by Cora Seton
“Mind? I love it. It’s so… girly. I never get to be girly.”
That seemed like an odd thing to say. “The outfit you arrived in was girly. So was that bikini on your video,” he pointed out. He’d looked at her video a lot when he was alone. Maybe it was chauvinistic to enjoy the way she filled out that swimsuit, but she’d sent it to him, and the bikini’s wet fabric had revealed a lot.
Her cheeks pinked. “Well, sure, but you know what I mean. Not like this.”
“I guess.” He chalked up his inability to see the distinction to the gender divide.
“Look at my bonnet,” she said and put it on, turning her head this way and that. “I’ve never worn a bonnet before.”
“Nice.” He really didn’t know what else to say. He wasn’t so enamored of the bonnets. They seemed silly, mostly, although he supposed in this era of skin cancer, protecting your face the sun’s rays was practical.
“Nice? Argh—men,” she said and turned to Curtis, who’d come back, Daisy threading through everyone’s legs. “What do you think?”
“Absolutely stunning,” Curtis pronounced with a flourish, and even the cameramen chuckled when Addison clapped.
“See? That’s how you do it,” she told Kai. “I guess you’re more of a surfer type, though. You probably don’t like the Regency thing.”
She was still joking, but Kai wasn’t stupid. He might be a guy, but he had enough of a radar to catch that Addison really wanted to know his feelings about the way she was dressed. He looked at her again. Really looked at her. She was right; he’d always written off the women’s Regency outfits as a gimmick for their B and B. He understood they’d donned them first for another reason, though. Riley, Savannah, Nora and Avery had come to Westfield to escape a modern existence that was leaving them flat. They’d wanted to pursue creative goals their day jobs hadn’t left time for. Wearing the Regency clothing was supposed to remind them on a daily basis why they’d come to Chance Creek—and keep them isolated from the outside world that could so easily intrude and dislodge them from their path.
They hadn’t counted on how many other women loved the Regency time period—nor for their need to make money from the manor. They’d managed to combine their interests and need for cash into their B and B. They still had time for their creative pursuits, but they also had an income—and were sharing their love for all things Regency with other women, too. Of course, when the men had arrived, bringing Renata and her camera crews, any hope they’d had for privacy was gone. They’d taken it all in stride and didn’t seem to mind being filmed anymore.
The show’s audience loved it.
Still, compared to Addison’s bikini and the flowy things she’d worn when she first arrived, the Regency getup was downright staid. Sure, it showed some cleavage, but not much else. If you’d asked him, he would have said he’d preferred the sexier clothing she’d worn off the plane, but there was something appealing about her now, too.
Something… intriguing.
It would be fun to get her out of that outfit, he decided, and he didn’t realize he’d grinned until she grinned back at him, mischief lighting her eyes.
Did she want him to get her out of it—later, when they were alone?
“You look absolutely gorgeous,” he said slowly, meaning it now that he’d taken a good look. “You look different, though. Not… flowy and bohemian. Dressed like that, you could almost be… sensible.”
Hell. Should he have said that?
It wasn’t very sexy.
Addison’s eyes widened for a split second, and she half turned to look at the meal he was preparing on the counter as if to hide her reaction. “Do you need help?”
“You should probably get set up for the night first,” Kai told her, afraid he’d hurt her feelings. He’d actually meant it as a compliment in a way. His mother would approve of her far more in this getup than in that bikini. “I guess—” He looked at the meal with frustration. “I guess I’ll help you do that after I finish cooking.” Maybe they’d get a minute alone and he could explain what he meant. Or better yet, skip that conversation altogether and get right to the part where he showed her he was attracted to her.
“When are you ever done cooking?” Curtis said with a laugh. “You want me to show you where to set up your tent, Addison? Otherwise it’ll be midnight.” He was obviously joking, and Kai knew he expected Addison to turn him down.
He did, too.
It was a shock when, after a pause, she glanced at the camera crew and said, “Uh… Yes.”
Kai stiffened. So did Curtis. “Oh… okay,” Curtis said. “Well, right this way.” He shot an apologetic look at Kai before escorting her out into the main room of the bunkhouse. Addison didn’t look back at him at all. Just hurried after Curtis. Several of the camera crew peeled off to follow them.
Kai wished they all had gone.
What the hell had just happened?
Just when she was getting somewhere with Kai, Curtis had to go and ruin it all with his stupid question. Of course she didn’t want him to set up her tent. She wanted to do it with Kai.
But a question meant a yes.
Felicity was going to pay for this.
“Where do you want your tent to be?” Curtis asked, clearly as uncomfortable as she felt. They’d stopped by a storage shed and fetched the things she’d need, and he was carrying all of it.
“Here’s fine,” she said, pointing to the first empty space they came to in the makeshift campground by the bunkhouse. As she’d seen on the television show, four tiny houses had been built into a sloping hillside nearby. Those belonged to the married couples. As a singleton, she’d stay in a tent for now.
A breeze swooped through the campground, and Addison shivered. She hadn’t thought too much about the sleeping arrangements—or about tenting. She hadn’t done much of that since she’d been in scouting years ago. She hoped the sleeping bag Curtis had fetched would be warm enough tonight.
“Uh… that one’s mine.” He indicated a tent not three feet away. “Avery’s the only woman here not married. Her tent is over there.” He led the way.
Addison shook her head and followed him, aware of the stupid cameras that’d caught that whole exchange. Why hadn’t the man told her where Avery camped before asking her to pick a place? Now it looked like she was trying to be close to him.
When they reached the women’s area, she tried to help him set up the tent and only managed to get in his way. In the end she stood by, watching the cameras watch her as Curtis did it himself. Once it was up, he put down a pad and rolled out her bag for her.
“There you go. Nice and snug.”
Now what was she supposed to do? “Thanks,” she said. “That was… great.” She was certainly no actor, and the longer she stood here, the more conscious of the cameras she became.
“My pleasure,” Curtis said.
She waited a beat then stepped forward, just as Curtis did, too. They crashed together, and Curtis reached out to hold her up.
Addison yanked herself out of his arms. “I’ll see you at dinner,” she said desperately. Would the man never leave? She was sure her face was scarlet.
“Addison? Oh, good—you’ve got your tent up!”
Thank God, Addison thought as Avery hurried toward them, followed by Nora, Riley and Savannah. Curtis excused himself quickly, and Addison had to stop herself from flinging her arms around the women in thanks for rescuing her.
“We were about to have a meeting about some upcoming guests. Do you want to join us?” Savannah asked.
“Sure. We can talk about the ball, too.”
Too late she realized she should have led up to that a little more carefully. All the women stared at her. “Ball?” Riley asked.
Whoops.
“I told… I promised… Alice said…” She wasn’t making sense. Best just to blurt it out. “I told Alice we’d host a ball at Westfield. A Halloween ball. A masquerade. In a couple of weeks.”
“But—” Avery l
ooked to the others.
“We’ve got a large group of guests arriving soon. And another group right after them. We wanted to leave a week free before your wedding,” Riley told her. “If we throw a Halloween masquerade, we won’t get a break at all.”
“And you just got here—” Nora broke off when Riley sent her a pointed glance, but Addison knew exactly what she’d meant to say. She’d only arrived today, and she was planning balls?
“I’m so sorry; Alice was the one who brought it up, and she seemed to really want us to do it, and I… I got carried away.” That wasn’t true; Alice had forced her into it. What would happen if the rest of the people here figured out her predicament? Who knew what they’d ask her to do? “Look—” Desperation gave her a good idea. “I’ll take care of everything. I’ll need to learn the ropes from you ladies, but I swear the ball won’t give any of you any extra work to do. I love putting on parties.” That much was true.
Avery brightened. “You do?”
“Absolutely. I threw them all the time in Connecticut. Halloween is my specialty.” She didn’t mention her plan to become a professional event planner in New York.
“Well,” Riley said, “if you’ll handle the work, why not? We can open our doors to some of our friends.”
“It would be nice to attend a ball without having to be the ones throwing it,” Savannah added.
“I’m not sure that’s realistic. Do you want to take on all that extra work by yourself?” Nora asked Addison.
Addison wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “Yes.”
The evening had gotten quite chilly, and Boone and Clay were building a large bonfire to keep everyone warm while they ate their dinners. Soon they’d have to bring meals inside for the winter, Kai thought as he prepped. The bunkhouse main room could hold them all, but it wouldn’t be nearly as atmospheric as out here. He figured they’d do this as long as they could—but it wouldn’t be much longer. Autumn brought rain in Montana, and they’d already had some wet evenings. Tonight looked dry, though.
He wondered how the rest of Addison’s afternoon had gone. She hadn’t returned to the kitchen, although Curtis had.
“Made a fool of myself,” he muttered to Kai low enough for the camera crews not to hear. “Tripped and almost knocked Addison over.”
“Let me guess—they got the whole thing,” Kai said with a glance back at the cameras.
“You bet. Brace yourself; they’ll make it look like I went in for a kiss. I didn’t,” he said when Kai shot him a look, and he left the kitchen again, leaving Kai to wonder if that was true. Maybe Curtis wasn’t over his lost bride at all. Maybe he’d wanted to be the next one to be married. He’d warned Kai that someone else might want his wife-to-be.
Had he been warning Kai about his own intentions?
Kai found that hard to believe, but the idea was like a scab he couldn’t stop picking at as he worked on the meal. When Addison finally arrived in the kitchen, she seemed subdued, which only served to increase Kai’s paranoia.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, then rolled her eyes. “But I did something stupid.”
Kai stiffened. Had she kissed Curtis? Or wanted to?
“I let Alice Reed bully me into promising we’d throw a Halloween ball. Now Riley and the rest of them think I’m totally thoughtless for agreeing to it without even asking them. The only way to salvage the situation was promise to do it all myself.”
“I’ll help,” Kai said, relieved more than he would admit this was the only thing troubling her. He was repaid by the look of gratitude she cast him. “But… a ball? Does that mean food?”
“I think so.”
“Not a sit-down dinner,” he said. Please, God—not that. A ball meant a crush of people, and that could easily deplete their stores.
“Avery says they usually do a buffet.”
Hell. He didn’t know what to think of that. Was the food supposed to come from Base Camp or from the B and B’s supplies? Those were kept separate from the food for the inhabitants of the ranch. B and B customers weren’t part of the game. But this wasn’t a ball for B and B guests, so he wasn’t sure where they stood.
When it was time to serve dinner, Kai wished he could hang back in the kitchen, but Fulsom and his people had arrived. Luckily there were only a few extra mouths to feed—not an entire entourage. He took his plate outside and sat near Addison, who was already devouring her meal as if she hadn’t eaten all day.
“Everyone? Quiet down a minute. Martin Fulsom has a few things to say to us,” Boone announced. “He flew in just an hour ago. Let’s give him a round of applause.”
Kai joined in with everyone else, and the silver-haired man bowed his head to accept their acclaim. Fulsom was in his fifties but fit as a fiddle. The kind of man who drew your attention no matter what he said or did. Kai knew this footage would appear on the next show. Fulsom waited until the applause died down, made sure the cameras were focused on him, spread his arms wide and began to speak.
“The easy part is over. Time to get to work,” he boomed.
Kai straightened. There were murmurs throughout the assembled crowd. What did Fulsom think they’d been doing? Ever since they started Base Camp, it had been a race to beat the clock he’d set for them. Kai reminded himself that Fulsom was a showman. He liked to shock them. Kai resolved not to be shocked.
“Think about it,” Fulsom told them. “Everything you’ve done up until now you need to keep doing. In the rain, the sleet, the snow and the freezing temperatures of a long Montana winter. In addition to that, you’ll need to live off the food you’ve been setting aside for winter. I’m here to talk about details.”
Kai couldn’t help but feel uneasy, as if somehow someone might have leaked their shaky circumstances to the man, but everyone had sworn to keep the secret. Still, Fulsom was right; things were about to get more difficult.
“Housing,” Fulsom said. “Brief me.”
“We have all the housing sites dug except one,” Boone answered quickly. “So we’re all set on that. We hope to have four more tiny houses built before the really bad weather sets in.”
“Seems to me you’re cutting it close. What happens if you fail? These tents aren’t going to be very comfortable when the snow starts to fall.”
“Some people will have to sleep in the bunkhouse through the winter. I’m confident we can make that work and beat the housing deadline.”
Fulsom nodded. “Food,” he boomed. “Seems like this is where you’ll fall down on your faces.”
Kai swallowed down his worry the man was right. He wasn’t sure who was going to answer Fulsom. Angus was studying his hands in his lap. Boone’s jaw was tight as he looked away.
In the end it was Samantha who stood up. “We’ve got it under control,” she said firmly. “We’ll keep the greenhouses running through the winter growing hardy greens so we always have something fresh. We’ve got crops harvested and stored.” Kai noticed she quickly moved on from that point, since the only stored crops left were the vegetables that had already been in the kitchen when their root cellar was raided. “We planted a crop of wheat last spring that is almost ready for harvest and have a contract with a local miller to turn it into flour. And if all else fails we have bison.”
Kai admired Sam’s quick thinking. She’d glossed right over the problem areas and concentrated on their strengths.
Fulsom considered her. “Wheat, huh? Seems to me your wheat should have been harvested already.”
Kai shot a look at Renata. She was grinning, which made sense. Kai figured Fulsom knew little about wheat; Renata must have fed him that question to ask.
“You’re right,” Sam said. “We were late planting it, and we’ll be late harvesting it, but so far, so good.”
“Okay—we’ll see how you’re doing in a couple of months. I’d give you fifty-fifty odds that you all are begging to give me back the ranch around February. You ever see what scurvy does to people?”
“We won’t get scurvy,” Walker put in calmly. The large Native American was clearly unimpressed by Fulsom’s threats. “Lived my whole life here—we can live off the land if we need to.”
Kai appraised him. That was interesting. He hadn’t thought to ask Walker about that sort of thing.
“In February?” Fulsom pushed.
Walker nodded. Never a man of many words, he wasn’t one to repeat himself.
“Wives!” Fulsom shouted suddenly. “Four down, six to go! Do you scruffy, ugly tree huggers really think you can score enough women to win this thing?”
Addison turned toward Kai, eyes wide, clearly insulted.
“Because if you don’t, this land is going to become Chance Creek’s first bona-fide suburb! You should see the seventy lovely homes Montague plans to build right here. They’re amazing. All of them look exactly the same!” Fulsom was hamming it up for the cameras, but Kai couldn’t take his eyes off Addison. She seemed to be working something out in her mind, but he couldn’t fathom what until she leaned in close to him.
“That’s for the show, right?” she finally whispered to him. “The whole thing about losing Base Camp? There isn’t really a developer, is there?”
Kai pulled back. “Of course there is. Didn’t you see the first episode?”
“Yes,” she said hesitantly. “Montague. The guy with the steam roller?”
“Yeah, that’s him. He’s real, all right. He’s desperate to build houses on this ranch; Fulsom’s giving him the land if we screw up. That’s why we’re in such a rush to get everything done. That’s why you’re here,” he reminded her. “You know that, right?”
Addison blinked, and Kai’s stomach sank.
“Yes,” she finally said.
It was real. Base Camp was real.
And Addison didn’t know what she was supposed to do now.
She’d only come here because Felicity had assured her it was fake. Now she was trapped. All these people she’d gotten to know today were betting their future on the outcome of this show. For the first time it sank in what they’d lose if Fulsom gave it to Montague. Kai was right; she’d seen episode one, and the threat that Montague would pave Base Camp over had added spice to the reality television show.