pretty busy afternoon yesterday,” she said.

  Hugh coughed.

  Caroline’s face flamed. “Well, you know how it is come festival time.”

  “Yes, I do,” Hettie said.

  “Did I miss something?” Cissy asked.

  “No,” Hugh and Caroline said in unison. Their gazes collided and then went their separate ways.

  “Did you know that Cissy and I were sorority sisters?” Hettie said into the sudden, awkward silence.

  “No, ma’am, not until this morning. The senator mentioned something about it,” Caroline said.

  Hettie gestured toward Cissy and Hugh. “They’ve come to try to convince me to give up my chairmanship of the Committee to Resurrect Golfing for God. Are you here for the same thing?”

  Caroline gave Hettie a bold, direct stare. “No, I’m not.”

  Cissy made a strange noise that sounded like she might be about to burst a blood vessel. Hettie merely smiled a deep and genuine smile. “No?” the Queen Bee said.

  “No. I’m not going to convince anyone that building a factory over on the south side of town makes sense, because the land Hugh bought over that way is swampy and would require a boatload of wetlands permits and reclamation. It would cost a fortune to develop that land.”

  “Really?” Cissy and Hettie spoke in unison. Both of them stared at Caroline like she was from outer space.

  “Yes, really.”

  Hettie’s mild gaze sharpened. It snapped to Hugh. “Did you know this?”

  “Caroline did mention it, yes.”

  Hettie paled and glanced over toward Cissy, who clearly had been left in the dust. “I see.”

  “I don’t see at all,” Cissy said. She looked up at Hugh. “If the land is worthless, why’d you buy it?”

  Hugh shrugged. “It’s not worthless. It’s just going to be very expensive to develop. And it was my partner who purchased the land. So now I’m stuck with land I can’t really sell and can’t develop either. And of course, there is Elbert’s golf course.”

  “Which you’ll never get,” Caroline said.

  “Well, I guess that’s that, then,” Hettie said, getting up, and putting an end to the meeting. “I don’t see how I can help you with swampland, Lord Woolham. I’m sorry.” Hettie clasped her hands behind her back. She looked nervous suddenly.

  Was it possible that Hettie knew more than she was letting on? Caroline would have to find a time to confront the Queen Bee, but not here with Cissy and Hugh looking on. Hettie was a powerful force in Last Chance, and she had to be handled with kid gloves.

  “Well, thanks for the meeting, Hettie,” Caroline said. “I really do appreciate the time you’ve taken with us.”

  Hettie gave her a long, sober look. In that instant, Caroline felt for Hettie. She was in between a rock and a hard place.

  Time to get Cissy and Hugh the heck out of Dodge, so Caroline could circle back around later and find out what Hettie actually knew about the doings over at the chicken plant.

  “Come on, you two, we’ve got things to do,” Caroline said in a chipper voice as she headed toward the foyer, Hettie leading the way.

  A minute later, they had said their good-byes a
nd were out in the drive. Now came the hard part. Caroline was going to have to hand Hugh off to Cissy. The senator expected it of her, and besides, it was all for the best. If she spent any more time with Hugh, she was going to make a big mistake.

  Better to focus on her new job and the chicken plant and what Hettie knew about those shady land deals.

  “Okay, Rocky, what are you really doing here?” Cissy turned on Caroline. She put her beautifully manicured hands on her pink hips and gave her one serious ice queen look.

  “I’m doing my job. There are things about this situation you don’t know and don’t understand. So back off, Cissy. I’m actually on your side.” Caroline gave Hugh a meaningful look. “Hettie is an important person in this town. She needs to be shown the right kind of respect.”

  “You think I don’t know that?”

  “Well, apparently not. We already spoke to Hettie a couple of days ago, and she’s not changing her mind about the golf course. And pulling your sorority connections will not help this situation. Hettie’s got a bee in her bonnet about my daddy’s golf place. I know you mean well.”

  “She’s right,” Hugh said. “I told you this at breakfast.”

  Cissy sniffed. “Well, maybe you did.”

  “So,” Hugh said, turning toward Caroline. The smile at the corners of his eyes set off a wildfire in Caroline’s middle. “What’s next, then?”

  “We need to meet with the members of the town council,” Cissy said. “I have a list right here.” She reached into her white Dooney & Bourke purse and pulled out a piece of paper bearing a list of names. “Come on, darling, I’ve got it covered.” Cissy glared at Caroline.

  “Isn’t Caroline supposed to be helping me with these meetings?” He gazed at Caroline—from the tips of her shoes up her legs, over her off-the-rack suit, and up into her face. He smiled gently. Cissy couldn’t see his face, thank goodness. That smile spoke like the most eloquent of poetry and darted right into the middle of Caroline’s heart.

  She wanted to shuck off her suit jacket and start a catfight with the boss’s daughter. She wanted to soil Cissy’s designer suit and maybe even yank some of her beautifully colored hair out.

  But she couldn’t do anything like that. She was a professional staffer. She always kept her cool. That was how she’d won the senator’s trust and landed that job in Washington.

  So she looked up into Hugh’s warm brown eyes and tried not to feel anything as she said, “Uh, look, there’s been a change in plans. The senator really wants you to work with Cissy on this. I’ve been given some new responsibilities and—”

  Cissy interrupted. “Haven’t you heard, Hugh? Daddy’s sending Rocky to Washington.”

  His gaze widened and darkened. “You’re leaving?”

  “Oh, well, not until—”

  “Yes, she is,” Cissy said. “She’ll be moving to DC in less than two weeks. So really, she doesn’t have time to help you solve your problem here. And since her daddy’s land is the problem, it’s all for the good.”

  The light in Hugh’s eyes dimmed a little bit. “Is this true?”

  She nodded. “The senator called this morning.”

  “So you’re off the case then?”

  She shrugged. “Well, we both know it was a difficult situation. Just think about what I said after church yesterday, and maybe a solution will pop up. In the meantime, I have a few other things to do.”

  Caroline glanced at Cissy’s red Vette. “Have fun driving the car.” She managed to say those last words in a bright and careless tone, even though they wanted to stick in her throat. She didn’t wait for any more chitchat. She climbed up into her brother’s pickup and took off down the driveway.

  She wasn’t going to look back in the rearview mirror. No sir.

  But she did.

  CHAPTER

  16

  Caroline spent an hour and a half at the doughnut shop, where she consumed a cruller and two Boston creams along with two cups of coffee. She checked her e-mail, made a few phone calls to the DC office with questions about short- and long-term living arrangements in the nation’s capital, and worried about what Hettie Marshall knew about the situation at the chicken plant.

  When she’d consumed more calories than her hips could absorb, she circled back to the Painted Corner Stables, where she hoped to find Hettie for a more private conversation.

  Hettie always took her Thoroughbred out for a ride in the mornings. Caroline had to wait thirty minutes before Hettie finally trotted her horse into the corral.

  Hettie reined in and dismounted. The bay gelding whickered, and his coat looked as hot and sweaty as Caroline felt, standing there in a dark suit and a silk blouse.

  Hettie looked way more casual than she had earlier that morning. Gone were the pearls and the designer clothes. She wore a sleeveless T-shirt, a pair of Wranglers, and some pretty expensive-looking boots. Her blond hair was pulled back, and she hid behind her Ray-Bans.

  “Rocky?” she said as Caroline came to lean against the corral fence. “What are you doing here?”

  “I need to talk with you,” Caroline said.

  Hettie ran up the horse’s stirrups, loosened the saddle’s girth, and began walking the animal around the corral to cool him down. “Twice in one day,” she said. “What’s so important?”

  Caroline watched as Hettie turned the horse one way and another as she walked him. There was no mistaking the tension in Hettie’s shoulders. Even the horse seemed to know that his mistress was worried about something.

  “I wanted to talk in private.”

  Hettie turned the horse in the opposite direction. “About what?”

  “About the land your husband sold Hugh deBracy for an inflated price.”

  Hettie stopped. The horse whickered and crow-hopped. “What about it?”

  “So you know he sold Hugh that land? Did you know that Jimmy has been unloading his land a little bit at a time for the last year or so?”

  Hettie said nothing. She resumed her walk around the corral.

  “Look, Hettie, the thing is, Lord Woolham is undercapitalized, and if he can’t sell the land back to Jimmy, then Last Chance is going to lose out on a factory that could become a significant contributor to Allenberg County’s tax base. We need his factory.”

  Hettie turned and pushed her sunglasses up on her head. “So, since Jimmy isn’t going to buy back the land, you want me to get out of the way so your father will sell out. I get it, Caroline. Your parents must be so proud of you.”

  Hettie turned away and led the horse toward the stable. Caroline followed. The shade was a relief. The smell was not.

  “That’s not what I said, and that’s not why I’m here,” Caroline said.

  “Then what do you want from me?” Hettie said as she slipped the reins back over the horse’s head and started taking off his bridle.

  “I want the truth as you know it. I wouldn’t mind your help in trying to convince Jimmy to buy back the land.”

  “I’m sorry, Rocky.” Hettie slipped the horse’s halter over his ears and snapped the left and right crossties onto it.

  “You’re sorry? Don’t you realize the danger the town is facing? I mean—” Caroline bit off her words as the horse whickered. She took a deep breath. “Look, I’ve heard from completely reliable sources that things aren’t so good down at the chicken plant.”

  Hettie started unbuckling the girth of the horse’s saddle. She worked in a calm manner, but Caroline could see unshed tears gathering in her eyes.

  “What’s going on, Hettie?” Caroline asked.

  Hettie took a deep breath. “Jimmy can’t buy the land back.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s already spent the money.”

  “What? It was hundreds of thousands of—”

  “I know how much money there was. He’s spent it all. And before you ask—no, there isn’t enough money remaining in my trust fund to bail him out this time.”

  Holy smokes. Hettie and Jim
my Marshall were supposed to be loaded.

  “Close your mouth, Rocky.” Hettie lifted the saddle off the horse’s back. She turned and lowered it to a rack sitting outside one of the horse stalls. “I know it’s shocking but it’s the truth. I’m sorry. There isn’t anything wrong with selling land for what you can get for it, is there?”

  “Swampland, Hettie?”

  “Until this morning I didn’t know about that.”

  “No, but you know something. You’re as nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers. What is it? Are you afraid I might figure out that there was a kickback involved? What would the town council say if they knew that their last, best hope for new investment was ruined by your husband’s greed and shady dealings?”

  “What?” Hettie looked like she’d been hit with a Taser. “I don’t know a thing about kickbacks. What are you talking about?”

  “Okay, how about bribing an inspector?” Caroline said, testing the waters. She had no proof that Jimmy had bribed anyone. She was just trying to see how much Hettie knew.

  She was not expected Hettie’s face to blanch or the next words that came out of her mouth. “So you know about that? Who told you?”

  Holy smokes. Ray Burdett had been telling the truth for once.

  “No one,” Caroline said. “I’ve been putting pieces of the puzzle together.”

  Hettie closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against her horse. For a moment, Caroline thought the Queen Bee was about to break down and weep. But Hettie was made of stronger steel than that.

  She finally looked up, across the horse’s back, all trace of tears gone from her eyes. “I can’t help you. I’m sorry. There is no money to buy back the land. I’m not going to give up on Golfing for God either.”

  “I didn’t ask you to.”

  “I know. I appreciate that.”

  “But either way our town loses.”

  Hettie shrugged. “I can’t help you. I can’t help anyone. I can hardly help myself.”

  “This gets out and your reputation is going to be ruined, you know that, don’t you?” Caroline said.

  “Are you planning an exposé?”

  “Hettie, if your husband is bribing inspectors, I’ve got to blow the whistle.”