My Desperado by Lois Greiman Page A

It had happened so quickly. "And he tried to take me with him."
    Lacy shook her head and tsked. "Bad boy," she said. "I don't like men who try to take women against their wills."
    There were a few snickers in the background.
    Travis glared.
    Katherine considered fainting.
    Lacy turned. "Katy." She crooked a finger at the blushing girl. "I'll be needin' a talk with you."
     

Chapter 9
    The room contained no frills. It was an office and nothing more. Lacy MacTaggart appeared absolutely at home there.
    "This used to be a peaceable house," she said, leaning into the spindle back of the room's only chair and folding her hands atop her generous lap.
    Silence enveloped the room, and Katherine shifted her weight, feeling very much like the knobby-kneed girl who had so often cringed beneath her father's disapproval. She stared down at her shoe, making a crescent pattern on the carpet with the toe. "He tried to leave."
    "Uh-huh." One plucked brow was arched over Lacy's olive-green eyes as she waited.
    "I thought we were getting on better." Katherine lifted her chin slightly. "He and I."
    "But?"
    "I just offered to help him eat." Katherine felt the now familiar blush rush to her cheeks as she recalled his bare, tempting chest.
    Lacy's gaze held the girl in a firm grip, reading a great deal more than her words. "Offended was he?"
    "How did you know?"
    "Lass, what I don't know about men ain't worth learnin'," sighed Lacy. "In fact, most of what I know ain't worth learnin'."
    They stared at each other, neither talking for a moment before Katherine bit her lip. "I think he's quite—"
    Giggles emerged from upstairs, accented by a low, threatening growl. The sound of scattering feet followed, and then the bang of a door thudding closed.
    The blood drained from Katherine's face. "Upset," she finished weakly.
    MacTaggart sat in quiet study, listening to the pattering feet, watching Katherine's pained expression. There was more here than met the eye. It was unusual for a man to scare a bevy of half-clad women from his room, no matter what the circumstances. And what were the circumstances exactly? People rarely surprised her anymore, but these two...
    "He eats like a horse." MacTaggart said the words flatly, watching for the girl's reaction.
    "I'll pay as soon as I'm able." Katherine had lifted her chin a notch, and something in Lacy's chest twisted at the sight. Her little Emily would have been that kind of a lady, had she lived.
    "Do you have any money?"
    "Not just now. But I'll earn it," assured Katherine.
    "How?" Lacy asked baldly. "And when?"
    Hoping to appear calm and confident, Katherine remained unmoving, but she looked worried and pale.
    "I'll feed him and you," Lacy said, rising suddenly to her impressive height. "Best cuisine in town. We'll keep you hid. My clan's got secrets of its own. They won't mess with yours. Tomorrow morning I'll start up some rumors saying folks like the two of you have been seen some distance from here—heading east."
    Katherine remained very still, her hands caught together in a deathlike grip as she stared at Lacy. "In exchange for what?" she asked quietly.
    "Coo, miss, 'oo'd of thought you was 'iding so much bounty under them dowdy dresses?"
    “Turn," Margaret said, pushing on Katherine's nearly bare hip.
    "Look at her waist," complained Dory, taking another bite from a raspberry tart and moaning when a blob of the filling dropped onto her gown. "Damn near big as my arm."
    She licked the sweet from her sleeve, ate the remainder in one large bite, and plopped onto her elbow.
    Garnet looked up after she pinned the hem. "She'll look like a princess."
    "Men'll be drooling on their tools."
    "Beggin't' pay just t' 'old a lady's 'and," added Daisy with a mischievous grin. "Lacy's a genius."
    "We'll cut it down to there," declared Margaret.
    "Where?" asked Katherine in shock. She had been prodded and turned and measured until her heart sat in a cold lump of dread in her throat and her face burned a permanent