Chapter 4

Annie rose and headed for the door, giving us a worried backward glance just before she went out. I went to old Ben's chair and helped him get up. Though he had regained a lot of strength on his healthy side, the side that was affected by the stroke was still weak. It was better if we helped him to move about.

We slowly made our way to the old man's office. I settled him behind his great oak desk. I had, by now, been in many of the local trainers' offices. I had to admit that Ben's was the neatest of the lot. I did have to say, though, that Jean spent a lot of time in there dusting and polishing (just as she did in the rest of the house), which was a major factor. The woman was the whirling dervish of the dust and polish rags. I moved to the chair that stood beside the desk and sat, just as Jean came into the room with two Irish coffees.

The woman looked as concerned as Annie had when she went to do the morning stables.

I looked up at her and said, "Perhaps you should get yourself a cup of tea and join us. You should hear this too, Jean."

"Oh my! This sounds ominous! You're not leaving us are you?" she asked with a look that broke my heart.

I smiled weakly and said, "No, no ... nothing like that."

"I'll just get my tea, then."

"Ok, we'll wait for you."

Jean could move quickly for a person of her weight. She was back in a flash. She chose to sit off to the side, in the big wing chair next to the fireplace.

She sat, drew her feet up under herself and asked, "Now, Lacie, what's this all about?"

I looked at the both of them with true affection, then took a deep breath and started.

"Last night, I realized how much I needed to thank you. You accepted me into your family, gave me a home, and treated me with a wonderfully caring love. To top that off you, Ben, have taught me your tradecraft. I think that I am just beginning to understand how to train those magnificent animals out there, though I have much, much more to learn, if you let me. I..."

"Of course I will teach you more, girl! What are you getting on about?" interrupted Ben in a manner that was bordering on irritation.

"Ben this is hard enough without you interrupting me! Please just let me say what I must. Please?"

I looked at each of them in their turn beseechingly. Each gave me a nod of assent.

I then continued, "Thank you. There are so many ways I could tell you the things that I must, but ... Well, I think that I will say this first and then start my story. I have worked hard to serve you here and earn the trust that you have given me but, on the other hand, I have not told you everything. I haven't lied or anything like that, but ... Well, I did omit some rather important things that you should know. In my defense, I was not sure that I was going to stay here. However, you made me so welcome that I couldn't leave. You see, I have grown to love you quite a lot.

"Now I'm going to tell you everything. If you have any questions, please wait 'til I'm finished. Other wise I may not have the courage to keep going."

I took a big breath and then went on, "Soooo ... here is my story, warts and all. I come from a well to do family. I have a mother and father, and an older brother and sister, though in all honesty I don't consider them family. You and the Ricci family in Siena are far and away more like family to me! A hundred times ... NO! A thousand times more, in fact!

"To my blood family I am just a commodity to be bartered. They sent me to a strict Catholic boarding school so that the Nuns would break me of my disobedience. We were Baptists, for crying out loud, and they send me to a Catholic school.

"Do you know what my disobedience was? It was that I was a Tomboy and didn't want to be a lady. My so-called mother wanted me to be a Debutant. They had even picked out the husband that they wanted me to marry! Damn it I was only fourteen at the time, and they had already bartered me off to be married to Duke Edgerton after I graduated from school! I would be legal then, at the age of eighteen."

Jean could not contain herself and burst out with, "Why ... That man's a ... a ... a pig!"

"Absolutely!" I agreed. I then went on with my story. "Just before my eighteenth birthday, I ran away from school, it was two weeks prior to graduation. I had to put a beat down on the Mother Superior when she caught me leaving and tried to hit me with her cane. I took that chunk of wood away from her and gave her some of her own medicine.

"I next went to Siena, and spent most of the summer with my roommate and her wonderful family (when all of this mess is cleared up, I want you to meet them). In August, I left Siena and went to Paris. It was idyllic ... for three days, that is.

"On the afternoon of the forth day I stopped at a café on a side street and was drugged. When I woke up the next day I found that I was naked and had been raped, in fact it felt as if I had been taken many times. I think the bastards pimped me out!"

Both Ben and Jean expressed great indignation, but I raised my hand to forestall any comments that they might make, and said, "Don't worry, I got my own back, big time."

"Anyway, like I said, I woke up in this sleazy hotel. There I was alone and naked except for my socks. Which was a good thing, the socks I mean. The card key for my hotel room, and sufficient money for cab fare, was hidden in the bottom of my right sock. I stumbled around, gathering my clothes, and got dressed. Let me tell you that it was really hard for a while. But the drugs were wearing off so I chanced to leave. The hotel clerk was in on the prostitution business, and tried to stop me. It was the worst mistake of his life! I was pissed, and I destroyed him, nearly beating him to death, I know that I broke his back, for sure and certain."

Jean was old and could not fathom how I was able to fight off a man. She could not help but ask.

"But you're only a slip of a girl! How could you possibly do that to a MAN?"

I looked at her a little aggravated that she couldn't resist interrupting me. That faded, though, when I saw her face. The woman was totally confused. In her day women were protected and coddled, they did not nor could not fight off a man. Women were the weaker vessel, as it says in the Good Book.

My heart softened as I said, "Jean, did you ever see any of those Ninja movies?"

"Yes, but they are make-believe. All that fighting with hands and feet and such isn't real."

She said it with such conviction that it hurt me to destroy her concept of women, but I did!

"Jean, I'm a black belt fourth order. I can do all of that stuff, and have. As I said, I beat the stuffing out of that panderer," I said. The look on her face was of absolute shock, as I continued, "I can break boards and blocks, I can fight with swords and knives and sticks. I can make pretty near any item into a weapon, even a newspaper. There is a Dojo in town. I go there regularly, to practice. I can take you there if you don't believe me."

I was centering myself as I spoke because I was getting sidetracked, and it was starting to anger me.

"Now, PLEASE! Will you let me continue with my story?"

"But..."

"That's quite enough, woman. You have already broken your word to not interrupt, and I can see that you are upsetting the girl. Be quiet! Now!" roared Ben.

I had only seen him angry once before but it was nothing compared to this anger. I think he knew that if I was not able to finish my story that there was a very good chance that I would leave. He was right, too!

Jean seemed to shrink in her seat. She bowed her head as she said, "I'm sorry."

Ben said to her, "Good!"

He then turned and nodded at me to continue. I took another few centering breaths and went on.

"Ok, then. I ran outside and caught a taxi. After changing to another taxi in the center of Paris, I arrived at my hotel. I WAS SO ANGRY! All of my life I had been forced to do what others wanted. Now that I had tasted self-determination I was not going back, ever again. My anger grew cold, and I vowed to get the people that had stolen my self-respect and self-determination.

"I made plans and purchased the needed items then went hunting for the vile creatures ... and I found them! Just before I left Paris I shot their privates off with flare pistols."

I said this last part with pride and no small amount of pleasure.

Ben gave out with a belly laugh, pounded his desk with his good hand and said, "Good for you, my girl!"

As he kept laughing, he made a rolling motion with his hand for me to continue. In the meantime Jean, though silent, was utterly scandalized.

"I knew that after my revenge, the French police would be looking for me. After all, no matter that the men were pimps and had kidnapped and raped me, they were Frenchmen. No woman burns off a French penis, without being punished."

"True, true," said Ben and laughed some more.

I escaped and took the Chunnel-train. Once in England I managed to mix in with a group of school kids returning from a trip. I actually avoided customs and got in. The next thing I did was to meet Annie and you know the rest from there.

"While all of that was happening, my family lied to the authorities, and declared that I had been kidnapped. They were trying to get Interpol to find me and force me to return to the United States.

"They had all of my accounts locked so that I would be forced to return home for lack of money. To make matters worse they declared that my trust fund must be opened to them to pay the fraudulent ransom. Apparently my father had messed up and lost the family fortune. They didn't count on or know how determined I was, and am, to never see them again ... even if I must live on the streets and eat out of dumpsters.

"Even to this day those people are causing trouble as they now are trying to have me declared dead, and my trustee incompetent. They want two things from me and will never stop until they get them. Firstly, they want my trust fund. Secondly, they want me to marry that pig Edgerton so that the family will attain a higher standing. In their minds it is my duty to serve them, regardless of my wishes or desires.

"There you have it! That is as clear as I can make it. I'm here illegally, and I have a bunch of crazy greedy people who are after my money and me. So far, my trustee and I have been able to thwart them, but I need to become legal here to really stop them.

"Now ask me any questions you want and I will try to answer them."

Ben stared at me for a bit then asked, "Do you want to stay here?"

"Yes, I want to stay here in England and ... if you will have me, Ben ... I want to stay right here with you folks. I want that with all of my heart!"

I looked at Ben and then Jean as I said those words I then added, "I wasn't lying when I said that I love you, all three of you. I want to continue helping you run this place. You have winners in you yet Ben."

The old man just nodded stoically and stared at me some more.

Jean asked in a tiny tremulous voice, "Lacie? Can you really do all of those things that are in those martial arts films?"

"Yes, pretty much."

"Things are so different, today. I hardly know what to think," she said with the shake of her head.

Ben then spoke up again, "How do you plan to keep running this place? No, no that's not it. I mean how are you going to become legal? Yes, that's it. How are you going to do that?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure, but Uncle Joe assures me that he has that well in hand. I will be legal, and will not lose my American citizenship."