A Scandalous Melody. Linda Conrad

was a dreadful night. I would’ve given anything if you’d been here that summer to help me through it instead of off visiting with your grandmère in New England.” Kate had lost her appetite and gave up the pretense of eating.

      Shelby chuckled and then frowned. “I guess I must’ve missed my chance forever. After ten years you still don’t want to talk about it, do you?”

      “Not really. But I will tell you that all those stories about Chase being drunk and going nuts are all lies. Every one of them. He was stone sober, and he was forced into that fight with Justin-Roy and those boys.”

      “I didn’t know Chase as well as you did back then,” Shelby began quietly. “But I never believed he would drink too much. Not when you’d told me how much he hated the fact that his father was always so drunk.”

      Tears stinging the back of Kate’s eyes threatened to put an early end to the conversation and to supper. “Shelby, you are my best friend. You know I love you and Madeleine, don’t you?”

      “Of course I do, honey. I know you love us, this old run-down plantation, the town…and Chase Severin.” Shelby dropped her spoon and hugged her when Kate began to protest that last part. “We love you, too. And Maddie and I appreciate you taking us in and letting me trade house cleaning and cooking for a chance to stay in one of the guest houses. You’ve been a lifesaver.”

      Oh, Lord. Kate could not make her mouth say the words. She just could not tell her best friend that their days at Live Oak Hall were numbered.

      Maybe if she went to Chase. If she begged him to let Shelby and the baby stay on, he would consider it. It wouldn’t be the first time that Kate had gotten down on her knees to plead for something important.

      She could only hope that this time would turn out a whole lot better than the last one.

      Chase picked up his coffee mug and walked alone out onto the B&B’s terrace to watch as the lightning dashed silver streaks across the night sky. He loved the smell of the fresh earth right after a rain.

      It had been a long time since he’d been able to breathe in the clean night air and listen to the sounds that the swamp critters made after sundown.

      He’d had one hell of a day, coming back to Bayou City and seeing the surprised expressions on the faces of its citizens as he deliberately drove his new XK8 in that flashy topaz color right down Lafayette Street.

      He knew the word had spread all over town within minutes. The boy who would never amount to anything was back—and rich. His hand automatically went to the pocket of his navy blazer for a triumphant cigar.

      But instead of cigars, Chase’s hand landed on the antique jeweled egg that he’d begun to carry with him everywhere. He smiled at the very idea that he owned something so valuable and old. It was unlikely the whole damn town collectively would be able to afford just the insurance on anything this expensive.

      Feeling the shimmer of electricity beneath his fingers that reminded him that the gypsy had claimed this egg held magic, he withdrew his hand and shook his head. He didn’t need any kind of crutch in order to face his old ghosts, not nicotine nor magic. This time he had control of the deck. His cards had turned up in a royal flush.

      And he couldn’t be happier to have Kate’s fate thrown into the pot. It upped the stakes.

      When he’d first had that private investigator research the town to find out what had happened here since he’d been gone, he was disheartened to learn that her father had died of cancer six months earlier. Too late. Chase had made the decision to come back and get even with the old crotte Beltrane and the rest of the town too late.

      But then he’d learned about the mill’s bankruptcy and figured his timing was impeccable. He had been given the perfect opportunity to destroy them all.

      “Chase?”

      He turned around at the sound of her voice, nearly positive it would just be the ghost that had haunted his nights for what seemed like forever. But it was the real Kate this time, standing there with the lights streaming from the French doors at her back.

      “Uh, Madame Seville said it would be all right for me to come out here to talk to you. I’m not catching you at a bad time, am I?”

      Her midnight-black curls were pulled back in a loose ponytail and glistened with rain. Drips of water trickled down her porcelain cheeks and clung to her dark, thick lashes. She had a khaki-colored trench coat thrown over her arm, and rainwater was puddling under her as she stood there waiting for him to give her an answer.

      The sight of her simply stunned him, took his words away. He reached a hand toward his shirt pocket without thinking, then cursed himself silently for being such a fool. He didn’t need help facing this echo of days gone by, despite the fact she was the most gorgeous creature he had ever laid eyes on.

      “What are you doing here?” he asked with a forced grin. “I thought we’d agreed to start on the books first thing in the morning?”

      “I need to talk to you, Chase.” She raised her chin in that smug little way she’d had as a girl and took a tentative step closer.

      “Talk? I’ll just bet you have a lot to say now.” He turned his back on her and spread his feet for the balance he badly needed at the moment. “You’re ten years too late. You have nothing to say that I care to hear anymore.”

      “Please,” she whispered from behind him. “This isn’t about the mill. I’m hoping that will be strictly business with you. But what I wanted to talk about tonight was…”

      “Not about the past, I’d wager.” He spun around and glared down at her in the slanted light. “I’d give better than even odds that you’d rather die than have to face your past sins tonight. Am I right?”

      She was a good half foot shorter and the shadows cast by the back light kept him from seeing her face clearly. But he did manage to catch the anger in her glinting stare, and he watched her work her slender white throat as she swallowed back a nasty remark.

      Tempting, this ghost from his past. Too tempting.

      Kate shook her head and straightened her shoulders. “I don’t think it would serve any purpose to go over our mistakes at this late date.”

      Just to please himself, to give in to the urgent need to arouse her, Chase moved closer. She backed up a step and he took another in her direction, deliberately pushing her and limiting her personal space.

      “My only mistake was in trusting you once, telling you that I loved you.” He heard the evil chuckle coming from his own lips and wondered at just how far he had come away from the naive young kid he had been back then. “It’s a mistake I never intend to repeat.”

      Her eyes closed and he heard her soft sigh. Regrets? From the ice princess, Kate Beltrane?

      The silent whiff of her perfume reached icy fingers into his soul. The smell of camellias and gardenia that he’d once imagined he would never be able to get out of his mind took a swift sledgehammer to his heart.

      He felt that soft underbelly of pity and desire creeping up on him again as he reached a hand toward her shoulder. Before he could give her comfort, her eyes popped open and determination narrowed those full tantalizing lips.

      “I didn’t come here tonight to rehash old wounds,” she told him with sudden fervor. “I came to ask…explain really…about Live Oak Hall.”

      “You came here…in the rain…to explain about that broken-down old plantation?” He allowed himself a sneer, but didn’t back away from her.

      “It’s about the guest cottage. My friend, I don’t know if you remember her, Shelby Rousseau?”

      When he just squinted at her, Kate rushed ahead. “Well, she’s a single mother now and trying to get a business started. And…I’ve been letting her trade out cleaning and cooking to stay in the guest cottage. She can’t afford to pay rent, you see, and I thought…”