Astounding how little time he’d spent with Lucy and yet he knew exactly how to agitate her.“What were you doing with him?”Lucy asked, gripping Ginger’s arm.“Mama is furious with you, and you’ve completely humiliated William and …” Her eyes misted.
And you.Ginger’s heart ached for her.Lucy’s hopes for William, her thoughts that perhaps he might take an interest in her—all dashed.Ginger touched Lucy’s elbow.“Lucy, I’m sorry.”
A bitter twist played at Lucy’s lips.“Yes, well, why would he look at me when you were right there?”Lucy’s voice quivered as though she wanted desperately to be blasé but couldn’t manage the poise.“And there you were.Running around again with that man.Unable to stay away, no matter what William offers our family.Because you have the luxury …” The words choked in her throat.
Turning, Lucy fled from the room.
Ginger rushed after her.She couldn’t afford for Lucy to get lost in this throng.She was losing precious time.She needed to find her family and get them out of here.Ginger reached the staircase, cursing her elegant shoes, which weren’t the easiest for chasing her sister.Lucy was several steps ahead of her.
Ginger set her hand on the rail, dashing down the stairs when Lucy reached the ground level.At the bottom of the staircase, Lucy gave a little cry.Then, she covered her mouth, before she flung her arms around the neck of the man standing near the bottom step.
Stephen.
The world around Ginger seemed to grind to a screeching, exaggerated halt.She gripped the rail, her knees buckling.Then Stephen lifted his light-blue eyes to hers, his head tilting to the side as his arms enclosed Lucy.
The hair on the back of Ginger’s neck stood on end.
He was dressed in white tie, his gaunt face clean-shaven.
As though he was a guest.
Ginger’s heart slammed into her chest, then took off at a pulse that made her dizzy.Though it had long since healed, the scar above her heart burned at the memory of the last time she’d seen him in the desert.
She hesitated, wanting to run back and yell for Noah.
But she couldn’t leave Lucy with him.Not even for a second.
Stephen held her gaze, unblinking, as she took the last steps down toward him, her legs feeling heavy.She needed a gun.A knife.Anything.
She needed to get him away from Lucy.
Ginger reached Lucy as she released Stephen from the tight embrace.Grabbing Lucy’s arm, Ginger hauled her back toward her.“Ginny, look.”Lucy wiped a few tears from her cheeks.“It’s Stephen.He’s back.At long last.”
Not telling Lucy the truth about Stephen had been reckless.Ginger gave Stephen a contemptuous look, not caring who overheard her or what confusion she might cause Lucy.“Stay the hell away from my sister.”
Lucy gasped.“Ginny!That’s no way to greet an old friend.”
A few passersby gave them a look, too polite to intervene but curious at the obvious display of Ginger’s contempt for Stephen.
“Darling.I’ve missed that fire in your soul.”Mockery seeped through Stephen’s voice, contempt on his cracked lips.He couldn’t hide his recent imprisonment entirely, no matter how well-dressed or clean he was now.
But why was he free?
His presence here showed an utter lack of concern at his status as a fugitive criminal.
Ginger positioned herself between Stephen and Lucy.“She might not know what you are, but, believe me, I will tell her.I see now I should have done it a long time ago.I know exactly what you are, you bastard.So stay away.”
“Have you gone mad?”Lucy’s hands clenched into tight fists.
Ginger stared her down over her shoulder with an unmistakable, hard look.“Go back upstairs and find Mother and William.Tell them we need to leave now.”She prayed, for once, Lucy would cooperate.She didn’t want to reveal Stephen’s murder of their father right here but she would if it made Lucy listen to her.
Lucy’s eyes searched hers, wide with confusion.“But it’s Stephen—”
“And I’m telling you, he’s not the man you think.Now go.I’m more than willing to make a scandalous, embarrassing scene that people will gossip about for weeks if you don’t.”Ginger didn’t have to read her mind to understand her heartbreak.Whatever hopes Lucy had harbored for William had likely been destroyed today, either when William had talked to her family or just moments ago.And now, here Ginger was trying to cryptically inform her that the other man who had caught her childish fancy was a villain.
Anger burned in Lucy’s eyes, unlike anything Ginger had seen before.
Whatever progress they’d made, the fractional advancement of their relationship into friendship teetered in the balance.
