by Cara Colter
“True,” Ward conceded.
“The people won’t like her,” Lancaster said, his voice low. “They’ll see her as glib and superficial. She’s not of the earth.”
This was a highest form of praise in Havenhurst: he or she is of the earth.
There was a grave silence between the two men, and when Lancaster spoke, his tone was faintly lighter.
“Perhaps you could consider that lass from the café this morning. Think of the scones!” Lancaster crowed. Now that they were alone, he pronounced it skoons in the language of their island kingdom.
Both men laughed.
“I think there is far less danger of damage hiring an actress to play the role of my wife than to involve an ordinary girl living her ordinary life,” Ward said firmly.
He had found a way to save Aida, without hurting anyone else, or his island kingdom. He was satisfied with his choice. The truth was a woman like Maddie, from the little time he had spent with her, deserved things he could not give.
Love, for one.
That was a topic he knew nothing about. Nothing. Love would be for him, as it had been for his parents, the great unknown. His parents had done precisely what he would do—they had sacrificed any chance of personal happiness for what they saw as the good of Havenhurst.
And he would do the same. Love was not part of his duty, nor his destiny, and he had known those truths forever. He had made a decision to save Aida from this same lonely fate, and that was good enough.
Even though Ward had decided the scone enchantress was not marriage material—she might already be married for all he knew—he had a feeling that if he wanted to glimpse normal, to feel it and be it for these few days of freedom remaining to him, she could show him that. It would be even better if she had a husband or a boyfriend. They could give him a glimpse of that tantalizing thing called normal together.
“Why don’t we go see if Maddie and Sophie are willing to show us the pool?” Ward suggested after a moment.
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Maddie might even have—what do they call it here? A significant other! Who could come with us.”
Lancaster cast him a long look and finally, reluctantly, nodded.
* * *
“We’re just getting ready to close,” Maddie said when the bell rang over the door. She was exhausted. The day had been frantically busy, visitors already thronging the town for tomorrow’s concert. She would not be attending the concert. She preferred a warm bath and a good book.
She glanced up and froze.
It was the two men from this morning, Ward and Lancaster.
“Are there scones left?” Lancaster asked without preamble.
“Is that panic I hear in your voice?” Ward asked. He smiled at Maddie. “It takes a lot to panic him. Please tell him you have scones left. Hello, by the way. Nice to see you again.”
He said it as if he really meant it.
“You, too,” she said, and then wished she hadn’t, because she really meant it, too, only she probably really meant it way more than he really meant it.
“If we’ve dispensed with the social niceties?” Lancaster prodded.
Exactly! Social niceties. Meaningless. Not that she wanted them to have meaning. She was done with that kind of thing. The thrill of a handsome man. The excitement of getting to know someone. The feeling of being close. The tingle of hands touching. That incredible sensation of being alive.
She was done with it—but she was aware she longed for it, too. She had told herself she remained in Mountain Bend, after Derek’s betrayal, because she was needed here.
But couldn’t that be a way of hiding?
And now, what she was hiding from appeared to have found her. It was like a chocolate addict giving up bonbons. It was all well and good until someone waved one under your nose.
“Do any scones remain?” Lancaster asked plaintively.
See? She was already drifting off, contemplating the many missed pleasures of bonbons. She drew herself up short.
“Unfortunately, no,” she said. “We’ve had crowds. Once I added the Cornish cream, I couldn’t keep up with the demand.”
“You said you didn’t have any!”
“You’re making the poor man swoon,” Ward pointed out good-naturedly.
She dared not look at him. If he was smiling, and she knew he was—she could tell by the added lilt in his voice—she might be the one swooning!
“I looked up some recipes. It’s really just whipped cream, but done until it’s very nearly butter, yes?”
“Will you marry me?” Lancaster asked. “And if not me, him?”
Despite her vow not to look, she cast a startled glance at Ward, thinking he would be laughing uproariously. Why did Ward not seem to think that was funny?
“Anyway, we sold out, but I have some in the freezer I could get for you.”
“Perhaps a dozen? And as much cream as you’re willing to part with.”
“You’ll get fat,” a voice behind him said. “They’re made with pure butter. And then whipped cream, too? Your arteries won’t thank you. It’s a disgraceful way to treat a beautiful body.”
Lancaster whirled and glared at Sophie. “I’ll thank you not to comment on my arteries. My body is not your business, either.”
“We could change that,” Sophie purred.
“We couldn’t,” Lancaster snapped firmly, much to Maddie’s relief. What was Sophie doing, talking to a virtual stranger like that?
“Mountain Bend is a beautiful place,” Ward said conversationally to Maddie as she returned with frozen scones and packed them in a box. “Our part of the world has some beautiful places, to be sure, but nothing quite this untamed. Sophie mentioned the best sights were known by the locals. Would you say that’s true?”
Maddie nodded, feeling oddly wary.
“Do you think maybe you could show us some? When you’re all wrapped up here? You and the delightful Miss Sophie?”
Maddie felt herself freeze. Did Ward like Sophie? Well, who could blame him? And why did she care? It felt like this treacherous attraction she felt for him had to be quelled immediately. But still, Maddie looked over her shoulder at him, and he was smirking at Lancaster with a certain devilment in his smile. He turned back to her and winked.
Winked!
Immediately, she ordered herself to say no to this. She was not up to a man who could make such a simple thing as a playful wink seem sexy. But somehow that simple word stuck in her throat and would not come out.
“Lancaster and I spent the day trying to find a hot pool,” Ward said, “and despite having a map we did not turn it up.”
“Honeymoon Hot Springs,” Sophie said, excited as a puppy who had been shown a toy. “How did you hear about those? It’s Mountain Bend’s best-kept secret.”
“Someone at our hotel told us.”
That was unusual, but he was charming. He probably just had to smile to get poor old Adele, who worked the front desk at the Cottages, to want immediately to impress him with all the secrets the locals guarded from outsiders. Even now, when they were desperately trying to attract tourists, Honeymoon Hot Springs was rarely mentioned. The name said it all—it was so special to people here. A favorite place for wedding proposals, romantic interludes, honeymoon nights. It was a place couples went for privacy. It was absolutely the wrong place to go with a man you felt the slightest attraction to!
“Naturally, we’d want your, uh, significant other, to come, as well,” Ward said.
“She doesn’t have one!” Sophie said, like someone in possession of a piece of juicy gossip they couldn’t wait to share. “Her fiancé was the world’s biggest jerk.”
Maddie gave Sophie a look that could kill.
“Well, he was,” Sophie said, somehow missing the look entirely. “She came home t
o look after Kettle, and guess what he did? With her best friend?”
Maddie was mortified. She stared at Sophie in shocked horror. They all stood there in embarrassed distress. Too late, Sophie became aware of her gaffe. She turned stricken eyes to Maddie. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Not to worry,” Maddie said brightly. “I’m sorry, no. Local people don’t like outsiders going there. I have things to do. Thank you for your interest, but I can’t. I—”
“Of course, we’ll show you,” Sophie said, stubbornly, recovering way too quickly from divulging other people’s private lives. She was obviously as thrilled by the men’s interest in that secret place with its reputation for romantic enchantment, as Maddie was not.
“Sophie,” she said. “It’s—”
But Sophie cut her off with a toss of her thick black hair. “I will, if she won’t.”
There! Sophie had managed to make her sound like a terrible stick-in-the-mud. Had she become a terrible stick-in-the-mud? A person thrown over for another who could not get over it? She thought of her life since she’d returned to Mountain Bend. Work and worry.
She turned stiffly and handed the box of scones to Lancaster. “If there’s anything else?” Yes, she recognized it. The voice of a stick-in-the-mud, a woman whose broken heart would no doubt lead her to spinsterhood.
It was what Kettle loved about her, she reminded herself!
But then, ever so naturally, Ward laid his hand across Maddie’s wrist. His hand was warm and dry and his touch was firm. But more, his touch transmitted something of his power. She could feel the jolt of his substantial and seductive energy surge up the whole length of her arm.
It occurred to Maddie he was not a man accustomed to people saying no to him, which made it all the more imperative that she do exactly that!
“Please say yes,” Ward said softly.
CHAPTER FIVE
MADDIE YANKED HER wrist out from under Ward’s hand and resisted an impulse to rub it where it tingled.
Say no, she ordered herself.
Now she was pretty sure he was insisting out of pity. On the other hand, Sophie was going to do whatever she pleased, no matter how ill-advised it was. And playing with fire was ill-advised. Taking a man you barely knew to a place with a name like Honeymoon Hot Springs was playing with fire! Joining the excursion would not be the least bit sensible, which was Kettle’s expectation of Maddie.
Really? Maddie thought this was a very bad idea. They did not know these two men. Of course they seemed charming, but you couldn’t know these things from a short conversation. She watched true crime shows! And Honeymoon Hot Springs was a long way off the beaten track.
She cast a glance at the two men. It was a poor argument. Ward has asked if her significant other would like to join them. Besides, both men radiated decency, a kind of bone-deep honor.
The real reason she was reluctant was because she did not see the point of encouraging Sophie to get in any deeper with Lancaster. He was leaving; she was staying. And the same went for getting to know Ward any better. The hot springs, themselves, invited a kind of instant intimacy. Bathing suits! The romantic setting.
The whole idea had emotional catastrophe written all over it. But she could tell Sophie was set on going, and she was not about to let her go alone, particularly since there would be bathing suits involved! Chaperoning Sophie might be the more sensible way of looking at it!
Besides, hadn’t Maddie played it safe her whole life? Said no to every adventure? Scuttled away from every perceived danger? Had it, in any way, protected her from what life had planned?
It had not.
Besides, now, thanks to Sophie, she had to correct the impression that she was hiding away in Mountain Bend nursing a broken heart.
Which had enough elements of truth to it, that it suddenly felt imperative to make that correction.
Feeling as if she was standing on the rock ledge that jutted out way, way above Honeymoon Hot Springs, with that pool of deep turquoise steaming water far, far below, Maddie closed her eyes. Jump? Or walk away without ever knowing what adventure might have unfolded?
Maybe it wouldn’t even be an adventure, just an ordinary excursion, getting to know someone a little better, saying, See? I’m not broken. Couldn’t she just have fun? Wasn’t it her who was attaching seriousness to the whole encounter that it did not need to have?
She had never jumped off that rock ledge, as some of the bolder people had done. It was time to take a chance, wasn’t it?
“Okay,” she said. “Yes.”
Sophie whooped with surprised delight.
And Maddie noticed the exhaustion she had been feeling, just minutes ago, seemed to have evaporated.
“I’ll have to go home and put on a bathing suit,” Maddie said.
“A bathing suit?” Sophie said. “Usually we—”
Maddie gave her a look that could have stripped paint. “I don’t know what you usually do, Sophie, but you won’t be doing it today.”
She sounded like a miffed schoolteacher. She turned back to the men. “Can we meet back here in an hour?”
Somehow, now that she had acted like a miffed schoolteacher, if felt imperative that she not look like one, like a stodgy chaperone, old and humorless before her time, there to spoil everyone’s fun.
“Perfect.”
As he was going out the door, Lancaster turned back to her. Thank you, he mouthed. Maddie was not sure if he meant for the scones, for her agreement to accompany them to the falls, or for her setting out dress restrictions.
Picking an outfit proved more difficult than she had imagined. The bathing suit was not a problem—she had only two, both black, one-piece and equally matronly.
But what to wear over top? Honeymoon Hot Springs was not exactly a walk in the park, but a hike with some steep and rocky terrain to traverse.
Aware of the ticking of the clock—what had made her say they would meet in an hour—Maddie showered and dressed. Several times. She finally settled on a pair of shorts, longer than the ones that Sophie was wearing today, but that still showed off the length of her legs. She put a blue plaid shirt over her bathing suit and knotted it at the waist. The outfit was completed with sturdy hiking shoes.
She put some product in her hair and scrunched up her curls, and then she added large hoop earrings that made her short hair look like she had actually planned the cut as an act of supreme self-confidence, not sheared it off because it was convenient and because she no longer cared to be attractive!
After debating a moment—the hot springs did not really lend themselves to makeup—Maddie dusted her nose with a bit of makeup to hide her freckles and then added some waterproof mascara and just a touch of shadow. She used a color that made her eyes appear more green than brown. One thing about the hair, she decided, giving herself one more quick once-over in the mirror before she headed out the door, was it made her eyes look huge. In fact, she was pleased to see she looked quite pretty. She realized, surprised, she had just enjoyed the rituals of being feminine again. She felt as if she was going on a date. Was she going on a date?
Her hand went to the pendant on her neck, as it so often did when she was uncertain. What would her father think of her going to the hot springs with a stranger? Surely, he wouldn’t approve?
But when she closed her eyes and pictured him, he was smiling. Life is so short, he said. Don’t be afraid to be bold.
Maddie opened her eyes, and looked at herself one more time. Maybe there was just a hint of her father’s boldness in her.
Every bit of the extra time she had taken felt worth it when she saw Ward’s eyes light up with appreciation when they met again in front of the café.
Seeing Sophie’s outfit—even shorter shorts than earlier in the day and a crocheted cover-up over a very colorful but skimpy bikini top—Maddie thought she and Sophie should ride in the ba
ck of the car together.
But Ward opened the front door of the vehicle for her and nodded at the scowling Lancaster to get in the back with Sophie. Lancaster looked less than pleased about the arrangement and turned so he faced out the window.
As they roared up the mountain road, Maddie relaxed her need to be in control. In fact, it reminded Maddie of those carefree days of being a teenager. Not the car, of course, but the feeling. Bold. Embracing the everyday adventures that were offered.
The trailhead was not visible from the road, especially at this time of year, with the shrubs leafed in. Behind the leafy shrubs, the beginning of the trails was marked with a single wooden post with no markings on it. There were colorful rings around the bottom of it, and Maddie slid a blue one up to the top and hung it on a nail there.
“What does that mean?” Ward asked, curious.
“It will alert others to the fact there are people in the pools, but it’s blue, so it means anyone is welcome, and that certain—”
She cast Sophie a meaningful look, which Sophie ignored.
“Certain conventions will be respected. The pink ring would mean someone is in there who wants privacy, and the yellow would mean others are welcome but whoever is in there is without a bathing suit.”
She blushed when she said it.
“I think it may be fortuitous that Lancaster and I didn’t find our way earlier,” Ward said with a smile.
“You may be right,” Maddie agreed, returning his smile.
Within a few minutes of being on the trail to the hot pools, Maddie wondered how she could have possibly envisioned catastrophe of any kind. A well-beaten dirt trail, wide enough for two people to walk abreast, wound its way through the shady groves of old-growth forest. The light filtered, green and gold, through the thick canopy, and she could smell the heady perfume of pine and cedar needles being crushed underfoot, and the headier perfume of Ward: clean, male, earthy.