A Soldier's Journey

by Patricia Potter

  “But we think the biggest draw is our falls and our history. We all know the legends, but it took a newcomer to believe that our history is something to be shared, because it’s not only our history, but the history of Colorado and the West. The question then was how best to showcase it.

  “So I called several people.” He looked at Louisa. “First call was to Louisa to determine whether she thought it was feasible. I wasn’t prepared for her enthusiasm.

  “Sara Monroe offered to share the entries in Angus Monroe’s journals, which would be the heart of any play or pageant, and she agreed to help write the play. If you are not aware, she has a degree in English and has a deep interest in history.

  “Clint is here because he plays the guitar and has written several great songs. He could help develop the music with Louisa.

  “Stephanie will work with any animals, including, as she said, maybe even a camel. Sara has agreed to work on a script. My mom has volunteered her sewing circle for costumes.

  “Saying all that,” Nate said, “This is obviously a wild idea, which will take a huge amount of work and might well bomb. I also might be volunteering some people who have not exactly agreed to any part in this harebrained scheme.”

  “Gee, you’re convincing,” Clint said, prompting chuckles.

  Louisa raised her hand. “I, for one, like it. I’ve seen all my promising students leave town. This will give my seniors a project into which they can pour their hearts. I have a senior who can do anything with lighting and a young lady who is great in staging. This would give them great experience.”

  “Will they be willing to give up part of their summer for this?” Nate asked. “It will be all volunteers.”

  “Some will. It will give them experience if they try to find jobs in the entertainment field,” Louisa said. “But the script will be the heart of this.”

  Nate broke in. “Andy will pass out copies of a few entries in Angus’s journal, thanks to Mrs. Monroe.”

  After she passed out the copies, Andy watched the faces as the pages were circulated and read. She saw the growing interest in the room. The first excerpt was the opening entry in the first journal, when Angus prepared to leave Scotland. The second detailed finding his brother in New York, the third was an account of a raid on the wagon train they had joined, the fourth covered the death of Angus’s brother and the last was on establishing the trading post on the lake.

  Louisa’s head was nodding as she glanced through the three pages. “This is good,” she said.

  “This is just a sampling,” Andy said. “Mrs. Monroe—”

  “Sara,” corrected Sara Monroe. “It’s Sara.”

  “Sara, then,” Andy said. “She thought of having a narrator read passages from the journal, maybe in a study above the stage, and then the actors could enact the scene.”

  A smile spread across Louisa’s face. “Or maybe Angus is writing the entry when he is older? And a younger Angus acts out the scene? I like it. I like it very much.”

  “Would you be interested in helping to write it with Sara?” Nate asked. “You know scripts and drama.”

  Louisa turned to Sara. “How do you feel about that?”

  “I would like it very much,” Sara said.

  The drama teacher’s gaze went to Andy. “And you?”

  “I’m not a writer, but I’ll do whatever I can to help. I’m good at research.”

  Nate turned to Daniel. “Can we use the school’s facilities and equipment?”

  “If it’s a community-sponsored project.”

  “Is it?” Nate asked the group.

  Andy was seeing another side of Nate. He was sharp, decisive and manipulative in a good way. A little like Eve but more laid-back.

  “It is,” Bill said. “We can coordinate it here at the community center, and the high school can be our partner.”

  “I’ll run it by the school board, but I don’t think there will be a problem,” the principal said.

  “We need a chair for the project,” Nate said.

  “I think we already have one,” the principal said.

  Nate looked questioning.

  “What he means is you seem to be doing just fine,” Clint said lazily.

  “I agree,” Louisa said.

  “I do, as well,” Sara added.

  For a moment, Nate looked trapped, then shrugged. “Time is our biggest problem. We need a rough script in, what, three weeks?” He glanced at Sara, who looked at Louisa, who looked at Andy.

  “We’ll try,” Louisa said.

  “Clint, can you put together some possible songs from the mid-1840s? Maybe something original?”

  Clint nodded. “The state song, for sure. And you and the vets can build the stage and help with the sets.”

  “Bill, can you work with Andy in combing through the stuff we have in the museum and come up with items we can use?” Nate asked.

  Bill nodded.

  “Susan, who is managing the inn, is really competent at advertising and public relations,” Nate continued. “She can also design a program.” He looked around the room. “Any questions or comments?” he finished.

  “What’s this about a camel?” Louisa asked.

  “Ah, you didn’t grow up here,” Nate observed, “so you don’t know about the camels.”

  “No, I’m an import. I’d heard you changed the name of the inn,” she said. “I didn’t know why.”

  Nate explained how Angus had bought the camels and how they’d made quite an impact on Covenant Falls.

  Louisa laughed. “I love it, but are you really going to try to get camels? I mean, should they be in the script?”

  “That’s kinda up to you three,” Nate said.

  “You’re giving us that much power?” Louisa quipped.

  “Hell, it seems I’m king of the world,” Nate said, “and I have no idea how it happened.”

  Everyone laughed. Andy looked around and saw the obvious affection everyone had for him. And respect. It was the other side of the easygoing Nate she was getting to know.

  Then Daniel asked the next question. “Are you proposing to do this one night, a weekend or a week?”

  “Sorta depends on how well this goes,” he said. “Ideally, I would like to see it be a weeklong annual affair, something entertaining enough to bring visitors from throughout Colorado and even farther. I’ve noticed that many towns have really revived after holding events for Western storytellers, rodeos or music festivals.

  “We don’t have much in rooms,” he continued, “but maybe we can convince some residents to provide bed-and-breakfast rooms. We have some grand old homes here.”

  “What would Covenant Falls offer in addition to the play?” Daniel asked.

  “Jeep trips up to the abandoned gold mine and ghost town. Horseback riding. Fishing. Swimming later in the summer. Hiking. Rafting down the river. We’re planning a Maude-catered brunch at the waterfall, which could be an ongoing offering for tourists.”

  Heads nodded.

  “I would love to see the other journals,” Louisa said.

  Sara piped up. “I’ve made a list of pivotal entries,” she said, “and I suggest we start with those because time is so limited, but you can come over anytime and look at the journals.”

  “Why don’t we meet Monday after school,” Louisa said, “and you can show me the entries you think will work.”

  Sara nodded. “That will give me time to select, and copy, usable passages.” She looked at Andy. “Four p.m. okay? You can have dinner with us.”

  Louisa nodded. “Daniel has a school board meeting that often runs late.”

  Andy nodded as well, but added, “I think I’m here under false pretenses. I’m not a writer.” She had said that over and over again and no one paid any attention.
>
  Sara smiled. “This was all your idea,” she said.

  Andy’s instinct was to run away from home—or her temporary residence that was fast becoming home. What had she gotten herself into? What had she gotten Nate into? And Eve? What if it was a giant flop?

  What if...?

  The meeting broke up then. Sara left for home, but the rest stayed and ate Maude’s sandwiches and coleslaw, then the others left as well, leaving Bill and Nate and Andy.

  “How’s your ankle?” she asked for lack of anything better to say when Bill disappeared to turn out lights everywhere.

  “Better.”

  “You should stay off it, you know.”

  “Somehow that’s difficult around you. You seem to stir things up.” He grinned. “If you told me two weeks ago I would be chairing a committee to produce a pageant in seven weeks, I would have thought you were crazy,” he said.

  She stood and put the sandwich wrappings in a nearby trash can. “But you were good. Really good. Everyone seemed on board.” She frowned as she said the last. “But can it really be done?”

  He shrugged. “There’s a lot of talent here, and the people usually rise to a challenge. The community center, for instance. No one believed it could be done. Still,” he added, “I know it’s a very short time, and a lot of people could be disappointed.”

  That was the Nate she liked. There were so many things to like, and she was finding more every day. He had a natural leadership. She hadn’t noticed it until tonight. But then, she hadn’t seen him in that role before. She had seen the sensitive guy who’d welcomed her and the relaxed one with his friends at Eve’s house and with Eve’s son. There was the man who was fixing a home for an elderly friend and the one completely abashed by his fall and injuries.

  She liked all of them.

  “Did you walk?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Joseph?”

  “I wasn’t sure he would be welcomed by everyone. I noticed Josh didn’t bring Amos.” Small talk. Keep talking and don’t look into those warm hazel eyes and strong chin and a smile that would charm gargoyles. “Do you always take charge like that?”

  “No one else was going to do it,” Nate replied.

  “What about Josh?”

  “He likes to be in the background.”

  “And you don’t?”

  He shrugged. “I grew up with most of these people. Josh is a newcomer.”

  Bill came in. “Closing up now,” he said.

  “It looks as if we’re being run out,” Nate said.

  “No longer king of the world.”

  “A quick reign. All work. No respect. No glory.”

  “Poor baby,” she observed.

  “See, that’s what I mean.” He folded the last of the chairs and placed it against the wall. “Can I drive you home?”

  Caution told her no. Fear told her no. Good sense told her no. She nodded.

  “Good,” he said and limped to the door. He opened it for her and they walked together to his pickup.

  “I can open the door myself,” she said.

  “Okay,” he said to her surprise. “Heaven forbid that I don’t respect that streak of independence.”

  But when he stepped inside and settled in the seat next to her, he took her hand for a minute. “Thank you,” he said simply.

  “Why?” she said. She was truly mystified.

  “Because you, like Josh and then Clint, brought new life to this town, and you’re dragging others along with you.” He hesitated, then added, “Including me.”

  “I don’t think I did much dragging tonight.”

  “Exactly. You drag them along without you, or them, knowing they’re being dragged.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said slowly.

  He chuckled. “It’s not a bad thing. I bet you were at the head of your class,” he said. “And not only that, I bet you helped everyone else along.”

  It was a nice compliment, made even nicer because he believed it. His hazel eyes had a glint in them and the air in the pickup was warm and growing warmer.

  He inserted a key in the ignition and started the pickup and they rolled out of the parking lot. The silence during the very short drive to her cabin was heavy with sexual tension. She fastened her gaze on the road ahead, not on him.

  But they arrived all too soon, and her body was alive with want as he gave her a long measuring glance, then stepped out of the truck. This time, she didn’t jump out but let him go around to her side and open it. She didn’t know why, except it was a courtesy she appreciated and missed, and she wanted to grasp that strong hand he held out to her.

  He put his arm around her as they walked to the porch and then the front door. She was immediately greeted by an ecstatic Joseph, who after a moment of frenetic tail wagging turned a quizzical eye on Nate.

  “Do you think he questions my motives?” Nate said.

  “Should he?”

  “Yep.”

  “Want a cup of coffee?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  He limped with her to the kitchen and she sensed he was watching her every movement, just as she was aware of his. She was asking for trouble by inviting him in, and yet she had questions. And she didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t want to be alone.

  She’d already noted that he took his coffee black, as she did. It was an army thing where sometimes the niceties of cream and sugar were not immediately available and you got used to whatever kept you going.

  When the coffee was ready, she handed him a cup and led them out the back door to the deck chairs. Joseph came with them and sat next to her.

  The sky was alive with color, a palette of scarlet and gold and crimson colliding in an explosion of hues. Nate’s hand found hers, and her fingers tightened around his. She knew she shouldn’t. She knew where it could lead. But tonight she needed the companionship of someone who had been where she had been.

  “Were you career army when you were in Iraq?” she asked.

  “No,” he said. “Thought I would join, have an adventure, travel, earn educational credits, then come back, get married and go to college.”

  “You said you’re divorced?”

  He shrugged. “That’s a long story.”

  It was obvious it was one he didn’t want to tell. She digested that. She knew so little about him. News might move rapidly in Covenant Falls, but apparently not about Nate.

  “How long were you in the army?” she asked.

  “I reenlisted after four years. I was close to the guys in my unit. Didn’t seem to be a reason to go home. I was accumulating education credits but not enough.”

  He was silent for a moment, then added, “Not that I regret it. I grew up. I had to. I learned a lot about myself, about loyalty and commitment and working with a team. I still keep in touch with members of my unit. But I don’t want it to be the only choice. Louisa has told me how talented some of her kids are, and she tries to do what she can to develop that talent, but we just don’t have the resources to showcase it.” He paused, gave her a lopsided smile. “I didn’t mean to get on my soapbox but I think...hope we can open some doors. Maybe this all is a dumb dream, but...”

  If her heart fluttered before, it pounded now. She had been attracted to him from the beginning. She had fought it, thinking it a betrayal of Jared, but the more she saw him, the more she liked him, and the more she liked him, the more she trusted him, and the more she trusted him...

  She shouldn’t have invited him in, but there had been yet a new side to him today. Mischievous and self-deprecating when he’d said, “king of the world.” She wanted more of that side. She wanted to smile again.

  “What happened to the girl?” she asked.

  “What girl?”

  “T
he one that made you wary of women.”

  “That obvious?”

  “Just hints here and there.”

  “The whole messy story?”

  She nodded.

  “Margaret was my high school sweetheart. She was Maggie then. Old story. She was a cheerleader, and I was on the football team. I wasn’t the hero or good enough for a college scholarship, but I made my share of touchdowns. At the end of high school, I wanted to study architecture. I was damn good at building blocks and forts as a kid and putting things together as I grew older. But that took money, and we didn’t have much. My dad died when I was young, and I wasn’t going to let Mom sign a college loan. I decided to join the army and earn education credits while in the service.”

  “And the girl didn’t want to wait?” she guessed out loud.

  “She said she did, but that lasted about two months after I was deployed to Iraq. I was one of many guys who got Dear John letters. When I came home on leave, I heard Maggie had married and moved to Chicago. I reenlisted. Three years later I was wounded, and I was in the hospital when my enlistment ended.

  “I’d earned twenty credits online and I had money saved along with some educational credits earned while in the army. I went to the University of Colorado to study architecture. Maggie—she was Margaret now—showed up at the end of my third year and said her marriage had been a terrible mistake, that her husband had abused her.

  “Long story short, we made love, or at least I thought it was love, and two months later she said she was pregnant.

  “I married her and dropped out of school. I couldn’t afford a wife and child and college expenses. She knew someone in Seattle, and I got a job in new home construction.”

  He looked at her. “Sure you want to hear this?”

  She nodded.

  “She miscarried in the fourth month, but I had already dropped out of college and I still had a wife to support. I stayed with the construction company and gradually became head of construction. I hated it. The builder wanted me to take shortcuts and the houses had no soul.”

  He hesitated, and she sensed how painful this was. She waited. She didn’t want to push.