The Season Of Love: Beloved. Diana Palmer

stand having to look at it day after day. She’s obsessed with jealousy, eaten up with envy…”

      “What’s he talking about?” Mrs. Lester asked curiously.

      “He thinks you want his car.”

      Mrs. Lester scoffed. “That long red fast flashy thing?” She sniffed. “Imagine me, riding around in something like that!”

      Charles grinned. “Want to?” he asked, raising and lowering his eyebrows.

      She chuckled. “You bet I do! But I’m much too old for sports cars, dear. Tira’s just right.”

      “Yes, she is. And she needs coddling.”

      “I’ll fatten her up and see that she gets her rest. I knew I should never have let her talk me into that vacation. The first time I leave her in a month, and look what happens! And the newspapers…!” She stopped so suddenly that she almost bit her tongue through.

      Tira froze in place. “What newspapers?”

      Mrs. Lester made a face and exchanged a helpless glance with Charles.

      “You, uh, made the headlines,” he said reluctantly.

      She groaned. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, there goes my one-woman show!”

      “No, it doesn’t,” Charles replied. “I spoke to Bob this morning before I came after you. He said that the phone’s rung off the hook all morning with queries about the show. He figures you’ll make a fortune from the publicity.”

      “I don’t need—”

      “Yes, but the outreach program does,” he reminded her. He grinned. “They’ll be able to buy a new van!”

      She smiled, but her heart wasn’t in it. She didn’t want to be notorious, whether or not she deserved to.

      “Cheer up,” he said. “It’ll be old news tomorrow. Just don’t answer the phone for a day or two. It will blow over as soon as some new tragedy catches the editorial eye.”

      “I guess you’re right.”

      “Next Saturday,” he reminded her. “I’ll pick you up at six.”

      “Where will you be until then?” she asked, surprised, because he often came by for coffee in the afternoon.

      “Memphis,” he said with a sigh. “A business deal that I have to conduct personally. I’ll be out of town for a week. Bad timing, too.”

      “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Mrs. Lester’s right here.”

      “I guess so. I do worry about you.” He smiled sheepishly. “I don’t have any family, either. You’re sort of the only relative I have, even though you aren’t.”

      “Same here.”

      He searched her eyes. “Two of a kind, aren’t we? We loved not wisely, and too well.”

      “As you said, it’s their loss,” she said stubbornly. “Have a safe trip. Are you taking Big Red?”

      He shook his head. “They won’t let me take him on the plane,” he said. “Walters is going to stand guard over him in the garage with a shotgun while I’m gone, though. Maybe he won’t pine.”

      She burst out laughing. “I’m glad I have you for a friend,” she said sincerely.

      He took her hand and held it gently. “That works both ways. Take care. I’ll phone you sometime during the week, just to make sure you’re okay. If you need me…”

      “I have your mobile number,” she assured him. “But I’ll be fine.”

      “See you next week, then.”

      “Thanks for the ride home,” she said.

      He shrugged and flashed her a white smile. “My pleasure.”

      She watched him drive away with sad eyes. She was going to have to live down the bad publicity without telling her side of the story. Well, what did it matter, she reasoned. It could, after all, have been worse.

       Chapter Three

      The week passed slowly until the charity ball on Saturday evening. It was to be a lavish one, hosted by the Carlisles, a founding family in the area and large supporters of the local hospital’s charity work. Their huge brick mansion was just south of the perimeter of San Antonio, set in a grove of mesquite and pecan trees with its own duck pond and a huge formal garden. Tira had always loved coming to the house in the past for these gatherings, but she knew that Simon would be on the guest list. It was going to be hard facing him again after what had happened. It was going to be difficult appearing in public at all.

      She did plan to go down with all flags flying, however, having poured her exquisite figure into a sleeveless, long black velvet evening gown with lace appliqués in entrancing places and a lace-up bodice that left little gaps from her diaphragm to her breasts. Her hair was in an elegant French twist with a diamond clip that matched her dangling earrings and delicate waterfall diamond necklace. She looked wealthy and sophisticated and Charles gave her a wicked grin when she came through to the living room with a black velvet-and-jewel wrap over one bare shoulder. It was November and the weather was unseasonably warm, so the wrap was just right.

      Charles dressed up nicely, she thought, studying him. His tuxedo played up his extreme good looks and his fairness.

      “Don’t we make a pair?” he mused, glancing in the hall mirror at them. “Pity it isn’t the right one.”

      “We’ll both survive the evening,” she assured him.

      “Only if we drink hard enough,” he said with graveyard humor. Then he noticed her expression and grimaced. “Sorry,” he said genuinely.

      “No need to apologize,” she replied with a wry smile. “I did something stupid and had the misfortune to be found doing it. I’ll survive all the gossip. But whatever you do, don’t leave me alone with Simon, okay?”

      “Count on it. What are friends for?”

      She smiled at him. “To get us through rough times,” she said, and was suddenly very grateful that she had a friend as good as Charles.

      Charles chided her gently for her growing and obvious nervousness as he drove rapidly down the road that led to the Carlisle estate. “Don’t worry so. You’re old news,” he reminded her. “There’s the local political scandal to latch on to now.”

      “What political scandal?” she asked. “And how do you know about it when you’ve been out of town?”

      “Because our lieutenant governor has been participating in a conference on the problems of inner cities in Memphis. I sat next to him on the flight home,” he said smugly. Keeping his eyes on the road, he leaned toward her. “It seems that the attorney general intervened in a criminal case for a friend. The criminal he got paroled was serving time for armed robbery, but when he got out, he went right home and killed his ex-wife for testifying against him and is now back in prison. But the wheels of political change are going to roll over the governor’s fair-haired boy.”

      “Oh, my goodness,” she burst out. “But he was only doing a kindness. How could he know…?”

      “He couldn’t, and he isn’t really to blame, but the opposition party is going to use it to crucify him. I understand his resignation is forthcoming momentarily.”

      “What a shame,” Tira said honestly. “He’s done a wonderful job. I met him at one of the charity benefits earlier this year and thought how lucky we were to have elected someone so capable to the position! Now, if he resigns, I guess the governor will have to temporarily appoint someone to finish his term.”

      “No doubt he will.”