Episode 7: What If I Stumble

Episode 7: 

WHAT IF I STUMBLE?

Mila Ferguson was in a funk. She couldn't rightly remember the last time she was in one. It must have been years ago. Maybe when her mother moved to America to work for the Forsythe family.

Her head ached and even her favorite American show, Oprah, couldn't get her far enough out of her bad mood. The lady on the tele was saying to listen to your life. Your life gives you clues to find your true purpose.

What was her purpose here? Rayna Ambrose didn't respect her and Prudence, did she truly care for her at all? She was, after all, only the hired help. For a time, Mila felt like one of the Ambrose clan. But not any more. Rayna had seen to that.

Yesterday she thought she was perfectly targeted on her purpose. She was a housekeeper, and she loved it. What she didn't love was being alone. Alone in the tiny cabin outside the large, grandiose bed and breakfast owned by the Ambrose's. No, she didn't love being alone.

She thought with Alex Collins... maybe things would be different. He was so handsome and nice and loving. At least, she thought he was. She thought she knew who he was, but she had been mistaken. She didn't know Alex at all. Seeing him with Rayna. Kissing Rayna. In Rayna's bed. It only proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Alex never truly cared for her as he claimed he did.

But what she didn't understand was why Rayna slept with Alex. He was the stable boy. He too was hired help. She had always set her sights on the rich and famous ones in the community. If Rayna was anything, she was shallow and vain.

Mila wouldn't put it past Rayna to have slept with Alex just because she knew she could. Mila had been the only foil in Rayna's perfect existence. So one-upping her using Alex as bait seemed only natural. She had given Rayna a perfect reason for revenge. The whole maple syrup incident two weeks ago had been accidental. Mila didn't mean to stumble and catapult the Mrs. Butterworth onto Rayna's perfectly coifed hairdo. It had been a fluke, but Rayna saw it as an act of all out war. Alex was only bomb number one. Who knew what other disasters lie in wait for her.

Rayna was a very bad person, Mila decided. How dare she treat her like this? But what could she do about it? Rayna was Prue's daughter. She held all the cards and had all the power. She held Mila's possible future in her hands. And today, she had played her trump card.

***

Federal Agent Lucky Faraday had been very close to becoming intimate with the sexy Michela Forsythe before a human distraction came barrelling into the room. He wanted to severely injure Dom Martinez, but killing him would be ethical. He was supposed to inspire justice not take out his aggression with revenge. Damned the luck!

As it turned out, their romantic time together wasn't meant to be. Harrison Jones, his superior, found a link between Quentin Forsythe's partner and the assassin known only as Carlos.

"They're connected from way back. Looks like Carlos did some work for Victor Cross before Cross hit the big time." Harry said.

"What about intel?" Lucky asked. He could hear Harry tapping on computer keys through the telephone connection.

"Down by the waterfront. My sources tell me he's holed up there."

"Wait a minute," Lucky interrupted. "I thought Cross was kidnapped along with Quentin Forsythe."

"You're right, he was. But according to my intel, it was all a ruse. We think Cross is also tied to another kidnapping as well. This time it's a kid. One of those autistic types. Looks like he's using the savant to crack the code of a secret spy agency."

"If it's so secret, how do you know about it?" Lucky said playfully.

"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you."

***

Mila didn't know what to do. She couldn't stay there with Stone. Not with Rayna acting like the proverbial wicked witch of the west. She didn't understand people like her. Beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside. Rayna had everything anyone could want. She had a lovely mother and sister, money coming out her ears and the face and body of a super model. So, with all going for her, what was it that made Rayna so angry inside?

"Didn't you hear me?" Rayna ranted? "GET OUT!"

"Cool it. We're going. We'll just go to Mila's house and get her things." Stone was calm on the exterior but inside he was seething.

"Things?" Rayna laughed. "Mila doesn't have things. And anything she does have is really mine. My cottage. My estate. My servants. My everything! Whatever measly belongings has managed to acquire will be shipped to her."

Rayna then painted a sly smile on her face. "That is... if I don't decide to throw it all out."

"You won't do that," Stone Jacobs warned. "Your mother won't hear of it. And I think she'll have a thing or two to say about you firing Mila."

Prudence Ambrose ambled into the barn via her electronic wheelchair. The contraption was much more powerful than she had given it credit for. It managed to race over the hills and valleys and tree roots very swiftly.

"Fire Mila? What sort of nonsense is this? Who is firing Mila? I'm certainly not firing the poor girl." Prudence positioned a look of confusion on her elderly face.

"Mother! You don't understand," Rayna started before being interrupted by her mother.

"Oh, I understand perfectly well. YOU are the one who isn't seeming the big picture." Prudence turned her attention to Mila and Stone. "Now, Stone, you and Mila go out and forget all this ever happened."

Mila took the lead practically running from the barn, away from Rayna and her nasty streak. Away from the woman who could cause great pain by a searing look.

Once the two of them were out of earshot, Prudence exited the wheelchair in perfect control of her own legs. She grabbed Rayna by the collar. "What do you think you're doing? Do you want Stone or don't you?"

"Of course I want him. You know that." Rayna removed her mother's hands and tried to unwrinkle the collar of her blouse.

"Then start acting like it! Focus on what you want, dammit. I've worked long and hard to lure Stone here in the first place. Don't screw it up by being overly melodramatic."

***

Mila ran out of the barn ahead of Stone. She hoped he got the idea that she needed to be alone. She didn't know if she could deal with all the unsettling emotions swirling inside her like a volcano about to erupt.

"Calm down." Mila chanted to herself, but a lurking figure heard the pain in her voice. "Calm down. If you don't calm down, you'll find yourself crossing over into panic and stress and we don't want a repeat of last time. And that is definitely a place you do not want to be."

Mila continued to converse with herself, something she only did when stressed. Fifteen minutes later she found herself pacing a groove into the yellow carpeting of her tiny cottage. Usually her mere presence in the cottage could clear away any cobwebs or worries from her mind. For some reason, today, the calming effect of the house wasn't working. In fact, the closed up space was making it worse. All she could think of was ... what if. What if Rayna convinced Prudence to fire her? What if Rayna came after her and tortured her with more spears from her wicked, forked tongue? What if Rayna told everyone that Stone had only kissed her out of pity and not passion? That's what she thought? Right? What if she became the laughing stock of the village? Mila didn't know if she could take public humiliation.

The panic was great now.

"Oh, my God," she whispered. "How could I have been so stupid? What am I going to do?"

***

Roanna Ambrose wasn't much to look at, and she knew it. She had once been beautiful. Far more beautiful than either of her sisters, Janette or Rayna. And she had reveled in that image of perfection even more than Rayna did now. She completely defined who she was by how she looked in the mirror. It was hard to believe she had ever been so vain and superficial defining who she was by how handsome and fabulously rich her latest conquest was.

But the beauty had been taken away from her in an unfortunate accident. No, she didn't lose the gorgeous face slowly over time like the rest of creation. No. She had lost her one true asset in a horrible, senseless car accident. Over the years the pain had been excruciating. The worst part of her experience had been when the head doctor told Roanna that she would most likely never look as she once had. He then told her to write her thoughts and feelings down in a journal. She remembered thinking how inane the idea seemed. How could you possibly heal your wounds by writing? She thought the diagnosis was like putting a Band-Aid on a huge gash. What good could putting your thoughts on paper do? It wouldn't make the scars go away. In one quirky twist of fate, she lost everything that had meant anything to her.

Somehow she had come out on the other side with more joy than she had before. Now it was time to spread that lesson on to Mila. Roanna watched her as she wallowed in her pain. It was the first step. She had to let her grieve for what she had so recently lost. Roanna knew her mother would never fire Mila. And if she did, Roanna would make her change her mind.

***

Rayna wasn't concerned with the life of a housekeeper. The only real reason she didn't protest against her mother's decision was that Piper was Mila's sister. And Piper Ferguson, the fabulously famous television personality, was her one and only friend in the world.

"What's wrong?" Rayna asked once she called Piper on her cell phone. "You sound tired and tense."

"I've just had one hell of a day." Piper related the car jacking incident and her resulting wounds. "I'm all bandaged up now, but I ache all over."

"I'll bet. We had some excitement here this morning."

"Really?" Piper was curious.

"Did you know your sister is a harlet and a snoop? First she nonchalantly walks into my bedroom while I am naked and making love to a man! Can you believe the nerve? Then, I see her locking lips with Stone Jacobs not ten minutes after she ran crying from my room about how I had stolen Alex from her. What a hypocrite. Can you believe the audacity of that girl? I know she's your sister and all, but you should really think about having a talk with her."

"My sister kissed Stone? He's so much older than her."

"It didn't seem to matter to her this afternoon. And it was in broad daylight. He is so above her station. I mean, she is a housekeeper for goodness sakes!"

Piper held her tongue. Sometimes she wondered if Rayna knew how much it hurt her when she talked about her sister like she was a second class citizen.

***

Alex Collins sneaked a peek inside Rayna's study and listened t her wax on about the unappreciated housekeeper. Alex knew how special Mila was. She was a doll and an angel and way too good for the likes of him. So far Mila had kept her word and hadn't revealed to anyone that he wasn't really Alex Collins, stable boy, but instead Edward Harrison, movie star and Piper's boyfriend!

***

"Where did your friend, what was his name, Lucky? Where did he go?" Diana Forsythe asked her sister in a southern drawl she had acquired while at medical school.

"I don't know. He received a phone call and before I knew it he was gone. That was an hour ago." Michela glanced up over Diana's shoulder to watch her brother, Caine come down the stairs looking as solemn and handsome as ever.

"Did I hear you say you're looking for Lucky?" Caine asked.

Michela and Diana both nodded. "That was Lila on the other line just now. She saw a very handsome man lurking down by the waterfront. Her words not mine. She mentioned him to me because he was exactly her type. Like I need to be hearing about you women and your love lives!"

Michela laughed. "I think Lucky is everyone's type."

Caine grimaced. "Pardon me if I don't agree with that."

Diana laughed at her brother. Sometimes he could actually have a sense of humor.

"Wait a minute," Michela paused. "If he's down at a spooky part of town like the waterfront..."

Caine picked up on his sister's train of thought. "Maybe that's also where the kidnappers took dad!" he said, finishing her sentence. Caine grabbed his keys off the counter. "I'm going down there."

"Not without me, you're not!" Michela interjected.

"I'm coming as well," Diana said, but Caine stopped her.

"No, you have to stay here and keep an eye on Piper. She's lost too much blood to be left alone without medical attention." Caine took a last glance up the stairs before he hit the door running.

Diana shouted at their retreating figures. "But you'll phone when you find father?"

Neither answered as they sped off in Caine's truck into the dark night.

***

Piper listened to Rayna rant on about Mila and she had enough of it.

"I have a silly question," Piper said. She didn't know if she should mention her unusual observation or not considering that Rayna's sister Janette was dead. But the curiosity was too much. "Do you believe in doubles or dopplegangers?"

Rayna seemed taken aback. "What a strange question. What makes you ask?"

"One of the Forsythe girls... she looks amazingly like Janette. I almost couldn't believe it at first."

Piper heard Rayna gasp. "Oh, my God. Maybe mother is right. Maybe Janette truly is alive!"