A Woman's Touch

it. Sometimes I don’t think any of these nice people really want to see it halted. It provides too much gossip and entertainment.“
    „You don’t find it very entertaining, do you, Darla?“ Rebecca asked softly.
    Darla closed her eyes briefly. „No. I find it stupid and dangerous. But maybe that’s because I’ve had the experience of being caught in the cross fire.“ She opened her eyes and gave Rebecca a level look. „I suppose you’ve heard all about that?“
    Rebecca smiled gently. „Just the bare facts.“
    „Well, the bare facts are true. I was engaged to Kyle Stockbridge. And to be honest, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the primary reason Glen started courting me was precisely that I was wearing Kyle’s ring. The temptation to try to take another shot at a Stockbridge was probably too much for Glen to resist, although he denies to this day that that’s the sole reason he went after me. These are not nice families we’re talking about, Rebecca. Believe me, I know. I was born and raised in these parts.“
    Rebecca chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. „Things seemed to have worked out for you and Glen,“ she observed.
    Darla chuckled. „They worked out because Glen got caught in his own trap. He fell in love with me. I suspect he was as surprised as I was when he realized what had happened. Kyle will always believe Glen seduced me away, but the truth is, I was on the verge of breaking off my engagement to Kyle anyway. I would have done it weeks earlier, if I’
    d had the nerve.“
    „The nerve?“ Rebecca frowned.
    Darla nodded and sipped at the glass of fruit juice she was holding. „It takes nerve to go up against Kyle Stockbridge. I’m sure you must have realized that by now. I had spent a lot of time agonizing over how to tell Kyle I wanted to end things when Glen showed up and made it easy. He took great pleasure in telling Kyle for me. I should never have agreed to let him do it. It was a terrible scene.“ She shuddered. „I’ll never forget it.“
    Rebecca studied the throng of guests. „Why did you want to break off your engagement to Kyle?“ she asked quietly.
    „Two reasons,“ Darla said bluntly. „The first is that he was quite capable of scaring the living daylights out of me.
    Growing up around here, I’d heard about the Stockbridge temper, naturally, but I’d never actually faced it myself until I became engaged to Kyle.“
    Rebecca’s eyes widened in surprise. „He frightened you?“
    „I’m afraid so. Surely you’ve been around him long enough to see him lose his temper?“
    „Well, I’ve certainly seen him get annoyed and heaven knows he can make a fuss when he doesn’t get what he wants, but he’s never really lost his temper with me.“
    „You’re lucky. He did around me a time or two and I couldn’t stand it, Rebecca,“ Darla explained. „It left me shaking each time. I just couldn’t take it. Glen never raises his voice to me. Oh, I know he’s got a temper that’s the match of any Stockbridge, but he rarely displays it in front of me. Even when he does, it doesn’t frighten me. Not the way Kyle frightened me.“
    „Kyle’s temper isn’t that bad.“ Rebecca wondered why she felt obliged to defend him. „He never really loses his self-control. But somewhere along the line he learned how to use the threat of his temper to control certain situations and he’s not above exploiting that.“
    Darla eyed her dubiously. „He’s never blown up at you?“
    „I’ve seen him get angry at his staff, and he’s yelled at me a time or two, but I’ve certainly never thought of him as terrifying.“
    „Amazing,“ Darla said dryly. „Whenever he got angry around me my first instinct was to run and hide. But even if I
    ’d gotten over being nervous about that aspect of his personality, I knew I couldn’t handle the other thing.“
    „What other thing?“
    Darla slanted her another searching glance. „I didn’t know how to manage the dark side of him. There was a part of him I sensed I’d never reach. We never really talked. We never communicated. Half the time I don’t think he was even aware of me. He was too busy making big plans for Flaming Luck Enterprises.“
    „Flaming Luck certainly consumes a big portion of his life.“
    „It consumed all of it during the period of our engagement. Once he’d put a ring on my finger, it was as if he’d completed one more business deal. He was ready to turn his attention to another one. I