"Dinner was fabulous," Colette sighed contentedly as they rose from the table. "You're a marvelous cook. Almost as if you had some professional training?" she asked inquisitively as they started to wash up.

"Professional? No, not exactly," Will said slowly as he dried the dishes she handed to him. "You see, I was usually left alone at home as a young boy. My father frequently traveled for his business, and my mother was quite the social butterfly. Most of the time, she was either out somewhere or asleep. I had a governess that drove me to and from my school and other lessons, and she saw to it that I did my homework and practices, but otherwise she left me to my own devices as long as I stayed out of trouble. So sometimes I would go to the kitchen to watch our cook, Mrs. White, prepare my meals. She was rather cantankerous at first, but gradually, when she saw that I was really interested and not just there to pester her, she began to warm up to me. After a while, I pleaded with my mother to let Mrs. White teach me how to cook. I was surprised that she agreed-I'd expected her to say no, possibly even to get quite angry. But she even seemed pleased that I showed an interest in the culinary arts. I suppose that was because her family were all gourmands, much like Pierre.

"I started my lessons with Mrs. White the very next day. By the age of eight, I was able to prepare simple recipes, such as omelets and sugar cookies. By the time I left for boarding school at the age of fourteen, I was as skilled as some professional chefs. And ever since I left on my travels, I've been learning about other cuisines and expanding my repertoire."

"Have you ever thought about opening your own restaurant?" Colette asked as she started coffee brewing.

"Me? An actual chef?" Will said, looking dubious. "No, I don't think that would work out. I very much hate to be tied down to one place, you see. While I enjoy cooking for myself and friends, I'd soon grow to hate it if I attempted to make a profession of it. I'd rather keep my freedom, and enjoy my life doing as I please."

"Hmmm," was all she replied, though he thought he detected a hint of disappointment in her tone and the look in her eyes.

After dessert, they took their coffees and sat down on her little sofa. It was pouring rain outside, and the pattering of rain on the roof made for a pleasant background noise. TC jumped up onto Colette's lap, kneading her leg as he began to purr and mew loudly.

"His voice is at least five times as big as he is," Will remarked.

Colette laughed as she set her cup down and picked the kitten up. "I know, he's growing so fast! I suspect he's hungry. I don't normally feed him this early, but he's been sniffing that delicious food all afternoon. I can't blame him for wanting a feast of his own!" She stood up and fed him a little bit of canned food, topped off his dry food and water, and returned to her seat.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she glanced at him, her eyes betraying the nervousness she felt gnawing at her. "So... I did promise to tell you about my past once I was done with my harvest and planting."

Hastily, Will reassured her, "You don't need to tell me anything you don't wish to tell me, you know."

Smiling briefly, she said, "I know. Thank you. But really, I... I think I'd feel better if you knew. It's not easy, though, so... would you mind if I turned off some of these lights? I find it easier to talk about it when the lights are down. Silly, isn't it?" He shook his head, and she rose and lit the assortment of candles on the tray on the ottoman before turning off all the rest of the lights in the cabin.

Resuming her seat, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before she began. "All right. So... I come from a very wealthy family. I mean, very wealthy. But we're not a bunch of celebrities-I doubt anyone but other rich or powerful families would recognize any of my family on either side. There's a whole echelon of society, as I'm sure you know, that is incredibly rich and influential but virtually unknown to anyone outside of it. We don't like to attract attention to ourselves. At least, most of us don't. I was the exception in my family.

"I was scouted at the age of fifteen. I was with my older sister and our governess, just a quick jaunt to the city with my mother to do some holiday shopping. She gave some instructions to the governess, then she went her way and we went ours. I was trying on a hat, I remember. Clowning a little, mostly for my own amusement. My sister despised my antics, and my governess just wanted to finish the shopping and be done with it. Then this marvelous looking woman came up to me, said she was a scout for a modeling agency, and that she thought I had perfect bone structure and moved so gracefully, yada yada yada. She gave me her card and asked me to think it over, and to let her know if I was interested in modeling.

"Well, I was caught, hook, line, and sinker, although my sister was absolutely horrified at the idea. Imagine, a Lamb, parading up and down half naked before other people, not to mention posing for the cameras! Think of the publicity! What would people say? And yes, she actually did say that-to my mother, as soon as we were safely at home again. My mother was equally horrified, as was my brother. My father didn't exactly relish the idea, but neither was he as strongly opposed as the rest of my family.

"That was the cause of a lot of fighting and friction between me and my mother and my siblings for several months. By my sixteenth birthday the following summer, I decided I'd had enough and began to formulate a plan. That fall, my mother sent me off to my boarding school alone-she wasn't about to deign to such a menial task, and she had let my governess go once I turned sixteen. My sister was starting college in another country, so it was the first time I was entirely on my own. So... I ran away.

"I went to the city and called that agent. She remembered me, even though it had been almost a year, and she was still very interested. She met up with me, and we discussed my options. Since I was a minor, I had to have a parent or guardian sign a form giving me permission to work, she said. I ended up taking them back with me and forging my mother's signature. Ironically, she'd taught me how, so I could sign letters for her when she was too busy or tired to bother with it herself.

"I met up with her again the next day, and this time she brought a well-known fashion photographer with her. He had to have been in his late forties, at least, maybe fifties. He had long dark hair with a narrow streak of white at one temple. He admired my looks enthusiastically, and we made arrangements for a trial shoot the next day. In the meantime, I had plenty of cash-my mother had given me a little spending money, but my father had slipped me quite a bit extra, to see me through until the holidays. The agent had arranged for a hotel room for me, since I was from out of town. It was probably a perfectly decent hotel, but it was far below what I was accustomed to, so it felt excitingly sordid to me. I was incredibly ignorant about things like that, you see, because of how I'd been raised.

"Anyway, the shoot went fine. The photographer raved about me, said I'd be sure to be a hit-maybe even the next world-famous supermodel. Afterwards, he called me into his office at his studio, and I learned that there was one thing that he needed from me in order to insure my success: my virginity.

"At least he kept his end of the deal-I learned afterwards that not all girls were so lucky. As I said, I was terribly naïve. Fortunately for me, I've always been a quick learner. I used a different name for modeling, not wanting to draw attention to my familial associations. Instead, I went by my childhood nickname and my middle name, Nikki Delaunay."

"Wait," Will said, sitting suddenly upright and staring at her with wide eyes. "You're Nikki Delaunay? The supermodel?"

"Former supermodel," she corrected. "You know who I am, then?"

"Well, I mean, everyone who knows anything about fashion knows who you are, don't they?"

"I... I couldn't say," she replied nervously. "Does that mean you also know why I left?"

"No, I can't say I do," he admitted, sitting back again. "Truthfully, I wasn't even aware that you had, until now. That must have been after I left on my journey. My access to news has been rather sporadic."

She sighed wearily. "Then I'll continue. My family, of course, soon figured out that this new face on the magazines was their missing daughter and sister. My mother was livid. She sent my brother to try to talk me out of it, and when he failed, she threatened lawsuits left and right. But apparently my father put his foot down. I heard later that he told her that her causing so much fuss would draw even more unwelcome attention than my sudden fame, especially since I wasn't using even my legal name. He refused to support her attempts at litigation, and she gave up. Instead, she, along with my brother and sister, disowned me entirely.

"One thing you learn fast when you're famous for your beauty is that's all that most people are interested in. At the age of sixteen, I suddenly had men chasing me left and right, but before long, I found they only wanted a pretty and desirable accessory. That's when Howard-the gentleman I mentioned before, the one that owned the lodges ? That's when he came into my life. He was recently widowed and wanted companionship, not just a decoration for his arm. At the same time, I needed someone to protect me from the sharks that were closing in around me. He taught me a lot, really, about many things-not just photography and wild animals. And when we parted ways after a little more than two years together, we did so as very good friends.

"By then, I was wiser and more experienced than when I'd arrived in the city three years before. Or at least I thought I was. But although I could see through the more obvious ruses, I still was more naïve than I realized. After a string of bad relationships, I finally met a man that seemed to really understand me. He was handsome, charming, fun to be around, and sympathetic. He swept me off my feet, and within a few short months, he had all but moved in with me. Our relationship was really very passionate, but unfortunately it was also rather stormy. We were both quick tempered, but somehow he always seemed to make it appear as though it was just me-that I was being hormonal or acting like a prima donna or something, and he was trying his best to be patient and supportive. Everyone believed him, too. He even almost had me convinced. After some time, I felt like I needed some space from him, so I asked him to move back out for a while. He was upset, furious even, but when I refused to back down, he left. We didn't completely break up or anything-I just needed to clear my head. Then my twenty-first birthday arrived."

She took a deep breath, and Will noticed she was starting to tremble. "Would you like a little stiffener in your coffee?" he asked, concerned.

Shaking her head vigorously, she pulled him back down. "No, I... I just need a moment." She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, slowly exhaling a moment later. After a few more deep breaths, she swallowed hard and opened her eyes.

"By this time, as you already mentioned, I was world-famous. My party was for a 'select few', but really it was huge. Chad had planned it for me, though I discovered later he'd sent the bills to my accountant. He'd rented out a popular club for the night, and it must have been close to capacity. Music, dancing, and of course lots and lots of drinks. Or so I heard afterwards.

"For my part, I had part of one drink. Chad ordered it for me-a cosmopolitan. It tasted awful, but he just said the bartender must have made it wrong. He offered to get me a different drink, but I just stuck with it. I just wanted to have fun, and he made me feel as though I was being unreasonable.

"Before long, I started to feel a little queasy and really disoriented. Chad just laughed and said I couldn't hold my liquor, but nevertheless he bundled me up and took me back home. I remember him telling everyone to have a good time, that we'd be back later if I felt better. That's the last thing I remember that night.

"I woke up the next morning feeling sick as a dog and sore all over. Chad was there, and he brought me a cup of coffee and some aspirin and asked me how I felt. I told him I felt like shit, and he asked if I remembered anything. I didn't, not after getting ready to leave. He told me that he'd brought me home, and I'd been really sick, so he'd gotten me into the shower to clean up, then put me to bed before cleaning up after me.

"I had no reason not to believe him, so I did. I trusted him, you know? I didn't question his account of the evening's events at all... not until a few weeks later, when a so-called friend sent me a link to a video.

"It was a pornographic video, Will. Of Chad and me and some guy I'd never even seen before. I was horrified, just sick to my stomach. The things I was doing, that they did to me... I couldn't watch it. Chad didn't answer his phone, so I went straight to his apartment, but his roommate said he'd moved out a few days ago and hadn't left any forwarding address.

"I cried all the rest of that day and all night. I knew it had to have been filmed the night of my birthday party. In the little bit of the video I saw, I looked kind of spacey, but not like I was incapacitated, especially not to someone who didn't know how I normally behaved. I knew, too, that Chad must have slipped something into my drink and why I'd been so sore the next morning. I'd never have consented to doing anything like that, even drunk. I just didn't understand why he'd done it to me."

"Thinking back, I seem to recall hearing rumors of such a thing, though I don't remember any names mentioned," Will exclaimed, "but that was at some port, well after I'd left on my travels. I must have been at sea when all this was going on."

"Well, I was all at sea, too, in a manner of speaking," Colette replied, with a bitter laugh. "I couldn't track Chad down. He seemed to have just vanished from the face of the earth. Within a week, it was big news. Suddenly, corporations that had been so keen for me to represent them began dropping me one by one. I approached my lawyers and had them attempt to get the video removed, but they weren't successful. The adult websites that were featuring it had purchased the license to sell it fairly from its owner-my now-ex-boyfriend. Next they tracked Chad down, who said that he'd sell me full rights to the video... if I paid him an extortionate sum of money. I filed a police report, but since there was no evidence that I had been drugged or that I hadn't consented, the prosecutor declined to file charges. The only option left open to me was a lawsuit, which I filed. It was still in the courts when I left.

"Besides lost income and damage to my reputation, I also lost a lot of my friends, especially after I tried to take legal action. Chad had everyone convinced that he was the 'good' guy and I was the psycho ex-girlfriend. So everyone took his side.

"But the worst thing... the absolute worst thing of all," she said, her voice cracking as she rubbed her sleeve across her eyes, "was that I couldn't stand my own body anymore. I saw that video, or enough of it. I know what happened to me, what... what they did to me. Imagine waking up one morning and discovering your lovely home had been infested with thousands of cockroaches overnight-that's about how I felt. I wanted out of my body-I couldn't stand living in it anymore.

"Howard came to my rescue once again about that time. He'd heard the news, and although he had recently remarried, he still invited me to stay in one of his lodges, to get away from everything for a while. He believed in me when no one else did, and honestly, I owe him my life for that. I don't know for certain what I'd have done if I hadn't escaped when I did-but I know where I was heading. I stayed with him for several months, trying to come to terms with my new reality.

"While I was more or less in hiding, I realized that I couldn't stay in the city anymore. My career was in ruins, and my 'friends' had turned their backs on me. I couldn't go home, because even if my family hadn't already disowned me, they certainly would have after all that. But then Howard reminded me of a property I'd bought some time ago, while we were still dating. It had belonged to a distant relative of his, and he had thought that it would be good for me to have something to fall back on. At the time, he'd thought only in terms of land that I could sell or develop, but I began to think instead of escaping to a tropical island, where it was unlikely I'd be recognized, and trying my hand at something new. I'd never even been on a farm, of course, let alone worked on one. But I wasn't afraid of work, and I liked animals, so I thought 'why not?'. So I packed up my clothes, told my lawyers to put my loft and everything in it up for sale, and I left. And here I am today."

"Remarkable," Will said after a moment. "You're far tougher and more resilient than even I'd have given you credit for."

"No, not really. I don't think so, anyway. I'm just too damned stubborn. Once I recovered from hating living in my body so much, I wanted nothing more than to make the best life I could for myself, if only to show that son of a bitch that he has no power over me."

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," Will said with a smile.

"You've got thatright," she agreed heartily.