"Oh, Claire's been married over ten years now, and has three kids," came the reply. "Can I tell her that you said hi?"

Ashley nodded, smiling, but catching Nina's sympathetic gaze. Bloody hell! she thought. Why is it that everybody but me can find a husband? I'm not looking for anything unusual. I want a nice guy with a good sense of humor with whom I can talk and share things. Is that so hard? Obviously it was. Being rich was both a blessing and a curse.

At five p.m. on the dot she closed up Lacy Nothings for the day and bade Nina good night. Then, going around back, she got into her silver Solstice and drove home.

"Good evening, Miss Ashley," Byrnes, her butler, said as she entered the house. "Shall I tell Mrs. B. dinner at the usual time?"

"Yes, but I'll want to eat out on the porch tonight, Byrnes," Ashley told him.

"Very good, miss," the butler replied with a bow, and went off to the kitchens to speak with his wife, who was Kimbrough Hall's cook.

Ashley went up to her bedroom suite. After stripping off her clothes she walked naked into her large bathroom. Opening one side of the double glass doors to her shower, she programmed it and turned the water on before stepping into it. A dozen water jets spurted forth from the marble enclosure as she turned herself about to get thoroughly wet. Reaching for a cake of olive oil soap a friend had brought her from Italy last year, she washed herself quickly. She didn't want to be late for dinner, because Mrs. Byrnes usually did some sort of steak dish midweek, and dinner was served at six p.m. on the dot. She would want a little time for a glass of wine before she ate.