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know."
    The
laughing challenge was wiped from Lacey's eyes in an instant to be replaced by
rueful comprehension. "I should have guessed," she said dryly,
thinking of the ex-fiancée.
    "How
could you?" he countered, surprising her. "You didn't meet me when I
was in the middle of my own life-style crisis." He chuckled.
    "What?" She
stared at him, confused. She was sure he had been thinking she was on the verge
of becoming a heartless creature like the woman from his past.
    "What you're going
through reminds me of myself and what I went through a few years ago," he
explained gently. "You're not the first to arrive at the earthshaking
conclusion that you're missing something critical in life, Lacey Seldon. And
you're not the only one to opt for a complete change of life-style in an effort
to rectify the situation."
    "You're
telling me you went through a similar experience?" she asked, eyes
widening in disbelief. "I can't quite see you having qualms about yourself
or anything else!"
    "I don't have them.
Not now," he stated evenly.
    "But
there was a time . . . ?" she pressed, burning with curiosity now.
    "Yes.
There was a time," he told her quietly, his eyes very serious. "Want
to hear what I learned during that time?"
    "No!" The single
negative almost exploded from her. "I can see what you learned! You
decided to stick with the safe and sane path, didn't you? Whatever the degree
of crisis you experienced, it doesn't seem to have succeeded in changing your
life. Therefore your conclusions are invalid as far as I'm concerned. Because
I am going
to change my world, Holt. And I don't particularly want any lectures from
someone who didn't manage to make the break himself."
    "You're
not willing to learn from someone else's mistakes?" he bit out.
    "When
one is setting out to build a new life, one needs successful role models!"
    "Not
failures?" he concluded for her, his voice suddenly harsh.
    Lacey
shut her eyes briefly and felt the red wash into her cheeks. She would never
have been so openly rude under normal circumstances. What was the matter with
her? Why was she letting this one man affect
her so? Deliberately she took a grip on her temper and looked up at him through
her lashes. "We each have to make our own choices, Holt. You, apparently,
have already made yours. And that's your own business. I'm sure you can
understand, however, that I don't particularly want you or anyone else making
mine for me."
    "Lacey, listen to me. . . ."
    "If you'll excuse me, I should be getting back to
Jeremy." She gave him her most brilliant smile. "You can rest assured
you've done your duty!"
    Without
waiting for his verbal agreement, Lacey turned away and walked off the dance
floor. It occurred to her that this was the second time she'd walked away from
him that evening. And she barely knew the man!

 
     
     
    3
     
     
    She was sitting cross-legged on a mat, palms curved upward as
her hands rested on her knees, facing the rising sun the next morning when Holt
Randolph again intruded.
    "A meditation freak? Perhaps you do belong out here,
Lacey. I can imagine that sort of thing was rather frowned upon back home,
wasn't it?" His voice was dry but there was an underlying humor which
found a response in her.
    "Good morning, Holt," Lacey said calmly, not
bothering to open her eyes. She knew he was directly behind her, could feel him
studying her figure as she sat on a mat which she'd placed at a strategic point
on the lawn behind the cottage. "Just stopping by to see whether or not
Jeremy spent the night? You remind me of a dorm mother I once had in college.
Now that you've seen I'm all alone you'd best hurry on to the next cottage. No
telling what exciting activities the occupants might be up to there!"
    "Believe it or not, I don't make a practice of spying
on my guests," he said with a growl. She couldn't hear his footsteps on
the dew-damp grass but she could sense him moving closer.
    "Could have fooled me," she assured him cheerfully,
remembering how