Love and Honor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 7 (5 page)

“Ah, but you have given me an impossible task,
madame
, because how can one improve on perfection? But I shall try, and—” she winked conspiratorially, “—I think I have just what you might be looking for—a new creation by Paul Poiret that arrived only last week. If,” she challenged Kit, “you are daring enough to wear it.”

Kit asked to see the gown, fighting the impulse to say that she was willing to wear anything to make her own personal declaration of independence to her mother.

Mademoiselle
Delacorte went back behind the curtain and returned a few moments later looking quite pleased as she held up a sensuous creation of black velvet. Poiret had revived the empire style by wrapping a band of gold cording just beneath the bosom, but that was not all. A daring slit went from floor to upper thigh; Kit’s leg would be exposed when she walked or danced. She’d heard about these new sheathlike dresses with slits that were declared indecent by bishops and ministers.

Marilee stared at the dress for a moment, then cried, “Oh, Kit, it’s gorgeous…but do you dare?”

Kit looked at her grandmother. There was no mistaking the approving gleam in her eyes. “I’ll try it on,” Kit said tonelessly, trying to hide her own excitement.

Moments later she stared with a mixture of emotions at her reflection in the full-length mirror. The cap sleeves were draped off her shoulders, and beneath a sensuous spider web of black lace, her full bosom showed above the straight-line bodice. Beneath her bosom, it hung in a straight sheath, curving provocatively to her small, rounded rear. The dress fit perfectly—not a nip or tuck would have to be taken.
Did
she dare? she wondered anxiously as Kitty and Marilee called to her to let them see.

Twisting and turning in front of the mirror, she experimented with the way her left leg was exposed when she moved. If, by chance, she encountered someone at the ball who could dance the tango as she had learned it from Carasia, there was no doubt that she would be the center of attention—and would be talked about for a long time to come. Carasia knew a different version from the ordinary dance that was currently all the rage in Europe. She knew the steps that had evolved from the Argentine milonga—fast, sensual, and in some circles considered indecent. Incorporating steps of the flamenco, the Spanish tango could be deliciously wicked. But Kit doubted there would be any really experienced dancers among the men at the ball.

Kit took off the dress without modeling it. Stepping from behind the curtain she said to the anxious trio, “You’ll have to wait till tonight. I want everyone to be surprised.” Then, as
Mademoiselle
Delacorte happily rang up the sale, Kit said worriedly to Kitty, “If Mother sees me in that dress, she’ll never let me out of the house!”

Kitty said that she had already thought about that. “She’ll want to see what you bought, so let’s just pick out one she’d approve of. You can put that on and make her think it’s what you’re wearing, but just as everyone is getting ready to leave, I’ll have some kind of emergency that will make me late. You can say that you’ll wait and come with me, and then you can change after the others have gone on ahead.”

“Perfect,” Kit agreed. “Now I know where I inherited my devious nature.”

Kitty winked. “Was there ever any doubt?”

Only Travis was at the apartment when they got home. Colt was at an embassy smoker being held for out-of-town dignitaries, and Jade had gone to a tea for the wives.

Travis started teasing Kit about Esteban Yubero. “Why did you stab him?” he asked. “I didn’t know my little sister was capable of such violence!”

“Little sister!” Kit hooted. She turned to Kitty and demanded, “By how many seconds? You were there.”

She gave them an indulgent smile, accustomed to their playful bickering. “It was less than a minute, and you both know it. Now, I don’t have time for your nonsense. I’m going up to take a nice, long bath and have a glass of sherry so I’ll be in the proper mood for tonight.”

Following her, Marilee paused midway up the steps and grinned impishly at Travis, teasing, “If you don’t leave Kit alone, I’ll tell her about you and that demimonde you’re sneaking off to see.”

Kitty froze, and as Marilee approached her on the stairs, she coolly asked, “And what do
you
know about demimondes, young lady?”

“Nothing.” Marilee ran on up the steps. “I was just teasing!”

But Kitty knew that she wasn’t teasing, just as she knew all too well that women found her grandson as handsome and desirable as they’d found his father, and his father’s father. Well, she wasn’t going to worry about it. He’d learn, as they had, how to deal with it. He probably already had, she thought to herself, smiling.

When they were alone, Travis and Kit went into the first-floor parlor and helped themselves to a glass of cognac before sitting down on the divan.

“Okay,” Travis said when they were settled. “I’ve heard Mother’s side of the story,
several
times. Let’s hear yours.”

Kit shrugged. “It’s as she said. Belle was foaling, having trouble, and I helped her. We missed the train. It couldn’t be helped.”

Travis shook his head. “I don’t know, Kit. Parents are always stricter with girls, I guess, but she seems extra hard on you. I think it’s because she wants you to pick up where she left off and be famous, so she can live her life over again through you. It’s sad, and I’m sorry it’s like that for you.”

“It’s too late for her,” Kit said somewhat harshly. “I love to dance, but I never cared for ballet, and she’s always been a little hurt about that. No, I think she just wants to see me properly married. She’s worried that I’ve got a wild streak and will ruin the good name of Coltrane.”

“You’d never do that, and she knows it. I also think that Mother is bored with Spain. If it hadn’t been for her constant traveling around Europe, she wouldn’t have been able to stand it for as long she has. But now there’s so much going on back in the States that she can’t stand being away any longer. She wants to go home, but you don’t, do you?”

“Home?” Kit echoed. “Spain is the only home I’ve ever really known, Travis. I was just a little girl when we came here. I’ve grown up feeling that this is home, and the times we went to New York for a visit, I couldn’t wait to get back here. I love everything about it, and I don’t want to leave. And I’ll tell you something else, too…” She leaned forward and met the steady gaze of his steel-gray eyes, so like their father’s and grandfather’s. “I’ve never told anyone this, not even Grandma, but if they move back to New York, I swear to you I’ll find a way to come back here.”

Travis looked at her as though he thought she’d lost her mind. “Come back to what? They’ll sell the ranch. You’ll have nothing left to come back to. And even though you don’t like to be reminded of the fact, Kit, you
are
a woman, and women just don’t go to foreign countries to live by themselves. Father wouldn’t stand for it. You know that.”

Kit pursed her lips thoughtfully. She could confide anything to her twin, so she plunged on. “What about Grandma and Marilee?”

“What about them? Marilee is going to finishing school in Switzerland next year, remember? And what makes you think Grandma would want to live in Spain?”

“She might. With me.”

“Probably,” he conceded. “It’s no secret that you’re her favorite.”

Kit made no attempt to deny it, since everyone knew it was so. “Besides, she’ll be lonesome in Paris when you go to West Point.”

“
If
I go to West Point,” Travis solemnly corrected.

“If? Ha! You’re certain to get an appointment from the President himself, and you know it. That should be the least of your worries, and I’m proud and happy for you. I read the papers, Travis,” she reminded him with a frown, “and I know there are a lot of problems between America and Mexico. I’ll be just as happy as our parents to see you in West Point for the next four years instead of in Europe…trying to stay out of war, if it comes, and away from demimondes,” she finished with a giggle, leaping from the divan as he reached to give her hair a playful yank.

“Mother is right,” he yelled after her, pretending to be mad. “You’re incorrigible!”

Kit ran from the room, warmed by the cognac…and thoughts of the exciting evening ahead.

Chapter Four

Everything went according to plan. Kit dressed in a green satin gown, the epitome of quiet elegance, and made her appearance in the foyer. Her mother, lovely in blue velvet, was fretting about Kitty being so slow. Her father was as handsome and striking as her brother. They both wore formal tuxedoes with tails, pleated white shirts, white vests, bold red ties, and shining black patent slippers. They could almost have passed for twins, Kit mused, were it not for her father’s close-clipped mustache and the distinguished gray at his temples.

Marilee was adorable in her pink and white ruffled gown but she fumed, “I look like a birthday cake! I’m nearly fourteen! Why do I have to dress like a little girl?”

“You look like what you are,” Colt tried to comfort his niece. “A fairy princess.”

“I don’t want to look like a fairy princess,” she protested petulantly. “I want to be able to dress up like Kit.”

Only Kit caught her meaning, and she gave Marilee a scathing look, silently warning her not to say anything else. Marilee looked apologetic, and was grateful that Kitty called down the stairs at that precise moment. “You’re going to have to go on without me. I’m all thumbs tonight. Kit, would you come up here and help me with my hair?”

Jade groaned, “Oh, for heaven’s sake! I believe in being fashionably late, but this is a bit too much.” She told Kit to go up, motioning the others toward the door and the waiting car outside.

Kit was halfway up the stairs, a rush of excitement washing over her. Then she heard Marilee wailing again and froze where she stood, bristling with anger she dared not express.

“Why can’t I wait and go with Kit? Why do I have to look even more like a little girl by walking in with all of you?”

Jade had reached the point where she did not care what anybody did as long as she and Colt got to the ball before the hour grew any later. “Do what you want, Marilee,” she said irritably, gathering her mink cape and walking out.

The front door closed after them, and Kitty appeared on the landing to wave Kit up the stairs. “Hurry! We don’t have long. What are you going to do with your hair? That style just doesn’t go with your dress, and…”

Kit wasn’t listening. Dizzy with excitement, she hurried to her room to take off the dress she was wearing. Then she took the box containing the black velvet sheath from its hiding place beneath the bed.

A sudden thought made her stiffen. She looked from the dress to the white lawn knickers she was wearing, open between the legs front and back and joined only at waist and knees. She could not wear anything so bulky beneath the clinging sheath! In her excitement, she had neglected to buy a dancing corset!

Kitty knocked on the door. “You really must hurry, dear. Can I help?”

“No. I’m almost ready. I’ll be right down.”

What difference did it make? she asked herself recklessly as she yanked off the knickers, tossing them aside. Who would know, anyway? She stepped gingerly into the sheath and began to pull it up over her naked body, relishing the way the soft velvet felt against her bare flesh. It clung like a second skin across her hips, flowing smoothly to the floor from beneath her firm, round breasts.

Whirling in front of the mirror, Kit admitted to herself, with a delicious wave of wickedness, that she liked what she saw…expect for her hair. With a few yanks, the pins were out of the sophisticated pouf. With a wild toss, her thick, golden-red hair fell to her bare shoulders.

Stepping into black beaded slippers, Kit was ready to make her debut…in her own unforgettable way.

Kitty and Marilee were waiting in the foyer. When they saw her, Kitty actually swayed, so impressed was she with her granddaughter’s stunning beauty. Marilee just stood there, her eyes wide with shocked admiration.

“Do I dare?” Kit grinned.

“You dare!” Kitty confirmed, then she challenged, “Are you sure you don’t enjoy looking like a
femme fatale
?”

“Of course I do,” Kit admitted, “but most of all I enjoy being
me
…which means presenting whatever side of me I wish to present…when
I
wish it…not my mother!”

Marilee was unimpressed by her cousin’s personal declaration of independence. “Aunt Jade is going to send you to that convent in Nice where my mother once lived,” she predicted. “And not to be a nun, either. Just you wait and see.”

Kitty quickly rejected that notion. “That’s when I’d turn into the busybody she already thinks I am. No granddaughter of mine will ever be sent to a convent because she’s got a mind of her own. Now let’s be on our way. You and I, freckle-face”—she gave Marilee an affectionate hug, lest her feelings be hurt by her brusqueness—“will go in first. We want Kit to make a very, very grand entrance.”

When they arrived at the embassy, they could hear the gay sound of music. The party had already begun. “Wait a few minutes before you enter,” Kitty whispered conspiratorially.

Kit nodded, trembling with excitement. She looked lovely and she knew it. If her parents were furious, so be it. She was going to show them, once and for all, that it would be much, much better if they would just let her be herself. If that meant riding and roping cattle, so be it. She gave her grandmother a kiss, fondly patted her cousin’s cheek, then stepped into the shadows to wait until the right moment for her entrance.