Lucky's Lady by Tami Hoag Read Free Book Online

sharply at her sister's reflection in the mirror. “Did you say you're going
after
Gifford? You're going out into the swamp?”
    Serena zipped her slacks, meeting Shelby's gaze evenly. “Isn't that what you told me to do?” she said with deceptive calm.
    Shelby's cheeks flushed beneath her perfect makeup, and she glanced away, suddenly uncomfortable. “I guess I didn't think you'd really do it. I mean, for heaven's sake, Serena,
you
going out into the swamp!”
    “What did you think I'd do, Shelby? Nothing? Did you think I'd just ignore the problem?”
    Shelby turned and faced her then, her mood changing yet again. “Ignore it the way I have, you mean?” She narrowed her eyes and pinched her mouth into a sour knot. “Well, I'm sorry, Serena, if I don't live up to your standards, but I have many other responsibilities. If Gifford wants to go live in the middle of some godforsaken, snake-infested swamp, I can't just drop everything and go after him.”
    “Well, you won't have to,” Serena said tiredly. “Because I'm going.”
    “Yes.” Shelby flitted to the French doors that opened onto the gallery. She drew a length of sheer drape through her fingers, then twirled away, tossing her head. “Won't Giff be tickled to see how you've overcome your fears.”
    Serena gave her twin a long, level look brimming with anger and hurt, but she made no comment. She refused to. She had never once discussed with Shelby her fear of the swamp or how she had acquired it. The topic had tacitly been declared off-limits years earlier, a dangerous no-man's land that Shelby danced along the edge of when she was feeling spiteful.
    Serena wasn't even certain her sister realized how potentially volatile the subject was. It wasn't that Shelby was stupid; it was just that she magnified the importance of things that pertained directly to herself and tended to minimize all else.
    Stepping into a pair of red canvas espadrilles, Serena snapped her suitcase shut with a decisive click. She had no time to analyze her sister's psyche even if she had wanted to. She had a boat to catch.
    “I'm leaving now,” she said softly, still struggling to control her temper. “I don't know when I'll be back. Knowing Gifford, this could take a day or two.”
    She slung the strap of her carryall over her shoulder and hefted the suitcase off the bed. Without so much as glancing in Shelby's direction, she left the room and headed for the front door.
    “Serena, wait!” Shelby called, her voice ringing with contrition as she hurried down the hall.
    “I can't wait. Lucky gave me ten minutes and I have no doubt he'll leave without me just to prove his point if I'm not there on time.”
    “Lucky?” Shelby's step faltered as she repeated the name. “Lucky who?”
    “Lucky Doucet,” Serena said, bumping the screen door open with her hip. “He's taking me out to Giff's.”
    Shelby's face fell and paled dramatically, but Serena wasn't looking.
    “Good heavens, Serena,” she said breathlessly, scurrying out onto the gallery. “You can't go off with him. Do you have any idea what people say about him?”
    “I can well imagine.”
    “Mercy,” Shelby fretted, patting her bosom with one hand and fanning herself with the other, as if she might swoon like a belle of old. “I don't know how his poor mother can hold her head up in public. And she's just the dearest woman you'd ever care to meet. His younger siblings are perfectly nice with college degrees and I don't know what all, but that—that—Lucky . . . Good heavens, he's nothing but trouble. He's been living like an animal out in the swamp ever since he got out of the army. Folks say he's half crazy.”
    “They may be right,” Serena conceded, remembering Lucky's own words to that effect. “But he was the only person I could find to take me.”
    “Well, I don't think you should go with him. Who knows what he might do or say?”
    Serena sighed heavily. “Shelby, one of us
has
to go talk to Gifford.