Title: True Friends

Author/pseudonym: Fluffy Rabbit

Fandom: Sentinel, Stephen Ellison/OMF

Rating: Pg some bad language

Status: New

Archive: To WWOMB

Email address for feedback: kevinschmidt@ntlworld.com

Series/Sequel:

Other websites: No

Disclaimers: The Sentinel guys belong to Petfly, the rest are mine.

Warnings: AU,

Notes: Betaed by Bobbie Turnbeaugh

Summary:

He hated funerals, Stephen thought, standing in the pouring rain as the coffin was lowered into the ground. This was yet another example of how life wasn't fair. It had only been a few weeks ago that he had been standing in the same graveyard watching his best friend for the past fifteen years being buried. Now it was his friend's father. Of course, it hadn't come as that much of a surprise to anyone who had known him. He had been ill for some time, and the shock of losing his son in a tragic accident seemed to have been the last straw for the poor man.

Looking across the grave, he saw Mack standing there. Dressed all in black, she looked a lot smaller and more fragile than she normally did. Recent events had really taken their toll on her. He'd offered her his condolences, although he'd known that words weren't going to even make a small dent in the pain she had to be feeling. He had to admit that he wasn't very good at dealing with the emotional side of life. Give him a deadline and problems, and he could handle it with ease, but ask him to cry for his loss, and he just couldn't do it. He felt the emptiness inside when he thought about his friend. In some ways, Rick had been the brother he'd never had in Jim. Not that it was his brother's fault they didn't have a good relationship, they'd both screwed up pretty badly. Things were starting to change though, they had started talking again, and hopefully thing would go on from there.

"You're making a scene," Charles Barton hissed. "He was old and sick. We both knew it was only a matter of time..." He'd invited all these important people to her father's funeral, and she repaid him by causing a scene. As his fiancée, she was supposed to stand there in dignified grief, not sob incessantly. She was embarrassing him in front of the people he had to deal with every day in his business life. Still, what could he expect from someone who wasn't in his class socially? It was at times like these that he really did wonder why he stayed engaged to her. Then he reminded himself that she was going to be very wealthy soon, and who better to help her manage all that money than him? She certainly didn't have any idea how to handle that sort of money properly, because she didn't have the education he did. That amount of money in the wrong hands could soon be frittered away or wasted on something ridiculous, like charity. Mackenzie was always giving money away to less than worthwhile causes. She didn't seem to understand that someone in his social position could only be seen to be supporting the more socially acceptable causes.

They were all total strangers, expect for Charles and Stephen, Mackenzie thought, looking around the living room, strangers who were more interested in the business deal they could do than mournong the passing of her dad. He would have kicked the lot of them out of the house, if he'd still been alive. She hated the way some people trod on others to get what they wanted, and right now she was in a room full of them. She should never have let Charles arranged the funeral, but at the time she hadn't been thinking straight, now she was angry that there was only one other person in the room who cared that her dad was gone. She didn't want these people in her home. It was still hers, even though Charles had been making plans to put it on the market for the past few days. That just went to show how little he really cared about her and the way she felt.

The first time she'd met Charles, she'd been flattered by the amount of attention he had paid her.

But as time had passed, that attention had been replaced by constant criticism. She didn't wear the right clothes or act the right way in front of his friends. Changing hadn't been easy, and all it had done was make her unhappy. Her dad had known that, and they'd talked about it. Then Rick had had his accident, and all thoughts of breaking it off with Charles had been put on hold as she'd struggled to help her dad deal with losing Rick like that. There was nothing stopping her from doing it now, though, even though it meant she would be on her own. Still, being on her own was a lot less frightening prospect than that of spending the rest of her life with a man who constantly looked down on her. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to where Charles was standing.

"Mackenzie, I'm talking," Charles said, when she took hold of one of his arms, "I'm sure that whatever it is can wait." He'd been on the verge of making a business deal that would have brought him a great deal of money, and she'd gone and ruined it.

"It can't," she replied, "I want everyone to leave, now."

"You'll have to excuse Mackenzie, today has been very trying for her," he said dismissively. "Honey, why don't you go lay down for a little while. I'm sure you'll feel much better then." People were only going to accept so much from her, before it started to reflect on him. Besides, it was undignified to cause a scene at such a solemn occasion.

"I don't want to lay down," she said. "I want everyone to leave, including you."

"Will you excuse us for a moment?" he said. He was going to put a stop to this sort of behavior, before it got totally out of hand. She had to learn that you could not act this way in his social circle, without people talking about it. Gossip had ruined more than one person, and he wasn't about to let that happen to him.

"Charles, this is my house," Mackenzie said, "and I want people to leave."

"Mackenzie, I'm not in the mood for any of your hysterics," he snapped, "you've just cost me a very important business deal. One which could have secured our future." Not that he needed the money, because the amount she was going to inherit would be more than enough to keep him in the style to which he had become accustomed.

"We don't have a future if you put business deals ahead of my father's death," she said, letting go of his arm. She then took off the engagement ring she was wearing, handed it to him, and walked off.

"You'll regret this," Charles said. She'd soon come to her senses and realize she had made a terrible mistake, and if she hadn't done so in a few days then he would make sure she regretted it.

*

Someone should go after her, Stephen thought, and make sure she was all right. At the moment, he was the only person who seemed to give a damn about Mackenzie. He'd promised Rick a long time ago that he would look after her if anything had happened to him. Well, it looked as if he was going to keep that promise, not that he minded. Under different circumstances Mack was fun to be around. She wasn't like the other women he knew. For a start, she didn't care about how much money he made, which made it all the stranger she would have gotten involved with someone like Charles Barton, let alone agreed to be his wife.

In his opinion, the man was probably the worst sort of person someone like Mack could get involved with. Barton was immoral, unethical, and, if the rumours were true, he was involved in insider trading. Mack deserved better than that, even if she couldn't see it for herself. However, now was not the right time to be pointing that out to her, perhaps in a few days time when she was a little calmer he would. Not that he could blame her for being emotional after recent events.

*

"Charles, I said..." Mackenzie began when she heard foot steps behind her. She should have know that he would follow her, because his pride demanded that he did, especially when there were other people around. Appearance above all else mattered to Charles, as she knew only too well.

"It's me," Stephen said. "Charles is still in there networking."

"You'd think he'd be able to have a little respect for my feelings, wouldn't you?" she asked. Still, the only person whose feelings mattered to Charles were his own. "I told him that I wanted everyone, including him, to leave," she added.

"I'll go soon," he said.

"You can stay if you want to," Mackenzie said, "because you're the only other person here who knew my dad." Something that she was always going to regret. Today she should have been surrounded by her dad's friends, instead of Charles's business contacts.

"Do you want me to ask them to leave?" Stephen asked.

"Would you?" she said. "They might listen to you." Stephen knew how to deal with people like that, whereas she still hadn't learned despite all Charles' efforts, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to. She certainly didn't have anything in common with them. Making money wasn't her biggest priority in life.

"Of course I will," he replied. "Are you going to be okay out here for a while?"

"I'll be fine," she assured him.

*

He was never going to be able to live down the embarrassment of being thrown out of his fiancé's house by that upstart Ellison, Charles thought bitterly as he drove away from Mackenzie's. At least, he'd had enough sense not to cause a scene over it, because that was the sort of thing people remembered. When Mackenzie called to apologize, he would insist that she saw someone about her attitude problem before he gave her the ring back. Once she had the ring back on her finger, he wouldn't give her a chance to take it off for a second time.

As soon as he got home, he would call a realtor and see about having her house put on the market. There was no way he could possibly live in it now. Desides, it didn't scream success at the people who would be visiting him. The money Mackenzie got from it would naturally go towards their new home, which would be in one of the new gated communities that had sprung up on the outskirts of the city. The only problem he could see with that plan was that Mackenzie wouldn't fit in with that sort of community. So he was going to take the added precaution of having her sign a prenuptial agreement. She didn't know anything about legal matters, so it would be very easy for him to persuade her to sign it. In fact, all he had to do was tell her that it was for her own good, and she would. At times he really couldn't believe just how naive she was. Still, that was something he intended to use to his advantage from now on, and he would have absolutely no qualms about doing do.

*

He'd been surprised that Charles and the others had left when he'd asked them to, Stephen thought, collecting glasses from the living room before taking them into the kitchen, where Mackenzie was loading the dishwasher. Obviously, Charles had decided that it wasn't in his best interests to start an argument in front of other people. No doubt he would wait until the two of them were alone, and then have it out with him. As far as he was concerned, Mack had every right to decide who was allowed into her home and when they had to leave.

"Do you want a beer?" Mackenzie asked, entering the living room.

"Sure," he replied. He could use one, and she certainly looked as if she could. After the day she'd had today, he wouldn't blame her for wanting to drink something a lot stronger than beer.

"I gave him the ring back," she said, handing him one of the bottles she was holding.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked. That wasn't to say he wasn't pleased that she'd decided not to marry Charles. Neither Rick nor her dad had liked Charles.

"I'm sure," Mackenzie replied. "I probably should have done it weeks ago, but I was busy taking care of my dad."

"I know," Stephen said, taking a sip of his beer. Mack had barely left her father's side after Rick's death. No doubt Charles hadn't been too happy about that. "So, what are you going to do now?" he added. It was probably too soon for her to have any definite plans about the future, but he felt better knowing that Charles Barton wasn't going to play a part in it.

"Get a dog," she replied, "I've always wanted one."

"I know a couple of breeders..." he began.

"I thought I'd go to a shelter and get one," she said, "save something from dying."

"You know, you're more than welcome to come and stay with me for a while," he said. The house was full of memories, and he wouldn't put it past Charles to try and apply some not too gentle pressure on her to change her mind about breaking the engagement off. When a man like Charles decided that he wanted something, nothing would stop him, not even if it meant people getting hurt.

"I could use a lift to Cascade in the morning," Mackenzie said. "I'm supposed to go and see Dad's lawyers. They probably have a stack of paperwork for me to sign, not that I'm going to understand any of it."

"Mack, would you like me to help you sort it all out?" Stephen asked. She'd been through enough recently and taking some of the load off her now was the least he could do. Besides, he didn't want to see her getting ripped off by some shark of a lawyer.

"Yeah," she replied, "Charles offered, but..."

"It's okay, I'm going to do everything I can to help you," he assured her.

*

She must have been more tired than she'd realized, Mackenzie thought the following morning, because she couldn't remember going to bed. Still, after yesterday that was hardly surprising, not to mention the fact she'd had very little sleep during the past few weeks. Her main priority, apart from looking after her dad, had been running the store that was their livelihood. From now on she would be running it by herself, not that she hadn't already been doing that since her dad had first started to get sick. She was used to working long hours, so a few more weren't going to make much difference to her.

And it wasn't as if she could afford to hire someone to help her at the moment. As it was, she could see it being a huge struggle to pay off the medical bills. Her dad's lawyer would tell her what she'd been left, but she wasn't expecting there to be a great deal, because the store was mortgaged to the bank. Still, as long as she continued to make the payments on time, there wouldn't be a problem.

Charles had never understood that she enjoyed working in the store. He looked down on people who served others. She didn't see it that way, most of her customers were like old friends. Just because she didn't have Charles' education, it didn't mean that she was stupid, just a little naive about some things. Well, from now on thing were going to be different.

Anything that didn't make her happy wasn't going to be a part of her life. There'd been too much unhappiness in her life recently for her to put up with any more. She supposed that she should get up as she had things to do.

*

If Jimmy could see him now, he'd probably have a good laugh at his expense, Stephen thought as he made a fresh pot of coffee, not that he really cared what his brother thought. Jim had always been the favorite, even after he'd left home. It didn't matter that he'd become a successful businessman, he was never going to be as good as his brother, as far as their father was concerned. Until he'd visited Rick's family, he'd thought things were like that in everyone else's family. It had come as quite a surprise to discover that they weren't, and that it was possible for a parent to treat his children equally.

Rick's dad had taught him a lot about the way you should treat people, and that winning wasn't the only thing that mattered, which was the opposite to what his father had drummed into him from a very early age. Of course, money was important to him, but he didn't tread on other people to get it, because you never knew when you might need their help.

That was something that a man like Charles Barton just didn't understand. To Charles, people, including Mack, were just something to be used to get what he wanted. What he didn't understand was why Charles had wanted Mack. It wasn't as if she had any money, except for what she might have inherited and that wasn't going to be a great deal. There were plenty of women out there with more than enough money to satisfy Charles' greed, who would have been more than happy to get involved with him. So why had he chosen Mack? Sure, she was beautiful, but she was also the complete opposite of Charles. Whereas she believed in helping the underdog, Charles would kick it in the ribs and laugh.

*

Being someone and being seen in all the right places, with the right people, cost money, money that he didn't have at the moment, Charles thought, tossing a stack of bills onto his desk. However, he would have it shortly, thanks to Mackenzie.

Any moment now she would call, begging him to forgive her for daring to break off the engagement. Already he had had several phone calls from people wanting to gloat about his humiliation yesterday. Of course, he wasn't going to forgive her straight away, she was going to have to prove that she was truly sorry by letting him handle all her finances. A public apology would be required as well, because nobody got away with treating him like that.

"What do you want, Mother?" he asked as the door to his study opened. No doubt, she wanted another donation to one of her various good causes, only he wasn't in any position to give her one, because they were broke. Not that he could tell her that, because the family had never been broke before.

"Charles, I received a very interesting phone call last night," Mrs Virginia Barton said. "Is it true that dreadful girl has broken off the engagement?"

"Mackenzie is not dreadful," Charles said, "and she was just upset because of the funeral." He had to at least look to be defending Mackenzie to his mother, so that she wouldn't be too shocked when he announced a date for the wedding. "She has been through quite a deal recently, it was bound to have an effect on her nerves," he added.

"I simply don't understand what you see in that girl," she said. "She's never going to be one of us, no matter what you do to try and change her."

"Mother, it's my life," he said. "I love Mackenzie, and she is going to be a part of this family, whether you like it or not." If his mother found out what he'd done to the family fortune, then she would disown him on the spot. He had never meant to gamble the money away, all the information he'd received had led him to believe that the shares were going to rise considerably in price, instead they had sunk faster than a lead balloon.

"You do realize that you will be making a dreadful mistake if you marry her," Virginia said.

"I don't think I will be," he said. The biggest mistake he could make was in not marrying Mackenzie, because her money was going to save him from disgrace. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm due to meet Mackenzie at her father's lawyers for the reading of the will." he added.

*

"I suppose that we'd better get going," Mackenzie said, entering the kitchen.

"How about a coffee first?" Stephen asked.

"I'd really like to get it over with," she replied. The sooner things were sorted out, the sooner she would be able to reopen the store. There were a lot of people relying on it, and she had bills to pay. The hospital wasn't going to wait for it's money, and even if she gave it every spare cent she had, it was still going to take her years to pay off the bills. She couldn't even go to the bank to ask for a loan, because there was no way she could possibly pay off both a loan and the mortgage on the store with what it made. She supposed that she could always sell the store, but even then there wouldn't be enough money to pay everything off so that she could start again with a clean slate.

"Mack, if you need money..." Stephen began.

"I'm doing okay," she assured him, "my dad had a couple of insurance policies which should cover most of his medical bills. Who was she trying to kid? They'd cancelled the policies after Rick had died, because her dad had suddenly been classed as too high a risk. It was the same for his health insurance. Until he'd gotten sick her dad had paid the premiums all his life, not that that mattered to the company. No, all they were interested in was making money, like Charles.
"If you're sure," he said.

"I am," Mackenzie replied, "besides, my dad always said that borrowing money from friends was the fastest way to lose them." At the moment, Stephen was the only friend she had, and she didn't want to lose him. Working the hours she did in the store she didn't have much chance to make any others. Besides, Charles hadn't liked her getting to close to other people, because they might have taken attention away from him.

"Just remember that I'm here if you need help," he said, "no strings attached."

"I will," she assured him. Who else did she have to turn to? Getting used to life on her own wasn't going to be easy, not when she'd always had both her dad and brother to advise her when she'd had a problem. From now on she was just going to have to use her own judgement and hope she did things right, because there wasn't going to be anyone to help her sort things out if she made a mess.

*

He should have known that Charles would show up, Stephen thought, as he and Mackenzie entered the offices of Smith, Smith and Jones. Well, if Charles thought that he could try and pressure Mack into going back to him, he was going to be very disappointed, because he was going to stop him. Mack had made her feelings about Charles quite clear yesterday, and he was going to make sure Charles for the message again, loud and clear today. If his having words with Charles didn't work, then he'd talk to Jimmy, because Mack didn't deserve to be upset by the likes of Charles Barton.

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to," he said.

"I don't want to," Mackenzie said, "you'd think he'd understand that after yesterday."

"Mack, why don't you go up, and I'll talk to him for you," Stephen suggested. It wasn't as if Charles had any right to know what Mack had been left by her father.

"Are you sure that you want to do that?" she asked, "because he can be difficult."

"I've handled people like him before," he assured her. If there was going to be an altercation, he didn't want her to be in the middle of it. She had enough to deal with at the moment, without Charles adding to her worries. At least, she was looking better than she had yesterday, a good night's sleep had probably helped, along with the fact that Charles was out of her life. "Don't worry, I won't be long," he added. Two minutes was all the time he was going to give Charles, because he wasn't worth bothering with for any longer than that.

*

It was obvious that Ellison was behind Mackenzie's outburst yesterday, Charles thought. He hadn't invested a great deal of time and effort in her for someone like Stephen Ellison to come along and take that investment away. Without the money Mackenzie was going to inherit, he was sunk. So far, he had been able to keep his real financial state a secret, but it was only a matter of time before rumours began and everyone he owed money to would start demanding to be repaid. He still had influence, thanks to his family name, and he wasn't afraid to use it in order to get what he wanted.

"You're not needed here," Charles said sharply. "As Mackenzie's fiancé..."

"Mack wants me here," Stephen said, "and she gave you the ring back."

"Because you encouraged her to," Charles said. "I was prepared to allow Mackenzie to still be friends with you once we were married, but that is out of the question now." Mackenzie would never be allowed to go anywhere on her own now.

Still, with all that money, he could afford to have someone watching her every minute of the day.

"Allow!" Stephen said. "You have some nerve saying that. Mack's a person, and you can't own someone."

"With enough money you can," he replied. "Mackenzie knows what is good for her, and that happens to be me." He'd spent long enough convincing her that she needed him to help her make something better of herself.

"She doesn't want you here," Stephen said, "and if she wants to talk to you, she'll call you, but I wouldn't sit waiting by the phone if I were you."

"I'm leaving for now," Charles said, "but you haven't heard the last of me." Making a scene in a public place was not a good idea, because it could come back to haunt him later on. Besides, he could use his influence to make things very difficult for Stephen Ellison. He might not have any money, but the Barton name still counted for something in Cascade.

*

She hated lawyers offices, Mackenzie thought, as she waited to be shown in to see the most senior partner of the firm. She didn't understand why she had to see the senior partner, because she knew that it was going to be bad news. How could it be anything else with the financial situation she was in? Maybe it was hoping too much that this was about Rick's estate. As far as she knew, it hadn't been settled yet. Her brother had lived a fairly lavish lifestyle, but then he had worked hard to pay for it.

If things were really as bad as she suspected they might be, then she could be forced to take up Stephen's offer to help out after all. She didn't exactly have a great deal to offer him in the way of collateral. Still, she was sure that they could come to some sort of arrangement. It wasn't as if she needed a great deal to live on, so she could give him everything that the store made after she'd made the loan payments. Of course, it would take her a long time to pay him back.

Alternatively, she could sell both the house and the store and use the money she got to pay off the debts. She would need to get a real job then, and she didn't have any real qualifications, because she'd been too busy helping out running the store. Besides, when she had tried to go to night school while still engaged to Charles, he'd kicked up such a fuss about it that she'd decided not to go after all. But she wasn't engaged to him anymore, so she could do what she wanted now. Even so, her options were very limited. Her dad had always said that things would sort themselves out eventually, and you just had to hang on until they did. The problem was that she couldn't see that happening any time soon.

*

"It's going to be okay," Stephen assured her as she was called into the lawyer's office. "No matter what he says, I'm with you all the way," he added. He wasn't just going to abandon her, not when Charles had threatened him. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that if Charles couldn't get to him, then he would get to Mack. She was very vulnerable at the moment, and Charles wouldn't hesitate to try and use that to his advantage.

"I don't know how it's going to be," Mackenzie admitted. "I probably owe a small fortune and have no way of paying it back."

"Mack, you don't have to worry about that," he said. He would make sure that she didn't have to. Whatever she owed would probably only make a small dent in his savings, and it was the least he could do for her. Mack had always been good to him, even after he and Richard had left college. He'd still dropped by his friend's house from time to time to see how she was doing. More than once she'd sent him home with enough meals to last him a month.

"You know, I'm never going to be able to thank you enough for helping me through this," she said.

"You don't have to thank me," he said, "you're my friend." By virtue of her being Richard's sister she was, and she was a good friend to have. She never pulled her punches when it came to telling him exactly what she thought of him. Even as a kid she hadn't held back from telling him when she thought he was being a jerk. He supposed that was one of the reasons he liked her so much, she made a change to the women who would flatter him because they wanted something from him.

*

He was going to have to deal with Ellison first, Charles thought, because once Mackenzie saw that her precious Stephen was in trouble, she would do exactly what he wanted in order to save him. The thing was, once she'd agreed, he would still deal with Ellison in any way he saw fit. That would take some time, and normally he wasn't a very patient man, but this time he was prepared to wait so that he could cause them both the maximum amount of humiliation and pain. He couldn't help but wonder just how close she was to Ellison. After all, he had been to the house several times when she'd been alone. The private detective he'd hired had confirmed that fact, and she had received several phone calls while he'd been with her. That story about him being a friend of her brother's was just a cover story. All the time she'd been engaged to him, the chances were that she'd been sleeping with Ellison.

All women were basically whores. That was something his father had told him, and in Mackenzie's case it was true. Ellison had been hanging around her for as long as he could remember, and he had a pretty good idea of what they'd gotten up to after she'd had him and his guests thrown out of her home. She had no morals at all, because what sort of woman slept with another man not only barely hours after she'd broken off her engagement, but buried her father as well. To be honest, he was glad the old man was dead, because he'd been taking up too much of Mackenzie's time, time she should have been spending with him. He'd wait until she'd paid off all the debts her father had run up before he took her back. After all, he didn't want to be landed with someone else's debts when he had so many of his own that he had to pay off. Fortunately, he had been able to buy a little more time from his creditors, but it hadn't been cheap, and they weren't the sort of people who were just going to sit around and wait for their money. If they didn't get it, and soon, they were going to make things very unpleasant for him. Yet again, Mackenzie was to blame for that situation. That store she was running was sitting on a prime piece of real estate, but instead of doing the sensible thing and selling it, she'd insisted on holding onto it and running it.

*

"As you are no doubt aware, your father left a will," Mr. Smith, senior said, "one which I think you will find pleasantly surprising."

"Could you just get to the bad news," Mackenzie said. He was only trying to soften the blow, because that's what he thought he should do. However, her dad had taught her to face life's setbacks head on.

"There is no bad news," he assured her. "Once all the outstanding debts have been paid off, including the mortgage on the store, there will still be a very sizeable amount left."

"I thought my dad was broke," she said. That was what she'd been expecting to hear.

"Your father inherited a large portion of his brothers estate recently," Smith said.

"Are you sure that you have the right person?" Stephen asked.

"Quite sure," Smith replied, "why?"

"It's just that my dad didn't have a brother," Mackenzie said. She was pretty sure that she would have remembered her dad having one, or at least his mentioning one, but he hadn't.

"Your father was David Michael Crawford," Smith said.

"Yes," she replied.

"Then we have the right person," Smith said. "His brother was Preston Crawford, surely you've heard of him."

"I have," Stephen said.

"So what do I need to sign?" Mackenzie asked. There was bound to be some paperwork to be done, and as long as Stephen said it was okay for her to sign it, then she would.

"First, there are a few conditions that your father laid out in his will," Smith said. "He insisted on them to protect your interests."

"I guess I'd better hear them," she said. How bad could they be, as long as she didn't have to marry Charles in order to claim her inheritance, then she would be fine. No doubt he would try calling and persuading her to change her mind about breaking the engagement off. It didn't matter what he said, because she wasn't going to change her mind.

*

"Charles, the phones aren't working," his mother said as soon as he entered the house, "and I have to call several of my friends this afternoon."

"Don't worry mother," he assured her, "I'm sure that it's just a fault on the line." There was no way he could tell her that it had been cut off because of non payment of the last bill. Something like that would be a total disgrace, as far as his mother was concerned. She wasn't a very strong woman healthwise, although she didn't seem to have many problems when it came to organizing things at her club. Now that was something she was going to have to cut back on, because he couldn't afford to spend any more money until he'd convinced Mackenzie that she had made a mistake.

"Well, get it fixed as soon as you can," she said.

"Yes mother," Charles replied. How was he supposed to do that when he couldn't afford to pay the bill. There were probably a few things in the house he could sell, but he would have to be careful not to sell anything his mother might miss. Even then, the money he got would only tide them over for a little while, and then he would be back in his current situation. It wasn't fair that someone like Mackenzie should be inheriting all that money when he needed it so badly. She was only going to waste it on stupid things like that store of hers. Still, he was going to have to come up with a way of getting his hands on some of that money, even if she didn't agree that the engagement was back on.

*

He could understand why Mack's dad had laid down conditions in his will, Stephen thought, but he had never thought that he would play a major role in them. Still, he supposed that he could be flattered by the man's trust in him, and of course he would comply with them, because it was the right thing to do. Although, Mack didn't seem to be too pleased about one major condition. Not that he could blame her, it had only been yesterday that she'd broken off her engagement to Charles. Some people were going to think he was the reason for that, not that he really cared what other people thought, just as long as they didn't give her a hard time about it.

"What happens after the year is up?" he asked.

"You and Miss Crawford can do as you wish," Smith replied. "I know that this condition is more than a little unusual, should you wish to challenge it legally..."

"I have no intention of doing that," Stephen assured him. What was the point? Mack would lose everything and be landed with a huge legal bill. "A year isn't that long," he added.

"I suppose that it might not be that bad," Mackenzie admitted somewhat reluctantly.

"You do understand that for at least part of the time you will have to cohabitate in order to fulfil the terms of the will," Smith said.

"I understand that," Stephen said, "my apartment is big enough for two." The only problem being there was only one bedroom. Still, he supposed that they could take it in turns sleeping on the couch.

"We'll be living in my house," Mackenzie said. "I have the store to run."

"That has been taken care of," Smith said. "Your father left instructions for a manager to be hired so you could concentrate fully on the terms of his will."

"And what am I supposed to do all day?" she snapped, "watch TV?"

"That is up to you," Smith replied. "As for your accommodation a house has been provided. You can pick the keys up from my secretary on your way out."

"We'll let you know as soon as we set a date," Stephen said, standing up. That was something that would be better discussed elsewhere, along with whatever plans Mack wanted for the wedding.

After all, it wasn't as if this was going to be a real marriage. However, he could think of worse people that he could end up being married to.

*

"I can't believe that he did this to me," Mackenzie said as she and Stephen left the building. What the hell had her dad been thinking when he'd laid down those conditions. She couldn't put her life on hold for a year, but she really didn't have any choice in the matter, if she didn't want to be in debt for the rest of her life.

"He did it because he cared about you," Stephen replied.

"He could have at least warned me what he was planning to do," she said.

"Those conditions were added a week before he died," he said. "He knew that you wanted to end your engagement to Charles."

"Yeah, he did," Mackenzie said, "and he never liked Charles." When she thought about it, it did make sense that her dad would want to protect her while she was grieving his death, but there had to have been a better way to do it than this. "Still, it does explain why Charles wanted to marry me," she added, "it was the thought of all that money. Who wouldn't marry someone they didn't love just to get their hands on it?"

"I wouldn't," Stephen assured her. "I'm doing this because you're my friend, but we are going to have to talk about what we're going to tell people."

"I don't want them to know the real reason we're getting married," she said. After all, she did still have some pride left.

"How about we've known each other for a long time and getting married seemed like a good idea," he suggested.

"That's okay with me," Mackenzie said. "As for the wedding, I want a simple one, with as little fuss as possible."

"I'd like my brother to be there," Stephen said, "as my best man."

"Sure, how is it going with the two of you?" she asked.

"We're talking, which is a lot more than we did for fifteen years," Stephen replied, "and don't worry, he's going to love you."

"As long as he doesn't hate me, I don't care," she said. There were going to be enough people hating her when news of her and Stephen's wedding leaked out. And naturally people were going to think the worst, that she and Stephen had been involved while she'd still been engaged to Charles. No matter how much she denied it, the people who knew Charles would think the worst of her, and that could make things difficult for Stephen.

*

"Mr. Barton, they've agreed to the conditions," Smith said. "I know that there weren't any conditions in the original will, but he changed it a week before he died. No, I didn't deal with it personally." It wasn't his fault things hadn't gone according to plan. He really had hoped that they would refuse to have anything to do with the conditions in the new will. "There are ways around it," he added, "especially for a clever man like you. I didn't do anything to encourage them." But at the same time, he hadn't done anything to discourage them, and perhaps he should have done. He would never have been put in this position to begin with if he hadn't listened to Charles Barton and invested money that wasn't his. Now he had to help Barton if he was to stand any chance at all of getting the money back before someone noticed that it was missing, and time was running out. "I have a spare set of key to their house. I'm sure that you'll be able to find a use for them." What happened after he handed those keys over was nothing to do with him, at least nothing that could be proved in a courtroom. Nobody but himself and Barton knew that there was a second set of keys, because he'd gone out of Cascade to have them cut.

*

Something was very wrong with Charles, and she blamed that girl he'd gotten engaged to, Virginia thought. Charles could have had his pick of women, and he'd gone and chosen some little nobody who didn't have two cents to rub together. She'd done her best to try and accept that girl as a part of her family, even though she had no social graces whatsoever, and she knew that Charles had spent both a great deal of time and money in order to raise Mackenzie up to their social level. Not that she ever would have been truly one of them. It wasn't the girl's fault that she didn't have either the breeding or the background to fit in. So, it was for the best that the engagement had been called off. Only, as far as her friends were concerned, it was Charles who had broken it off. After all, she did have the family name to protect.

She had heard that the heir to the Crawford estate had been found, and that it was a woman. With a little luck, she might be able to engineer a meeting between them and Charles. Naturally, there would be a long line of suitors for someone with that amount of money, but she was confident that she could get her son to the head of the line. It was about time that Charles settled down, and if he married someone with that amount of money, he would be able to devote all his time to leisure pursuits rather than having to work for a living. Her husband had never had to work, but then, he had been made of much stronger stuff than Charles. Her son did have some very expensive habits, including gambling, but he was her only child, so she indulged him.

However, now was the time for him to put that all behind him and for him to start acting like the gentleman he was supposed to be.

*

"Stephen, I don't want a ring," Mackenzie said as he ushered her in to the first jewellery store they came to.

"You might not want one, but you need one," he said, "and I promise you that it will be a very plain one." Not that he couldn't afford to buy her a more ornate one, because he could. Mack obviously wanted to keep this as low key as possible, and he could understand that. Even once they were married, he expected Charles Barton to keep calling Mack. In fact, he was more than a little surprised that Charles had just walked away earlier. Not that he would be able to get around Mack if he got to talk to her. Today he'd seen her more determined than he had in a long time.

"Good," she said, "because jewelry really isn't my thing."

"You wear a watch," he said. In fact, it was one he'd bought her for her birthday a couple of years ago, and as far as he knew she never took it off.

"That's different," Mackenzie said, "a watch is a practical thing. Besides, I only took Charles's ring off yesterday."

"That wasn't a ring, it was a Christmas decoration," he smiled. In choosing a ring like that for Mack, Charles had shown that he had absolutely no idea of what she liked or what suited her.

"I was always afraid that I would lose it," she admitted. "It stayed in it's box most of the time, because Charles would have gone ballistic if I had lost it."

"Well, don't worry, if you lose this one, I'll just buy you another one," Stephen said. It was only a ring, and could be replaced.

"I'm not planning to lose it," she assured him.

"Mack, accidents happen," he said. He certainly wouldn't lose his temper with her over something so trivial.

"Like Rick's accident," she said, "he would have had a damned good laugh at what dad's done."
"He always did like a good joke," Stephen said. But if Rick hadn't died in that accident, then there wouldn't have been any conditions to the will.

*

This should have been his house, Charles thought, unlocking the front door. It was the sort of house he would have picked out for him and Mackenzie. Only, she was going to be living in it with Stephen Ellison. Things were not supposed to have worked out this way at all. By now, Mackenzie should have been on her knees begging him for forgiveness. Instead, she was going to be marrying Ellison unless he did something about that, and fast. There were any number of ways he could do that, but he was going to have to be careful, because she now had enough money to buy anyone or thing she wanted. It was obvious why Ellison had agreed to marry her, he wanted her money as well. As soon as he'd shown Mackenzie that was the only reason why Ellison wanted to be with her, she would dump him.

Whoever had decorated the house hadn't had any taste at all. When he and Mackenzie were living here, he would have to have the whole house redecorated so that it was more in keeping with his tastes, and it would be done at her expense. They would live here together, because it was a nice house and was perfectly suitable for a man of his social standing. However, the nice surroundings would be totally wasted on Mackenzie. Still, the house would be put in his name only, so that wasn't going to be a problem. She'd soon learn that she would lose everything if she ever tried walking away from him again. She really didn't stand a chance of stopping him from doing exactly what he wanted with her life. A nervous breakdown was always a good reason to have someone admitted to a private hospital, and poor Mackenzie had been under a great deal of stress recently. Naturally, he would be devastated when that happened, but then people would expect him to be.

*

Despite the fact his relationship with his brother was slowly improving, there still had to be something seriously wrong for his brother to pay him a visit in the middle of the day at work, Jim thought. There couldn't be anything wrong with their dad, because Sally would have called. Still, whatever the reason, it was good to see Stephen.

"It's good to see you," he said.

"You too," Stephen replied. "Jim, I'd like you to meet Mackenzie Crawford, the woman I'm going to marry."

"You're getting married! That's great news," Jim grinned. So why did he get the feeling that it wasn't as simple as that?

"Yeah," Stephen replied, "and I was hoping that you could do me a favor."

"Anything," he replied.

"I'd like you to be my best man," Stephen said. "I'll understand if you don't..."

"Are you kidding, I would be honored to do it," Jim said. It obviously meant a great deal to Stephen, so how could he turn him down? "So how long have the two of you known each other?" he added.

"A long time," Stephen replied, "Mack's brother and I went to college together."

"Mack, you're that Mack?" he asked. His brother had mentioned Mack to him several times, but he'd assumed that Mack was a man.

"That depends on what he's said," Mackenzie said.

"Nothing bad," Stephen assured her.

"In that case, I am that Mack," she smiled.

"I can see why he wants to marry you," Jim said. This was precisely the sort of woman his brother needed. She'd hopefully knock some of that 'I'm better than you' attitude out of Stephen.

"I'm marrying her because I love her," Stephen said defensively.

"Calm down," Jim said. Now he knew there was something else going on, because Stephen wasn't the type to just fly off the handle for no reason at all. but it was highly unlikely that his brother was going to tell him anything at the moment.

"Why don't you come over for dinner tonight," Mack suggested, "we can get to know each other better then."

"That's a good idea," he said.

"Good, we'll see you at 7.30," she said, "and feel free to bring someone."

"I'll probably do that," Jim said. He'd take Blair with him, so that he could distract her while he talked to Stephen alone. Before he left his brother's tonight, he would know exactly what was going on.

*

He'd nearly blown the whole thing before it had gotten started, Mackenzie thought, not that she could blame him. Marrying her was probably the last thing Stephen had ever planned on doing, but they were getting married, and there was no need for him to make things any harder for the two of them than they were already going to be.

"I thought that the two of you were getting along better," she said. His brother had been pleased to see him, and things had been going fine until Stephen had decided to act like a total jerk.

"We are," Stephen replied, "but Jim has this attitude problem..."

"He's not the only one," she said. Stephen would deny it until he was blue in the face, but he had one as well. "I've lost my brother, and I would give anything to be able to walk into a room and argue with him," she added, "but I can't. He was really pleased to see you, and you spoiled it."

"I don't have an attitude problem," he said, "and he started it. Ever since we were kids he's started it. Dad made it pretty clear who the favorite was, and it wasn't me."

"That is something neither of you could control," Mackenzie said, "and it takes two to have an argument." She supposed that she was lucky her dad had always treated her and Rick equally, even though, Rick was, or had been, a lot smarter than her. There were times when, for a moment or two, she forgot Rick was gone and referred to him in the present tense.

"But...." Stephen began.

"You're not a kid anymore, so stop acting like one," she said. She wasn't about to become a referee in arguments between him and his brother.

"You're right, he just makes me so angry sometimes," Stephen said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have involved you, and I'll cook tonight."

"You'll probably end up giving him food poisoning," she said. "I'll cook and you can do the dishes." The only question was, what was she going to cook? Charles had insisted that she learn how to cook exotic meals for him, but somehow she doubted that Stephen's brother would be too happy if he was faced with a tiny piece of fish surrounded by a lake of sauce.

"You will make your apple pie, won't you?" Stephen asked.

"Sure," she replied.

*

"So what is she like?" Blair asked, as Jim drove them to Stephen's apartment building that night.

"Younger than he is," Jim replied, "and nothing like the women he's dated in the past. I like her."

"You're not the one who's marrying her," Blair reminded him. "You think there's something wrong, don't you?" Jim had that look on his face, the one he reserved for when he thought something strange was going on.

"It just seems to be a bit sudden," Jim said. "The last time I spoke to Stephen, he talked about Mack and it sounded as if they were best friends, not romantically involved."

"Things can change over night between two people," he said.

"So he just woke up one morning and decided that he loved her?" Jim asked.

"It's possible," Blair replied, "as long as he's happy, surely that's the important thing."

"Chief, I know my brother, and he'd not impulsive," Jim said.

"Maybe for once he decided to be," he suggested, "and it's his life." Jim had worked hard to build some sort of relationship with his brother, and he didn't want to see all that work go to waste.

"It is," Jim admitted, "but I don't want to see him getting hurt."

"I'm sure he won't be," Blair said, "and if you like her, she can't be all that bad." However, Jim had made some pretty bad choices when it had come to women in the past.

"You'll probably like her as well," Jim said. "Just try to remember she's engaged to my brother."

"I do have some morals," he protested. Engaged and married women were strictly off limits as far as he was concerned, even if they came onto him. And any woman involved with one of Jim's relatives was doubly off limits. "So, how long has Stephen known her?" he added.

"I'm not sure," Jim replied. "Until recently I thought Mack was a guy."

*

"Whatever you're cooking smells wonderful," Stephen said, entering the kitchen. Since she'd disappeared in there a couple of hours ago, he hadn't heard a thing from her.

"It should taste even better," Mackenzie said.

"Jimmy will be impressed," he said. Making a good impression on his brother would go a long way to convincing him that this was going to be a real marriage.

"Promise me that the two of you aren't going to start fighting again," she said.

"I can't," Stephen replied, "but I won't be the one who starts it." Jim would no doubt go out of his way to try and provoke him, but he wasn't going to retaliate unless he started to attack Mack, because nobody had the right to hurt her.

"You know what the problem with you two is, don't you?" she asked.

"No," he replied.

"You're too much alike," Mackenzie said, "so it's only natural that you're going to clash."

"We're nothing alike," Stephen protested. They didn't even look like brothers, let alone have the same personality traits. "He's always been the favorite," he added. And that was something he had never been allowed to forget.

"And I thought Charles was an asshole," she said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he demanded. He was nothing like Charles Barton. To begin with, he had morals and he treated people with respect, no matter what they did for a living.

"You take yourself too seriously," she replied, "and who really cares who the favorite is?"

"I do," he replied. "It doesn't matter what I do, because it's never good enough for my father."

"The only person who can judge you, is you," she said, "and you still have a family."

*

It had to be some sort of terrible mistake, Virginia Barton thought, because there was no way that dreadful young woman Charles had been engaged to could even be remotely related to the Crawford family. Still, she had it on reliable authority that she was. Somehow she was going to have to persuade Charles that she had been wrong about Mackenzie and she would welcome her with open arms into the family. She supposed that with a great deal of effort on her part, she could make the girl socially acceptable. With enough money behind you, people would forgive just about anything, and that girl had plenty of money, if no other social assets. The Barton name would open doors which had previously been closed, and in return she would be able to indulge herself in her charitable works. Naturally, the girl would have to learn which charities it was acceptable to lend her support to and which ones you didn't go anywhere near. As with everything else in life, things came into and went out of fashion. Charities were exactly the same, what was fashionable in June could be out of favor by August, and everyone was looking for the next really big thing to support. Usually, the more obscure the cause the better, because that way you could be a leader and not a follower.

"Charles," she said, "why didn't you tell me that your Mackenzie was related to those Crawfords?"

"Mother, you never wanted to know anything about her," he replied, "and she only recently found out that she was."

"Why don't you sit down and tell me all about her?" Virginia said, patting the sofa next to her.
"There's very little point," Charles said. "We're not on speaking terms at the moment."

"I'm sure that you'll soon make up," she said. "After all, she needs someone to make sure that her entrance to our social circle goes smoothly." As soon as people realized that girl had money, they were going to be all over her, and she could soon be taken advantage of.

"That might be a little difficult to do," he replied, "she doesn't like our social circle."

"Then it's up to you to convince her that it's a good thing," Virginia said.

"Mother, she's planning to marry Stephen Ellison," he said, "she's been seeing him all the time she's been engaged to me."

"I'm sure that you'll be able to find it in your heart to forgive her, considering her new found wealth," she said.

"I suppose that I could," he said, "she was obviously led astray."

"Those Ellisons are all the same," Virginia said, "but what do you expect from a family which has absolutely no breeding?"

*

She should have brought a change of clothes with her, Mackenzie thought, but she hadn't expected to still be in Cascade. At some point she was going to have to go home and get some, along with other personal items. She was also going to have to check on the store, because it was still her responsibility, despite what the lawyer had said. It was going to feel strange giving up work for the next year, because the store had been a major part of her life ever since she'd been able to add properly.

If she hadn't been so desperate for the money, she would have told that lawyer where he could shove the conditions in her father's will. Stephen had offered to lend her the money, and maybe she should take him up on that offer if it was still open, rather than go through with this sham. But getting married was also a way of protecting herself from Charles for the next year. She seriously doubted that even he would try and do anything once he realized she had Stephen supporting her.

"Stephen, we don't have to go through with it," she said, coming out of the kitchen, "I could find another way to pay off the debts." Not that she was entirely sure how she would do that.

"No, we don't," he replied, "and I'll give you the money, but I thought you wanted to go through with it."

"I did, but it's not fair to you," Mackenzie said. "There's no reason why you should be saddled with my problems." Stephen had a lot better things to do than worry about her. She'd seen some of the women he'd dated in the past, and nobody who knew him was going to believe for one moment that he'd chosen her over all those beautiful women.

"I volunteered to do this," he reminded her. "You're my best friend, and there have been plenty of times when you've helped me out."

"That's different," she said. Nothing she'd done for him in the past had even come close to this. And people are going to expect us to act as if we're married," she added.

"We can argue with the best of them," Stephen joked.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Mackenzie frowned.

"I know what you meant," he said. "Trust me, people will be totally convinced that we're married."

*

His brother had done very well for himself, Jim thought, but Stephen had never been subjected to the darker side of life, except for the racecourse incident. Even then, Stephen had found it difficult in the beginning to believe that his boss was setting him up to take the fall for murder and embezzlement. He didn't want to see his brother getting taken for a ride by someone he thought was his best friend. She could be on the level, and if she was, then he would wish both her and Stephen every happiness. If she wasn't, then he would do everything he could to protect his brother, even though Stephen wouldn't thank him for it, but it would be the right thing to do. At some point their dad was going to have to know that Stephen was getting married, that would be an added complication to the situation. No doubt their dad would have some objection to Stephen marrying some woman he'd never heard of.

"Chief, I want you to talk to her, see what you can find out," he said. People just couldn't help but open up to Blair.

"What do you want to know?" Blair asked.

"Anything and everything," Jim replied. The more he knew about her, the better he would be able to judge whether she was the right person for his brother or not.

"You know, interrogating her is likely to upset Stephen," Blair said.

"Which is why you're going to be asking all the questions," he said.

"And what if there's nothing to find out?" Blair asked.

"Chief, you know as well as I do that everyone has something they want to keep a secret," he said.

"Not everyone," Blair said, "if there is anything, Stephen probably already knows about it."

"Maybe," he admitted. "I still want to know, though."

*

His mother was very determined that he and Mackenzie got back together again. She was almost as determined as he was, but for very different reasons. His mother could only see the social doors which would open up to her because of Mackenzie's money. He, on the other hand, had a certain lifestyle to maintain, along with huge debts he had to pay off. The people he'd borrowed money from were threatening to come to the house. If they did that, his mother would find out everything and she would not be happy. It would be a lot better if she helped him to persuade Mackenzie that marrying him would be a much better idea. However, that still left the obstacles of the conditions in her father's will to overcome. He wasn't a legal expert, but if Stephen Ellison was dead, then Mackenzie couldn't marry him. Besides, no court would rule against her if that was the case. After all, her father couldn't possibly have been in his right mind when he'd insisted on those conditions. Personally, he'd always suspected that Mackenzie's father was a few apples short of a pie. The man had never truly appreciated what he could do for his daughter's future. Now Mackenzie needed all the help she could get, especially when it came to spending her money.

Now all he had to do was come up with a way of getting Ellison out of the way permanently, without it looking as if he'd had anything to do with it. Neither did he want the shadow of blame to fall on Mackenzie, because that would really screw his plans up. There were people who would deal with all sorts of problems for money, so there had to be someone who would take care of Ellison for the right price. Unfortunately, that meant going even deeper into debt. But once he was married to Mackenzie, then all his problems would be over with.

*

She didn't look as if she was hiding any deep dark secrets, Blair thought, smiling at the young woman who had just opened the door. If anything, she looked terrified, and that probably had something to do with Jim's presence. He was making it pretty clear that he didn't want to be friendly, which wasn't very fair of him, because she hadn't done anything to upset him yet.

"Hi," he grinned, "it was nice of you to invite us."

"I thought it would be a good idea," Mackenzie said. "Please come in, Stephen's in the living room," she added, stepping to one side.

"Something smells good," Blair said, as Jim pushed roughly past her. Tonight was not going to be a great deal of fun for anyone if Jim kept acting the way he was.

"That'll be the apple pie," she replied, "it's one of Stephen's favorites. I baked it especially for tonight."

"You didn't have to go to any trouble on our behalf," Blair said.

"I would have had to cook for Stephen and myself anyway," she said. "He has a kitchen full of gadgets, but he doesn't have any idea how to use most of them."

"Jim cooks," Blair said, "he makes pretty good pancakes." He felt pretty bad about Jim wanting him to question her, because she seemed to be a really nice person. Stephen obviously thought so, or he wouldn't have asked her to marry him.

"I have this great recipe for apple pancakes, do you think he would like it?" Mackenzie asked.

*

"You didn't tell me that she was living here," Jim said, entering the living room.

"Mack's just spending a few days here," Stephen replied, "although, if she was living here, it wouldn't have anything to do with you." This was his home for the time being, and he was entitled to have whoever he wanted to stay.

"So what does she do for a living?" Jim asked.

"Mack owns a general store in Ice Falls. It's been in her family for four generations," he replied. He wasn't going to give his brother any reason to be suspicious about his and Mack's decision to get married. The only problem was that his brother was trained to seek out the truth.

"I have to admit that she's not at all what I expected," Jim said. "What happened to the models you used to date?"

"Most of the time they were only interested in looking good at the right places," Stephen said. "Do you have any idea how boring that gets after a while? And tiring. Some days I work fourteen hours, and the last thing I want to do after work is go out."

"And she's not like that?" Jim asked.

"Mack works as hard, if not harder, than I do," he said, "which is why I've persuaded her to hire a manager so that she can take a break." If that didn't come across as him being a caring fiancé, then he didn't know what would. Mack really did need to take a break, because she'd almost run herself into the ground running the store and trying to take care of her dad. He'd offered more than once to take some vacation time so that he could help her, but she'd turned him down. He would have done a lot more for her if she'd let him.

"Stephen, are you sure that you're doing the right thing?" Jim asked.

"Jimmy, I've never been so happy in my life," Stephen replied, "we've known each other for a long time, and recently we realized there was more than just friendship between us." He and Mack had always been close, and getting married meant that they were just getting closer.

*

Charles could not be trusted to do anything right, Virginia thought. If she left this Mackenzie matter up to him, he wouldn't get her back and all that money would go into the pockets of the Ellison family. That family was nothing but trouble, and she intended to make sure that everyone knew it. Her family had a great deal more history in Cascade than the Ellisons did, socially they were upstarts who had used 'new money' to buy their position in the city. While that might have been acceptable to some people, it wasn't to her. She had high standards, which she tried to maintain despite the fact they were rapidly falling around her.

It was too late to do anything tonight, but first thing in the morning she would start making phone calls, the first being to a florist. Flowers always went down very well, and the bigger the bouquet, the more likely it was that Mackenzie would forgive Charles. They were going to have to act quickly though, because a wedding date had probably already been set. If Charles had had any sense, he would have found out more about Mackenzie's background before he'd gotten involved with her. Still, nobody could have been expected to know that girl had been in line to inherit a great deal of money. She would certainly have been a great deal nicer to her if she'd known.

Naturally, once Charles had married her and the girl had produced an heir, there would be a very discreet divorce, in which Charles would not only gain sole custody of his child, but control of the money as well. There wasn't a court in the state that their money couldn't buy.

*

It wasn't going at all well, Mackenzie thought. Stephen's brother was sitting there like a granite statue, and his friend was going to fidget himself off his chair if he wasn't careful. She was going to have to try and do something to salvage the evening before it was an even bigger disaster.
"We have a house to move into," she said, "but no furniture to go into it." The lawyer hadn't mentioned any, and she was pretty sure he would have, if it had been fully furnished.

"You bought a house?" Jim growled.

"Mack's dad bought it for us," Stephen said. "The only problem is that's it next door to dad."

"Why's that a problem?" she asked. She knew that Stephen hadn't spoken to his father in a long time, but maybe this was a chance for to him to start.

"He'll drop by and try to interfere," Stephen replied. "I've told you what he's like."

"I'm not going to judge someone I've never met," Mackenzie said, "that's not how my dad raised me." Despite what Stephen had told her about his father, she was prepared to give the man the benefit of the doubt until she'd gotten to know him herself.

"Just don't say that I didn't warn you," Stephen said.

"I've met your dad," Blair said, "and he's not that bad."

"He has mellowed," Jim said.

"You've talked to dad!" Stephen exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't think that you would be interested," Jim replied. "Maybe you should give him a chance."

"What, so that he can put me down like he's always done?" Stephen asked.

"What if he just wants to know how you're doing?" Mackenzie suggested. "My dad is..."

"Gone," Stephen said harshly.

"Will you excuse me?" she said, standing up.

"Mack..." Stephen began.

"I'm going home," she said. She didn't want to be anywhere near him at the moment. He'd been a jerk in the past, but never deliberately cruel.

"How are you going to get there?" Stephen asked.

"Walk," Mackenzie replied.

"You can't walk all that way," Stephen said, "it's dark and anything could happen to you."

"Don't you dare tell me what I can or can't do," she snapped. She'd had enough of that while she'd been with Charles. Stephen had said that he was nothing like Charles, but when it came down to it, he was just the same.

"If you really want to go home, I'll drive you," Stephen said, "or I could get you a cab."

"A cab would be fine," she said. She just wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. Now she knew that no amount of money would be worth being married to him for a year. They wouldn't be able to make it through the first week without him saying something to hurt her.

*

"Mack, I didn't mean it," Stephen said, as she got into the back of a cab. He really hadn't meant to upset her, especially not in front of other people. "I'll call you in the morning, okay?" he added.

"Do what you want," she replied.

"We need to talk about the wedding," he said.

"And what makes you think I'd want to marry you now?" she asked, taking her engagement ring off and throwing it at him.

"Don't do anything hasty, okay?" he said. At the moment she wasn't thinking straight, so it was entirely possible that she would go back to Charles. For her sake, he couldn't allow her to do that, because she would lose everything. "Please," he added. Charles Barton was the sort of man who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of someone while they were down.

Mack wasn't very well equipped to deal with Charles when he started to apply pressure on her, which he would do, because he wanted the money she'd inherited. It was no wonder her dad had included that condition in his will. He had to have known that Charles was up to no good.

"I just want to go home and sleep," she said, closing the cab door.

"Bye," he said, as the cab pulled away. Somehow he was going to have to explain this to his brother, and that wasn't going to be easy, with Mack not wanting people to know why they were really getting married. Not that it looked likely that they would be doing so any time soon. He had a lot of persuading to do, as far as Mack was concerned. She would walked away from the money and try to fend for herself. Realistically, she didn't stand much of a chance, no matter how hard she worked. He could always support her, but there would be hell to pay if she found out.

*

"Now do you want to tell me what's really going on?" Jim asked. He was going to get the truth out of Stephen, even if he had to grill him all night.

"I've screwed up big time," Stephen replied, "and Mack's the one who's going to suffer."

"Maybe you should start at the beginning," he suggested. He suspected that this was going to be a long story.

"How far back do you want me to go?" Stephen asked. "Because I've known Mack and her family for fifteen years."

"How about the first time you met," he said.

"I was in college, and dad had made it pretty clear that I wasn't welcome at home," Stephen said. "Rick, Mack's' brother, was my roommate. He invited me home for the holidays. It was the first time I really understood that not all fathers were like ours. After that, I was a regular visitor."

"So the two of you have always been close," Jim said.

"Yeah," Stephen replied, "it's not hard to like Mack."

"Stephen, there's a hell of a difference between liking someone and asking them to marry you," Jim said.

"I never actually asked her," Stephen admitted, "but we have to get married."

"Have to, as in..." he began. "How stupid can you be? Still, it's something that you're trying to do the right thing." His brother was lying, but it would be better if he went along with the story he was being told, at least for the time being.

"Ice Falls is really conservative. I don't want Mack's reputation being ruined," Stephen said, "and it will be, if she doesn't marry me."

"So, what are you planning to do?" Jim asked.

"I don't know," Stephen admitted.

"Don't you think that going after her would be a good idea," he suggested.

"It'll be better if I wait until the morning," Stephen said, "give her a chance to calm down, because she's been known to throw things when she's angry."

*

Her life was a shambles, Mack thought, and it was all her fault. She should have had a lot better control over her emotions, but Stephen should have known better than to have said anything about her dad. She knew that he was gone, because she'd been at the funeral. That had only been yesterday, but it felt as if it had been a long time ago. Her dad would be pretty disappointed with her for walking away from all that money, but she didn't really need it. After all, the debts were paid off, so she could start with a clean slate. She'd be able to run the store and not have to worry about how she was going to pay the loans back. Some people would no doubt think she was an idiot for turning down all that money, but the price she had to pay in order to get it was just to high. Besides, it wasn't as if there was a deadline for marrying Stephen. Instead of just rushing blindly into it, she could take some time and think about what it would mean being married to the man she thought of as her best friend. If she was being really honest with herself, Stephen was her only friend. Charles had isolated her from anyone who might have wanted to be friends with her. One thing was certain though, she wasn't going back to Charles, because she wouldn't be able to cope with his attitude again. It was obvious that the only reason why he'd ever been interested in her was the money. Which led to the question of how he had known about it, when her father hadn't even mentioned it to her.

*

He hated coming to places like this, Charles thought, because he could never get the stench out of his clothes. But he had to talk to the people he was in serious debt to. Hopefully, he would be able to make some sort of deal with them. After all, he needed help in order to get the money to pay them back, and they would probably know someone who would be willing to do that for the right price.

"You're late," he said, when two figures emerged from the shadows.

"Have you got the money?" one of the men asked.

"Not yet," Charles replied. "I'm working on it, but there's a problem."

"Then fix it," the other man said.

"I'll give you half of everything I get if you'll help me," he said. That was a great deal of money, but he had no intention of giving it to them. It wasn't as if they could go to the police and complain he'd cheated them, not without them implicating themselves.

"What's the problem?" the first man asked.

"There's someone in the way," Charles replied. "I need him removed." As long as he didn't use the words kill or murder, he couldn't be accused of anything. "His name is Stephen Ellison," he added.

"We can't help you," the second man said.

"Why not?" he demanded. They were criminals who probably killed people all the time.

"His brother is Super Cop," the first man said, "they wouldn't ever stop looking for us, and no amount of money is worth the trouble."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Charles asked.

"That's not our problem," they replied, "but if you don't get the money..."

"I'll get it somehow," he said. He was just going to have to find someone else who would help him, or he would have to do it himself. But how did you go about planning a murder so that you didn't get caught?

*

"Well?" Blair asked, handing Jim a beer when they got back to the loft.

"She's pregnant," Jim replied, "and Stephen, being Stephen, wants to do the right thing."

"That's good, right?" he said.

"Chief, he lied," Jim said. "I didn't hear a second heartbeat coming from her."

"So what is going on?" Blair asked.

"I don't know," Jim admitted, "but he's determined to marry her."

"Maybe you should talk to her," he suggested, "use some of that Ellison charm on her." Confronted with an irate Jim, she might just tell the truth. The only problem being, it could cause a rift between Jim and his brother.

"Stephen knows what's going on, he just won't tell me," Jim said. "I thought we were starting to have a real relationship."

"At least Stephen knows what he's getting into," Blair said. Stephen didn't strike him as being the sort of person who would be taken in by a sob story.

"I still don't like the fact that I don't know what's going on," Jim said.

"We know that it has to be important, or he wouldn't have come up with a cover story," Blair said.

"That could mean she's in some sort of trouble," Jim said.

"Did she lie about anything?" he asked.

"No," Jim replied, "and Stephen does love her."

"Then maybe you should back off and see what happens," Blair said. After all, what was the worst thing that could happen? It was entirely possible that nothing was going on and Jim was just overreacting.

"He's my brother, I don't want him getting hurt," Jim said. "Look at what happened at the track."

"That wasn't his fault," Blair reminded him, "and I'm pretty sure that Stephen can take care of himself." If he couldn't, then Jim would go charging to the rescue.

*

Seeing her in person was a much better idea than calling her, Stephen thought, pulling up outside of Mackenzie's house the following morning. She could slam the phone down on him, but she would find it pretty difficult to ignore him if he was camped out on her doorstep. He wasn't going to go away until she'd not only spoken to him, but forgiven him for being a total jerk last night. Maybe he should have gone about things differently, asked Mack what she wanted to do, instead of just assuming that she would want to comply with the conditions in her father's will. From now on, he would let her decide what direction they went. Not that it was going to be easy for him to do that, because he was used to making important decisions every day at work.

"Mack, open the door," he said, knocking on it. "I know you're in there." He didn't for certain, but all the curtains were still closed. She wouldn't have gone to the store, because it was too early to open up yet. Besides, a manager had been hired to run it for the next year.

It was no wonder Mack had lost it last night. She'd been under a great deal of stress recently, and he could have been more supportive than he had been. Maybe getting away for a few days would be good. He knew some really great hotels, and he would pay for everything. "Please open the door," he added when he saw one of the upstairs curtains pulled back slightly. She was awake, so she must have heard him. Now all he had to do was wait for her to decide what she was going to do.

*

He had no right to come and make any sort of demands on her, Mackenzie thought, looking out of her bedroom window. Still, if she didn't go down there and tell him to go away, he would still be there when it was time for her to go and open up the store. As it was, he was starting to attract attention from some of her neighbours. A man outside her house first thing in the morning would have the rumor mill working overtime. Personally, she didn't pay any attention to the gossip, but plenty of other people did. She'd always been very careful to protect her reputation, and it was going go be ruined if she didn't do something. Not that it meant she was going to let him in straight away. First of all she had to get dressed, and then she was going to make some coffee. Then she was going to drink it, because she was in no hurry to talk to him. With any luck, it would start to rain and he would get soaked.

Today was going to be the day she went to work and started the rest of her life. She had to take stock and do the ordering of more supplies. People were always complaining they couldn't buy books in town, so there wouldn't be any harm in her starting to stock some of those romance novels that the older ladies in town seemed to like so much. Her dad had always told her that the store was more than just a place where people bought their groceries. That was something Charles had never understood, and she doubted that Stephen would either. He wouldn't be able to give up his career, anymore than she could give up her store. And there was no reason why she should, because it was a part of who she was.

*

"We have to have a plan of action," Virginia said when her son joined her for breakfast.

"Mother, I can take care of Mackenzie myself," Charles assured her. "I'm going to see her this morning."

"Charles, this isn't something that you can leave to chance," she said. When it was something as important as this, you had to have a plan, otherwise it would go horribly wrong and that girl would end up marrying Stephen Ellison.

"I know what I'm going to do," he said. "I already have the ring, and flowers should win her over. After all, she does like the simple things in life."

"With her background, of course she does," Virginia said, "but that's going to make her unpredictable." The girl had already given the ring back once, whereas, someone from their social circle would have carried on with the engagement. There were a lot worse things than being married to a man you didn't love, and being poor was one of them.

"I'm sure that now that Mackenzie's had time to think about it, she will have changed her mind," Charles said.

"Don't forget it takes two to make an engagement," she reminded him. Still, once she'd spoken to William Ellison, he would persuade his son to stop being so foolish. However, it was going to take a great deal of lowering her standards for her even to be civil to the man.

"Stephen Ellison won't be a problem for much longer," he said.

"I'm sure that he has his price, everyone else does," she said. This would not be the first time Charles had bought himself out of trouble, nor would it be the last. Of course, for trouble like this, it was going to be very expensive. Still, they would get the money back, once Charles had married Mackenzie.

*

"Ellison," Jim said, answering the phone on his desk as soon as it rang. "Stephen, what can I do for you?" he added. Maybe now he would get the truth about what was really going on. "No, you can't do that, it's illegal. If she doesn't want to talk to you, then she has the right not to." His brother was going to find himself in serious trouble if he broke into someone home. "We have some pretty serious anti-stalking laws in the state," he said, "you're just going to have to wait for her to open the door. But you'd better have a damned good explanation ready, in case she calls the police." He then put the phone down. It sounded to him as if Stephen was having a great deal of trouble getting Mackenzie to even open the door so that he could talk to her. While it was nice to know that he wasn't the only one who had problems with relationships, he didn't enjoy seeing his brother get hurt. It wasn't really his place to interfere though, but maybe if he, or rather Blair, talked to her, she could be persuaded to at least open the door and listen to what Stephen had to say. After that, it would be up to her what she wanted to do. He really hoped that she decided to give Stephen a second chance, because not only was his brother in love with her, but she might just be the right person to knock some of that attitude out of Stephen. Still, Stephen had always been the same. It was no wonder that their father had favored Stephen while they'd been growing up. But it looked as if Stephen had turned his back on the old man a long time ago, and wasn't willing to give him a second chance.

*

"Whatever you're selling, I don't want any," Mackenzie said, opening the front door.

"Mack, I'm an idiot," Stephen said, "please forgive me." He hadn't had much practise at playing the pitiful loser, but he was going to give it his best shot.

"And?" she asked.

"I'm arrogant, vain and probably the lowest life form on the planet," he replied, "and you're the best friend I'm ever likely to have." It was true, she was. Mack was probably the only person he could trust to tell him the truth all the time.

"You are," she said, "and your apology needs work."

"Does that mean you forgive me?" Stephen asked hopefully.

"Maybe," she said, "but that doesn't mean I'm going to marry you. I don't need the money that badly."

"But it could set you up for life," he said. She wouldn't ever have to worry about money again. "Just think about the good you could do with it," he added. He knew that she wished she could do more to help people.

"I'll find some other way to do good," Mackenzie said.

"You're going to marry Charles Barton, aren't you?" he asked. How could she do that, after the way he'd treated her before?

"No," she replied, "I don't intend to marry anyone at the moment. And when I do, it'll be someone who loves me."

"It would be very easy for me to fall in love with you," he admitted, "and we could be very happy together."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"That it's not hard to fall in love with someone like you," Stephen replied. "We already know each other better than most people who get married." They would just be adding another dimension to their friendship.

"Admit it, you want the Jags shares," she said.

"No, you know I'm not into basketball, but I know someone who would love free tickets, if you can get some," he grinned.

"I suppose that we should talk about this properly," Mackenzie said, "but I have the store to open."

"Wasn't a manager hired?" Stephen asked.

"Yeah, but I like working, and I'm not prepared to give it up for anyone."

"You don't have to," he assured her, "but maybe you could take a vacation, because I can't remember the last time you had one."

"And I suppose that you'd like to come with me," she said. "If I do take one, it'll be camping."

"Camping is fine with me," he said. "Jimmy probably knows some good places. I could ask him about them." He was going to need his brother's help, because he hadn't been camping in a very long time, and he didn't want to look like a novice in front of her.

"You do that," she said.

*

"William Ellison," he said, answering the phone, "it's been a long time," he added when he heard the voice on the other end. Not long enough, though, in his opinion. "Of course, I care what one of my sons is doing, but if I were you I'd be more worried about yours," he added. "I'll be more than happy to welcome her into my family. And that sort of language is not very ladylike," he added as a string of obscenities came down the phone, "but then, I forgot, you're not a lady." He then put the phone down. He had never felt prouder of Stephen than he was right now. Admittedly, he didn't know what was going on, but anything which made Virginia Barton use language like that had to be something he should get involved with. However, he couldn't just call Stephen out of the blue and ask him, because his son was likely to slam the phone down the instant he heard his voice. Instead, he was going to have to ask Jimmy.

Perhaps he should call the young woman Virginia didn't want Stephen to marry. No doubt she was some innocent little thing that the Bartons had been trying to take advantage of for her money. Well, he couldn't allow that to happen, because Virginia Barton was nothing more than a Vegas showgirl, and he used that term very loosely, who had gotten lucky. That was something she used her deceased husbands money to cover up. However, not everyone could be bought, especially not someone who had seen her act. Her son Charles might have had the best education money could buy, but that didn't mean he was a gentleman, quite the reverse. There were rumors circulating at the country club that Charles Barton was in serious debt, with no way of being able to repay it.

*

She hadn't been home, so she had to be at the dreadful little store of hers, Charles thought. He supposed that he was going to have to go over there and act as if he was sorry for the way he'd treated her in the past. Not that he was, she was his inferior, and that was something she was going to have to accept, once they were married. Another was that he would control the finances for the both of them, which meant that she was going to have to account for every cent she spent, because he wasn't going to have her wasting money on frivolities. It wasn't as if she was going to need many clothes, as they wouldn't be going out in public together very often. Instead, she would be waiting for him to come home like the dutiful wife she would be. His mother would make sure that Mackenzie didn't have a chance to stray, and with Stephen Ellison gone, there wouldn't be anyone for her to turn to for help.

Mackenzie was going to have to sell the store before they got married, because his family name didn't deserve to be linked with some shabby small town business which had never made a decent profit in all the time Mackenzie's family had owned it. Of course, it would have been an entirely different matter if it had been a chain of stores, because then he would have been chairman of the company. Still, he had been able to get a very good price for the land, and he would have a seat on the board of Crawford Industries, with a very healthy salary to compensate him. Naturally, he would make all the decisions when it came to voting, because she had no idea how the corporate world worked.

*

He looked totally out of place in his suit, Mackenzie thought, but at least he was trying his best. It was pretty obvious that Stephen had never been in store like hers before, not even to shop. However, he did seem to understand how important it was to her, unlike Charles. Charles had always looked down on the store because it wasn't grand enough, but it wasn't supposed to be. And the more she thought about what Stephen had said earlier, the more she realized there might be some truth to it. They did know just about everything about each other, and more than once in the past people had mistaken them for a couple.

"How much money would you want for going through with it?" she asked. It wasn't fair to expect him to do it for nothing.

"None," Stephen replied, "I don't take money off my friends."

"There has to be something you want," Mackenzie said. "How about the seat on Crawford Industries? I mean, can you really see me in a boardroom?" She wouldn't even begin to know how to cope in a situation like that.

"You could do it, it's just a matter of confidence," he said.

"But what if I didn't want to?" she asked. "I'm not smart like those people."

"Stopping putting yourself down," Stephen said, "you're just as smart as any of them."

"You would be a lot better at something like that than me," she said, "besides, I have the store to run."

*

She should have known William Ellison would back his son over hers, Virginia thought. Well, he was going to pay the price for that choice. Her image might have shattered briefly while she'd been talking to him on the phone, but she had regained her composure now. Charles was going to marry Mackenzie Crawford if it was the last thing he did. If her son messed this up, then she would give serious consideration to disowning him. After all, how hard could it be to persuade some country bumpkin that it was in her best interests to marry into one of the foremost families in the state? While Charles was hopefully playing his role, she would be busy not only planning the society wedding of the decade, but the down fall of the Ellison family. They had mess with her family's plans for the last time.

William Ellison had plenty of skeletons in his closet that would soon see the light of day, because she would make sure they did. The biggest one was concerning Grace Ellison. Of course, people knew that the woman had been little more than a common whore, but what few people knew, was what had happened to her after she had left her husband. Well she did, and with William out of the way, it would be a lot easier for her to go after his son. Naturally, she would be very careful not to get caught, but who could possibly believe that she would ever be involved in anything even remotely illegal. Anyone who dared to claim otherwise would soon find themselves in a courtroom being sued for slander.

*

It was no trouble that the store was in serious trouble financially, Stephen thought, because since he and Mack had opened up, nobody had come in to buy anything. If it was always this quiet, it wouldn't be long before Mack started to have money problems again.

"Is it always this slow?" he asked.

"Not always," Mackenzie replied, "but when it's quiet, I can tidy up."

"Mack, you're not going to make any money if people don't shop here," he said. He didn't know anything about the retail business, but he presumed that it was pretty much like any other.

"They will," she assured him, "some days I'm rushed off my feet."

"Not today, though," he said, "have you thought about updating the stock, expanding?" If she didn't do something, then she was likely to go out of business.

"I sell what people like," Mackenzie replied. "This isn't Cascade, people don't like too much change, and this is my store, not yours."

"I was just trying to offer you some business advice," he said.

"Stephen, I've been running this store for a long time, so I think I know what's best for it," she said.

"Fine," he said, "but I've run some pretty important business." He had a lot of experience in bailing companies out when they were in trouble.

"Things will pick up," she said. "People didn't probably didn't expect me to be open so soon after the funeral."

"So why are you?" Stephen asked.

"Because I need to keep busy," she replied. "You know I can't just sit around not doing anything."

"You could if you wanted to," he said, "nobody is going to think any the less of you if you take some time off to grieve."

"That's not what my dad wanted," Mackenzie said. "We talked about what would happen afterwards, and he didn't want me sitting at home with the curtains closed, crying. So, getting on with life is the best way I can remember him. Even if he did leave me with one hell of a surprise."

"Your dad always did like a good joke," Stephen grinned. But he seriously doubted that her dad had done it for a joke. He'd told him on more than one occasion he wouldn't trust Charles Barton as far as he could throw him.

"Yeah," she smiled, "we used to have a lot of fun here."

"How can you have fun in a store?" Stephen asked.

"Like this," Mackenzie replied, picking up a sponge and throwing it at him.

"You're going to pay for that," Stephen said, picking up the first thing his hand touched on a nearby self, and throwing it at her, only for her to duck at the last minute.

*

It was improper for her to be laughing so soon after her father's death, Charles thought, entering the store, only to be hit in the face by a bag of flour, which promptly burst, covering him in flour.

"Who is responsible for this?" he demanded, wiping flour off his face. Whoever it was, they were going to be sued for making a public spectacle out of him. "I should have known it would be you," he added, when he saw Stephen bent double with laughter.

"Are you all right Charles only you're looking very pale?" Mackenzie asked, with tears of laughter running down her face.

"This is not funny," Charles snapped, "do you have any idea how much this suit cost?" Of course, she didn't because she was dressed in what could only be described as other people's cast offs.

"Lighten up Charles," Stephen laughed.

"The sooner I get you away from him, the better," he said. Mackenzie was willful enough without the likes of Stephen Ellison encouraging her.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," she said, "and you're not welcome in my store."

"You can't ask me to leave," Charles said. "I have a right to be here." As her future husband he did, and the only reason she was asking him to leave was because Ellison was there.

"See that notice," Mackenzie said, pointing to a notice behind the serving counter, "it says management has the right to refuse service. As owner, I want you to leave, and if you don't leave, I'm going to call the police."

"Mackenzie, there is no need for this foolishness," he said sternly. "I know you've been led astray by certain bad influences, but I am prepared to forgive you." However, it would mean his having to keep an extra close eye on her in the furture, in case she reverted to this sort of behavior. It wasn't natural to behave like this, at least not in the social circles he associated with. But, as he reminded himself, she had never been exposed to the better things in life until he'd gotten involved with her.

"Stephen, call the cops," Mackenzie said, "tell them there's an asshole in my store who won't leave."

"There is no need for that sort of language," Charles said. He couldn't afford to be arrested over something so trivial as this. His mother would never be able to live down the embarrassment if this got into the papers.

"You have five seconds to leave, or I'll throw you out," Stephen said, "and the next time you come here bothering Mack, it'll be more than flour you're covered in."

"I'm not afraid of you," Charles stated. However, he was leaving for the time being, because he didn't want to cause a scene. But he would be back when he was sure Ellison wasn't around.

*

"You're looking a bit pale?" Stephen asked after Charles had left the store.

"He was," Mackenzie laughed. Most people would have accepted that it had been an accident, and laughed along with her and Stephen. Charles, however, had not seen it that way, and had been pompous yet again. Then he'd had the nerve to blame Stephen for the way she was acting. She was quite capable of playing the fool all by herself. "My dad would have thrown something a lot heavier than flour," she added.

"I wasn't aiming for him," he said, "you ducked."

"Of course I did," she smiled, "and the rule around here is, if you make a mess you have to clean it up, so get the broom and start sweeping."

"I threatened to throw him out," Stephen said.

"And you were very threatening," Mackenzie said, "but that is not going to get you out of cleaning up the mess you made." She'd probably have to clean up after him, but she didn't mind doing that, because he'd given her the biggest laugh she'd had in a long time. Charles would be back, though, and next time Stephen might not be with her. Still, she'd stood up to Charles once and, she could do it again.

"I hope you're going to pay me for this," he said.

"The going rate is four bucks an hour," she said, "so you'd have to take a huge pay cut working for me." He wouldn't last long, because he was used to being his own boss and making big money deals everyday.

"I'd work for nothing," he said, "with a boss like you it would be a pleasure."

"I'll consider you for the job," Mackenzie said, "but you wouldn't be able to wear a suit, and you'd have to promise not to throw anything at anyone other than Charles."

"I don't live in this suit," Stephen said, "and as long as I can throw stuff at Charles, that's fine with me. Only next time, I'll make sure I have a camera so we can record the moment for posterity."

*

"Dad!" Jim said in surprise, when he heard his father's voice on the other end of the phone, "Is everything okay?" It was rare for his dad to call him at the loft, never mind at work. "Yes, I have met her," he added, "Blair and I had dinner with her and Stephen last night. She seems like a nice person." But first impressions could be deceptive, so he was going to reserve judgement until he'd gotten to know her better. "She's related to that Crawford! No, I didn't know that," he said. Well, if she was trying to pull some sort of scam, it wasn't going to be for the money. So what else could she be in it for? "Dad, I really don't think Stephen is going to appreciate your going there and interfering." That was the last thing Stephen would want, especially after the argument he'd had with her last night. "Blair and I will go over there and talk to her." They could make an approach as to whether she would be interested in having dinner with their dad. However, the chances of getting Stephen to go were pretty slim. Not that he could blame him, dinner with there dad was an ordeal that nobody should be forced to sit through. Exposing the woman Stephen planned to marry to their dad was probably the fastest way to scare her off, even if she wasn't pulling some sort of scam. "I'll ask her and let you know what her answer is." He then put the phone down. It looked as if he and Blair would be taking a drive over to Ice Falls to talk to Mackenzie Crawford. While they were there, it would give him a chance to find out more about her and to see what sort of life she led.

*

"Charles, be careful, you're getting whatever it is all over the carpet, and I've just had it cleaned," Virginia said.

"It's flour," he said, "I believe it's something the cook uses."

"Which does not explain how you came to be covered in it," she said.

"I was assaulted with a bag of it," he replied.

"Mackenzie threw it at you?" she asked. She'd always known that girl was not quite right in the head. Well, there were places where you could put relatives who insisted on embarrassing the family, and that was precisely where Mackenzie was going to end up.

"No, Stephen Ellison did," Charles said. "You should have seen the two of them laughing at me."

"How dare they treat you like that," Virginia frowned, "neither of them will ever be welcome at the country club again."

"Mother, I don't think that's going to bother them," he said. "Mackenzie's never cared about the country club."

"You did have a chance to propose to her again, didn't you?" she asked. It was very important that Charles married that dreadful girl as soon as possible, so that she could show everyone who was the social leader of the year.

"No, and even if I had, she would have said no," he replied. "I thought you were going to talk to his father."

"I did, for all the good it did me," Virginia said. William Ellison simply didn't understand that she was his social better, and how much power she could wield with a few phone calls. "But don't you worry, because she's going to marry you," she added. Even if she had to personally drag Mackenzie Crawford down the aisle, she would marry Charles.

"She has to," he said, "otherwise all that money will have been wasted."

"We can't allow that to happen," she said. If they didn't gain control of that money, before they knew it, it would be being spent on things like people who really needed it.

*

He couldn't wait for Jimmy to get back to him, William Ellison thought, because there was no telling what that dreadful Virginia Barton might try and do before he'd had a chance to meet the young woman Stephen was going to marry. If he'd had any sort of relationship with his youngest son, then he would have been introduced to Mackenzie Crawford some time ago. Still, from what he'd been able to find out about Stephen's previous relationships, she was bound to be beautiful.

Unfortunately, over time beauty faded, and that was when the problems began. He would much rather his son marry a woman that he could be friends with, once the love had gone. However, he wasn't going to interfere unless he saw his son getting hurt.

Stephen wasn't going to welcome him with open arms, but no matter how his son reacted to seeing him, he wasn't going to lose his temper or say anything which would ruin any chance of his son speaking to him at some point in the future. Perhaps if he told him just how proud he was and always had been of him, it would help to smooth the path a little. Failing that, he might just have to accept the fact that Stephen didn't want to have anything to do with him and never would. No doubt Jimmy would keep passing news about Stephen on to him, but it wouldn't be the same as actually being involved in his son's life. Still, this was a situation of his own making, and there was very little that he could do, except hope that his son would forgive him for the way he'd treated him in the past.

*

So maybe he'd misjudged the amount of business the store did, Stephen thought as it filled up with customers. However, most of them just wanted to pay their respects to her, but some of them were also buying things.

"Need some help?" he asked.

"I can manage," Mackenzie replied, "but you could make some coffee."

"What sort?" Stephen said.

"And I thought we knew each other better than most people," she smiled.

"I was just checking," he said. When it came to coffee, as well as a lot of other things, Mack liked it kept simple, which made it a lot of fun when she bought coffee. And there was nothing wrong with keeping things simple, but you did need a little excitement in life from time to time. Since he'd almost been framed for embezzlement and murder, the only exciting thing to happen to him would be getting married to Mack. Even though he only knew she was going through with it because he'd persuaded her to, she would be able to do a great deal of good with the money. People had certainly gotten married for a lot worse reasons. Of course, they still had some of the finer details to work out yet, and they hadn't even looked at the house they were supposed to be living in.

"Well, I'm not paying you four bucks an hour to check," Mackenzie said.

"You're not paying me anything," Stephen reminded her. Not that he would have taken any money from her if she had been paying him. Nor would he be taking any during the year they would be married, because he wasn't doing this for the money. He was doing it because she was his best friend. During the trouble at the race track, she had been more than willing to go and set Jimmy straight, but he hadn't wanted her to, because she could have had the finger of suspicion pointed at her as well.

*

He could have been killed if something heavier than a bag of flour had been thrown at him, Charles thought, picking up the phone and dialing nine one one. What Stephen Ellison had done was assault, and he had every right to call the police and report it as such. Mackenzie was not going to be at all happy when her precious Stephen was arrested and charged. It would serve her right for ordering him out of her shabby little store, like he was some nobody off the street. For too long he had allowed her to get away with this attitude of hers, and now she was going to pay the price. If he'd known about the conditions in her father's will before, he would have married her before the old man had passed away. But, knowing her old man, he probably would have included something about her not getting a cent unless she divorced him. Still, he was glad that the old man had died, and as for her brother, he should have been more careful about where he'd taken his car for servicing.

"I'd like to report an assault," he said. "The man who attacked me is Stephen Ellison. You can find him at Crawfords General Store in Ice Falls." News of someone being arrested at her store would spread like wildfire. "He had a gun," he added. They were bound to take it a lot more seriously if he said that. The board of Crawford Industries wasn't going to welcome someone who had been charged with assaulting someone at gun point with open arms. They were a very conservative group of people, his sort of people. "No, I returned home and called you. I wasn't going to stay where there was a man waving a gun at me. Yes, I will be home all day." He then put the phone down. He would give anything to see the look on Stephen Ellison's face when he was arrested at gun point.

However, if he did go to see it happen, there was a serious danger of him getting hurt, and it wouldn't be just Ellison who would be after him. Instead, he would have to stay at home and make sure he had his story straight for when the officers came to interview him.

*

"Problem?" Blair asked, as Jim snapped yet another pencil, "or are you enjoying destroying the stationary supplies."

"Sorry," Jim said, "my dad..."

"What has he done this time?" he asked. Jim's dad wasn't either the most subtle or tactful person he'd met.

"He called and said that he was thinking about going and seeing Stephen," Jim replied.

"He wants to bury the hatchet, that's good," Blair said. Jim's dad was obviously trying to patch things up with both of his sons.

"It's not if Stephen decides to bury it in dad's skull," Jim said. "He has good reason to. Dad was always pitting us against each other when we were kids. I don't think things got any easier for Stephen after I left home."

"Maybe Stephen'll forgive him," he said. "I mean, he is getting married."

"Chief, that's not going to happen," Jim said. "You saw how Stephen reacted last night. There's more chance of Simon showing up for work tomorrow wearing a tutu than there is of Stephen forgiving dad."

"Your dad obviously feels that he has to try talking to him," Blair said, "so maybe you should call Stephen and let him know that your dad is heading his way."

"He's not going to be happy," Jim said.

"He doesn't have to be happy, prepared to listen," he said. After having met all the members of Jim's family, it was pretty clear that they all had the same attitude problem. They all thought they were right all the time, and nothing would get them to admit that they were wrong. He had to admit that he felt sorry for Stephen's fiancé, because she was going to get caught in the fallout between Stephen and his father. "So, did he say what he thought about Stephen getting married?" he added.

"He sounded pleased," Jim replied, "but it probably has something to do with the fact that she's just inherited a small fortune from Preston Crawford."

"At least you know that she's not marrying Stephen for his money," Blair joked. Jim was taking this whole 'why would someone want to marry his brother thing' way too seriously.

"It still doesn't explain why she would want to," Jim said.

"Maybe they fell in love and want to live happily ever after," Blair said. "Hey, it does happen."

*

Now what, Mackenzie thought when two patrol cars pulled up outside of her store and four police officers got out. They couldn't be coming to pick up supplies for the station house, because she'd delivered their usual order a few days before her dad's funeral. It was possible that they'd run out of something, but it didn't take four police officers to pick a few things up. Hell, they could have called and she would have delivered whatever it was they wanted.

"Good morning officer Adams," she said, "what can I do for you?"

"You alone in here Mackenzie?" Adams asked looking around the store.

"No, my friend Stephen's in the back," she said. "Why?"

"That wouldn't happen to be Stephen Ellison, would it?" he asked.

"Yeah, can you tell me what's going on?" Mackenzie asked. It had to be pretty serious, if they were asking for Stephen by name. Maybe something had happened to his brother.

"We've had a report of an assault carried out at gun point," Adams replied. "You wouldn't happen to have seen anything like that happen around here, would you?"

"No, the only thing that's happened this morning is Stephen throwing a bag of flour," she replied. "I ducked, and it hit Charles Barton in the face." She had a nasty feeling that Charles was behind this. "Stephen doesn't even own a gun, and you know there's no way I'd ever allow one in my store," she added.

"Mind if I go, through back and talk to him?" Adams asked.

"No," Mackenzie replied, "you know me, always willing to help out." Which usually meant buying raffle tickets and donating prizes.

"It's just a formality," Adams assured her. "I've met Ellison, and he probably wouldn't knew one end of a gun from the other."

"He wouldn't," she said. Stephen was one of the least violent people she knew, and he knew how she felt about guns. Having two patrol cars parked outside was going to cause a lot of gossip, on top of any that started about her marrying someone other than Charles Barton. Still, people knew her and knew that she rarely did anything without a good reason.

*

It was a quiet enough town, William thought, driving into Ice Falls. This was the sort of place where you could still walk down the streets late at night and not worry about getting mugged. In fact, this was the ideal sort of place for his future grandchildren to be raised. He knew that Stephen hadn't gotten married yet, but he would want an heir to pass his success on to. He had to admit that he had pretty much given up on Jimmy ever giving him grandchildren. His eldest son hadn't said anything, but he strongly suspected that his son and his friend Blair were a lot closer than they claimed to be. Not that he was going to say anything, because it wasn't really any of his business what his son got up to in the privacy of his own home.

Now, why was Stephen's car being searched by two police officers, he wondered, pulling up close to it. Perhaps he had been in some sort of accident, but if he had, then Jimmy would have let him know. He might not have spoken to Stephen for a long time, but that hadn't meant that he'd stopped caring about what had happened to his son. After all, he'd checked up on how Stephen's career had been doing from time to time, but he hadn't used his influence to open any doors for his son in the business world. Stephen had made it very clear when he'd left home that he would make it on his own, and Stephen had every right to be very proud of the success he'd made of his life.

*

"Obviously, Mr. Barton was mistaken about a gun," Officer Adams said.

"Probably all that flour in his eyes," Stephen said. He could have been in serious trouble because of what Charles had reported to the police. "I think you should know he's not taking Mackenzie breaking off the engagement very well," he added.

"Is that so?" Adams said.

"Yeah," he replied. "He came by earlier and wouldn't leave." He wanted people to know that Charles might keep hanging around in the vain hope that Mack would change her mind and go back to him. Well, that wasn't going to happen, no matter what Charles did. In fact, the more Charles tried pressurising her, the more she would dig her heels in.

"Tell her to call us if he starts being a problem," Adams said.

"Don't worry, I will," Stephen assured him.

"We've got some good anti-harassment laws in this state," Adams said, "and Miss Mackenzie's been a real good friend to the department."

"I'm sure she has," he said. Mack liked helping people, even when she didn't have either the money or resources. However, all that was going to change, now that she had money, but knowing Mack, she would still want to get her hands dirty. She wasn't one of those people whose involvement ended once they'd written the check out. He suspect that at some point she would end up getting him involved with some cause she supported, not that he would mind, because it would mean spending more time with her. He couldn't think of anyone else that he would rather spend time with. She was a lot of fun to be around, and didn't care if they didn't go to expensive restaurants when they went out.

He supposed that he'd better go and tell Mack he was in the clear for threatening Charles with a gun. She would be pleased about that, but not about the fact his dad had decided to pay them a visit. No doubt his dad would have something to say about his being questioned by the police, but it really didn't have anything to do with him. He could say whatever he wanted to about him, but he wasn't going to let him start putting Mack down, because she was a lot better person than his dad would ever be. With any luck, his dad would soon see that he wasn't wanted and would leave. If he didn't, then things could end up getting very ugly.

(9)

It was too late, Virginia Barton thought, everyone was talking about her family, and she could just imagine what they were saying. Her family name was being dragged through the mud, and what for, some girl from the country who had probably slept with god only knew how many men besides Charles. That girl could have given her son any number of diseases. All it would take was a few well chosen remarks to the right people, and that girl's name would be mud all over Cascade. There was one thing that everyone with plenty of both time and money like to do, and that was gossip about other people. By the time she'd finished with Mackenzie Crawford, that girl would be on her knees begging Charles to marry her, because nobody else would want to.

Naturally, Charles would be seen as being very charitable for marrying someone with such a terrible reputation, and that would do her image no end of good. She could even use the same tactics on the Ellisons. People would be very interested to find out that in his youth William Ellison had been a regular patron of a certain house on the outskirts of Cascade. And there was a very strong possibility that neither of his sons were actually his.

Charles had never really understood that sometimes you had to bend the rules society laid down in order to not only get what you wanted, but to keep it afterwards. She hadn't worked hard for the past forty years to keep her family at the top of the social ladder, only to have some little nobody to take it all away from her. Charles wasn't aware of it yet, but she knew about the trouble he was in financially. If he had come to her when he'd first started having problems, there might have been a chance for her to stop things from getting as bad as they were. Now they were relying on the money Mackenzie would bring when she married Charles. If they didn't get that money, then they were going to lose everything, and she had absolutely no intention of ending up where she'd started in life, at the bottom on the social ladder looking up. Very few people knew about her less than prosperous start in life, and she intended to keep it that way. She could just imagine what people would do if they ever found out that she'd once earned a living by performing naked on a stage. While her social circle might be willing to forgive a great many things that was not one of them. She would be excluded from the social life which was hers by right.

*

She was going to have to say something, Mackenzie thought, because she couldn't leave the poor man standing there while Stephen did his best to pretend that he wasn't there. Families had fights. There had been more than a few in her family, but they'd always made up afterwards. That hadn't happened in Stephen's family though, and she had no idea what the original fight had been about, because Stephen had never told her. It must have been something pretty serious, for them not to have spoken in over fifteen years. Well, if she had anything to do with it, they would start talking to each other now.

"Mr. Ellison, it's nice to meet you," she smiled, "although, I have to admit that Stephen hasn't told me a great deal about you." What little she did know about the man wasn't exactly flattering.

"Why would I want to?" Stephen muttered.

"Stephen and I have been estranged for a very long time," William said, "but I'm very interested in getting to know you, my dear."

"I just bet you are!" Stephen snapped. "You're not wanted or welcome here."

"Stephen, your dad came all the way out here, so the least you can do is be civil to him," Mackenzie said. She, for one, wanted to know why he'd come to see them.

"Why should I?" Stephen asked. "He's never shown any interest in seeing me before."

"Because I knew what reaction I would get," William replied. "I just came to say that I'm proud of you, and congratulations."

"What do you really want?" Stephen asked.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," William said, "and I had a phone call from Virginia Barton."

"I'm sorry," Mackenzie said.

"Don't be," William said, "I can't remember the last time I had such a good laugh."

"What did she say?" she asked. No doubt it wasn't very good, because Charles' mother had never made her feelings about her a secret.

"Language that I couldn't possibly repeat in front of a lady," William replied. "I would be interested in knowing what you did to upset her so much."

"I broke off my engagement to her son," Mackenzie replied.

"Having met Charles, I can understand why," William said. "So have the two of you set a date for the wedding?"

"Not yet," Stephen replied, "but there's no rush."

*

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Charles demanded. "I know the mayor, and will have your jobs for this." They were supposed to have arrested Stephen Ellison, instead they were saying that no assault had taken place. Well, what did they call getting hit with a bag of flour? He was going to have to get rid of his suit, because it would always remind him of what had happened. Buying a new suit would be the first thing Mackenzie would have to do for him.

"I know who you are, Sir," Officer Adams said, "and making threats to a police officer is a crime in this state."

"I was assaulted, so why aren't you doing anything about it?" he asked. Such as throwing Stephen Ellison into the first cell they came to and never letting him out.

"It's your word against his," Adams replied. "We searched the place from top to bottom, even checked his car, and there was no sign of a gun."

"Of course, there wasn't!" Charles snapped. "He probably threw it away." Ellison had not only stolen Mackenzie from him, but he was also determined to make him look like a fool.

"If I were you I'd stay away from them," Adams said, "especially, Miss Crawford,and there shouldn't be any more trouble."

"I have a right to see who ever I like," he said. If he wanted to see Mackenzie, then nobody was going to stop him.

"Seems pretty foolish to me, if you go looking for trouble," Adams said, "and I'm sure you wouldn't want to upset Miss Mackenzie, would you?"

"I would never do anything to upset Mackenzie," Charles said. At least, nothing which would be directly linked to him. As far as anyone was going to be concerned, Mackenzie had changed her mind, and the engagement was back on.

"She's a lot of friends around her," Adams said.

*

He couldn't believe that Mack was actually gullible enough to swallow the crap his dad was feeding her, Stephen thought. Still, she would find out for herself soon enough what his dad could be really like. So far, his dad hadn't made any nasty comments about Mack, but it was only a matter of time before he did, and then he was physically going to throw him out of the store and refuse to have anything more to do with him.

"Mack, why don't you take a break?" he suggested. "I can keep an eye on things here." He needed her to go into the back so he could talk to his dad, because there were some things he didn't want her to hear.

"Okay, but if it starts getting busy, call me," Mackenzie said.

"Don't worry, I will," Stephen assured her, as she went through into the back of the store.

"She seems like a nice young woman," William said.

"She is," he replied, "probably too nice to deserve to end up being related to you."

"Stephen, I didn't come here to fight with you," William said.

"Then why the hell did you come?" he demanded. "And don't tell me it's because you care." The only person his father had ever cared about was himself.

"I though we could talk," William replied. "After all getting married is an important step in any man's life."

"We're having a quiet, simple wedding, because that's the way Mack wants it," Stephen said.

"Never could understand the need for all that pomp and ceremony myself," William admitted, "doesn't mean a damned thing if you can't work together when times are tough."

"Mack and I are a great team," he said. And things certainly couldn't get much rougher for Mack than they had been recently. From now on, though, it was going to get a lot easier for her, because she wouldn't have to go through anything else alone. "And before you ask, I do love her," he added. He didn't want his dad to think that he was just marrying Mack because she'd inherited a lot of money.

"I can see that you do," William said.

*

He'd only said it because he was expected to say it, Mack thought, and not because he meant it. Still, it sounded a lot more convincing than all those time when Charles had said it. But then she and Stephen had always been good friends. She knew that Stephen would never make her change the person she was into one who would fit into his lifestyle. There was no way she would ever feel comfortable mixing with the sort of people Stephen met everyday in his business life. She'd tried fitting in with Charles's friends, but she'd always ended up either making some mistake that they'd pounced on instantly, or feeling totally stupid, because they were discussing things that she didn't understand. Charles had always scoffed at her attempts to improve her mind.

Now it was obvious that Charles hadn't wanted her thinking for herself, because then he wouldn't have been able to control either, her or her money. However, there was nothing stopping her doing that now. Stephen might even help her to study, but she'd have to fit it in between running the store and commuting to Cascade. Maybe they could go and look around their new house when she'd closed the store for the day, because it would be better if they found out what they needed for the house sooner, rather than later. Still, she and Stephen did have very similar tastes when it came to decor, so, as long as he didn't suddenly decide to put stuffed animal heads all over the house, they wouldn't have any major disagreements.

*

He'd been expecting a visit from Charles Barton, Smith thought, but he didn't see how he could possibly help the man more than he already had?. As it was, he was on very shaky ground, and if he didn't get the money to put back into his clients account, then he would soon end up looking at the walls of a prison cell.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

"About the will," Charles said. "I presume that there is some provision in case Stephen Ellison can't marry Mackenzie."

"Naturally," he replied. "Should Mr. Ellison die, then she will still be able to claim her inheritance."
"And if he disappeared?" Charles asked.

"She would have to wait until the year was up," Smith said. "But I should caution you that should anything happen to him, it's entirely possible she would be the primary suspect." Swiftly followed by the man standing in front of him. Charles Barton had a great deal more to gain if something happened to Stephen Ellison than Mackenzie Crawford did. No matter what she chose to do, all her father's debts had been paid off.

"We both know that she doesn't have the brains to make anyone disappear," Charles said, "but it would be terrible if something did happen to him."

"Of course it would," he agreed. He really didn't want to know what Barton was thinking, because it was probably illegal, and he was in enough trouble as it was, without bringing any more to himself.

"Mackenzie would be heartbroken," Charles said.

"You've changed your mind about her marrying him?" he asked.

"No," Charles replied, "but I know how Mackenzie feels about him."

"Perhaps it would be better if you didn't say anything else in front of me," Smith said. "After all, I do still have a certain duty towards her."

"And if she doesn't marry me, you won't get a cent," Charles reminded him. "And I'm very sure that the police would be interested in the fact you've been borrowing your client's money."

"I won't be involved with anything else that's illegal," Smith warned him. It was one thing to borrow money, but an entirely different matter to get involved in something where someone might get hurt.

"You don't have a great deal of choice in the matter," Charles said.

"What exactly is it that you want me to do?" Smith asked.

*

Nobody was listening to her, Virginia thought, and they needed to listen if she was going to salvage something out of the situation Charles had gotten them into. The news that he had been dumped for the youngest Ellison son had reached just about every rung of the social ladder. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't in tomorrow's society column, and no doubt William Ellison would be taking out an announcement in the Cascade Times. After all, that was the paper that everyone who was anyone read. Her family's shame was going to be splashed all over the papers, and there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it, because she didn't have any money with which to fight back.

Charles had really messed up, and she was going to suffer the consequences. There would be no more country club membership, no more big house or servants. Oh god, she was going to be reduced to doing her own domestic work, and as for cooking, she could barely remember what a kitchen was. She had absolutely no skills whatsoever, at least none that were marketable. Who would want to hire someone like her? Charles was going to have to keep his job and provide for the both of them. However, that wasn't going to be easy for him to do, because he wasn't the brightest person around. It was only due to his surname that he'd gotten the job in the first place, and now it was in risk.

*

It was going a lot better than he'd expected it to, William thought. At least, Stephen was willing to listen to what he had to say. He had to admit that he liked the young woman his son was going to marry. She struck him as being the sensible type, someone who wouldn't worry as she got older about the way she looked. And it was obvious that his son was in love with her. She seemed to feel the same way, which was a good thing, if they were going to make their marriage work.

However, only time would tell whether it would or not. He hoped it would, because he wanted his son to have the sort of lasting happiness he'd never had.

"Stephen, I'd like to buy you and Mackenzie a wedding gift," he said. Something expensive, so that people could see that he approved of his son's marriage.

"You don't have to do that," Stephen said, "if we want something, we'll buy it ourselves." "Perhaps Mackenzie would like to choose something to go in your new home," William said. He wasn't going to take no for answer. If they wouldn't accept anything, then he would set up a trust fund for his future grandchildren.

"You'll have to talk to Mack about that," Stephen said, "it's her home."

"I'm sure that I'll be able to find something she likes," he said. His daughter-in-law to be could turn out to be the person who brought him and his son closer. This could be his only chance to build any sort of relationship with Stephen, and he didn't want anything to ruin it. "And perhaps we could all have dinner at the country club," he added.

"Mack doesn't do country clubs, and neither do I," Stephen said. "What you see is what you get with Mack, and I wouldn't want her to change."

"There's no reason why she should," William said. He certainly didn't think that there was any need for her to. She was a very beautiful young woman, and his son was very lucky to have found her. "The important thing is that you're happy," he added, "and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise."

"I won't," Stephen assured him.

"And you should get her a ring," he said.

"She has one," Stephen replied, "but she's not wearing it because she didn't want to damage it."

"Makes sense I suppose," William said. But in his day, she would have worn it all the time. However, women had rarely worked outside of the home then. Now things were very different, and perhaps that was for the best. "She has a good business here," he added.

"Because she works hard," Stephen said, "and I'm not going to make her give it up."

(10)

It really hadn't gone as badly as he'd expected it to, Stephen thought, watching his father drive away. Maybe his brother was right, and the old man had mellowed. At least there hadn't been any nasty comments about Mack, which had surprised him more than a little, because he seriously doubted that Mack was the sort of woman his father would have had in mind for him to marry. He was also turning out to be a lot better actor than he'd thought, because so far he'd convinced both Jimmy and his dad that he really did love Mack.

Convincing his brother had probably been the hardest to do, because he had always seemed to know when he was lying to him while they'd been growing up. It wasn't a problem for him that people thought that he and Mack were really in love, but it could turn out to be one for Mack. When the year was up, she would want a divorce and to carry on with her life. She could find that hard to do if everyone thought that they were the perfect couple. But he didn't want to upset her by fighting with her a few months into their arrangement, because he was very fond of her.

They were going to have to sit down and talk about what would happen once the year was up. It wasn't as if he would be waiting for the year to be up so that he could marry someone else, but he knew that it was possible that Mack might meet someone and fall in love with them. He wasn't entirely sure how he would feel if that happened. Still, she had a right to be happy, and if that meant her being with someone else, then he would just have to accept that. He'd make damned sure that anyone she did get involved with wanted Mack the person, and not just her money. She wouldn't end up with someone like Charles Barton again if he could help it.

*

"Has he gone?" Mackenzie asked, coming from out of the back of the store.

"Yeah," Stephen replied, "and he was in one piece when he left."

"That's good," she smiled, "but if he hadn't been, I would have given you an alibi, and cleaned up the blood." When she hadn't heard them shouting at each other, she'd decided that it would be safe to let them work things out for themselves.

"He thinks that you should wear the ring," he said, "and so do I."

"That would be difficult to do, considering I gave it back to you last night," she said. Something that she had done because she'd been angry, and that she had regretted.

"And that was my fault," Stephen said, taking a small box out of one of his pockets. "I should have done this properly to begin with," he added, opening the box and getting down on one knee.

"You don't have to do this," Mackenzie said. If anyone came into the store right now, they would think that he'd gone nuts.

"I want to," he replied, "and you deserve it."

"You know, Charles didn't do this when he proposed to me," she said. He had just said that they were getting married and that had been the end of the matter, as far as he'd been concerned. She had tried telling him no, but he hadn't wanted to listen to anything that she had to say.

"I'm not Charles," Stephen reminded her, "and if I start turning into him, you have my permission to put me out of my misery."

"Can I have that in writing?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied, "now can I propose to you?"

"Go right ahead," she smiled,

"Mackenzie, will you marry me?" he asked, taking the ring out of the box and slipping it onto her finger.

"Yes," she replied, "but don't expect me to obey when we get married." She wasn't going to try changing who she was to please anyone, including him.

"I wouldn't want you to," he grinned. "Now could you give me a hand up, because my knees locked."

*

"Grace, you will never believe what I heard at the country club," Monica Wilson said, bursting into her sister's room.

"Close the door," Grace snapped.

"I'm sorry, I forgot," Monica said.

"So what did you hear?" she asked. It had to be important for her sister to have forgotten to close the door to her room.

"Your Stephen's getting married," Monica replied, "and the best thing is Virginia Barton is beside herself with envy."

"Why?" Grace asked.

"Because the woman he's marrying has just inherited a chunk of Preston Crawford's estate," Monica replied, "and she dumped Virginia's son for Stephen."

"My little Stevie getting married," she said. "It only seems like yesterday that he was saying his first word." The years had just flown by since she'd left her family, in search of something she'd thought had been missing from her life. Instead of finding it, she had found pain and heartache.

"He's a handsome man," Monica said. "I wish you could see him."

"We both know that's not possible," Grace said. Apart from hospital visits, she hadn't left the house in a very long time, due to the way she looked.

"Grace, there is no reason why you can't go and see him," Monica said, "he wouldn't have to know that it was you."

"I don't want anyone to see me looking like this," she snapped. The last time she'd gone out with her face uncovered, people had stared at her and avoided her like she was some sort of monster. Her sons deserved to be able to keep their memories of her intact, and not tainted by seeing the woman she had become.

"There's something else," Monica said. "She's going after William and the boys. You should hear some of the things that she's been saying about you."

"Is any of it true?" Grace asked.

"About one percent," Monica replied, "but it's only a matter of time before the boys hear what's being said."

"What do you expect me to do?" she asked. It wasn't as if she could go the country club and put people straight.

"I don't know," Monica admitted, "but you can't let her get away with this."

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it," Grace said. Her family didn't deserve to be hurt because of some woman's vendetta against her.

"Stop having operations," Monica said, "because they aren't helping."

"But I need them," she protested, "I won't ever look like myself again if I don't have them." Her sister was asking her to give up the one hope she had.

"Grace, if that was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago," Monica said. "The only way you're going to get better is if you go outside. Hiding away like a hermit isn't working."

"I'll think about it," Grace said.

"You could start by letting William know that you're still alive," Monica replied, "that you would like to see him."

"He won't want to see me," she said. She had abandoned her family, and there was no reason why he would want to talk to her after all this time. He would probably think that she wanted something from him.

"Why don't you let him decide whether he wants to or not," Monica said. "I could go and see him for you."

*

"Charles, please tell me that you haven't bought this house," Virginia said.

"Of course I haven't," Charles assured her, "this is her house. The one that should have been mine." And it still would be if he played his cards right.

"I suppose that it's acceptable," she said, "but barely."

"Her father never did have any taste," Charles said, "but it could be sold and the money used towards somewhere else." Which would naturally be provided by Mackenzie.

"What about the Crawford Mansion?" Virginia asked.

"That's not included in her share of the estate," he replied, "it would be too showy." When you had money, you spent it with restraint. Huge mansions, unless they had belonged to the family for several generations, were considered showy. "I have a key, so why don't we go inside and look around?" he added. While they were doing that, he could help himself to anything that took his fancy. Mackenzie could hardly object, because he'd spent a small fortune trying to turn her into someone who was socially acceptable, and he hadn't seen any return from his investment.

"Are you sure that they won't show up while we're doing that?" Virginia asked.

"Don't worry, Mother," he said, "she hasn't even been to see the house yet." Which was the first thing she should have done. Instead, she'd gone off somewhere with Ellison. He could just imagine them booking into some seedy motel and making love, while they laughed at him. He was the only one who should be touching her like that. When she'd agreed to marry him, Mackenzie had made a promise, and he didn't like it when people broke the promises they made him. Even if she did end up marrying Ellison, it wouldn't be the end of the matter as far as he was concerned. She owed him for what he'd done for her, and he intended to be repaid with interest.

*

"Why don't you close up early?" Stephen suggested. It was starting to get dark outside, and she hadn't had a customer in over an hour.

"Another ten minutes and I will," Mackenzie replied.

"Maybe we could go out to dinner to celebrate," he suggested. She hadn't eaten all day, so she had to be hungry, because he was. But then, he was used to long business lunches, whereas Mack tended to grab something to eat when she could. However, she did look really great, so it was obviously helping to keep her in shape.

"I can cook when we get home," she said, "I don't mind."

"Whose home?" he asked, "because we have three to choose from." They were going to have to decide where they were going to live, otherwise it was going to get very confusing.

"My house for tonight," Mackenzie replied, "and then tomorrow we can go look around the house my dad bought."

"You're going to end up commuting," Stephen said, "and I don't like the thought of you driving in the dark." She was a good driver, but not everyone else on the road was.

Don't worry, I'll be fine," she assured him, "but if the weather's bad, I won't drive."

"It's still a long way for you to drive everyday," he said. "Maybe you should think about letting the manager run things for a while. Just until we've gotten sorted out." It was going to take some time before they settled down to any sort of routine, and she would need to take some time off for the wedding.

"He didn't show up today," Mackenzie reminded him. "People expect me to be open. If I'm not, then they'll go somewhere else. Once they do that, I'm not going to get them back."

"I could take some time off to help you," he said. If the manager that had been hired didn't show up in the morning, then he was going to call her lawyer and find out what was going on.

"There's no need for you to do that," she said. "I can manage by myself if I have to."

"You shouldn't have to, though," he said. She deserved to be able to take a break so that she could adjust to the new circumstances in her life.

*

"Jimmy," William said as his son was shown into his study, "this a pleasant surprise."

"I thought I'd drop by, since I was in the area," he said. He hadn't been, but he'd been unable to contact Stephen, so talking to his dad was the next best thing. "About Stephen..." he began to add.

"Don't worry about Stephen," William said. "I went to see him, and he's fine."

"He must have been surprised to see you," Jim said. Which was probably an understatement. Stephen couldn't have been at all happy for their dad to have just turned up out of the blue.

"He was," William admitted, "but we seem to have sorted a few things out."

"That's good," he said.

"I even got to meet his finance," William said. "She's a very beautiful young woman."

"She is," he agreed. But she wasn't one of those women who knew that they were beautiful and used it to get what they wanted. "Did Stephen say why they were getting married now?" he added. Stephen might have tried fooling him, but he was likely to have been a lot less successful with their dad.

"No," William replied, "but it's time Stephen settled down, and he couldn't have chosen a better woman to do it with."

"The fact she has money helps, doesn't it?" Jim asked. Of course it did, only their dad wasn't going to admit that to Stephen.

"Jimmy, I would have liked her even if she didn't have any money," William said. "Stephen loves her and she loves him. You can tell just by looking at them."

"It just seems sudden to me," he said. Although, Stephen had told him that he'd known Mackenzie for a long time.

"You can be sure that Stephen thought it through very carefully before he asked her to marry him," William said. "You know, I'm going to give them a family heirloom as a wedding gift, anything in the house."

"That's very generous of you," Jim said.

"If you'd like something, you're free to choose after Mackenzie has," William said.

"I don't think any of it would go in the loft," he replied.

*

There was one big advantage to owning the store, Mackenzie thought, setting the kitchen table, she never had to go food shopping. Usually, she didn't decide what she was going to cook until she got home, but from now on she was going to be cooking for two, and Stephen would expect a hot meal when he got home from work. Still, there were certain things he had a right to expect once they were married, some of them she'd rather not think about at the moment, though. But at some point in the not too distant future, they were going to have to talk about the living arrangements for when they were married. She still didn't understand why her dad had bought her a house, when she already had a perfectly good one to live in that was close to the store. Surely, he hadn't meant for her to give up something that had been a major part of her life for so long. She'd worked so hard to keep the store going while her dad had been sick, and now that all the debts had been cleared, she could really do something with it. And the money she got when the year was over would really make a huge difference to what she could do to help people.

Stephen would probably think she was being stupid, but she really wanted to help people who couldn't afford to get the right medical care. She'd had real problems trying to keep on top of her dad's medical bills. It wasn't right that people had to suffer because they didn't have any money. Maybe if her dad had spent some of the money on himself, then he might still have been around.

"Why didn't you do that?" she asked out aloud, blinking back tears. "If you had things would have been a lot easier." She wouldn't be feeling so confused about what she was to do next.

(11)

She was crying, Stephen thought, and he wasn't sure that it hadn't been his fault. Even if it had been, he was going to have to go in there and do something, because he didn't like to see her cry. The best thing he could do was reassure her that everything would be okay, and hug her. Not only would a hug hopefully make her feel better, but it would also get her used to him touching her. People would think it strange that a supposedly in love couple didn't touch each other from time to time. But right now, he not only had to find out why she was crying, but to get her to stop.

"It's okay," he said, entering the kitchen and walking over to where Mackenzie was stood. "I'm sorry if I upset you," he added, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her.

"You didn't," Mackenzie sobbed.

"Then why are you crying?" he asked.

"My dad," she replied, "he could have used the money to help himself."

"Maybe he didn't get it in time," Stephen suggested. But her dad had to have known about the money, in order to have left it to her. Knowing her dad as well as he had, there was no way the man would have thought Mack would have preferred to have the money to having him around for a few more days or even weeks.

"He could have used the money Rick left," she said, "but he didn't, and I don't know what's happened to it."

"Didn't Rick's will tell you?" he asked. He knew for a fact that his friend had made one, because he'd been one of the witnesses to it.

"I haven't seen his will," Mackenzie replied, "and I'd rather have my dad back than all this money."

"I know," he said, stroking her hair. There was something strange going on, because she should have at least seen a copy of her brother's will, as she was the sole beneficiary of it. It was at times like these that he wished he was more like his brother. Jim would have absolutely no hesitation about walking into Smith's office and demanding an explanation. He, on the other hand, like, to handle things with a businesslike approach. If someone was taking advantage of Mack, then he would put a stop to it. He even had a prime suspect in Charles Barton, although, he couldn't prove it at the moment.

*

"Well?" Blair asked, expectantly.

"Well what?" Jim replied, going over to the fridge and taking out two beers.

"How did it go with your dad?" he asked. Some times he thought that it would be a lot easier to get blood out of a rock than to get something out of Jim.

"He went to see Stephen," Jim said, closing the fridge door, "met Mackenzie and decided that he liked her."

"That's good, right?" Blair said. If Jim's dad thought that Stephen's fiancé was on the level, then she had to be.

"I guess so," Jim admitted, reluctantly. "He did say that Stephen would have thought about it for a while before asking her."

"Maybe you should give her a chance," he suggested. "We could invite them to dinner and you could interrogate her to your heart's content." Jim was not going to rest until he found something wrong with Stephen's fiancé. Unfortunately, in the process, his friend could end up destroying the relationship he'd worked so hard to rebuild with his brother.

"My dad says she loves him," Jim said, "and there aren't many people who can pull the wool over my dad's eyes."

"You know, you might be jealous of her," Blair said.

"I'm not jealous," Jim snapped.

"How about worried?" he asked. "Getting married is bound to affect your relationship with Stephen." Even if Jim denied it, it would.

"He'll still be my brother," Jim replied.

"Sure, he will," he said, "but there's always an adjustment period in any new relationship." Stephen might not mean to shut Jim out of his life, but he would. And guess who would be the one who had deal with Jim then.

*

Ellison was in there, he knew he was, because his car was parked outside, Charles thought, standing across the road, looking up at the bedroom windows. There was only one light on, but he'd expected there to be, because they were sleeping together and probably had been for a long time. It was just as well that he hadn't slept with her, because there was no telling what sort of diseases he could have caught from Mackenzie. Ellison probably wasn't the only man she'd been sleeping with either. He'd always known that she had no class, and she'd constantly proved him right.

He would wait until the light went out, and then he would let himself into the house and catch them in the act. Them calling the police to say he'd broken in wouldn't do them any good, as he had a key and would claim that Mackenzie had asked him over so that they could patch things up. After all, he was the one with the solid reputation, and she wouldn't want the real reason she was marrying Ellison to be made public, because then people would see her for what she really was, a mercenary little slut who didn't give a damn about anyone as long as she got what she wanted. He'd always considered himself to be a man of the world, so how could he have been fooled by her. When he thought about it, it was all her fault that this family was on the edge of bankruptcy. If her old man had died a week earlier, then he would have already had all the money he needed to pay his debts off and to assure his family's social status. Instead, he was in danger of losing everything, and that was despite the fact he'd used the money he'd gained through her brother's will. Naturally, Mackenzie didn't know about that, and he was fairly certain Smith wouldn't say anything, because it would land him in serious trouble. His mother was relying on him to maintain their lifestyle, and he wasn't about to let her down, because she wouldn't be able to cope without people to look after her and parties for her to attend. He'd seen what had happened to other people once they had lost their money, and it wasn't pleasant.

*

Writing a letter to her former husband was turning out to be a great deal harder than she'd thought it would be, Grace thought, scrunching up another piece of paper and tossing it into the wastebasket at the side of her desk. She wasn't even sure where she should begin, and did it really matter what she wrote, because William was likely to rip it up once he found out that it was from her. It was his right to do that, because she'd hurt him very badly in the past. Even so, she had never stopped thinking about him and the boys. Maybe if he came to see her, he would understand why she had cut off all contact. Perhaps Monica was right and she should stop having operations, but the doctor had said that the next one would be the last one, that she would be restored to her former looks. But he wasn't the first doctor to have said that, and so far, they had all been wrong. Fortunately, she had a career which she could pursue from home, and whenever someone wanted to meet her in person, Monica went in her place. In fact, as far as the outside world was concerned, Monica was her. That suited them both very well, because her sister enjoyed socialising, just like she had once done.

She had to admit that it might be nice to be able to go out and enjoy the sunshine, but that wasn't possible. However, her self-imposed imprisonment hadn't stopped her from doing her best to keep up with what was going on in her son's lives. She was particularly proud of Jimmy, he was helping people, just like she'd always known that he would. She even knew how he helped them. No doubt William hadn't been too happy when her gifts had started to show up in their eldest son. As for Stephen, he had turned out to be his father's son, a businessman who made multimillion dollar deals and didn't worry about the consequences to other people's lives. She wasn't expecting to be welcomed back into the family with open arms, but even if she only saw her sons once, it would be worth it.

*

It was just Stephen going to the bathroom, Mackenzie thought, when the landing light was switched on and she heard footsteps outside of her room. If she didn't get some sleep soon, then she wouldn't be in any state to open the store tomorrow, and while she didn't really need the money, she enjoyed running it. If that manager turned up, then she would see how they did before deciding whether they were going to be kept on or not. After all, she was going to be busy soon, what with the wedding and moving into the house her dad had bought for her and Stephen. The house was solid proof he'd come into the money he'd left her at least several weeks before he'd gone into hospital, if not longer. So, why hadn't he told her about it? It wasn't as if she would have run out and spent a great deal of it, but it would have been nice to have known that she wouldn't have had to worry about finding the money to pay off their debts.

"You don't have to check on me, I'm fine," she said, when the door to her bedroom opened. Still, it was nice to know that he wanted to make sure that she was okay after her earlier emotional outburst. She still didn't know what had come over her, because she wasn't the sort of person who just broke down and cried. "You can go back to bed," she added, seeing a figure standing in the doorway. "Don't you mean come back to," Charles said.

"What are you doing here?" Mackenzie demanded. He shouldn't be here, and he had no right to come into her home whenever he felt like it. "I'm going to call the police if you don't leave right now," she added. Even if he did, she was still going to call them.

"And tell them what?" he asked. "I have a key, and you're my fiancé," he added, walking towards the bed.

"No, I'm not," she replied, "I broke it off." There were a roomful of people who would testify to that, and where had he gotten a key, because she had never given him one.

"You made a promise to marry me," Charles said, "and you are going to keep it."

"Or what?" she asked. He couldn't force her to marry him, so there wasn't a great deal he could do to her.

"Something will happen to someone you care about," he replied. "Accidents happen all the time."

"You don't frighten me," Mackenzie said, "you only wanted to marry me for the money."

"True," Charles admitted, "and I'm still going to get it, because if I don't, Ellison won't be around for much longer."

"You wouldn't dare do anything to Stephen," she said. He was bluffing, he had to be.

"I wouldn't, but I know some people who would," he said, "so why don't you think about it and let me know what your answers going to be."

"It's no, and nothing is going to change my mind," Mackenzie said firmly. He wasn't going to get a single cent from her, no matter what he did, and as soon as he'd gone, she was going to wake Stephen up and tell him what had happened.

"You'll soon change your mind," Charles said, "and nobody's going to believe your word over mine."

"I wouldn't bet on that," she said. She'd seen how he'd used his family name to give him power over other people, and she also knew that money could give you the same power. Only she wouldn't abuse power like he had.

*

She couldn't be going for a walk at this time of night, Stephen thought, hearing the front door open then close. Not unless she was sleepwalking. Rick had told him Mack had used to do that, but only when she was really upset, just like she had been earlier. He supposed that he should go and check on her to make sure she hadn't gone for a walk in the nude. However, he had to admit that he didn't know what Mack wore in bed, but no doubt he would find out once they were living under the same roof as husband and wife. They were on the verge of doing that, and they still hadn't sat down and talked about things, such as who got the first shower in the morning, and who took the trash out. He decided that there would be little point in getting dressed, because Mack could have walked a far distance by the time he'd done so, and he was hardly likely to bump into someone he knew.

"Mack!" he said in surprise when he left his room, "I thought..."

"Thought what?" she asked.

"I heard the front door open," Stephen said. Obviously, he had been mistaken.

"It did," Mackenzie replied, "Charles was here."

"You let him in?" he asked. He couldn't believe that she'd done that.

"He let himself in," she replied, "he's got a key from somewhere."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" he asked. They were going to have to change the locks, because he didn't like the thought of Charles being able to come into the house any time he wanted.

"No," she assured him, "but he said that you'd get hurt if I didn't marry him."

"Nobody's going to hurt me," Stephen said. First thing in the morning, he was going to talk to Jimmy and tell him what was going on regarding Charles Barton. The man couldn't be allowed to get away with making threats. Although, he was going to have to explain to his brother who Charles Barton was, and what his past connection to Mack was.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep knowing he can get in here," Mackenzie said.

"He won't come back again tonight," he said. If Charles was stupid enough to come back, then he would find him waiting for him.

"I'm going to make some hot chocolate, do you want some?" she asked.

"Deluxe?" he said.

"Of course," she smiled.

"I'll be down in a few minutes," Stephen said, "unless you're worried about going down there by yourself." He wouldn't be at all surprised if she was, because she'd had a terrible fright.

"I'm not afraid," Mackenzie replied, "he doesn't scare me any more, and you don't have to get dressed on my account."

(12)

"Don't you think that you should call it a night soon?" Monica asked, placing a cup of tea on her sister's desk.

"I've almost finished," Grace replied. "It took me longer to write than I thought it would."

"I'll take it to William first thing in the morning," she said.

"Monica, if he doesn't want to read it, then bring it back," Grace said.

"He'll read it," she assured her. She was going to sit there until William Ellison had read every last word Grace had written.

"I don't want the boys to know about me just yet," Grace said.

"But..." Monica began. She knew where both of her nephews worked, and they had a right to know that their mother was still alive.

"We don't know what William's told them about me," Grace said, "or what they've heard from other people."

"Like Virginia Barton," she said. That woman had nothing but pure evil in her heart, and that was something she would end up paying for. Still, Virginia had always been jealous of Grace, because at one time she'd had plans to marry William. Now it looked as if she was going to take her revenge on Stephen.

"She's nothing but a jumped up stripper," Grace snapped, "and I have the photos to prove it."

"I'm sure that she would be very embarrassed if those photos were ever made public," Monica smiled. "They'd probably kick her out of the country club." It would serve the bitch right if that happened. Virginia certainly wouldn't ever be able to lord it over people again.

"It's nothing less than she deserves," Grace said. "Just make sure that you take plenty of photos of her reaction."

"Don't worry, I will," she assured her. She'd buy a camcorder and get the whole thing on video, so that Grace could watch it time and time again. Even better would be if she was able to film her nephews so that Grace could see for herself what fine men her sons had grown into.

*

"What did you mean by 'he doesn't scare you anymore'?" Stephen asked, as Mack handed him a mug of hot chocolate in the kitchen.

"That he doesn't," she replied.

"If he hit you..." he began.

"He didn't," Mackenzie assured him, "but he could be very cruel at times." She really didn't want to talk about Charles, because he was the reason why she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. "Besides, it's all in the past now," she added. Charles was no longer a part of her life, and never would be again.

"You should have told me," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"So that I could have done something about it," Stephen replied, "nobody has the right to treat you badly, especially not someone like him."

"By something, you mean hit him, don't you," she said. "That would have just made things a lot worse. You saw how he reacted after he got hit with that flour." It was a good thing that police officer had believed her, otherwise Stephen could have been arrested.

"I don't understand why you ever agreed to marry him," he said.

"I thought he loved me," Mackenzie said, "and that I loved him. He was obviously only interested in the money." She'd been pretty stupid to have ever believed that someone like Charles Barton could have ever loved someone like her.

"But how did he know about it?" Stephen asked. "Preston Crawford didn't die until you'd been engaged to Charles for nearly a year."

"I don't know," she replied, "but he knows a lot of people, so he might have found something out that way." It was something she would be interested in finding out as well.

"Mack, I hardly think that Preston Crawford would broadcast the details of his will to anyone, especially to someone like Charles," he said.

"Maybe not," she admitted. But it didn't alter the fact that Charles had only been willing to marry her because of the money she would inherit. It had to say a lot about the person other people saw her as, if they couldn't love her if she didn't have any money. Well, once the year was over, she and Stephen would get divorced, and then they would go back to being best friends. She'd rather have a good friend like him any day than someone who only loved her for what she could do for them.

"You know, it's usually women who do that," Stephen said, "and I've probably dated most of them."

"But you didn't get engaged to any of them," Mackenzie reminded him.

"They weren't what I was looking for," he said. "Half the time I couldn't hold a decent conversation with them, and the other half they were more worried about the way they looked than how I felt."

"Charles always accused me of being overly emotional," she said, "and he didn't like it when I tried arguing with him."

"Arguing's good sometimes," Stephen smiled. "We've had some pretty good ones, and I've enjoyed them all."

"If you can't argue with your best friend, then who can you argue with?" she asked.

*

He had to admit that it was pretty good of Simon to let him have the day off, Jim thought as he drove out to Ice Falls. But then, he probably had enough personal time accumulated to be able to take the next few weeks off. Not that he would, because that would leave the department short handed, and he preferred to take his time off when Blair was able to as well. No doubt his brother would be surprised to see him, but he had the perfect excuse, he wanted to get to know the woman his brother was marrying better. Maybe Blair was right, and he was worried about how this was going to affect his and Stephen's relationship. Then again, it could be the fact that his brother had turned out to be the perfect son for their father. No matter how much better he got on with his dad, he couldn't help feeling that the old man was still disappointed with him for not having followed the family tradition. Still, he had never been cut out to become a businessman. Even before his sentinel abilities had made themselves known, the thought of spending all day behind a desk had filled him with utter dread. Admittedly, he did spend a great deal of time doing paperwork, but he never knew what he would be doing in ten minutes time. Besides, he seriously doubted that Blair would have fitted into corporate life, although he'd seen his friend quickly adapt to a lot of different situations.

Stephen had really landed on his feet by getting engaged to someone with so much money, but his brother had been telling the truth when he'd said that he loved her. From what little his contacts had been able to find out about Mackenzie Crawford, he knew that she had never been in trouble with the police. There wasn't even so much as a parking ticket outstanding. However, recently she had lost both of her only relatives, her brother to a traffic accident, his car had been run off the road and the other vehicle hadn't been traced yet, and her father to a series of heart attacks. Both of which weren't that unusual by themselves. However, the thing that did disturb him was the fact that until recently she had been engaged to someone else, a Charles Barton. Something must have happened for her to have broken up with him and agree to marry Stephen. It was that something which worried him, he didn't want his brother to end up in some sort of trouble, because this Barton wanted revenge. He'd seen what could happen when love affairs turned sour, and it wasn't pretty.

*

"You were out late last night," Virginia said when Charles joined her for breakfast.

"I went to see Mackenzie," he said. "Ellison was there." But not where he'd expected him to be.
"Going and seeing that girl could cause problems," she said, "ones we could do without."

"Don't worry Mother, I know what I'm doing," Charles assured her. He'd give Mackenzie a little time to think about what he said, last night and he was sure that she would change her mind, because she wouldn't want anything to happen to her precious Stephen.

"You had better," Virginia warned him, "because despite our financial troubles, we still have an image to maintain. People expect us to set a certain standard."

"And some good that is going to be, if we lose everything," he snapped. She really didn't seem to understand just how much trouble they were in. It was only a matter of time before the people he'd borrowed money from wouldn't wait any longer and decided to become violent. Not that it would do them any good, because he simply didn't have the money, and he wasn't likely to get it either, the way things were going.

"Charles, there is no need to be rude," she frowned. "Your father is probably spinning in his grave at what you've done to this family."

"This isn't all my fault," he protested, "you keep spending money like it's going out of fashion." His mother was going to find it difficult to stop being so lavish, but she would find it even harder when they had no money and were forced to live in some run down motel.

"Your father trusted you to manage the finances properly," Virginia said, "and you've failed to do that. In fact, you've failed at everything you've ever tried."

"I've done my best, but it's never been enough for you," Charles said. Perhaps if she'd been a little nicer towards Mackenzie, he could have been married to her by now and they would have had all the money they could possibly want. His mother had always been protected from the harsh realities of life, first by his father and then by him, so she didn't understand that people had been against him from the start, and that they wouldn't be happy until they'd destroyed him.

*

She had to admit that she was more than a little nervous about seeing her sister's former husband, Monica thought, knocking on the front door. It was more than likely that he would refuse to see her as soon as he heard her mane, but she wasn't going to leave until he'd at least looked at the letter Grace had written. William Ellison might be a hard man, but he had never been either cruel or abusive towards Grace. It was just that he might not have been the best person for her sister to marry. However, he had been willing to forgive Grace's brief but discreet affair with another man, on the condition that it never happen again, and in her heart she knew that it wouldn't have. Grace had realized a little late in the day that she loved William after all. She had been on her way home when the accident had happened. Since then, Grace had regretted ever leaving her husband and sons. More than once over the years she'd tried to convince her sister to get in contact with William, just to let him know that she was still alive. He would have known that if Grace had cashed the four alimony checks he had sent through his lawyer, but Grace refused to accept a single cent from him.

"I'm here to see Mr. Ellison," she said when the front door was opened by an Asian woman in her late sixties.

"Who may I say is here?" the woman asked.

"Mrs Monica Chapman," Monica replied. He wouldn't recognize her surname, because she hadn't been married the last time she'd been here. "It's a personal matter," she added as she was allowed to enter the house. Very little had changed since the last time she'd been here. The family portrait was gone, but that was only to be expected. William wouldn't have wanted any reminders of his marriage around. Unfortunately, that didn't bode well for Grace. She could only hope that William was in a forgiving mood, otherwise Grace was going to be very disappointed.

*

"Why don't you go see who that is," Mackenzie suggested, "and I'll see to breakfast."

"I can cook," Stephen said. But it was a lot nicer to have someone cook for him.

"Whoever told you that, lied," she smiled.

"You've seen my kitchen," he protested, "it's not just for show." He'd spent a small fortune on making sure he had all the latest gadgets.

"And how many times have you used that electric garlic press?" Mackenzie asked.

"That is beside the point," Stephen said, "and the toast is burning." Obviously spending the night watching old movies had helped to make her feel better. He had to admit that her falling asleep on him had felt pretty good. It meant that she trusted him not to try and take advantage of her in a situation like that.

"It's not," she replied, "and you snore," she added as he left the kitchen.

"How do you know?" he asked, going to answer the front door. He didn't snore, or at least he didn't think that he did, and since she'd fallen asleep before him, there was no way she could know for certain.

"I've heard you," Mackenzie shouted, "and you talk in your sleep."

"I hope I don't," he said, opening the front door.

"Hope you don't what?" Jim asked.

"Nothing," Stephen replied, "why didn't you let me know that you were coming?" He would have made sure that he had been out, if he'd known.

"It was a spur of the moment thing," Jim lied.

"I suppose that you'd better come in," he said, stepping to one side. "Mack's just cooking breakfast," he added. It took a hell of a lot longer than a moment to drive from Cascade.

"So things worked out okay then?" Jim asked.

"We're still getting married, if that's what you mean," Stephen replied defensively.

"That's good," Jim said.

"Just follow the smell of burnt toast, and you'll find the kitchen." There had to be a reason why his brother had come all this way, and he wanted to know what it was.

(13)

"For the last time I haven't burnt the toast," Mackenzie snapped, when she heard Stephen enter the kitchen, "I never burn the toast." The last time she had, it had been because the toaster had decided to freak out on her.

"I was just joking," Stephen said, "you're a great cook."

"Dinner the other night was great," Jim said.

"Stephen, why didn't you tell me that we had a guest?" she asked. Was she going to have to play peacemaker, she wondered. More importantly would she be able to make a good impression on his brother after the scene she'd caused the other night.

"He's not a guest, he's my brother," Stephen said, "you don't have to treat him any differently than you would me."

"I can do that," Mackenzie smiled. Not that she would, because she didn't know Stephen's brother all that well yet. "Why don't the both of you sit down and I'll get you some breakfast." she added. After which she would have to go to the store and not only open it up but see if that manager had turned up yet. If they hadn't then she would have no choice but to spend the day in the store. There were other things she should be doing, liked deciding what sort of wedding she wanted. She knew that she'd told Stephen she wanted to keep things simple but this could be the only time she ever got married so she might as well go all out, that was if Stephen wanted to.

*

He didn't understand what she wanted from him, William thought, reading the letter he'd just been given. By rights he should have thrown the woman out of the house and told her never to contact him again. Yet a part of him wanted to know why his wife hadn't come back when she'd promised that she would. The letter seemed to be the key so he had to finish reading it in order to understand why his visitor had come.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"At my home," Monica replied, "she's been there for a long time. It's all in the letter."

"She hasn't been in touch with the boys, has she?" William asked. He didn't know what he would say to them if she had.

"No," she assured him, "Grace isn't ready to do that just yet. She's not sure what sort of reaction she'll get."

"Not a very positive one," he admitted. And that was his fault. He had never told either of his sons why their mother had left, but the reason why she hadn't wanted to see them again was in the letter.

"I've kept her as up to date about them as I can," Monica said, "she's very proud of them both."

"I would like to see her," he said. They would have a great deal to talk about, and now he knew why she hadn't come back it made her desertion a little easier to bear.

"She'll be pleased," she smiled, "but I should warn you that she'd not the same person she was."
"Is there..." he began. How was he supposed to ask if Grace was with someone.

"William, there hasn't been anyone since she decided to come back to you," Monica assured him, "most of the time she stays in her room and works."

"What is it that she does?" he asleep.

"She's an artist," she replied, "she makes a good living from it."

"Will you tell her that I'll be there at lunch time," William said, "and I'll bring some photos of the boys with me." Despite everything Grace was still their mother, and if she had photos then she would be a lot less likely to try and contact them.

"I'll tell her," Monica said.

*

She was loath to do this but she had been left with no choice, Virginia thought, walking up the front path. A direct approach was the best way of convincing that girl that she had to marry Charles. How someone could live in a house like this was beyond her? Where were the servants supposed to live? Oh, she'd forgotten the girl didn't have servants at the moment. Well, someone was going to have to teach her how to treat them properly and she was just the person to do that.

By the time she'd finished with Mackenzie Crawford she would be begging to be allowed to join her family. Especially, after she's told her all about that slut Grace Ellison. Now that woman had known how to make friends easily. No matter how long she lived she would never forgive her for having an affair with her lover. That was a definite no no in polite society. Besides, the rest of the family were just as bad. Anyone would be grateful to be given a chance to escape their clutches.

Socially, her family was higher up the ladder than the Ellison would ever be, but that didn't stop William Ellison from thinking that he was someone special. As soon as they had money again she was going to see to it that he was kicked out of the country club and never allowed to darken it's doors again.

*

"I'll get it," Mackenzie said, getting up from the table.

"How about I make some coffee while you do that," Stephen suggested.

"Sure," she replied, leaving the kitchen.

"You know, anyone seeing the two of you together would think you were already married," Jim grinned. He had never seen his brother as relaxed or as happy as he was now. "I know that I wasn't very civil to her the other night..." he started to add.

"That's an understatement," Stephen said.

"I just thought that you might be rushing into this whole marriage thing," he admitted, "it sort of came out of the blue."

"Kind of took me by surprise too," Stephen grinned, "but I couldn't be happier."

"And it doesn't bother you that she was engaged to someone else?" Jim asked.

"You mean Charles Barton?" Stephen said. "No it doesn't. He didn't treat Mack very well. She'd been planning to break it off for a while, only her dad got sick."

"I see," he said. It made sense to him.

"And before you ask, she's not going to do the same thing to me," Stephen assured him, "she made a mistake in ever getting involved with him. It just took her a while to realize that."

"If he ever gives you any trouble..." Jim began.

"He got into the house last night," Stephen said, "gave Mack one hell of a scare. He had a key, and she didn't give it to him. I'm going to have all the locks changed today."

"You did report it, didn't you?" he asked.

"No, he had a key," Stephen replied, "he'd just say that she'd given it to him, and it would come down to his word against hers."

"The next time anything happens, I want you to report it straight away, okay," Jim said. Key or no key, nobody had the right to go into someone else's home in the middle of the night unless they either had permission, or it was an emergency.

*

"What do you want?" Mackenzie said, opening the door and seeing Virginia Barton standing there. Charles' mother was the last person she had expected to see. The woman hadn't so much as given her the time of day while she'd been engaged to Charles, now she was making home visits.

"I want to talk to you," Virginia replied. "Do you realize that Charles is heartbroken because of you?"

"The only thing he's heartbroken over is not getting his hands on my money," she said, "and if he ever comes near me again, I'll have him arrested." Or at least she would try to.

"How dare you threaten my son!" Virginia snapped. "If you have any sense at all, you will marry him."

"Actually, if I'd had any sense, I would never have gone near him in the first place," she said. Only she had been too blinded by Charles' flattery to see him as he really was. Fortunately, she had opened her eyes in time to stop herself from making an even bigger mistake by marrying him. "And Stephen is a lot better person than Charles is ever likely to be," she added.

"There is a great deal about that family you don't know," Virginia said. "Take the mother, she's nothing but a slut. You wouldn't believe the number of men she's had."

"Look, why don't you go away," Mackenzie said, "and don't bother coming back." She then slammed the door in Virginia's face. She should have known that Charles's mother hadn't come for her health. However, she didn't have to listen to anything that woman had to say about Stephen or any other member of his family. All she knew about Stephen's mother was that she had left a long time ago and hadn't been in contact since.

*

"Well?" Grace asked expectantly when Monica returned home.

"He'll be here at lunch time," Monica replied. "He's going to be bringing some photos of the boys for you to look at."

"How was he?" she asked. She wanted to know, so that she could be prepared for any argument which broke out.

"Surprised," Monica said, "but he read the letter, and seemed to understand the situation."

"It will be good to see him again," Grace admitted. He was bound to have aged, because she had, despite all her operations. Still, he knew that she wasn't perfect anymore. Even so, it was bound to be a shock when he saw her.

"Would you like me to do your hair for you?" Monica asked.

"Yes," she replied. She might as well make an effort to look the best she could. After all, William was going to be her first visitor in a very long time. Even if he changed his mind and decided not to come, she would be able to say she had been ready to see him.

"You know, he still lives in the same house, with the same housekeeper," Monica said.

"I would have thought that Sally might have retired by now," Grace said. After all, she had been with the family ever since Jimmy had been born. Still, she supposed that it was a good thing that her sons had had Sally there while they'd been growing up.

"Grace, I don't want to put a damper on things..." Monica began.

"I'm not holding out any hopes of ever being able to go back to William, if that's what you're thinking," she said, "but there's no reason why we can't talk." She knew that it was highly unlikely that William would want her back after all this time, but there was no reason why they couldn't be friends.

*

Something was seriously wrong for her not to have said a single word to either him or Jim after having come back from answering the door, Stephen thought, as Mack opened the store up. If he came straight out and asked her, then he wasn't likely to get an answer, but he needed to know if there was anything he could do to help her.

"Looks like that manager hasn't shown up again," he said. So he was definitely going to have to talk to Smith and find out what was going on, because something wasn't right.

"That's okay," Mackenzie said, "I can manage by myself, if you want to spend the day with your brother."

"There must be something we can do," Stephen said. If he spent too much time with his brother, they were likely to start arguing again. Besides, he didn't want to run the risk of Charles showing up while Mack was alone. The man wasn't just going to go away because she'd told him to. He had to admit that he would feel a lot better if there was someone with her all the time, at least until they were married.

"You could help when the delivery gets here," she said. "Some of the boxes can be pretty heavy."
"Anything to help out," Jim said.

"I pay five bucks an hour," Mackenzie said.

"And you're allowed to have flour fights," Stephen grinned, "as long as you clean up afterwards." Maybe he could make her laugh, because it had worked yesterday.

"He's pretty good with a broom," she said, "and his aim's not bad either."

"I would have hit you, if you hadn't ducked," Stephen said. Luckily she had, and he had hit Charles instead. "Is that why his mother paid you a visit this morning?" he added.

"No," Mackenzie replied, "and I don't want to talk about it."

"If she said something..." Stephen began. He'd heard the way Virginia Barton treated people, and it was obvious where Charles had gotten his superior attitude from.

"Stephen, I said that I don't want to talk about it," she snapped, entering the store.

"Mack..." he began.

"Leave it," Jim said, "she'll talk about it if she wants to."

"You don't know her," Stephen said, "what she's been through recently."

"I know about her losing both her brother and her father," Jim said, "that must have been rough on her."

"Rough! She was devastated," he said. "Yhey were the only family she had. They died while that son of a bitch Charles Barton is still walking around."

"I take it that you don't like him," Jim said.

"Even dad at his worst doesn't hold a candle to that man," Stephen said. "He is scum. If he can't get something he wants, he'll destroy it, including Mack."

*

It didn't matter who he talked to, nobody was willing to say a bad word against Ellison, Charles thought. And why would they, when he was going to be a very powerful man once he'd married Mackenzie. He couldn't allow that to happen, though. The problem was, he didn't know what he was going to do. Going to the police and filing a complaint against him wouldn't do any good, because his brother was a detective, and everyone knew that they took care of their own. Mackenzie was a much better target, but he couldn't be seen to be publicly going against of her, because of the power she now had. Not that she would use it against him, as she didn't know how. However, Ellison did, and he wouldn't hesitate to use that power. In fact, he wouldn't be at all surprised if Ellison hadn't been plotting his downfall all along. It would certainty explain a few things, such as why Ellison had been so interested in Mackenzie for so long. After all, if he could find out the contents of Preston Crawfords will, then so could someone else.

There was a chance that he was going about this the wrong way, because Mackenzie was the one who had direct access to the money, but she wouldn't be able to touch it for some time to come. Instead, he could try going to Ellison and asking him for the money, on the premise he would never contact Mackenzie again. Naturally, he had no intention of sticking to any such agreement, but the money he got might be enough to solve his immediate problems, and all he would be doing was delaying the time when he would get a much bigger payout from Mackenzie. Besides, the fact that Ellison had bought him off was something that he could use against him in the future. Mackenzie would not be at all happy to learn that she had, in fact, been bought.

(14)

She was never going to look that happy on her wedding day, Mackenzie thought, flipping through a magazine, because hers wasn't going to be a real marriage. Instead, it was an arrangement so that she could inherit money. Not that she really needed the money, she didn't have any debts and the store brought in a reasonable enough living most of the time. Sure, it might be hard sometimes, but she could manage, besides, she couldn't accept that it was fair to Stephen. Why should he have to put his life on hold for a year just to satisfy something her dad had planned? She really wished that her dad was still around so that she could ask him why he'd done it. So he'd been worried that she might have been taken advantage of by someone like Charles, but she was old enough to make her own decisions and mistakes. Charles had definitely been a mistake, once that she would never repeat. Her dad had to have known that this might wreck her friendship with Stephen. Then, there was the way her heart sank when he told someone he loved her, because she knew that he didn't mean it. Things would be really great if he did.

He'd said that it would be easy to love her, so why didn't he? For a long time she'd had feelings other than friendship for him. She had really hoped that getting engaged to Charles would put a stop to them, only it hadn't worked. It was stupid to think that he would ever feel the same way about her. Why should he? There were a lot more beautiful women out there, and when the year was up, he would go and find one, and she would be relegated to the role of best friend again.

*

"I didn't mean to disturb you," Jim said. She didn't look very happy.

"You're not," Mackenzie replied.

"We haven't had much of a chance to talk, have we?" he asked.

"No," she said, "so what do you think of the store?"

"It's nice," he replied. Making small talk with her wasn't going to get to the bottom of whatever was wrong. "You know, Stephen can be a jerk sometimes, but he doesn't mean it," he added.

"I know," she said, "and I usually tell him when he's being one."

"He's worried about you," Jim said, "that your visitor might have upset you." He couldn't come out and tell her that he'd heard everything that woman had said, because she'd want to know how he could do that.

"She said that Charles was heartbroken," Mackenzie said.

"Maybe he is," Jim suggested.

"Trust me, he's not," she replied, "at least not about losing me, it's the money he's worried about."

"My dad told me that you'd inherited Preston Crawford's estate," he said.

"Only some of it," she said. "I got the Jags, a seat on the board of Crawford Industries and a lot of money. Enough to never have to work again. And I would give it all up to have my dad back."

"Somehow I can't see you on the board of Crawford Industries," he said. She would get eaten alive in a boardroom.

"I'm not going to be," Mackenzie said, "Stephen is. It's pays a lot, and it's the sort of job Charles would kill for."

"Stephen told me about him breaking into the house last night," Jim said.

"He had a key, so it wasn't really breaking in," she said, "and we're going to have all the locks changed."

"You were lucky that all he did was talk to you," he said. And changing the locks wasn't going to stop that man from doing anything else. "You should report it," he added.

"Maybe I should," she said, "because I wouldn't want anything to happen to Stephen. He's my best friend, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost him."

"You should tell him that," Jim said. It would be worthwhile making a few enquiries about Charles Barton, just to be on the safe side.

"Don't worry, I will," Mackenzie smiled.

"I think Stephen is very lucky to be marrying you," he grinned. His brother would be an idiot if he screwed things up with her.

"I'm the lucky one," she said, "friends like Stephen don't come along every day."

*

He had no idea what Jim had said to her, Stephen thought, but Mack was a lot happier than she had been before. Whatever had upset her had been sorted out, he just wished that he had been the one to help her. Yet again his brother was trying to outshine him. Well, he wasn't going to let him. Mack was his fiancée, and it was about time he started showing people that publicly. She might not like what he was going to do, but it would put to rest any doubts his brother might still have about their relationship. Besides, he was going to have to do it at some point, and it would be much better to get the first time over with here and now. It wasn't as if he hadn't kissed her before, because he had, just not in the romantic sense. Although, he did have to admit that he had wondered what it would be like. Mack was beautiful, and he was more than a little surprised that nobody but Charles had ever asked her out.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear while wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I love you too," Mackenzie replied, "more than you know."

"Maybe you could show me later," he suggested, kissing the side of her neck. He didn't feel as embarrassed as he thought might be. Whatever perfume she was wearing smelled wonderful.

"We'll see," she blushed.

"I'm not holding you too tightly, am I?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "it feels just right," she added, placing her hands on top of his.

"I'm glad," Stephen smiled. He'd hugged her last night, but it hadn't felt as intimate as this. For the first time since Rick had died, that empty space in his heart didn't feel so big.

*

Even though he wasn't planning on staying long, he had made an effort with his appearance, William thought. There were certain standards to be maintained, although he wasn't entirely sure which ones applied to a situation like this. At the back of his mind was the thought that Grace wanted something either from him or the boys, but she would have come out and asked if there was. In all the time they'd been divorced, only a few alimony checks had remained uncashed, but he had never meant for her to live in poverty after their marriage had ended. But it could be as simple as her wanting to find out how her sons were doing. Until she had left him, Grace had been a good mother. It was then that her attention towards the boys had started to wan. The last argument he'd had with her had been about her refusal to take the boys while he went to a conference. After that, she'd refused to see them. He'd always assumed that it was because they would have put a damper on her new life. If this first meeting went well, then they would have to talk about re-introducing her to the boys. But that wasn't something he would be willing to do, unless he was certain that she wouldn't take off again.

"Grace," he said expectantly, when the front door opened.

"William, I'm glad you came," Monica smiled, "Grace is in the living room. She's a little nervous about seeing you."

"It has been a long time," he said. He had had a few second thoughts about coming, but had decided that it was the right thing to do.

"Why don't you go through," she suggested, "I'll bring coffee through in a few minutes."

*

He was going to take one look at her and leave, Grace thought. Perhaps, this hadn't been such a good idea after all, but it was too late to change her mind about seeing him. She had to admit that she hadn't really been expecting him to come, despite what he had said to Monica.

"William" she said softly. He had grown older, but the years had been a lot kinder to him than they had been to her. "You're looking well," she added.

"Your sister said that I should come straight through and see you," he said.

"And now you have," Grace said. "I'll understand if you want to leave." Her sister was the only person who was able to stand being in the same room as her for any length of time these days.
"I've brought some photo albums for you to keep," William said, walking over and sitting down next to her, "but first I'd like to know why you're back."

"I've always been here," she replied. "I thought it would be for the best if I didn't see the boys."

hey wouldn't have recognized her as being their mother and it would have broken her heart if they'd turned away from her in disgust. "You can see why," she added.

"Grace, you should have told me about this," he said, "I might have been able to help you. I'm sure that it can't have been easy for you managing on the money I sent you."

"Four alimony checks wouldn't have done a great deal, even if I had cashed them," she said.

"Four, but..." he began.

"But what?" she asked.

"I have been writing and sending a check every month since the divorce became final," he said.

"Well, I haven't been receiving them" Grace said. "I still have the letter from your lawyer saying that you were no longer going to support me." Not that she had expected him to, because it had been her fault their marriage had failed.

"Well, the checks have been cashed by someone," William said, "I've even increased the amount over the years."

"That was very generous of you," she said.

"You were my wife," he said, "the mother of my sons."

"Our sons," Grace corrected him, "although Monica tells me that Stephen takes after you, rather than me."

"Your sister has been spying on the boys?" he asked.

"I prefer kept a discreet eye on," she said, "and Jimmy is in the papers a great deal."

"Then you must know that Stephen is getting married shortly," William said.

"Yes," she replied, "Virginia Barton is not at all happy about it. Still, that's hardly surprising, considering the fact her son was engaged to Mackenzie Crawford first."

"Obviously the young woman has developed a sense of taste," he smiled.

"Or come to her senses," Grace said. She really wished that she could have returned his smile, but her face muscles refused to work most of the time. "Our son is a very handsome young man," she added.

"If you would like to go to the wedding, then I'm sure that something could be arranged," William said.

"William, I can't go out looking like this," she said, "and who would you say I was? I don't want to cause trouble for Stephen on his wedding day. Just make sure that I have a video of it to watch, and I'll be happy." It would be the same as actually being there, but it was the best she could hope for.

*

She had done her best to try and persuade that girl to marry Charles as she had originally agreed to, Virginia thought, pouring herself a large drink, only it hadn't worked, and for the first time ever, her family was facing total poverty. If Charles had told her a lot sooner what he had been planning, then she might have be able to help him. As it was, he had left it rather late in the day to tell her anything, and as usual he had messed it up. Still, there were a few options left open to them, a few people she could talk to and get help from, because she knew things that they would rather not be made public.

Life was about to become more difficult not only for Mackenzie Crawford, but the Ellison family as well. Soon they would discover that doors which had previously been open to them were now slammed shut in their faces, never to be opened again. It wouldn't take her long before she discovered the whereabouts of Grace Ellison, and expose her as the slut she was. Public humiliation would teach them all a lesson that they would never forget. And during all this, both she and Charles would look like the innocent victims of a young woman who was only out for what she could get. Given her background, it wasn't difficult to see who would be believed and who would be shunned by polite society.

*

He couldn't believe how easy it was to get into one of these buildings, Charles thought. So much for paying for extra security. All he had to do was go up to the floor Ellison's apartment was on and put his proposition to him. Of course, he might not be there, but if he wasn't, all he had to do was go to Mackenzie's store and he would soon show up to defend her. It really was rather pathetic the way that a supposedly smart man like Ellison was willing to run around after her. Still, with the amount of money involved, he might have gotten better results if he'd played the game as well. But his father had always told him that no woman was worth making a fool out of yourself for. Well, there was no need for him to do that, because Mackenzie had already done it to him. Oh, people were polite to his face, but behind his back they were all having a good laugh at his expense. They were all going to pay for treating him like this. The fact that he had done exactly the same thing in the past didn't matter. He was a Barton, and therefore above everyone else in society.

The same people who were now turning their backs on him had only been too pleased to have been his friends a few days ago. It just went to show how shallow some people were. However, what they'd forgotten was the fact that he knew all sorts of things about them that he would use against them now. Unfortunately, there was very little that he could use against Mackenzie, because she had led a very dull life. Even after meeting him, her life had remained the same. There was nothing to stop him from making up some things about her, terrible things that would cause her serious trouble. Some people would believe anything they heard, and if it got into the papers, then so much the better.

*

Now he could see that they were a real couple, Jim thought. Although, Stephen was probably going over the top with the affection he was showering her with. Still, she didn't seem to mind, and Stephen was happy. It was like his brother had suddenly become an entirely different person than the one he had started to get to know. But then, he was a different person when he was with Blair than when he was with other people. Blair was the one person he could be himself around. Maybe the same thing was true for his brother. After all, Mackenzie had known him for a long time had there were probably things that she knew about Stephen that nobody else did.

"Is it always this empty?" he asked. There hadn't been a single customer since she'd opened the store.

"No," Mackenzie replied, "I had a few customers yesterday, but this happens sometimes."

"She wouldn't be here today if that manager had shown up," Stephen said, "it's two days running that he hasn't."

"Maybe you should fire him," Jim suggested.

"I didn't hire him to begin with," she said, "my dad's lawyer did."

"I'm going to call him and find out what's going on," Stephen said, "because if he's not going to show, we need to find someone else for the next couple of weeks."

"If you want to go off somewhere, I can take care of things here," Jim said. After chasing down serial killers and various other criminals, keeping his eye on a store for a couple of hours would be a doddle.

"We do still need to look at the house," Stephen said, "and it doesn't look like that delivery's going to arrive."

"I don't understand why it's not here," Mackenzie said, "they usually call when it's going to be late."

"Maybe there's been some sort of mix-up," Stephen said.

"The same mix-up that's meant I haven't had any customers so far today?" she asked.

"Like you said, it's probably just slow," Stephen said. "I'm sure that things will pick up soon."

"But what if they don't?" Mackenzie asked. "This store has been a part of my family for a long time."

"Then they don't," Stephen said. "You can't make people come if they don't want to."

(15)

Grace was smiling, even though you couldn't tell it by looking at her, Monica thought. Perhaps that was the saddest thing about her sister, she couldn't smile. Still, once you got to know Grace, you could tell what mood she was in by looking at her eyes. This was probably the happiest she'd seen her sister in a long time. Seeing William seemed to be having a positive effect on Grace. With any luck, William might be able to persuade her not to have any more surgery unless there was a hundred precent guarantee that it would improve her condition.

"Has Stephen set a date for the wedding?" she asked.

"Not that I know of," William replied, "but I'm sure that he will soon."

"From what I've heard, she's a very nice young woman," she said, "too nice to have ever gotten involved with Charles Barton."

"His mother isn't happy about the wedding," he said. "You should have heard the language she used when she called me. I would repeat it, but I'm too much of a gentleman to do so."

"William, I know what she's been saying," Grace said, "and what she is likely to say about me."

"Not the truth, that's for sure," Monica said. "Virginia Barton wouldn't know the truth if it bit her on the butt." Whatever cheap trash came out of that woman's mouth would be swiftly rammed back down it, if she had anything to do with it.

"I pity that girl..." Grace began.

"Her name is Mackenzie," William said, "and if Virginia Barton tries to spoil Stephen's happiness, she will wish that she had never been born."

"She's going to try," Monica said, "but nobody is going to listen to anything she has to say. I'm not without friends at the country club."

"And I have photos of her performance," Grace said. "She should have been more careful about who she gave them to."

*

She had every right to be worried about the store, Stephen thought, driving him and Mackenzie to Cascade. Any business couldn't stay solvent for long if it didn't have any customers. Whenever they'd had problems at the race track, they'd run promotions to get people though the gates. After that attendance had gone up. However, a small store wasn't the same as a multi million dollar business, but there had to be something that he could do to help her turn things around. A good place to start would be to find out why that manager still hadn't put in an appearance, because Mack needed someone she could trust to run the store while she wasn't there. She was going to need someone for quite a bit of time while she got ready for the wedding. No matter how simple a wedding she wanted it to be, it was still going to take some planning, including where it would be held and who they were going to invite. Not that Mack had many people to invite.

"So, would now be a good time to talk about the wedding?" he asked.

"Sure," Mackenzie replied, "I suppose that we should set a date, the sooner the better."

"You know, that all depends on how fancy you want things to be," Stephen said. He'd seen her flicking through that bridal magazine, and if she wanted a big wedding, then he was prepared to go along with that, because it was going to be as much her day as his.

"I still think we should keep it simple," she said. "It's not as if I have anyone to invite or to give me away."

"That doesn't mean that we can't have a great day," he said, "and afterwards we can go away for a few days. That's if you want to."

"You mean a honeymoon, don't you?" Mackenzie said. "What about work?"

"Sitting on the board of Crawford Industries isn't a full time job," he replied. And it was one that he could do in his sleep, so there would be plenty of time for them to do other things. "People will expect us to have a honeymoon," he added, "and we can go anywhere you want.

"Even Europe?" she asked.

"Just tell me where you want to go, and I'll arrange everything," Stephen said. He would make sure that she had a vacation she would never forget.

*

Accidents were always happening on these back roads, Charles thought, and it would be a terrible shame if one happened now. There was a great deal of money to be made from suing someone, but most of the money would go on medical bills, as his insurance had lapsed. Besides, you could never guarantee that the injury wouldn't be permanent. Still, if he was badly injured, it might just invoke a sense of sympathy in Mackenzie. It would certainly paint her in a much worse light than she was now. Who wouldn't see her as a cold hearted bitch for abandoning him in his moment of need? All he had to do was wait for an opportune moment and have an accident. Things were certainly desperate enough for him to consider that a viable option. His mother would be beside herself if anything happened to him, because she would never be able to cope on her own.

Unfortunately, his mother had never learned how to fend for herself. His father had always provided for his mother's needs, while she had been encouraged to promote the family name in all the right social circles. Half the business deals he'd made in the past had been made in country clubs or expensive restaurants. Now that was all going to be a thing of the past, and he would be lucky if he could afford to eat at Wonderburger in future. More than once he had thought about running away, but the people he'd borrowed money from weren't just going to write it off. They would, in all likelihood, go after his mother, and she was in no state to defend herself against them. He wished that he had never risked everything in order to try and make a bigger profit, but that was what had been expected of him. In a few weeks, his business accounts would be audited and the extent of his losses would be made public. The police would be called, because he had committed a very serious fraud. He was about to become one of the most hated men in Cascade, and it was all Mackenzie's fault. Somehow he was going to have to make her suffer for that, before his world collapsed.

*

Her dad had to have known that she wouldn't feel comfortable in a house like this, Mackenzie thought, looking at the huge white house. At least, she knew who one of her neighbours was, even though Stephen wasn't too happy about it. Still, living next door to his dad might just prompt Stephen to think about talking to him. She certainly wasn't going to slam the door in his father's face, if he called to see them.

"How are you supposed to look after a house like this?" she asked.

"You get a housekeeper," Stephen replied. "Sally's been with my dad for as long as I can remember."

"Stephen, I don't like the idea of having a stranger in the house," Mackenzie said. She wouldn't be able to have any privacy at all. The few times she's been to Charles' home there'd always been someone there watching her. It was almost as if they were afraid that she was going to steal something. Not that she would have, because she had never stolen anything in her life. Well, not unless you counted the five building blocks she'd taken from kindergarten, but her dad had marched her straight back into the classroom and made her apologize to her teacher.

"After a while, they're not strangers," he assured her. "Sally's a part of the family. She practically raised me and Jim. Besides, they don't have to live in."

"What am I supposed to do while someone else is doing the housework?" she asked. She was used to doing things for herself. It had been that way for a long time, as neither her dad or Rick had been very good at domestic matters.

"You have your store," Stephen replied, "and whatever charities you want to get involved with. Trust me, you are not going to get bored."

"I'm not going to turn into one of those ladies who lunch every day," Mackenzie said. "I mean, can you really see me wearing Chanel?" She'd rather shoot herself than become like Charles' mother. That was a woman whose face would probably crack if she smiled.

"You don't have to be anything you don't want to be," he said. "I mean, with you being a part owner of the Jags, you'll be able to go to practises and all the social events."

"You'll go with me, won't you?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied, "but if I can't go, then I know a couple of guys who will."

*

Seeing and talking to Grace after so long had certainly straightened a few things out, William thought, when he returned home. He truly believed that she wasn't going to cause any trouble for his sons. And perhaps she had been right to stay away for so long, considering her condition. However, there was now the mystery of what had happened to the alimony checks he had sent over the years. If Grace hadn't received them like she was supposed to have done, then someone had stolen a great deal of money from him, and that was not something he was going to allow anyone to get away with. Fortunately, he had kept excellent records for years, so it was just a matter of his going through them to see just how much money had gone astray. After which, he was going to call his lawyer and demand to know what was going on, because he deserved an explanation. If a very good one wasn't forthcoming then he would take the matter further.

At some point he was going to have to talk to both of his sons about their mother, which wasn't going to be easy, considering the fact he hadn't mentioned her name in a very long time. Perhaps it would be better if he said that she had been in touch with him and would like to see them. However, he was going to have to warn them about her condition. Still, no doubt Jimmy had seen a great deal worse in the course of his work. It was Stephen that he was worried about. His youngest son was not going to be very forgiving. After all, he had been devoted to his mother, and had taken her leaving a great deal harder than Jimmy had. He hadn't made things any easier by wiping out all traces of Grace from the house. All the things she had left behind were in storage, he hadn't been able to throw them away, just in case she did come back. Her clothes would be out of date, but there were probably other things that she would like to have.

*

"Can I help you?" Jim asked, when a very well dressed man entered the store. He doubted that this was a regular customer.

"Where is he?" the man demanded.

"Who are you looking for?" he asked.

"Stephen Ellison," he replied.

"He's not here," Jim replied, wondering what this man could possibly want with his brother. "I can pass a message onto him," he added.

"I want to talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey," the man said dismissively.

"Listen buddy..." he began.

"Buddy! I'm Charles Barton, and I own this store," the man said. "If you want to keep your job, you should remember that."

"I thought Mackenzie Crawford owned it," he said. At least that was what he had been led to believe. So, this was the Charles Barton she'd been engaged to before Stephen. It was no wonder Mackenzie had broken off her engagement to him.

"She doesn't own squat," Charles said, "so I wouldn't try getting into her good books if I were you, because it won't do you any good. This store has been sold."

"That explains the lack of deliveries," Jim said. This guy had absolutely no idea who he was, and that was something that he could use to his advantage.

"I cancelled them," Charles admitted. "I have plans for this land."

"Such as?" he asked. The more he could find out the better, because he had a very nasty feeling that this guy was going to end up going after Stephen.

"A hotel," Charles replied, "something that is really going to shake this dump up."

"Maybe I'll apply for a job there, when it opens," Jim said. "When is that going to be?"

"Soon," Charles replied, "the deal's just gone through, but I wouldn't bother applying if I were you, you won't have the education."

(16)

Nobody was returning her calls, Virginia thought, pouring herself another drink, her fourth so far. They weren't going to either, because somehow they'd found out her family was broke. There would be no more invitations to parties and social events. Her life was just about over, and she didn't know what she was going to do, because it had been a very long time since she'd been a social outcast. Back then it had been because of the way she'd earned her living, not that she'd had much choice in the matter. The only other job open to her would have meant waiting on other people, and she'd always known that she was meant for better things. And she had found them in the form of her husband. He had elevated her to the heights of society, and now she was going to be plunged to the depths of it. At her time of life it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, for her to try and rebuild her life. Perhaps she shouldn't have turned down all of those offers of marriage after her husband had passed away. But at the time, she had thought that her future was secure. Never in her worst dreams could she have imagined that Charles would have screwed things up so badly.

Still, it wasn't all his fault, that girl had to accept her share of the blame. Who did she think she was, bringing one of the greatest families in the state to it's knees? It would serve that little slut right if she met with a very nasty accident. She wouldn't be laughing at anyone then. Accidents had been known to happen around her, in fact there had been some very serious ones in the past. Fortunately, she'd been able to make sure that she wasn't blamed for any of them. But this time she didn't have the money to buy herself out of trouble. Still, she was smart enough to have survived the dog eat dog world of high society for the past forty years. She had a spotless reputation as far as the law was concerned, so it would be her first offense. Naturally, she would get off, simply because she would lie better than anyone else, and she was worth a million Mackenzie Crawfords.

*

"You should have told him the whole truth," Monica said, "he deserves to know it."

"It would have only caused him more pain if I had," Grace replied.

"That woman wrecked your life," she said, "and you're just letting her get away with it."

"I'm not," Grace said.

"Then what are you going to do about it?" she asked. If it was up to her, she would have gone after Virginia Barton a long time ago and made her suffer for what she'd done.

"Nothing overt," Grace replied, "besides, she probably has enough to deal with at the moment. They're broke and her son owes me a great deal of money."

"You lent Charles Barton money?" Monica asked. "How could you do that?" Sometimes she had to admit that her sister's sense of judgment might have been impaired a long time ago.

"I invested money with his firm," Grace said, "and now I'm going to withdraw my investment. He'll have to sell everything, and he'll still owe me money."

"You know, you might not get your money back," she said.

"Don't worry, I'll get it," Grace assured her, "and he's never going to work in this town or any other, because he'll be in prison for embezzlement and fraud."

"Grace, how are you going to put him there?" Monica asked. "You never leave the house."

"Maybe it's time I did," Grace said, "at least to sit in the garden for a while."

"We could have coffee out there," she said. It was good to see that Grace's attitude had changed, although it was strange to think that William was the cause of it. Not that it was going to be easy for her sister to face the world again. People could be very cruel, and that was what had made Grace stop going out in the first place. Still, they would face the world together, just as they had done since Grace had had her accident.

*

This was one room that they weren't going to need, Stephen thought, looking at the nursery . It was a pity, because Mack would make a great mom, the sort who wouldn't leave her children behind. He'd never told Mack a lot about his childhood, because he'd been ashamed of the way his father had treated him, and he'd also done some pretty stupid things to get Jim into trouble. The car being the main one, that had led to his brother being sent away while he'd gotten to go on a trip to Europe with their dad. Even now he could remember what sound the metal had made as he'd hit it with the crowbar. The satisfaction of having destroyed something his father had loved hadn't lasted as long as he'd thought it would. After an hour he'd been filled with a sense of utter dread, and by the time his dad had gotten home from work, he'd thought about running away, and had even gone so far as to pack a bag. Their dad had instantly blamed Jim for it. He'd never seen their dad as angry as that before, not even the time he'd gotten a B instead of the A which had been expected of him. Maybe he should have spoken up and admitted that it had been him who had damaged the car, but he'd been too afraid to. Besides, Jim could have ratted him out if he'd wanted to, but he hadn't. That was something he'd never understood. He owed Jim one hell of an apology for what he'd done, but he really couldn't see himself confessing his crime to his dad anytime soon.

Things might have been different if their mother had stayed, but she hadn't. One day while he and Jim had been at school, all her things had been cleared out of the house. For a while afterwards there had been the occasional visit to see her, but then, for some reason, all contact with her had stopped. Obviously, he'd been as big a disappointment to her as he had been to his father. If he ever became a father, he would do a hell of a lot better job than his father had done with him and Jim. Not that he had any intention of becoming a father any time soon.

*

He was going to have the date of the store's demolition brought forward, Charles thought, because that manager was just the sort who would go running off to tell Mackenzie what he was up to. Even if she believed him, there wasn't a great deal that she could do about it. Her signature was on all the paperwork and the money had already been deposited into his account, where it had quickly gone out again. Money didn't seem to last as long as it once had. Still, he did have a great deal more expenses these days, and he wasn't even sure that the money Mackenzie had inherited would be enough to keep him in the style to which he had become accustomed. Selling both of the houses she owned would bring in more money, especially the one her father had bought her, but even then it still might not be enough.

Everyone knew that she'd inherited a fortune, so they would all be bending over backwards to lend her money, and that was something he could use to his advantage. Her lawyer would help him, because he was desperate for money as well, and he could expose him for embezzlement at any time. Smith had been helping himself to his clients' money for decades. There was no way the man could possibly pay back everything he'd borrowed. Hell, he probably didn't even know how much he'd taken. He had to admit that Smith had a pretty good system for taking money without anyone finding out about it. As the senior partner of a very prestigious law firm, people trusted Smith, and if a check didn't arrive on time or at all, they put it down to being lost in the post. That was how he'd first come across Smith's scam, and now the man was completely in his power.

*

"I don't care who he's got in with him," William snapped, pushing past Smith's secretary. He wasn't going to be fobbed off with some pitiful excuse. He was going to get an explanation, even if he had to sit in Smith's office all day until he got an answer which made sense. He'd made a few discreet inquiries, after checking his own records, and had discovered that other people had money go missing as well during deals with Smith. Checks did go missing from time to time, but Smith was missing far more than usual had. The money had gone somewhere, and he wanted to know where and have it repaid. "I want an explanation," he added, glaring at Smith.

"You can't just burst in here," Smith said. "If you don't leave immediately, I will call the police and have you removed."

"Go ahead and do that," he said. "I'm sure that they would be very interested in the fact that my ex-wife hadn't been receiving her alimony for the past thirty years, despite the fact that you claim to have been sending them out."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Smith said.

"I'll come back later," the man sitting across from Smith said, "after all our business is almost concluded."

"What business?" William asked.

"That is private," Smith said.

"I don't mind telling him," the man said, "it'll be in the papers in the morning. I've just bought some land over in Ice Falls, demolition starts day after tomorrow. Never would have thought she would sell it so cheaply though, but when you've got all that money, I guess you can sell cheap."

"There wouldn't happen to be a store on this land, would there?" William asked, as Smith turned very pale.

"Sure is," the man replied, "a real old-fashioned general store. Her fiancé's dealing with her side of things. Only met her once, a red head with a temper to match."

"That's not his fiancé," William smiled. "Mackenzie Crawford is a brunette."

"You sure about that?" the man asked.

"I'm positive," he replied, "and if I were you, I'd get another lawyer to look at anything you've signed."

*

"Ellison," Stephen said, answering his cell phone, "Jim, what can I do for you? He said what! There is no way she would ever do that," he added, "if she was that broke, I would give her the money." Mack would never sell her store, especially not to some big company which would knock it down and build a hotel on the land. The store was a huge part of her life, and always would be. He had to admit that he envied the fact she had a family tradition to hold on to. "You didn't hit him, did you?" He, for one, would really have enjoyed seeing Charles Barton after Jim had finished with him. Still, if he got the chance, he would lay Charles Barton out cold on the floor. "Don't worry, I'll tell her," he added. He then closed his cell phone. How the hell was he supposed to tell Mack that Charles had sold her store, and that legally there might not be anything that she could do about it. She was going to be heartbroken if that was the case, because the store was the one thing that had kept her going after Rick's accident and when her dad had gotten ill. She deserved a great deal better than she'd gotten recently and he was determined to make sure that she got it.

Even if there wasn't anything that they could do to get the store back, he would buy her another one, in Cascade. He knew that it wouldn't be the same, but at least she would be able to work for herself. She'd often talked about expanding and improving the store. Well, she would be able to do both if she started again in Cascade, and he was more than willing to help her do that, if that was what she wanted. If it wasn't, then he would find another way to help her. The problem was that she could be damned stubborn when she wanted to be.

*

People got away with it all the time, Virginia thought, seeing Mackenzie standing on the pavement outside of the house which should have been her son's. What right did that little tramp have to live? Let alone live somewhere like that. None at all. With the amount she'd had to drink it would be put down as just another tragic accident. If she was going to lose everything then she might as well take that tramp with her. Still, this was one blow that her family would never recover from.

Slamming her foot down on the accelerator, she took a deep breath and held it as she aimed the car at Mackenzie. Last time her intended victim had survived, but she wouldn't be making that mistake again. She couldn't wait to see the look of horror in her victim's eyes as she realized what was about to happen to her, the way her body would be crushed by the car. And if she wasn't dead, then she would run her over until she was sure that she was. In a few brief seconds, Mackenzie Crawford would be little more than a red smear on the pavement.

*

She wasn't going to be able to get out of the way in time, Mackenzie thought when the car was almost on top if her. The only thing that she could do was try and limit the amount of damage it did to her body. She could clearly see who was driving, the woman had made it clear that she didn't like her, but she had never expected her to do anything to physically harm her. It was the money she'd inherited which had caused all this trouble. If she survived, then she was going to walk away from it, because it wasn't worth it.

Now would be a really good time to move, she told herself, jumping to one side she felt an intense pain in one of her legs. After that, she wasn't really sure of what was going on, but she could hear Stephen shouting and someone in the background was screaming. Then she realized that it was her. Time seemed to slow down as she heard a car engine revving up. Oh god! she was coming back to finish what she'd started, and there was no way she could move out of the way. Someone dragged her towards the front door, causing more pain in her leg, but she didn't care, just as long as she was away from the car and the madwoman driving it.

"My leg," she said, when she saw Stephen kneeling down next to her.

"It's going to be okay," he assured her, "you just banged it."

"You sure?" Mackenzie asked. He was lying, she knew that he was, but he was doing it for the best reason in the world, to protect her.

"Positive, but I don't think that you should try moving for the time being," he said.

*

"Grace, where are you going?" Monica asked, as her sister opened the front door.

"Stephen needs help," Grace replied, "I have to go to him."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked. She was all for Grace going outside, but that could cause a lot of problems, such as how Grace had been able to hear Stephen shouting for help from four blocks away.

"I have to do something," Grace said, "Virginia Barton's just tried running his fiancé over."

"Dear god!" Monica said, "I'll phone for an ambulance, and not leave my name." Someone else was bound to have called for help by now, so hopefully the call she made would be overlooked.

"Monica, I need to see for myself that he's all right," Grace said.

"I'll drive you over there," she said, "and I think that you should let William know what's happened." At least that way Grace would be able to keep up with how Stephen was coping.

"You know, he used to run away screaming at the sight of blood," Grace said. "William used to get very annoyed about it."

"Grace, I'm sure that he's going to be fine," Monica assured her.

"Virginia will try and get away with this," Grace said, "claim that it was an accident, when we both know it wasn't."

"Perhaps if you'd reported your accident," she said. She knew that her sister had had her reasons for not doing so at the time, but maybe it would have made things easier for Grace if Virginia Barton had been punished.

"As if anyone would have believed me," Grace said.

"William would have," Monica replied. She'd seen the way William had been looking at Grace during their meeting earlier. He still had feelings for her, although he had done his best to try and hide them.

END PART 16