Last Chance Beauty Queen (12 page)

She finished that one, too, and started in on the whiskey Collins, which she actually liked the taste of, but maybe because she was getting seriously buzzed by this time.

Then Clay’s band, with Jane singing lead, struck up the old standard “Can I Have This Dance.” And damned if Hugh didn’t lean in and ask her to dance. It didn’t really occur to Caroline until she reached the dance floor that “Can I Have This Dance” was a slow song. A waltz, in fact.

The folks who had been line dancing had all left the floor, and there Hugh and Caroline stood, just the two of them.

She found herself looking up into Hugh deBracy’s incredible brown eyes. knowing that she was more than a little drunk and way out of her league. But, oh, her hormones were enjoying this moment.

“Well, it appears to be a waltz, doesn’t it?” he said, his eyes smiling but his mouth remaining quite serious. “Now you will see just how badly I managed in cotillion classes.”

Cotillion classes?
He had to be joking.

Fear swept through her. “Um, ah, I didn’t go to cotillion classes. The truth is I don’t know how to waltz, and I’m just a little…” She let her voice trail off. No sense telling him she was heading toward serious inebriation.

But Hugh, the ex-bartender and English baron, seemed to know everything without being told. He placed his hand at the small of her back, lower than she expected, his palm pressing over her spine in a move that was utterly possessive, even though he was not very close to her. He adjusted her left hand down from his shoulder onto his upper arm, where her palm connected with the skin, just below the edge of his shirtsleeve. The warmth of it jolted through her, just as he took her right hand in his left.

His hand caught her by surprise. An aristocrat’s hand should be soft, but Hugh’s hand was dry and rough and seemed to have more than a few calluses on it. It enveloped hers, and her pulse climbed right into the stratosphere.

They stood almost eighteen inches apart. And yet she had never been more aware of a man in all her life. God help her, she had the hots for this guy, and that was a ginormous problem.

“Just start on your right foot and let me lead.” He arched his eyebrow. And then…

Well, then he created magic. He accomplished this feat despite her lack of skill, the slightly seedy dance floor, and the copious quantities of whiskey she had imbibed.

Every little girl who has ever seen
Cinderella
or
Beauty and the Beast
has a moment when she longs to transcend the story and become the heroine in the
arms of the hero, wearing some wonderful dress, moving lightly and gracefully on her feet as he waltzes her around the dance floor. Caroline might have devoted her life to career advancement, but down deep, she wanted romance in her life even if she knew it was a silly desire for a working girl like her.

But for one shining moment, Hugh deBracy gave her romance. Never mind that it took place in a honky-tonk bar, or that she was wearing a white sleeveless golf shirt and a pair of khaki capri slacks, instead of some fabulous gown.

It didn’t matter.

The moment was utterly magic.

Hugh glided her across the floor, his right hand aiming her in the proper direction, while his left hand connected them in a carnal way that took her breath away. He never lost the beat of the music. He made her feel completely beautiful despite her casual clothing. He twirled her until she became dizzy with more than the alcohol.

And all the while, he never once broke eye contact. He sucked her into the fantasy with his dark eyes. As the music died, she knew she would never, in all her life, forget this moment.

God help her. She suddenly wanted to rush headlong into what was clearly a fantasy of her own making. And that was just plain stupid. She had crossed a line, and she needed to get safely back on the other side of it. She was Senator Warren’s aide, and she had no business dancing with Baron Woolham.

So she did the only sensible thing she could think of. She turned on her heel and ran from Dot’s Spot like a raccoon with a hillbilly dog on her tail.

Caroline concentrated really hard on walking without stumbling and made it safely across Palmetto Avenue without being run over—which was no great big thing seeing as it was midnight, and there wasn’t any traffic on Palmetto this time of night.

She was halfway down the main block before she became aware of the headlights behind her. She turned just as her brother, Stone, pulled up in his police cruiser.

He stopped the car and rolled down the passenger side window. “Girl, you’re drunk as a skunk, aren’t you?”

“Go ’way.” She turned and kept walking down the street, trying to pretend that Stone wasn’t following her in his big ol’ impressive police car.

“Honey, quit being stubborn and get in. I’ll take you home.”

“Clay called you, didn’t he?” she called over her shoulder.

“Uh-huh.” Stone pulled ahead, stopped the cruiser, and unfolded himself from the driver side. He strode up the sidewalk in her direction. “Don’t make me arrest you. After what happened at the Pig Place last night, I’m starting to wonder what’s going on with you.”

“Look, you can’t pin anything on me about last night.” She stood there bobbing and weaving for a moment. “
I
had the whole thing under control until Lord Woolham smashed Bubba’s face. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“C’mon, little gal, I’ll get you home safe.”

She stood there for a moment weighing her options. There were no options. So she let Stone guide her firmly to the cruiser and help her into the front passenger seat.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve been dancing with
that Englishman. You know Momma and Daddy won’t approve. I know I don’t,” he said when he got behind the wheel.

She slid down into the seat and closed her eyes. The world spun, and her stomach gave a little lurch.

Stone fired up the engine. “What in the world were you thinking?”

“About what?”

“About going into Dot’s and getting drunk with that man.”

“That man. You mean Hugh.”

“Yeah, him.”

She thought for a moment. “Um, I don’t think he was drunk. And it was not my plan to get drunk with him. My plan was to pump Roy Burdett for information.”

“What? What information?”

Stone pulled the car from the curb and headed toward Momma’s house.

Caroline let go of a sigh. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

“Right. What information?”

Caroline leaned her dizzy head back on the headrest. “It’s not important,” she lied. “Just something to do with Lord Woolham’s land purchases.”

It wasn’t long before Stone pulled the cruiser to the curb in front of Momma’s house. The lights were ablaze even though it was past midnight. “Honey, you need to listen to me,” Stone said as he killed the engine. “It’s not a good idea to be seen taking sides with the man who wants to force Daddy off his land. You already have a reputation in this town.”

“Was that a reference to Bubba?”

“It was.”

“That’s not fair. You know good and well that—”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not. This is a tiny town, honey. Folks talk, and they have long memories. I may not like Golfing for God, but I know good and well that the Rhodes family needs to hang together when it comes to things like this.”

“I’m not trying to force Daddy off his land. I’m trying to convince Lord Woolham to find another place to build.”

“Well, that might be true, but your actions are saying something else. You need to think about how all this is going to reflect on Momma and Daddy, and on me, too. I’m a public servant in this town, and that scene yesterday at the Pig Place was ugly. I should have put that guy’s butt right in jail.”

Caroline was sobering up fast. “Stone, you couldn’t arrest him without Big Bob and a bunch of other council members getting annoyed. Yesterday I even heard Millie Polk talking about how the town needs a factory more than it needs Golfing for God. This is a political reality.”

“Politics don’t matter, Rocky. We Rhodes have always hung together. You know that.”

Yes, she did.

He picked up his cell phone and placed a call to Clay to let him know that she’d gotten home in one piece.

When he’d finished, he turned toward her and said, “You stay away from Dot’s and you keep it clean with that Englishman, you hear? If you’re worried about politics, what you did tonight was just plain stupid.”

“You’re right.” Stone had a way of cutting right to the chase.

She got out of the car, and Stone drove away. She turned and headed unsteadily up the walk to the house. Momma was waiting for her, rocking patiently on the front porch, taking in the balmy summer night.

One look at Momma’s face and Caroline knew she was officially in trouble. But then again, what else was new in Last Chance, South Carolina?

H
ugh stood on the dance floor in something of a fog as he watched Caroline’s retreating derriere. She was running away, like Cinderella masquerading at the ball. Only in this case, Cinderella was wearing pants and was, not to put too fine a point on it, pissing drunk.

He really ought to see that she got home safely.

He took two steps in pursuit and fetched up against the broad and immovable person of Caroline’s brother, Clay. It was only then that Hugh noticed the sudden absence of music and the fact that most of the pub’s patrons were watching the two of them square off against one another. He was outmatched. Clay Rhodes was, as the adage goes, a mountain of a man.

“You can stay right where you are. Stone’ll make sure Rocky gets home. No thanks to you.”

“Ah, the local law.”

“That’s right. And based on what you’ve been up to tonight, I would say Rocky probably needs police protection. And by the way, I heard all about what happened last
night at the Pig Place. For the record, I don’t like fighting. But if I have to, I will. And you really don’t want to mess with me.”

“You know, I don’t really like fighting either. I have a reputation back in Woolham as being rather a mild-mannered sort of man.”

Clay frowned in obvious confusion.

“Woolham is my home in the UK. It’s a village about the same size as Last Chance. In fact, I would say the two places are quite similar.”

“Really?”

Hugh shrugged. “Well, we do speak a better brand of English, but aside from that…” He plastered a friendly smile on his face. The kind he had perfected during the three years he had served as a part-time barman at the Royal Arms—a job that Granddad would have disapproved of, if Granddad had still been alive.

Clay returned the smile. The man was sober as a judge, and his smile was not in the least bit friendly.

The big man put a finger into Hugh’s chest. “You can just quit trying to seduce Rocky. And while I’m at it, I ought to tell you that you aren’t ever going to convince my father to sell his golf course. So maybe you should just hightail it back to Woolham.”

Hugh straightened his spine at that. Had he been trying to seduce Caroline? Well, not intentionally, but that hardly mattered, did it? He’d been having a great deal more fun with her than he ought. He probably deserved a thrashing from her male kin, given the circumstances.

He was making himself quite the villain, wasn’t he? Aunt Petal would be so disappointed in him, but he supposed Granddad would have been encouraged. Granddad
was a prat. But he had been a success, and Hugh should remember that.

Hugh raised his hands, palms outward in a gesture of compliance and submission. “Look, I’m terribly sorry. I’ll just pop back to Miriam Randall’s now and—”

“No, you sit right there.” Clay pointed to a table near the stage. “And you stay there until I get the all-clear from Stone.”

Hugh sat. Everyone watched. Clay paced.

The phone eventually rang about five minutes later. Clay took the call, nodded, then turned toward Hugh with arms akimbo. “She’s home safe. You can get out of here now.”

Hugh stood up and headed for the door. He had almost reached it when Dottie Cox called out, “Honey, don’t let Clay intimidate you. I saw those drinks you made, and I know they weren’t very strong. You can come tend my bar anytime.”

He turned and gave her a little nod. “Thank you very much, Dorothy. I’ll remember that should my plan for the factory fall through.”

But of course, if his plan for the factory fell through, he’d be going back to the UK and doing what was expected of him. He might as well have the words of the deBracy motto tattooed on his chest.
Honneur dans le devoir.
Honor in duty.

He would certainly find honor in marrying Lady Ashton. But he would have to give up his factory. Victoria was not very keen on spending her money on bits and pieces of machinery.

He turned north and strolled down Palmetto Avenue past darkened storefronts, many of them permanently empty.

Last Chance appeared to be in the grip of an economic downturn. The place needed his factory. But it didn’t look as if his factory would ever be built. He was not smart enough, or mean enough, or wily enough to make a success in business.

No doubt this was why he’d been such an easy mark for George Penn. It seemed just a little too convenient that his erstwhile, “late” business partner had disappeared in a private plane accident somewhere in South America, only a few weeks after concluding the disastrous land deal here in the States.

Hugh had a feeling bad luck had nothing to do with it. He wondered if perhaps Jimmy Marshall had given George some kind of kickback for agreeing to the land sale at such a high price.

George could have come away with a significant amount of cash. Not enough to live on for the rest of his life, of course, but then if George was a con man, he probably did this sort of thing all the time.

Hugh could almost hear Granddad’s cold, emotionless voice telling him that he needed to quit trusting people. How many times had Granddad said that a successful man was one who did unto others before the others could do him in?

Trusting George had been a mistake. And now Hugh would have to “hightail it” back to Woolham and do his duty.