“Charlie’s got a flaw. He’s not a fighter. If I let that team of mine loose, they’d make dog meat of him. He won’t even fight on a one-to-one basis.”
“How about stud service?” Kelly suggested.
“No good there either. He’s sterile.”
“I like him. He’s my dog. You gave him to me,” Kelly said defiantly.
“You can have him, but keep him away from my team when I have them hitched. They’re hard enough to handle as it is.”
The next morning Kelly played an extra long time with Charlie. He jumped, barked, chased the frisbee until his tongue was hanging out. Kelly knelt down in the snow and hugged his shaggy neck.
“You and I are alike, Charlie. We didn’t fit into what was expected of us.”
At noon a delivery van backed up to the door of the lodge. Kelly saw it pull away a few minutes later and dismissed it from her mind. Probably someone asking directions. An hour passed before she went up to the lodge with a bundle of laundry and noticed that tire tracks in the snow led right up to the door. She opened it to see a mountain of crates and boxes with Marty, Mike, and Tram standing in the middle of them.
“What’s going on?” she gasped. Guilt was written all over Marty’s face. “Marty! What’s all this stuff?”
“Now don’t get in a stew. Jonathan sent out a few things. It’ll be added to what we owe him,” she said quickly.
“A few things?” Kelly edged her way between the boxes. “Washer, dryer, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, microwave oven, sheets, towels . . .” She stopped reading aloud, but continued making the rounds of the boxes that filled half the family room. “And an antenna. That’s so you can pull in that Tulsa, Oklahoma station and hear the football games, isn’t it,” she said sarcastically. Her eyes followed a path of melted snow to the back rooms.
“Kelly . . .” Marty called before her husband hushed her.
Stacks of boxes lined one wall of the big dormitory room. They were uniform in size, and the name Jonathan Templeton was stamped on each one. Kelly stood numbly looking at them. He was moving in, invading her home. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d taken everything from her. Returning to the family room to retrieve the bundle of laundry she’d dropped, she wondered vaguely if she looked like she felt—as if she’d been kicked in the throat.
“Don’t look like that, Kelly! I can’t bear it!” Marty cried.
Kelly waved a weak hand at the clutter of boxes. “Money talks. I can see where that leaves me.”
“Don’t you dare say that!” Marty broke away from Tram and rushed over to her. “We needed things to make this place pay. It’s a loan, Kelly. Just a loan.”
“Then what’re his things doing back there?” She jerked her head toward the bedrooms.
“We couldn’t very well refuse to rent the dormitory. Be reasonable, Kelly,” Marty pleaded.
“Did you agree to this, Mike?”
Mike remained silent and his sister prompted him angrily.
“Tell her! Tell her the three of us talked it over with Jonathan and agreed the place needed refurbishing.”
“Oh, hush, Marty! Yes, I agreed, Kelly. Business is business.” Mike didn’t look at her.
“I thought I was a partner in this venture, too,” Kelly whispered through stiff lips. “Don’t I have say about something as important as this?”
“We knew what you’d say,” Mike said stubbornly.
“I hope you enjoy all this.” Kelly waved her hand at the boxes again and went out the door before they could see that she was trembling. “Oh, Tram!” she heard Marty wail.
Kelly forced her trembling legs to support her down the path and was grateful for the cold air she sucked into her lungs. She prayed the leaden weight in the pit of her stomach would dissolve.
Inside the sanctuary of her own home, she threw herself down on the couch. Great, shuddering sobs tore through her. It was a relief to let the misery flow out of her. She could cry here. There was no one to see her. The tears came in an overwhelming flood, pouring down her cheeks and seeping between her fingers.
At last the tears stopped and she lay on the couch staring into the fire. She was tired. She put another chunk of wood on the grate, went to her room, and changed into her long flannel gown. She took her pillow and down-filled comforter back to the couch, and fell asleep almost instantly.
Kelly woke early the next morning. The room was so cold she could see her breath. She got out from under the warm blankets, put more wood on the fire, turned on the electric water heater, and crawled back under the blankets. She felt rested and clearheaded. It was obvious to her now that Jonathan’s strategy was to drive her away, but it wasn’t going to work. He and his money would never separate her from this place and the two people she loved best. But deep inside, she wondered if she had the strength to stand up to him.
She showered and dressed, then, on impulse, put on fresh makeup. No sense in looking the martyr, she told herself, even if she did feel like one.
She let herself into the lodge kitchen where Mike sat at the table talking on the C.B. radio.
“Ten-four. I’ll be coming your way this morning. Stand by and I’ll give you a call. If you have time, we can have a bit of lunch together.”
“Ten-four, Barefoot. I’ll be on the by and listening.” The girl’s voice was soft and musical.
Mike gave Kelly a sheepish grin.
“Is that the new girlfriend?” she asked.
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean . . . sort of? What’s she like?”
“Well, she’s not fat like Geraldine Jenkins!” he said gruffly.
Kelly laughed. “I see you’ve got all the loot laid out,” she said lightly, glancing around the room at the shiny new appliances.
“Yeah. You still mad?”
“No. I don’t think so, anyway. I can understand how you and Marty were tempted to take them.”
“Oh, that’s just great!” Mike got to his feet.
“Calm down,” Kelly said quickly. “I said I understand and I do. And, in case you’re wondering, I’m not going to let Jonathan Winslow Templeton the Third drive me away from here!”
Mike grinned. “Good girl! I was beginning to think you’d lost your spunk.”
“Don’t you believe it, buster. I’m as gutsy as ever!” They were brave words, but would she remember them when she faced her husband again?
The test came sooner than she expected.
In the middle of the morning, Marty was in the wash room trying out the new washer when Jonathan’s voice came in on the radio.
“Break . . . Mountain View.”
Kelly looked dubiously at the set. She desperately wanted to turn it off, but she didn’t dare in case of an emergency. She pressed the button on the microphone and said, “Go ahead.”
There was silence and then Jonathan’s voice. “Will someone bring the truck out to the clearing?”
“Ten-four,” Kelly said through stiff lips. She went to get her coat, then relayed the message to Marty, who went to find Tram.
On her way to her cabin, Kelly heard the plane circle to land, but she didn’t look skyward. She hated herself for running away, but she needed time to prepare herself for the eventual meeting. Part of her had hoped that, despite the boxes piled in the dormitory, he wouldn’t come back. She should have known better, she thought bitterly.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WHEN THE FRONT door of the cabin was flung open, Kelly moved away from the chest where she had put away her sweaters and went to stand in the bedroom door. Jonathan glanced at her, then, using the boot-jack beside the door, removed his boots.
“Don’t bother taking off your coat and boots. You’re not staying.” When he didn’t answer, she added, “I said you’re not staying. This is my house and I don’t want you here.”
“Who said anything about staying? I came to get my things.” He walked past her into her father’s room.
“Good.” She followed him to the doorway. “The soon
er you’re away from here, the better I’ll like it. Be sure to give me the papers to sign before you leave.”
“What papers?” He took his big suitcase from the closet, unzipped it, and spread it open on the bed.
“Don’t play games. The divorce papers. You did it all for nothing, Jonathan. I didn’t want a settlement when I left you and I don’t want one now.”
“It was a childish act of vandalism destroying all those clothes.”
“They wouldn’t have fit Nancy anyway. I didn’t want them. All I want from you is the title to this property and I’ll keep after you until I get it. I won’t let you do Mike and Marty out of their share.”
“Didn’t they tell you—”
“They told me what you told them,” she interrupted coolly. “But I didn’t believe it.”
He shrugged and dropped a stack of underwear into the bag. “Think any damn thing you please,” he said, the words falling icily. “You will anyway. All you know how to do is to break and run.”
“What did you expect me to do? Stay and play second fiddle to Nancy?” she almost shouted. “And have that creepy sister of yours look down her nose at me?”
“Watch it, Kelly. Katherine means well. If you’d stayed, you would have seen that I can handle Katherine. But you had to get back here, didn’t you? You love this place and . . . Mike and Marty . . .”
“You’re damn right I do and you’re doing your best to buy them away from me. Can’t you be satisfied with what you have? Why did you have to come here and mess up my life?”
“Why not? You sure as hell messed up mine.” He stuffed the last garment in the bag and zipped it shut. “I’m staying here, Kelly. You’re not going to ruin this vacation for me.” He looked at her squarely and she saw new lines of weariness in his face. She was glad if she had pierced his consciousness just one little bit. “I intend to build that glider with Mike and Tram. While I’m here you’d better pull in your horns and act civilized.”
“I can’t believe you want to stay here! What about the divorce? What about Nancy?”
“What about her? She knows better than to interfere with my plans.” He picked up his suitcase and she moved out of the doorway. He pulled on his boots while her mind screamed, Get out! Get out! He turned and impaled her with his eyes. “You don’t understand one thing about me, do you, Kelly?” His tone was soft, but his frustration was apparent.
Somewhere in a quiet, little corner of her heart she might have felt pity for the man who was so rich in material things and so lacking in what really mattered—love and compassion. But she couldn’t close her mind to the memory of Katherine saying, “He didn’t want you showing up in Boston.”
“I understand enough. Don’t come here again.” There was a slight tremor when she spoke, but her eyes met his unwaveringly.
“You needn’t worry.” He picked up his suitcase again. “I brought Bonnie and Clyde back with me. The least you can do is go up there and welcome them back.” He went out the door.
Kelly stood in the middle of the room for countless minutes, his words echoing in her mind, his ravaged face fixed in her memory. Was he ill? Stop! she told herself. Stop thinking.
Outside, she was met by an exuberant Charlie with a new red frisbee in his mouth. She took it from him and sent it sailing into the air. Charlie made great, bounding leaps to catch it. He tossed his head, let his toy fly out of his mouth, then pounced on it with his front paws before nuzzling it out of the snow and racing back to her. His big, shaggy body almost upset her when she grabbed the frisbee and held it away from him.
“Oh, Charlie,” she laughed. “You’re a lover, not a fighter, but that’s all right with me.”
Inside the kitchen door she stomped the snow from her boots before removing them. “Welcome back, you two.”
Bonnie was seated in a wheelchair and Clyde was trying to make coffee in the new electric urn.
“Kelly! You don’t know how glad I am to be back here,” Bonnie exclaimed. “It’s just like comin’ home, honey. How y’all been? I worried about you, even if Clyde told me not to.” Bonnie’s bleached hair was piled high and her makeup was all in place. She looked well-rested and as perky as ever. Her encased leg rested on a prop attached to the chair.
“I missed you, Bonnie. How are you doing, Clyde? You trying to figure out how to operate that thing?”
“We missed you, too,” Bonnie continued. “Every day I’d say to Clyde, ‘I wonder how Kelly is doin’ with the cookin’, and he’d say, ‘You just quit your worryin’, honeybunch, that gal’s been down the trail and she’ll manage.’”
Kelly grinned at Clyde. “And I did, Bonnie. My cooking is not up to your standards, but we didn’t starve.”
“Well . . . ain’t ya going to say anything a’tall about all the new stuff?” Bonnie’s eyes glittered with excitement. “I tell you, Kelly, I ain’t never had such a time in all my life. Clyde said that I ain’t better get used to pointin’ and sayin’ that I’ll take this or that. He said it was a once in a lifetime for me, and Clyde’s right. It sure was fun.”
Oblivious to Kelly’s irritated expression, Bonnie continued. “Jack picked up me and Clyde and this here chair and took us down to the department store. Clyde pushed me around and Jack says for me to point out anything I needed out here and not to pay no attention to what it cost. He said it didn’t make no difference if it was on sale or not, to get the best. I had those clerks a runnin’ in circles! I’d point and they’d jump. I said it wasn’t hardly fair for me to have all the fun, but he said you could go anytime you want to get more things.” Bonnie paused and waited and Kelly realized she had to say something.
“Good for him,” she said, but her sarcasm was lost on Bonnie, who was off on the description of how they’d picked out the radio antenna.
“Jack said to the man we wanted to listen to the ball games and the man said what we needed was a satellite and we could watch them on TV and Jack said . . .”
Kelly’s mind tuned out Bonnie’s chatter. Jonathan had won Bonnie over just as he had won Marty and Mike. Damn! Wasn’t he going to leave her anything?
“Kelly. Kelly . . .” Bonnie’s voice sounded far away.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Bonnie. I was wondering about lunch.”
“That’s what I said. What should I do about lunch?”
“Mike won’t be here. The rest of us can have soup and sandwiches. I’ll fix it.”
“I’ll do it. My arms ain’t broke. Help me out of this thing, Clyde. Jack said if I sit all the time I’ll lose my figure.”
Kelly clenched her teeth. If she heard “Jack said” one more time, she would scream!
The afternoon was one of the longest Kelly had ever lived through. By evening she was so uptight she felt ill. Jonathan spent the day in the dormitory room. “Gettin’ settled in,” Clyde said as he passed through the kitchen carrying boxes to the shed. Bonnie’s exuberance was dampened somewhat when she realized that Jonathan was not going to live in the cabin with Kelly. She continually gave Kelly inquiring looks that Kelly ignored, and after a while Bonnie settled into a gloomy silence.
Sheer willpower and the determination not to let Jonathan intimidate her forced Kelly to remain at the lodge for the evening meal. She was even able to smile occasionally, speak pleasantly when spoken to, and choke down a portion of the food on her plate. Not once did her expression reveal the panic that rose in her throat each time Jonathan looked at her.
The men talked about the glider they planned to assemble and the tower to hold the huge antenna. Jonathan talked easily, discussing ways to fly the machine when it was completed, asking advice, drawing each of the men into the conversation, never once becoming condescending. Marty and Bonnie listened eagerly but Kelly felt like an outsider, excluded.
When the meal was over, the men continued to sit at the table. Kelly and Marty loaded the new dishwasher and made fresh coffee. Kelly put on her coat to take food scraps out to Charlie, then continued down the path to her own cabin. She had
never felt so alone or so miserable in her life.
That weekend the retired couple and the two wildlife photographers anived, and Kelly worked with Bonnie preparing meals. The shed had been turned into a workshop and the big woodburning stove kept it warm enough for the men to work without gloves most of the time. Jonathan spent his days there, coming in with a red nose and, at times, frost on the beard he was growing. He never attempted to speak to Kelly alone and most of the time he ignored her. But it was obvious to Kelly that everyone else adored him.
“I don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn, Kelly,” Marty finally commented. “Why don’t you talk things out with Jonathan? I’m sure he’ll meet you halfway. You’re just making yourself miserable.”
Kelly looked at her for a long time, biting back bitter words. Finally she said: “I love you dearly, Marty, but . . . please mind your own business.” Tears came to Marty’s eyes, but Kelly refused to say more.
The following weekend brought blessed diversion in the form of Andy Mullins, who arrived with another couple, and Kelly’s spirits responded immediately to Andy’s buoyant personality. He threw his arms wide when he saw her.
“There she is! Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Alaska!”
“Hello, Andy. I thought you were going back to the reservation.” She held out her hand which he clasped in both of his.
“I called in sick. Told them I had terminal longing to see a pretty girl at Mountain View Lodge.” He turned to the couple with him. “Kelly, meet Bob and Maggie.”
The woman was a pretty, dimpled blonde with a flawless complexion, who looked at Kelly with disinterest. The man with her was short and stocky and could scarcely keep his adoring eyes from his companion’s face. Here was a couple they wouldn’t need to entertain, Kelly thought with a twinge of envy. The couple followed Clyde to their room, but Andy lingered with Kelly.
“How are things going with you?” His eyes roamed over her face. “Don’t lie.”
“Okay. I’m . . . so-so, Doc.”
“Did your husband go back to tea-town?”
“No. He’s staying here at the lodge. In the dormitory.”
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