Lady Be Good (34 page)

“Wait!”
Emma’s screech was so loud that everybody in the parking lot heard.

Kenny didn’t know what was coming, but he had a good idea that he wasn’t going to like it. He hesitated just as Emma thrust herself forward and pressed her palms to her chest.

“I can’t live a lie any longer!”

Oh, shit.

“I’ve been trying to keep this to myself, but it’s no use!”

He felt exactly like a bystander watching a car accident about to happen and being helpless to stop it.

“The truth will set me free!” Emma sucked in a great big gulp of air. “And the truth is . . .” She sucked in another gulp. “I’m in love with Torie!”

“You’re what?” Torie’s eyebrows shot halfway up her forehead, and she took an automatic step backward.

But Lady Emma was on a roll, and nothing was going to stop her now. With a great lunge, she threw open her arms and planted a passionate kiss right on his sister’s lips.

E
mma’s cheeks flamed. But she locked one arm around
Torie’s waist and faced them all down. His sister had boots on, so she stood a good six inches taller than Emma, and she looked like someone who’d been cybernetically frozen. Dex’s expression was faintly bemused, Shelby’s lips had grown slack, Warren’s ruddy complexion had paled.

A wheezing sound came from Hugh’s mouth, and his eyeballs protruded so that he looked like a giant guppy gulping for air.

“I was afraid to tell you,” Emma said lamely.

Torie was beginning to come out of her stupor. She gazed down at Emma. “I didn’t know you cared.”

Kenny was so furious he could barely contain himself. That hardheaded, know-it-all, blindsided stubborn female had just thrown her lifetime career of teaching little girls right out the window.

Emma worked away at her bottom lip as she finally let go of Torie. Hugh’s face had taken on a purplish hue. “You
degenerate
!”

And then everything happened at once.

Hugh shot forward, drew back his arm, and cracked Emma hard across her cheek with his open palm.

The camera crew emerged from the Roustabout too late to see Hugh’s attack, but just in time to watch Kenny throw himself through the air and catch the duke in the midsection.

Hugh was more solid than he looked, but he was no match for Kenny, and he stumbled backward. Before he could hit the blacktop, Kenny grabbed him and slammed a fist into his gut.

The camera whirred away, brutally recording the sight of a tall, muscular athlete cravenly attacking a short, plump, middle-aged man.

Hugh crumpled, made another wheezing sound, and tried to butt his head into Kenny’s stomach. Kenny brought up his knee and caught him in the chin. Hugh gave a grunt of pain and collapsed onto the asphalt.

Hugh was still conscious, but his face was a mask of fear as he gazed up at Kenny. Kenny bent down to jerk him back to his feet only to have his father catch one of his arms and Dex catch the other. The two men held him back.

Through the red haze of his anger, Kenny saw the camera crew and realized they were recording everything. Hugh stumbled back to his feet, gasping for air as blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.

Kenny watched the red mark on Emma’s cheek grow livid, and he didn’t give a damn about the camera crew. All he cared about was destroying the man who had struck her.

“I’m okay now,” he said to his father and Dex. “You can let me go.”

They let him go.

He slammed his fist into Hugh’s jaw.

“Oh, Kenny . . .” Emma tried to hurl herself at him, but Torie, who understood justice when she saw it, grabbed her away.

“Come here, my little passionflower. I’ll comfort you.” She curled Emma to her bosom by throwing a hammerlock around her neck.

“I’m trying very hard,” Dex murmured as he watched the females embrace, “not to get turned on.”

Kenny’s chest heaved as he stared down at Hugh crumpled on the pavement.

“Kenny!” He turned toward the commanding sound of Emma’s voice. Her plump little mouth was set in a determined line and she looked every inch the schoolteacher putting an end to a playground fight—a schoolteacher with an ugly red smear on her cheek. “Don’t do it. Please.”

Torie released Emma, and he walked toward her to touch the mark on her cheek. “Are you all right?”

She gave a brisk nod, but he could feel how shaken she was, and it made him want to take Hugh Holroyd apart all over again.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the camera crew circling like vampires. They’d caught everything on tape—everything except the moment Hugh had slapped Emma. Right then, he knew exactly how it would be. The camera would show bad boy Kenny Traveler throwing himself at a defenseless man.

Never apologize. Never explain
.

Sturgis Randall rushed forward and thrust a microphone in Kenny’s face. “Tell us what happened. Why did you start the fight?”

“Get out of here,” he growled.

“No!” Emma clutched his arm. “Tell him exactly what happened.”

But Kenny’d swallowed his pride once today by talking to Sturgis, and he wasn’t going to do it again. Besides, there was no point. Sturgis had film, and he wasn’t interested in the truth.

Acid boiled in his stomach. Without another word, he pulled away from Emma and walked to his car. Randall shouted out a question, but he ignored it. He’d just thrown his life away, and he had to be alone.

Dismay washed over Emma as she watched him go. What had she done? As the Cadillac sped away, she faced the terrible knowledge that the events she had set in motion could destroy what was left of Kenny’s career.

Warren shot forward. She was accustomed to seeing his neediness as he gazed at his son, but now she saw a hardheaded businessman. “Dex, get Hugh to the hotel. The more I think about it, the more I realize he’ll do just fine there. Cockroaches need to stick together.”

Dex grabbed Hugh and led him toward his Audi, but at the last minute, Hugh wrenched free and turned on Emma. “Don’t think I’ll ever let you near that school again! Or any school, for that matter. Twisted, perverted women like you shouldn’t be allowed near innocent children.”

Emma felt a cool, moist wind blow across the parking lot, and in her mind it smelled of neat English lawns, sun-splashed flower beds, and old brick buildings that sheltered lonely little girls. The only home she’d ever known.

Sturgis rushed toward Hugh. “Tell us what happened. Why did Kenny Traveler subject you to that brutal assault?”

Dex put the car into gear and raced out of the parking lot before Hugh could denounce Kenny. Furious, Sturgis turned back to his cameraman. “Let’s get this film to the airport.”

“No!” Emma rushed toward the camera. “Interview me. I’ll tell you everything. I was attacked by Hugh Holroyd. Kenny was only acting in my defense.”

Her heart sank as she saw the skeptical look on Randall’s face “Anybody else see this?” he asked the onlookers.

“We all did,” Warren said.

Shelby hurried forward, and the parking lot lights showed two damp milk-circles on the front of her sweater. “That English lizard slapped Lady Emma, and Kenny defended her.”

Randall, still looking skeptical, turned to the crowd. “Is this true? Did anybody else see it?”

“If Shelby says it’s true, then it is,” one of the men called out.

“You’re damned right it is,” Torie said. “And you’d better tell the whole story.”

Randall gave her a long look, and once again turned to the crowd. “Did anybody who’s not part of the Traveler family see what happened?”

There was silence.

“Dex did!” Torie exclaimed. “Dexter O’Conner. He just drove the lizard to the hotel. You can talk to him.”

“O’Conner? Isn’t he the man you’re going to marry? Not exactly an unbiased source.”

“Who said I was marrying him?”

Sturgis passed his microphone over to a crew member and closed the notebook he was holding. “The bartender and about six other people.”

The self-satisfied look on his face told it all, and Warren shook his head. “You don’t want to know the truth. But then, you’ve got a long history of ignoring the facts. You’re the reason Kenny got suspended, and now you want to string him up all over again.”

Randall regarded him pompously. “I don’t make the news. I just report it.”

“Don’t you mean
dis
tort?” Shelby said.

But Sturgis Randall had his story exactly the way he liked, and he wasn’t interested in hearing any more.“Pack up, boys. Let’s get out of here.”

Emma’s stomach sank. She’d desperately wanted to get rid of Hugh, but she’d never intended to destroy Kenny in the process.

Emma waited up for Kenny until nearly four in the morning, then fell asleep in the chair she’d pulled to her bedroom window. When she awakened at six, he still hadn’t come home.

Still wearing her clothes from the night before, she stumbled into the bathroom. The mirror showed dark circles under her eyes and the faint shadow of a bruise on her cheek where Hugh had hit her. She brushed her knuckles against it, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as her heart.

Today was the day she was flying home. She thought of the way Kenny had rushed to her defense, an act of pure chivalry that had not only ruined his chance to get back on the tour for a very long time, but would permanently scar his reputation with the public. If only he’d let her handle it. But gallantry was as much a part of his makeup as his offbeat sense of humor. She’d known their affair had to end, but she’d never dreamed it would end like this, with her having so clearly wronged him.

She was going to need transport to Dallas today so she could get to the airport. She also needed a shower and fresh clothes, but there was something she had to do first.

Ten minutes later she was behind the wheel of Patrick’s car and creeping down a blessedly empty highway toward town. As she concentrated on staying on the proper side of the road, she told herself that her days as a nondriver were over. She might never be comfortable at it, but she wouldn’t give in to her phobia any longer. As soon as she returned to England, she was going to get a license.

The morning desk clerk at the hotel turned out to be the attractive redhead Ted had been flirting with at the Roustabout. She recognized Emma, and it didn’t take long for her to turn over Hugh’s room number.

After knocking at his door, Emma stepped far enough to the side so she wouldn’t be visible through the peephole. Then she approximated a Texas drawl. “Room service.”

Seconds ticked by. She heard the sound of movement, then the click of locks. The door opened. “I didn’t order—” Hugh froze as he saw her.

He’d thrown a silk robe over his pudgy body, and the legs of his royal purple pajamas stuck out beneath. His feet were bare and ugly, with a gnarled big toe. She was gratified to notice that the bruise on the side of his jaw was a lot nastier than hers.

“Get out of here!” His small eyes darted past her into the hall, and she realized he was afraid Kenny had come along.

She pushed past him into the room. “I’m alone.”

He slammed the door behind her, as if he still expected Kenny to wedge himself inside at any moment. “He’s a madman! If I’d known he was insane when I spoke with him that first time, I’d never have—” He broke off and his fleshy lips curled. “Do you have any idea the extent of the humiliation you’ve made me suffer?”

As he took a threatening step toward her, common sense told her to retreat, but she stood her ground. “If you touch me, I shall scream so loudly everyone in the hotel will hear. Is that what you want?”

He glared down his nose at her but didn’t come any closer. “You’re wasting your time. You don’t really believe I’ll still marry you now that I know about your
perversion,
do you?”

His lip curled as if he’d just spit out poison. If she
were
a lesbian, she would find his attitude highly offensive. He thrust his hand through his oily auburn hair, but instead of straightening it, he forced it into a pair of spikes that reminded her of devil horns.

“Don’t plan on ever returning to St. Gert’s because I’m dismissing you. If you set foot on the property again, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”

“Of course I intend to go back. Everything I own is there.”

“It’ll be packed up and sent to you.”

She wouldn’t even get a chance to say good bye, but she knew she had to pick her battles, and she couldn’t afford to think about that. Instead, she had to concentrate on all the girls who depended on her.

“Very well, Hugh. But if you don’t want chaos reigning at St. Gert’s, I suggest you replace me with Penelope Briggs. She’s highly competent, and she’ll do an excellent job.”

“That ruddy-faced woman? The one with the awful braying laugh?”

Penelope might be loud, but she was also wonderfully cheerful and extremely intelligent. Hearing her dismissed that way made Emma bristle, but she did her best to hide it. “She gets on well with the staff and the girls. She’s also extremely well-organized. You couldn’t find anyone better.”
Except me,
she wanted to say.
I was the best headmistress St. Gert’s ever had.