Lacy by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

touching the diamond
necklace he'd given her just last night. She smiled. "He's very generous."
    Cassie's eyes narrowed. "And what you
giving him in return, girl?"
    Katy actually blushed. "Not.. .that!"
she burst out, sitting straighter and then groaning when it hurt her head.
"I'm not sleeping with him!"
    "Maybe he'll expect you to, what with presents
like that," Cassie replied gruffly. She turned and went to the door.
"Miss Marion has rode into Floresville with Mrs. Harrison to get her hair
fixed, on account of Mr. Ben ain't brought her runabout home yet. She say she
be back about noon. Which it nearly is."
    She closed the door with a bang, and Katy glared
at it. Danny was not a gangster. Not really. He might have done a few shady
things, and he did run a speakeasy in the Windy City. But he was slick and
Italian and handsome, and she liked being seen with him. She especially liked
having Turk see her with him. Because she knew the foreman didn't like it, and
that made her blood sing.
    Damn Turk! she thought, dashing aside the
covers, headache and all, to get to her feet. Damn him! Letting Cole order him
around, heeding that warning to keep his hands off the boss's sister! She'd
gone right through the roof when Ben had told her that. He'd overheard a hot
argument between Turk and Cole, with Cole coming out on top, as usual. Turk had
added that he liked women, not little girls, and that he didn't have any
interest in young Katy in the first place! Oh, how that had cut. It had cut her
young heart to shreds. She'd been avoiding Turk ever since, and when she'd gone
to that party in San Antonio and met Danny Marlone, she'd encouraged him like
crazy. For the first time, she'd used her femininity to attract a man. It
didn't help that she began to wonder if it might even work on Turk. It was too
late now. Cole had seen to that.
    Sometimes she hated her big brother's tyranny.
Cole had been like this as long as Katy could remember. Always in charge,
always throwing out orders. Ben had worshipped him for a long time, although
her baby brother was beginning to lose that enchantment as he aged. But Lacy...
Oh, poor Lacy. The older woman would wear her poor heart out on Cole's utter
indifference, and Katy could have cried for her friend. Cole had been quieter
since Lacy'd left. Almost lonely, if the iron man ever got lonely. At any rate,
he was working himself to death. And when Marion had asked him to stop and see
Lacy, he didn't even protest. Maybe he missed her. Katy grinned impishly. That
would be something to have her indomitable older brother actually fall in love.
Cassie could be right; he might feel something. But he had a lot of practice at
hiding his emotions. Especially since the war.
    She tugged on a blue polka-dotted little frock
with a swingy skirt and puffy sleeves that gave her a baby-doll look. She left
her hair long and tied it back with a bright blue ribbon. Not bad, she told her
reflection in the mirror. Not bad at all. She lifted her hair. Maybe she'd have
it cut, like Lacy's. She liked Lacy's hair. She liked Lacy.
    Her thin brows drew together as she thought
about her best friend in San Antonio. She'd visited Lacy once or twice in the
past month, once to go to a party. Odd, it didn't seem like Lacy to have a
houseful of people and all that booze. Katy had always been the flashier of the
two girls, always out for adventure and excitement, the wilder the better. It
had been Lacy who was quiet and dry-witted, bubbly only with people who knew
her well. That Lacy wouldn't have liked wild parties. But Cole had changed her.
His constant indifference and neglect had done something terrible to her
friend. It had aged her. Ben and his stupid plotting! If only he'd stopped to
think what he was doing. Locking them in a boarded-up line cabin that not even
Cole's fabulous strength could break them out of. She shook her head. Ben
should have realized that
    Lacy wasn't for him. And there was little Faye
Cameron, who worshipped him