Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (29 page)

His intake of breath was sharp. 
"Stop talking dirty Jolene, where did you learn that stuff?  From those girls at school?" 

"You don't like it even a little?
"  She leaned forward and hiccupped.  "What will you do if I say another word?  Wash my mouth out with soap?"  Jolene giggled remembering her mother's
saying
.

Patrick
closed his eyes and pulled himself back.  His nostrils flared like a stallion.
  Then he
painfully
pressed his breathing
to
steady.

W
hen he opened his eyes again
a few seconds later
, they were cold blue steel. 
His anger was tangible and dangerous.  Jolene stepped back from the blue blaze.

"
Go change yer shirt
and put on a bra....
right now
Little
Red
.
  And not another word.
"

Chapter
17

The name "Kentucky" derived from an Iroquois
[Native Americans including the Cherokee who lived in North America before the arrival of Europeans]
name for the area south of the Ohio River. There were many variations of the word during early pioneer times, including “Kaintuckee
"
and “Cantuckey.
"
The meaning of the Iroquois name is disputed by historians, but it is believed to mean “meadowland.
"

The state’s official nickname is the “Bluegrass State,
"
which is derived from the famed species of grass grown in central Kentucky, Bluegrass, or Poa. “The nickname also recognizes the role that the Bluegrass region has played in Kentucky’s economy and history.
" 

"
I still can
'
t believe he did this!
"
 
Natasha paced the dorm room with balled fists.
 
"
The British Royals would never do something like this!
"

Helen sighed and
shook
her head. 
"
Really Natasha, I hardly think this is the time to make royal comparisons and let us be perfectly honest that the British Royals would never marry anyone like Jolene into their family either.
"

Jolene laughed
wiping her
watery
eyes
. 
"
Thank you for that…it makes me feel so much better.
"

Helen patted Jolene
'
s shoulder.
"
We completely didn
'
t predict this.  He gave no warning at all that he had turned his attention to someone else.
  We should never have made it
out
like a done deal in your favor…we are sorry.
"
 
 

Jolene sighed pressing away a fresh batch of tears
with her fingers
. 
"
Oh don
'
t worry about it.  I was the biggest fool of all of us.  He has always been the enemy and I should not have forgotten that.
"

Helen shook her head sadly. 
"
It isn
'
t that he is the enemy. 
That
is just men for you.
"

Jolene felt hot tears
filling up her eyes again. 
"
She even made him take the flags down, can you believe it?
"

"
Oh my gosh…why…?
"

"
She said that it would offend her friends!  Like who cares about her friends
?  S
he came from Harvard and said it was insulting and offensive to some people to have flags…
"

"
Even the POW flag?
"

"
Especially that one.
"

Natasha sat down next to her and closed her arm around Jolene. 
"
Well, it isn
'
t the first time I have heard that kind of rubble
….I just can
'
t believe
Patrick
let her dictate something so important
to you
.
"

Jolene closed her eyes in disgust. 
"
He told me that we had to be sensitive and compromise with others.
"

Helen sat
down
on the other side of Jolene. 
"
What else happened?  Were they all lovey dovey and stuff?  I mean, maybe it isn
'
t too late.  He isn
'
t married yet after all.
"

Jolene
'
s shoulders slumped. 
"
That
…
and some…they were always kissing and she was calling him all these stupid baby names.
"

Natasha screwed up her face to a disgusted expression. 
"
It sounds simply awful.
"

"
It was awful….really awful.  Even after all we did to make me look sexy I felt like a pole bean next to her.
"

Natasha patted her sympathetically.  "Don
'
t worry pet, somehow it will all work out."

Jolene shook her head.  "The only thing that saved the summer was Mary Jane and Michael.  I got to have really fantastic wine at their house.  They invited me over
for dinner
whenever Leona had one of her snobby parties.
  I learned a whole lot about wine.
" 

Helen grinned.  "I get to have wine when I go home too.   Did
Patrick
know?"

Jolene grinned.  "Of course not, but then he never asked.  He knows they bring fantastic wine back from California when they come here for the summer."
  Then Jolene giggled as another tear dropped down her cheek.  "He took away the moonshine Bobby Walker brought over and the beer....
his own beer
!"

"Well, look on the bright side, he and Leona didn
'
t get any of that good wine
from your friends Mary Jane and Michael
."

Jolene rolled her eyes.  "I am sure Leona bought expensive wine for their dinners.  But I had a terrible
lot of fun with Mary Jane.  She has a lot of good advice and she understood my situation very well.
  They invited me to stay at their house in Napa, California sometime.
"

Natasha raised one brow.  "Perhaps you should send Mary Jane to talk to
Patrick
."

Jolene laughed bitterly.  "He is too moon-eyed over Leona to listen to anyone
, even Mary Jane even though he likes her a lot
.  He doesn
'
t even go see Linda and eat with Mary Jane and Michael at the stockyards like he did before."

Helen sighed and plopped on her bed. 
"What are you going to
do
at the end of the year when you have to go back?"

"I don
'
t know.  I just don
'
t know."

Natasha narrowed her eyes and rub
bed
her hands together.  "So, when all else has failed.....why not a plan for revenge?"

Jolene looked at Natasha with skepticism.  "Like what kind of revenge?"

"Well, it is all very simple...."

Chapter
18

After 1775, Kentucky grew rapidly as the first settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains were founded, with settlers (primarily from Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania) entering the region via the Cumberland Gap and the Ohio River. The most famous of these early explorers and settlers was Daniel Boone, one of the founders of the state. During this period, the settlers introduced agriculture to the area. Tobacco, corn, and hemp were the major crops of Kentucky, and the hunting stage of frontier life faded away.

Kentucky's second largest city, and former capital Lexington, is named for Lexington, Massachusetts, site of one of the first battles of the Revolution. A fort was built there during the last year of the war for defense against the British and their Native American allies. Kentucky was a battleground during the war; the Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last major battles of the Revolution, was fought in Kentucky. Due to the ongoing violence, by 1776 there were fewer than 200 settlers in Kentucky.
Wikipedia
- July 23, 2012.

She stepped off of the airplane in Lexington pressing down her carefully selected rose
-
patterned shantung silk
suit
.  She stood as tall as her
five
feet one inch allowed in her spiky pink stilettos. 

She had so much time to think on it all
since last summer
. 
She had b
een sent
to Paris over the last holiday before graduation
to learn French and
French cooking
. 
It was because
Patrick
knew
that she didn
'
t want to go home
over Thanksgiving and Christmas
and see him and Leona
so he saved her that
. 

Instead,
Patrick
insisted that she use the earnings that stemmed from Storm winning the Triple Crown
to do more "bettering of herself" with a fully rounded education in France.  She had flown to England to spend the holidays with Natasha and her family
and the rest of the time at the expensive French boarding school where she learned to cook fancy food
with periodic visits from Natasha
.
  Natasha was well into her wedding plans so they often shopped in Paris. 

Leona would have called her new cooking "g
ourmet
"
.  Ugh
.  But it had been fun to learn despite that it was something snobby Leona would like.

But now it was all coming together again because she was returning
home
for good. 
In the years away at school before Leona
....
and even after Leona
if the truth be admitted
,
Jolene
had dreamed of
Patrick
while lying in her
cot,
his presence was
in her hymnal songs sh
e sang so sweetly for the nuns.  He was part of everything she did. 

H
e had betrayed her so terribly
after kissing her and touching her so beautifully
. 

Now after
the year
of planning
and
of waiting to get back to him,
she wa
s going to kill
Patrick
McCabe.  I
n the least
,
she was going to get even, deadly even with him
and that nasty old Leona
.

Oh it wasn
'
t that
he had completely made her life miserable...or that
she failed to
say her
Rosary
daily as she had always done and found
comfort from the past in its recitation….or that she didn
'
t know a good bit of Latin now….or that she didn
'
t speak just so. 
And of course there was the French experience as well. 
The lessons had all helped her so she had to credit
Patrick
with that at least. 
S
he
was even
thankful for the manners she learned at the stern but gentle hands of the Sisters
at Vance. 

Nevertheless,
she was going to make him pay! Oh she was.

H
is threat to send her back to Aunt Paula
was repeated
every year
as motivation for her to return to school
. 
Not that she was reluctant to leave
that last time
after
the summer with
Leona.
 
She
knew
by her second year
he wouldn
'
t
send her back to Aunt Paula, but his reference to it
reminded her of what she owed him.