She had almost kissed him. Alexis flopped back against her pillow and groaned out loud. She couldn’t imagine what had been going through her mind. Nothing, obviously, except a need to be closer to him, to taste his mouth and see if it was as exciting as she suspected. And what was she doing even thinking about his mouth?
She couldn’t do something as disastrous as become involved with him by so much as a little kiss. Or a big one, either.
And it wasn’t only because he was the chairman of the school board. It was also that she was going to be gone in a few months. She would never be back. Once her father found out that she had been teaching school rather than pampering herself at a spa, it was doubtful that she would ever return to the United States—or even be allowed off the grounds of the palace. There was a family story that Hedrick the Henchman had locked up a wandering wife. There was a room in the dungeon that looked far too comfortable for a prisoner or jailer. Prince Michael might decide it was the perfect place for his rebellious daughter. He would hold her prisoner in Inbourg until he found her a suitable husband.
“Ugh!” Alexis said out loud, and rolled over onto her stomach. She didn’t want a husband from the choice of men her father had picked out. They were either minor royalty from neighboring countries or businessmen more interested in the possible prestige that marriage to a princess of Inbourg would bring. They weren’t interested in her personally. They didn’t even know her.
But Prince Michael had put out the casting call for a husband for his youngest daughter and the candidates had begun to line up.
He was absolutely determined that she wouldn’t follow in her wayward sisters’ footsteps. Alexis wasn’t sure why her father thought she would suddenly turn docile when she had always been the one with her own ideas and plans. No doubt, desperation had prompted his lineup of candidates for her hand.
She couldn’t imagine Jace standing in that lineup. If he loved her, he would move right to the head of it and toss out all others.
Alexis indulged in a momentary daydream that resembled the old fairy tale about the princess on the glass hill. The man who climbed the slippery slope successfully would win the hand of the princess. She imagined Jace on Hondo, charging up the hill to sweep her away. He would do that, too, if he loved her.
If he loved her. Loved her?
She was hallucinating. The stressful beginning of school, a black eye and her attraction to Jace were unhinging her mind. There was no other explanation since she had never been the type of woman who wanted to be rescued from anything. She had always preferred to go her own way, do her own thing, which was why she had attended university in Arizona, and, of course, was how she’d ended up teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in the White Mountains.
She liked being independent and self-reliant. As much as she loved her sisters, she didn’t want to be like them, depending first on their father, and then on the men they seemed to fall in love with on a regular basis. Both Anya and Deirdre had wanted to be out of the unrelenting glare of the public eye, and to keep Jean Louis out of it, even though she knew that as heir to the throne, that would never happen. That’s why Anya had looked for a wealthy man to help shield her.
Alexis was different. She didn’t want anyone to rescue her, not even Jace.
Sitting in the dark, with her chin propped in her palms, she reconfirmed that decision. She didn’t need rescuing by him. But oh, he was so strong, so masculine and sure of himself. And yet his touch had been so gentle when he’d been tending to her eye.
Alexis grabbed her pillow and held it against the heat swelling in her chest. She felt dangerously close to tears and it had nothing to do with her sore eye. Never in her life had she agonized over a man this way. For one thing, she didn’t know all that many. She hadn’t dated very much. Alarmed by her sisters’ exploits, her father’s careful watch on Alexis had guaranteed that few boys or young men made the attempt to get to know her.
Therefore, nothing had prepared her for Jace.
She couldn’t pursue this attraction, anyway, because once he found out the truth about her, he would feel that she had lied. Lying had been the furthest thing from her mind. She had only wanted to teach, to gain some much-needed experience to take back home with her, and do it in a place where she wasn’t known, and in a way where her family name and history wouldn’t influence people around her. She had wanted to be accepted for herself.
But if it came up, how could she explain that to Jace?
Alexis’s troubled sleep was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. She fumbled for it on her small nightstand and squinted at the buttons through her swollen lid.
Gingerly, she tested the area around her eye with one hand as she mumbled “Hello,” into the phone.
“Alexis?” her father’s voice boomed in her ear so loudly, she had the urge to snap to attention and salute. She did manage to sit bolt upright in alarm.
“Dad?” she quavered, then was annoyed with herself for her wimpy tone. She cleared her throat and tried again, but it sounded just as bad the second time.
“What’s the matter with you?” he demanded. “Are they working you too hard there?”
Still foggy with sleep, she stumbled over words. “No, Dad, the children are very well-behaved, and…” Finally, a few brain molecules came alive and she gulped back the rest of what she’d been about to say.
“Children? Alexis, what are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” she said hastily. “Nothing, Dad. I was…dreaming. You woke me.”
“Well, that’s good,” he responded in his imperious way. “You’re supposed to be getting rested up and healthy, but you sound like you’re sick. You aren’t sick, are you?”
“No, Dad, I’m not.” She pulled the covers up to her chin, wishing that she was dressed, or had at least brushed her hair. Somehow it was easier to face her father, even on the phone, if she was dressed. She knew the best way to head him off the subject of her health was to ask about the family. “How is everyone? How does Jean Louis like school?” It was his first year, and she regretted having to miss hearing about his daily experiences.
“Everyone’s fine. Jean Louis is the smartest boy they’ve ever had at that school,” Prince Michael responded proudly. In a burst of democratic fervor after the approval of the revised constitution, he had insisted that Anya enroll her son at the local school. For the first time, a member of the royal family was attending classes with the children who lived near the palace. Although she had approved his action, Alexis had been secretly dismayed because the school officials seemed to be satisfied with low academic standards. It was one of the things she hoped to change.
“He likes it fine there. Loves school and gets along with the other children even though he threatened to put one of them in the dungeon for taking a toy he wanted to play with.”
Alexis laughed. How she missed the little stinker.
“Deirdre’s got a new boyfriend,” Prince Michael went on with annoyance. “Some horse breeder.”
Probably owns a string of successful stables, Alexis thought to herself. Her sister always chose successful men and Prince Michael insisted on viewing them as upstart nobodies simply because they weren’t his choice. She tried to get more information about the man, but he cut her off.
“I didn’t call to report on the family.”
Uh-oh, here it comes. She sat up straight and braced herself.
“I want to know how long you’re going to be at that place,” he went on.
“I thought we agreed you would let me have some time to myself,” she hedged.
“I am,” he thundered. “I simply want to know when you’re going to come home.”
She took a deep breath. “Three months.”
“Three months?” His voice rose. “What on earth are you going to do in that place for three months?”
Her hands twisted in the sheets, but she forged on. “That’s beside the point. You said I could have this time for myself.”
“But
three months? You’ve already been gone for three weeks.”
“Dad, I spent a full year doing exactly what you wanted me to do. I stayed and watched out for Jean Louis so you and Anya and Deirdre could concentrate on the constitution and all the public relations involved in selling it to the country.”
“Well, yes, but…”
“And when the constitution was passed, Anya took Jean Louis and went cruising on Stavros Andarko’s yacht. Deirdre went to Ireland where she’s apparently met this horse breeder. I stayed home because that’s what you wanted me to do. Well, now I’m doing what I want and I’ll be home soon enough.”
There was a lengthy silence from Prince Michael. Finally, he spoke, calmer now. “All right,” he finally answered. “You’re going to get what you want, but…”
“What?” she asked hesitantly.
“You’ve never spent five minutes pampering yourself in your life, and now…three months?”
Alexis could picture him shaking his head in wonder. “I’ll be home before you know it, Dad.”
“Just be sure you do, and tell Esther I expect her to look out for you. I don’t want to find out in one of those damned rag newspapers that you’ve gotten yourself tangled up with some beefcake boyfriend.” With a hasty goodbye, he hung up, while Alexis choked in surprise.
“A beefcake boyfriend?” she sputtered. “I can’t even have a beef-raising one.” Not that Jace had indicated he wanted to be in that capacity.
She swung her feet to the floor and stood, heading for the mirror in the bathroom that would tell her how bad her eye was.
When she had moved into the teacherage, she had been pleasantly surprised to discover that it had a remarkably modern and efficient bathroom. Now that oh-so-efficient mirror showed her bruised eye in all its purple splendor. She grimaced. “Billy Saunders is going to tell all the other kids I’ve been in a fight, and he’ll entertain the whole school with the imaginary details.” And darn it, she would be as enthralled as the children with his tale.
Even the truth would sound strange, that she had bumped into Jace’s elbow. She wouldn’t tell them that, she decided suddenly. Maybe she wouldn’t tell them anything at all. Maybe she would assign them to write an essay entitled, “How Miss Chastain Got Her Black Eye.” The younger students could draw a picture of it. Even the efforts of a kindergartner wouldn’t look much worse than this.
Another piece of truth she wouldn’t share with them was how she was falling for the school board chairman. She certainly wouldn’t tell them that her heart seemed to leap for joy whenever she saw him, that she found him wildly attractive, that she’d desperately wanted to kiss him last night.
How on earth had things become so complicated, anyway?
“That’s a complicated knot you’ve gotten yourself tangled up in, Jace.”
Jace glanced around to see Luke Braden observing him. His fellow rancher had ridden over from his place across the ridge and now sat easily atop his big roan mare as he watched Jace untangle a snarl of twine. It had become caught in the blades of the mower he was using to knock down the weeds between the trees in the orchard. It wasn’t a job he relished, nor was it one that particularly needed to be done. He was only doing it because he felt a peculiar need to punish himself.
He had almost kissed Alexis, kissed her with Gil and Rocky three rooms away, kissed her while she’d been suffering from a black eye that he’d given her. Because he wanted to snap at himself, he spoke to his old friend with unnecessary harshness.
“If you came by to tell me what I already know, you might as well leave.”
“And miss the show?” Luke asked easily, sliding from the saddle. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” Grinning, he strode up, shucked a many-bladed knife from his pocket, and said, “Here.”
Jace took it without a word of thanks, and flipped out one of the sharp blades which sliced smoothly through the twine.
“How’d that get caught in the blades, anyway?” Luke asked.
“I ran over it.”
“Don’t you usually watch where you’re going?”
Jace gave him a poisonous look. “Who would have thought to look for baling twine clear out here?”
“I don’t know, but I expect if you’d asked either of your hired doofuses if they’d recently dropped some, they would have said, ‘Oh, yeah. It jumped out of the truck and went to take a nap under the apple tree.’”
Unexpectedly, Jace grinned. Luke had a talent for mimicry and had sounded exactly like the Patchetts. “No doubt.”
“I don’t know why you keep those two on.”
“Because their dad is an old friend and I’m obliged to him for hauling my butt out of debt a few years ago.”
Luke swiped a long blade of grass from the ground and began chewing on it.
“So you have to pay for it by putting up with Gil and Rocky?”
“They’re good hands,” Jace defended.
“As long as you never take your eyes off of them.”
Jace couldn’t deny that, so he said nothing while he finished with the twine, bundled it out of the way, and then prepared to restart the mower.
“You take things too personally and too seriously.”
Jace frowned. “I told you, I’m obliged to their dad for helping me out.”
Luke only shook his head and Jace knew exactly what he was thinking. They’d had this discussion off and on most of their lives.
“And you have to take on Gil and Rocky because it somehow proves to the world that you’re not like your old man, not hard and cold, willing to take on a couple of barely adequate men and put up with their shenanigans….”
Jace cut him off with a hard look. “Why did you say you stopped by?”
“I didn’t.” Luke glanced around, his dark eyes curious. “Billy tells me the new schoolteacher is quite a looker.”
Jace grunted, ignoring the surge of jealousy that stabbed him. “You’re taking the word of a ten-year-old?”
“Hey, Billy might be a handful, but he’s got good eyes.” Luke grew serious. “Nah, the truth is, my nephew, Brad, might be coming to stay with me for a while.”
Jace straightened. “Raina’s little boy?”
“Yeah. She’s decided to go to medical school and she figures she can’t do that and raise a kid.”
The two men exchanged a long look. Jace knew his old friend was sharing his thoughts, that Luke’s brilliant but self-centered sister should never have had a child.
She should never have run off from Sleepy River, married the first guy she met, had Brad the next year, and then flitted away from her husband, wagging the baby along with her. For his part, Jace never should have been infatuated with her to the point where he thought he’d suffered a broken heart when she’d left. After telling himself no woman would matter to him as much as the Running M, his heart had healed so quickly, he’d known it had never been broken, but his experience with Raina had left him wary.
“So, tell me what Miss Chastain is like,” Luke commanded, chewing thoughtfully on the blade of grass.
Now there’s a question, Jace thought, leaning against the mower handle.
“She’s qualified to teach here. Martha said so,” he answered with a shrug.
“And?”
“She seems to be doing an okay job. The kids like her.”
“I already know that much from Billy,” Luke answered. “I mean what kind of woman is she?”
The prickle of jealousy became a sharp jab in the gut. “Why? Are you thinking of asking her out?”
Luke rocked back on his heels and gave Jace an interested look. “Why? Is she worth asking out?”
Jace didn’t answer because he had no answer. Instead, he leaned over to grab the starter handle and give the rope a tug. “Sure,” he said. “I guess.” Then he cut off further conversation by jerking on the rope and starting the motor to life with a roar.
When he turned the mower to finish the job, he saw that Luke had remounted his horse, though he seemed to be havin
g some difficulty since he was laughing so hard. With a wave, he rode off toward the schoolhouse.
Angrily, Jace stalked along behind the handle, pushing the mower back and forth at warp speed, imagining Luke riding up to the door of the teacher-age, dismounting, meeting Alexis, charming her, commiserating with her over her black eye.
Her black eye!
Jace stopped so fast he left skid marks in the grass. He stood perfectly still while he stared straight ahead and the mower’s motor put-putted noisily.
He hadn’t even asked about her black eye that day. He could have called her, or ridden Hondo through the woods to call on her, or even driven the truck over. In fact, he should have done that. He was the one who had caused her injury and the one who had doctored it. The least he could do was go find out if it was healing up.
Jace did something he never would have allowed Gil or Rocky to do—abandoned his equipment where it stood and raced for the house.
Chapter Eight
Alexis laughed up at the charming cowboy who had dropped by to meet her and stayed to drink lemonade with her on her front porch.
“Now, old Jace, you want to watch out for him,” Luke said, his eyes twinkling.
Alexis sat back, tucked her tongue into her cheek, and wrapped her hands around her glass of lemonade. It was a hot day so she had put on shorts and a tank top to sit outside in the hope of catching a breeze. She had been studying up on social studies for the two fifth-graders—her knowledge of European history was better than her knowledge of American history—when Luke Braden had arrived. She’d felt self-conscious because her hair was in an untidy topknot. Luke didn’t seem to care, though. He’d given her a long, interested look, then begun talking about Jace.
She smiled now at Luke’s assessment of him. “Why is that?”
“Well, he’s just a tad on the possessive side, and he’s way too responsible. He thinks he has to keep an eye on everything that’s going on around this community. Anything that’s even remotely connected to his ranch, well, he feels responsible for it, then he starts getting possessive, wanting to keep people close to him so he can make sure they’re all right.”
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