Eye of the Tiger

by Diana Palmer

  “Bells are noisy,” Darcy said firmly. “Settle for security. You can buy bells, for goodness’ sake!”

  Eleanor burst out laughing at her friend’s down-to-earth practicality. “Oh, you doll, you.” She sighed. “What in the world would I do without you?”

  “Let’s not try to find out. Now this is a nice little outfit,” she said, steering her friend toward a heavenly little purple-and-white cotton frock with lots of ruffles. Sure enough, when Eleanor tried it on, it was perfect. It emphasized her long, pretty legs and her nicely tanned arms and face, and gave her the appearance of an ingenue.

  “That’s the very thing,” Darcy said firmly. “Now, quick, get it to the cash register before you look at the price tag, okay?”

  It was a good thing Eleanor did, because it was half a week’s salary. But then she could always wear it to barbecues and coffees and other high-society occasions, like being introduced to the Queen if she ever came to Lexington.

  She told Darcy that and watched the older woman’s face crumble into laughter.

  “You can wear it to church, can’t you?” Darcy asked. “Besides, just imagine how many heads will turn when you walk out wearing that!”

  Eleanor sighed. The only head that came to mind was a red one, and she tried to imagine having Keegan pass out with frustrated passion just by looking at her. That was some joke, and she just shook her head. No, by now the Irish girl probably had him halfway to the altar. That depressed her, so she invited Darcy into the nearest ice cream shop and treated them both to enormous banana splits.

  Wade came by to pick her up at ten the next morning, and she felt so nervous that she almost backed out.

  “It’ll be all right,” he assured her. “You look gorgeous, you silly woman, and I’ll be right with you every minute. Okay?”

  She gave in. “Okay. Just, please, don’t strand me, will you?”

  “I won’t strand you,” he promised. “Now, come on.”

  Her father had vanished earlier; she hadn’t even seen him since she’d gotten up. She left him a note and allowed Wade to herd her out the door.

  Wade’s home was beautiful. It was almost as big as Flintlock, set in the middle of a wide stretch of pasture surrounded by white fences and racehorses. One of the Granger stable had come in third at the Kentucky Derby last month, at the same time the Tabers’ entry had finished second. There was great rivalry among stable owners, although Eleanor wasn’t close enough to that society to encounter much of it.

  “Like it?” Wade asked as he parked behind a Rolls in the driveway, near the huge brick house.

  “It’s lovely, especially the gardens,” she replied, sighing.

  “Wait until you see the backyard,” he murmured dryly, and escorted her there.

  Whatever she’d expected to see, the reality was a shock. There were tented pavilions everywhere, with ladies in wispy dresses and picture hats being escorted by nattily dressed gentlemen in ridiculously expensive leisure wear, with a huge Olympic-size swimming pool in the background. Everyone looked pleasant enough, and Eleanor’s entrance didn’t cause any riots. The guests didn’t all rush together in panic and point fingers and speak in shocked whispers about the carpenter’s daughter being included on the guest list.

  “See?” Wade teased, taking her hand in his. “Now, they’re just people, aren’t they?”

  “I guess so,” she said hesitantly, her worried dark eyes glancing around. They came to a young dark-haired woman and a silver-haired matron, both exquisitely dressed, who were suddenly staring daggers at her. She sighed, expecting to do battle, because she knew whom they both favored. “Wade, would that be your mother and sister?” she added, nodding toward the hostile-looking pair.

  He turned his head and grimaced. His hand, holding hers, contracted. “Oh, boy. Well, just ignore them, Eleanor,” he said with an irritated expression. “They never like anyone I bring home, so don’t take it personally. They’re terrified that I’ll get married and they’ll lose control of the household.”

  “Let’s go and meet them,” she suggested, her eyes sparkling at the prospect of battle. “I love war movies, don’t you?”

  He laughed, surprised. “You little Amazon, you. All right, we’ll get it over with.”

  She was dreading it, to tell the truth, but she wasn’t about to spend the entire morning letting them make her uncomfortable. After all, the worst they could do was embarrass her, and maybe when they were through, they’d find someone else to victimize. During her four years of nursing, Eleanor had learned a lot about managing people. Buckling under, she knew, was a one-way road to misery. She hadn’t let herself be walked on since she’d graduated from nurse’s training, and she was now assistant floor nurse.

  She smiled broadly at the two women, inwardly amused at the slight surprise that registered on their exquisitely made-up faces.

  “This is your guest?” Mrs. Granger asked her son with a snooty look at Eleanor’s dress. She lifted her chin. “Don’t I know you, my dear?” she added with a faintly malicious smile while her daughter watched with a matching glint in her eyes. “You’re the daughter of the Tabers’ carpenter, I believe….”

  “Why, that’s right,” Eleanor drawled. “You must be Wade’s family,” she gushed, reaching forward to drag his mother’s white hand into her own and shaking it firmly. “How delightful to meet you both! I just can’t tell you how astonished I was when Wade invited me. Imagine, little old me in a fancy place like this! I’ll just do my dead level best not to slurp my coffee or wipe my mouth on my sleeve. Hot dang, is that a real swimming pool? You people must be just filthy rich!”

  Mrs. Granger was openly gaping. So was her daughter. Wade was doubled over with laughter, no help whatsoever.

  “I do love parties!” Eleanor continued, unabashed. “Say, is it okay if I strip off and go swimming in my undies? I didn’t pack a bathing suit, you know.”

  Mrs. Granger cleared her throat and got a death grip on her glass of red punch. “I…uh…” she began, glancing irritably at her son. “Wade?”

  He straightened, tears of amusement in his eyes. “Mother, you’re out of your league with Eleanor,” he said, wiping the tears away. “You’ve heard me speak of her—and please don’t mind her atrocious manners,” he added, tugging sharply on Eleanor’s short hair. “She’s had too much fresh air this morning, and it’s affected her brain. Eleanor, darling, this is Mother and my sister, Sandra.”

  “I can apologize for my own atrocious manners, if you don’t mind,” Eleanor told him firmly. She nodded at the two women and smiled mischievously. “I’m very glad to meet you both. And you don’t have to worry about having me cavort around the pool in my underwear. Actually, I don’t swim at all.”

  Mrs. Granger was actually flapping, her face pale and her eyes startled. Her daughter was only a little less baffled and actually seemed to be amused.

  “I’m glad to meet you, Eleanor Whitman,” Sandra said with a grin. “Congratulations, you just passed the acid test. Right, mother hydrochloric?”

  Eleanor laughed, delighted, and extended her own hand to meet Sandra’s. “I’m sorry if I came on strong,” she apologized. “It’s been a wickedly long week, and it’s telling on me, I’m afraid.”

  “Eleanor is a nurse, you know,” Wade informed them proudly, drawing her close to his side. “She’s an assistant floor nurse at Peterson Memorial.”

  “I’m impressed,” Mrs. Granger said, and actually seemed to mean it. “Go away, Wade, and let me talk to Miss Whitman.”

  “No intimidation,” he warned his mother. “I like this one.”

  “I never intimidate people,” came the gruff, indignant reply. “Scat!”

  Wade brushed a kiss against Eleanor’s cheek and went off with his hands in his pockets to join a group of businessmen.

  “Sit down, dear,” said Mrs. Granger, guiding Eleanor to a shady umbrella near the pool. A waiter was just passing with glasses of ice-cold lemonade, and she appropriated three of them for
herself and her companions, then sat heavily down in the shade, fanning her full face with her hand.

  “It’s so hot,” she complained. “I wanted to be in St. Croix this week, but Sandra had to have help organizing this little social thing.”

  “So Mother always says.” Sandra grinned. She looked very much like her brother and was about the same age, with dark eyes and very white teeth.

  “St. Croix is in the Caribbean, isn’t it?” Eleanor sighed as she sipped her lemonade. “We had a patient who’d just returned from there. It must be lovely, being able to travel.”

  “It gets boring after a time,” Mrs. Granger said kindly. “Anything does. I enjoyed it much more when I was younger than I do now, although I confess I’m partial to the West Indies. The pace is much slower down there. I can relax.”

  “Are you going to marry Wade?” Sandra asked bluntly.

  Eleanor smiled. “No.”

  “I see,” Sandra murmured with a mischievous smile.

  “No, I don’t think you do,” Eleanor replied. “I don’t have wild affairs, even with fabulously wealthy men. I like your brother very much, but like is as far as it goes. I have a career in mind, not marriage.”

  “Well, I never.” Mrs. Granger grimaced. “Just when we find a really suitable candidate, she turns out to be a career girl. What’s wrong with my son? Isn’t he good enough for you?” she demanded.

  “He’s wonderful,” Eleanor said genuinely. “And I wish I’d met him years ago. But he deserves a woman who can love him to pieces, and I can’t.”

  “It’s all your fault,” Sandra told her mother. “If you hadn’t attacked her the minute she walked onto the property…”

  Mrs. Granger actually blushed. “It’s the kind of women he usually brings here,” she confessed miserably. “And, well, there were some rumors about you a few years ago….” She blushed even more.

  Eleanor had to bite her tongue to keep from responding defensively. “What kind of rumors?” she asked as politely as she could.

  “About you and Keegan Taber,” Sandra said quietly. “Lorraine was putting it around that you were the reason she broke her engagement to Keegan. She accused him of having an affair with you.”

  “But that’s not true!” Eleanor exclaimed. And it wasn’t. Yes, she’d been tricked into his bed, but one indiscretion hardly constituted an affair. “Keegan took me out one time to make her jealous. It worked—they got engaged the next day, and I left for nurse’s training in Louisville that same week. That’s all there was to it.”

  Mrs. Granger smiled sadly. “I’m very sorry. I don’t know you, you see, or I wouldn’t have believed the rumor. Mothers are very protective about their sons. Perhaps too protective in my case. Wade has very poor insight into character as a rule. Although,” she added, “I’ll be the first to admit that I have no quarrel with his choice this time.” She offered Eleanor a platter of cheese appetizers. “Do have some. And wouldn’t you really like to marry my son?”

  “We’ll arrange everything,” Sandra added with a grin. “All you’ll have to do is stand in church and say two words. We’ll take care of the rest.”

  Eleanor laughed softly. Talk about wrong first impressions, she thought. Gradually, as the conversation eased to other topics, she got to know Wade’s family. And what a delightful duo they were, nothing like they’d seemed at first. By the time Wade returned, she felt as if she’d known them for years.

  “Is your scalp still in place, darling?” Wade teased Eleanor.

  “Not a hair disturbed,” she responded gaily. “These two are pretty nice, for rich people, that is,” she added with a mischievous grin at the pair sitting with her.

  “And she’s not half-bad—for a career girl, that is,” Sandra declared. “We’re trying to talk her into marrying you and taking you off our hands.”

  Wade actually flushed. “Now, see here…!” he began hotly.

  “Oh, it’s all right. I refused,” Eleanor assured him. “You’re perfectly safe.”

  “Whew!” He wiped a hand across his forehead. “And there I was, fearing for my freedom!” He smiled back at her. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind marrying you, you know.”

  “Yes, you would. I snore and I can’t bake cakes.”

  “You could hire a cook,” Mrs. Granger interjected, shaking a finger at her son. “Don’t take no for an answer, boy!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, helping Eleanor to her feet. “Now you’ve got to marry me,” he told her. “Mother has spoken.”

  “Mother will be yelling shortly if we don’t circulate.” Sandra sighed, rising gracefully. “Can I bring you a fan, darling?” she asked her mother.

  “Some ice would be lovely,” came the reply. “Wade, introduce Eleanor to that Arab prince, she can’t miss that!”

  “Yes, dear.”

  “See you later,” Eleanor called over her shoulder as Wade took her hand and guided her toward the punch bowl. “I like your mother and sister,” she said after a minute.

  “I’m glad, especially after the way Mother came on at first.” He shuddered. “I could have dropped through the ground. She isn’t a snob, you know, not really. She just…”

  “She explained it to me,” she replied quietly, cringing inwardly at the reason Mrs. Granger had given for her behavior. She’d never known about the rumors; her father had never said anything. Of course, he didn’t travel in these circles, either….

  How terrible for Keegan, that his attempt to make Lorraine jealous should have ended in such a way. But why had she waited two months to break the engagement and then accuse Eleanor of having an affair with Keegan? That didn’t make sense. Most of all, why didn’t Keegan bear a grudge? He had good reason to, even though he’d started it all. Losing Lorraine must have hurt him deeply, especially since his date with Eleanor had apparently been the cause of his broken engagement. Poor Keegan. His manipulations had damaged two lives—his own as well as Eleanor’s.

  “She told you about the rumor, I gather,” he said without looking at her.

  Her eyes darted up to his set features. “You know?”

  He looked down at her. “Yes. It was all over Lexington, thanks to Lorraine. She was rabid about losing him.”

  “But she broke the engagement,” she faltered.

  “Yes, that’s what people think. But I know Keegan, and I knew Lorraine. And I promise you, she didn’t do the casting off. He did.”

  That was a shock, but then, it had been a day for them. She bit her lower lip thoughtfully as they walked. “Why?”

  He locked her fingers in his. “Maybe his conscience was bothering him, Eleanor,” he said gently. “He treated you pretty shabbily.”

  She shifted in his grip. “You seem to know a lot about it.”

  “You don’t remember, but I was at the Crescent Club the night Keegan took you there,” he said. “I’d seen him in action before, and I saw the way you looked at him.” He studied her fingers while she trembled inwardly. “At a guess, darling, I’d say he seduced you that night.”

  Her face went paper white, and when he saw it all the puzzle pieces fell into place.

  He said something under his breath, and his dark eyes grew stormy. “So I guessed, did I? And it backfired, for all his manipulations. He got what he thought he wanted, only to find that Lorraine was as brittle as glass and just as cutting. She wanted his wealth, not him. Everyone knew, except Keegan. He was blinded by what he felt for her. But it didn’t take him long to sort her out, and I’d bet it was what he did to you that opened his eyes. He never quite got over it. He’s hardly even dated in the years since then. He has something of a reputation these days for leading a quiet life. The old playboy image is well and truly gone.”

  Keegan himself had mentioned something like that, but she’d only half heard him. She couldn’t look at Wade. It was too embarrassing to have him guess what had happened.

  He seemed to sense that. He touched her cheek lightly and coaxed her eyes up to his. “Don’t worry. It’s o
ur secret. I’d never tell another soul.”

  She relaxed a little. “It was all over a long time ago,” she said. “I have a few emotional scars, but I’m not carrying any torches.”

  “So you keep saying. But when you look at him, there’s such a hunger in your eyes, Eleanor. You look at him as if you’d die to have him.” He smiled gently. “And if he ever catches that look, darling, you’re dead. Because he’s doing some looking of his own.”

  “Conscience,” she said tightly.

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not.” He pursed his lips, studying her flushed face. “Keegan’s spent most of his life manipulating people. So suppose we manipulate him for a change?”

  She stared at him blankly. “What?”

  “Let’s manipulate him. I’ll take you in hand and teach you how to be a society belle. We’ll go everywhere together, become what’s known as ‘an item.’ We’ll haunt his favorite restaurant, be seen at the marina, we’ll do everything but announce future plans, and watch him sweat.”

  “He won’t…” she began.

  “I’ll bet you a tuna-fish casserole that he will,” he returned.

  “Tuna-fish casserole?” She groaned. “Ugh! I hate them!”

  “So do I, and the loser has to eat the horrible thing,” he declared. “Is it a deal?”

  She hesitated. “Why do you want to do this for me?”

  “Because I like you, darling,” he said gently, and smiled at her. “I’d love to marry you and take care of you all my life, but since you haven’t a heart to offer me, I’ll help you find what you want.”

  “And what do I want?” she mused.

  “Oh, revenge,” he said absently. “Maybe a little fulfillment. Whatever. Come on, Ellie. Let’s give it a shot. Mother and Sandra will help. Look upon it as a project.”

  “Well…” She hesitated. It did have possibilities, however, and it could be fun. She smiled. “Okay.”

  “Good girl.” He kissed her cheek. “Come and meet the Arab prince, and then we’ll explore some of the more wearing social graces.”

  “Lead on,” she said. “I’ll follow.” She only hoped she wasn’t following him into quicksand. It might be fun to manipulate Keegan a little, but she didn’t want to get caught in the middle. Once was enough.