Free A Scandalous Melody by Linda Conrad

been bothering me for ages.”
    He figured the way she’d hesitated that she wasn’t curious about his plans for either the house or the mill. Good thing. Because Chase had no clue as to what he had in his own mind to do about them.
    â€œAsk whatever you want,” he said with a chuckle. “I reserve the right not to give you an answer.”
    She nodded thoughtfully. “Will you tell me what really happened that night ten years ago when you left town? I’ve heard tons of gossip about it over the years, but I’d like to know the true story.”
    â€œYou haven’t gotten the real story from Kate?”
    Shelby folded her arms over her chest. “She won’t talk about it. I was gone for the whole summer and part of that fall. By the time I came back, Kate…well…Kate was a different person from when I left.”
    â€œDifferent how?”
    Shelby shrugged a shoulder. “I dunno. More serious, maybe. Certainly less fun loving and less popular with the other kids. She had stopped going to parties and worked much harder at getting good grades.”
    That didn’t sound like the young Princess Kate he had left behind. But it did sound a little like the ice-princess rumors he’d heard since he’d been home.
    â€œWhat about boyfriends? Dates?” he inquired.
    â€œNot so much. In fact, none at all that last year in high school. But there have been a few guys since then. One, the good-looking tractor distributor from New Iberia, was real serious about Kate for a while. But she…she just never got into him.
    â€œThen the word went around that Kate was, uh, frigid,” Shelby continued hesitantly. “I actually think Kate believes that one herself.”
    Chase didn’t buy it for a minute. He remembered the sizzle the two of them had created ten years ago. Kate had been the furthest thing from frigid then. And he’d seen the heat still there in her eyes just last night.
    No. Kate was definitely not a cold fish. Not then. Certainly not now.
    Shelby scooted over to her baby daughter and made sure the little girl hadn’t put anything into her mouth, then she turned back to Chase. “So what happened to make you leave and to make Kate change so much?”
    Chase wasn’t sure talking about that night would be a good thing. But he hadn’t ever told his side of the nightmare. Maybe it was past time.
    â€œI have no idea what could have changed Kate,” he said quietly. “But then, I left without knowing much of anything. I left in a hurry, before I could be run out of town bodily or locked up in the parish jail for good.”
    â€œWhy?”
    He shook his head. “Recently I’ve managed to piece together some of the puzzle about that night. But at the time, I was just as confused about why as anyone.” He patted the breast pocket of his chambray shirt before he remembered that he’d quit smoking.
    â€œIt was the night of the prom,” he began. “But Kate and I didn’t go. We had a favorite place down by the river where we liked to…be together. We’d dream of the future and talk about what we wanted to do with our lives.”
    The years melted away in his mind, and through the mists of time he saw the young couple he and Kate had been—so desperately in love. With a start he amended that thought. One of them had been in love. The other was apparently a good liar.
    He came back to the present with a thud. “Out of nowhere, four of the rougher guys we went to school with showed up and picked a fight for no reason. They weren’t enemies of ours, but they were drunk and wouldn’t talk—just started swinging.
    â€œAt first, I wasn’t too concerned about taking them all on, they were pretty drunk…but then one of them grabbed Kate and ripped her shirt off. I guess I lost it. The next thing I knew the sheriff showed up and stopped me from killing the