Issued to the Bride: One Soldier

by Cora Seton

  “Maybe,” Connor agreed. He peered out the window at the high walls of the hedge. “Guess if you want to make the magic happen with Alice, you should try in there.” He elbowed Jack. “Glad I was courting Sadie in the summertime. Brr! Is that coffee ready yet?” He crossed to hover by Brian, who was fiddling with the machine.

  “Not yet. Jack, how’s that security system coming?”

  “It’s coming,” Jack said slowly. He was still processing everything the other men had said. They’d all made love to their wives in the maze? Before their wives were their wives? Connor said he had his first time with Sadie in there. So had Brian. Had that been the case for all of them?

  If so, what did that mean for him? He looked at the maze’s implacable walls. The entrance stood wide open now, but what would happen if he approached it again?

  And how was the damn thing moving? Was it one of Alice’s tricks? She was doing a good job pretending she knew nothing about it, but that didn’t make sense.

  Too many questions. Not enough answers.

  “Jack, I need to fix a bit of fencing in the north pasture,” Brian went on. “Thought you could give me a hand with that this week sometime. But if you’re busy—”

  “I’ll be busy for a while,” Jack said shortly, distracted by this new problem. He didn’t know how to fix fences.

  “All right.” Brian nodded. “I’ll find someone else then.”

  I’m going to get in there, Jack told himself, still looking at the maze. I’m going to get in there, and I’m going to figure out how Alice makes it move.

  And then I’m going to marry her—and convince her to stay right here.

  “Will’s back,” Cass said that afternoon, looking out the kitchen window.

  “Where?” Wyoming joined her.

  Alice, just grabbing an apple from the fridge, shut the door and came to look, too. The man had pulled up in a truck outside and was unloading gear. He turned, saw them and waved.

  Wyoming ducked, then covered her face in her hands as she crouched by the cabinets. “What am I doing?”

  “Flirting with a cute guy. Now stand up and pull yourself together,” Cass ordered.

  Wyoming did so and busied herself wiping an already clean counter while Cass went to open the door and let Will in.

  “Good afternoon. Sure is a beautiful day,” Will said, looking at Wyoming.

  “Sure is,” Wyoming said and blushed.

  “It’s a freezing day.” Cass shook her head at them.

  “The kind of freezing day that makes you think about cozying up to a fire with your best girl,” Will said.

  Those two needed to get a room, Alice thought grumpily.

  “Ladies, I’m going to have to turn the water off when I work on those pipes. You going to be okay without it for a while?”

  “I’ll be in my workshop,” Alice said. She’d been plagued by that doomed feeling again all morning, and she was beginning to think that no matter how much work she put into her dresses, she’d never get them right. Why was she even trying for this contract? Lord knew there had to be so many other designers far more talented than her.

  “I’ll tell the others, and we’ll join you there,” Cass said to her. “After we get Will all settled in. Right, Wye?”

  “Uh… right.”

  Alice left them to it. Cass was becoming as ardent a matchmaker as the General was.

  Once in her studio, she quickly lost herself in her work. It was down to getting the details exactly right. When Cass and Wyoming came in a while later, letting Tabitha in with them, she blinked, realizing she’d forgotten everything else while she’d been buried in her work.

  “That’s beautiful, Alice. You’ll definitely get the job,” Cass said when she sat down wearily in the chair across the worktable from where Alice was fixing one of the puffed sleeves of a light blue gown that hung on a dressmaker’s dummy, a hoopskirt in place so she could see it the way it would ultimately be worn. This was the fanciest of the three dresses she was attempting.

  “It really is something,” Wyoming said. “But then everything you make is gorgeous.”

  “I hope so.” She figured she might as well tell them the news. “Landon will be here in three days.”

  “Will you be ready?” Cass lay a hand on her belly. She was nearly five months pregnant now, her stomach slightly rounded.

  “You should rest more,” Alice told her sister, but that was like telling a tumbleweed not to roll.

  “I’m trying. There’s so much to do. By the way, we’re talking about making Jo’s old room the nursery.”

  “That’s a good idea.” Alice kept making tiny stitches. The work was painstaking, and she’d been at it long enough she thought her eyes would cross.

  “Do you think you’ll have children someday?”

  Alice dropped the fabric in her lap. “Children?” She closed her eyes as a vision swooped over her. A baby—she couldn’t say whose—nestled in her arms. Her sisters around her—

  “Alice?” Cass reached over to touch her. “You okay?”

  Alice nodded. “The usual.” She met Cass’s gaze. “I saw a baby. I don’t know if it was mine or someone else’s,” she added as Cass brightened. “Could have been yours.”

  “Or yours.”

  “I’m not having babies any time soon.” And she wasn’t ready to think about them today. She needed to finish these dresses. Alice got back to work again.

  “What do you think about Jack?” Cass pretended to be engrossed in a detail of the dress hanging on the dummy, but Alice hadn’t been born yesterday.

  “I’m not marrying him.” Her heart gave a little throb as she said the words, but she ignored it.

  “You really think the General got it wrong this time?” Cass didn’t look convinced.

  “Just because he got it right four times doesn’t mean he’s right again.” She bent close to the gown and continued making tiny stitches.

  “I have to agree with her,” Wye said acidly.

  “It’s just—Jack seems kind of right for you. He’s smart and dedicated, and pretty cute,” Cass pointed out.

  “We’ve only known him since Saturday,” Alice said.

  “But the General sent him, like he sent all the others.” Cass shrugged.

  “Oh, my god, Cass,” Wyoming broke in. “Would you listen to yourself?”

  “The General sending him is what makes him wrong for me,” Alice said. She took another two stitches, but it was difficult to concentrate with Cass trying to marry her off.

  Cass just smiled. “Every one of us has thought that about the man the General sent, and every one of us was wrong.”

  “You aren’t listening to me, are you?” Wye asked. “It’s like I’m not here.”

  “I’m not wrong.” But Alice couldn’t help sighing.

  “You like him,” Cass asserted.

  “So what if I do? I still can’t marry him. I can’t have every choice made for me ahead of time. I can’t stand it.”

  “Maybe that’s the explanation,” Wye said. “Maybe I’m not really here at all. Maybe someone’s slipped something funny in my drink, and this is all some strange, psychedelic dream. It would explain a lot.” She looked at the mug of tea she’d carried out from the house.

  “You don’t see everything, do you?” Cass asked Alice. “You said yourself recently you can’t see your own future right now. You said it was getting too close. So if you fall for Jack, it’s you that’s doing it.”

  “Maybe the General should send me a husband,” Wye said exasperatedly. “I could be a test case. See if his luck extends to people outside the family.”

  Cass gave her a hug, and Alice was glad Wye had finally succeeded in distracting her. Cass simply didn’t understand.

  Sadie came in, shrugged out of her coat and crossed the room to join them. “What’s going on? Alice, this gown is gorgeous. I want one.”

  “I know, right?” Wye said to her. “In the meantime, try the tea. It’s pretty trippy.” She t
ook a long sip from her mug and grinned. Cass chuckled, and even Alice had to smile, despite her irritation.

  “You are really here, I’m afraid, even if we aren’t paying attention to you,” she told Wye. “And I don’t think the General is in any shape to send anyone husbands right now.”

  “Oh well.” Wye looked at her tea philosophically. “I guess you ladies are better than drugs.”

  “What is she talking about?” Sadie asked Cass.

  “Wye thinks we’re weird,” Cass said.

  “She always thinks we’re weird,” Sadie said. “This dress is really something.” She stepped closer to it and examined the bodice.

  “Alice is hitting the big time,” Cass said with a sigh. “Meanwhile, I’m getting fat.”

  “You’re not fat,” Sadie said.

  “Jo said I could use her old bedroom for a nursery—if no one else minds.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Alice said. “But what about you, Sadie? What will you do when you get pregnant?”

  “We’re not having kids—yet. Maybe next year,” Sadie said. “For now, Connor and I plan to move into Jo and Hunter’s little house when they build their bigger one. We’ll live there and have some privacy until we’re ready to start our family. That will give the rest of you more space in the house.”

  “It will feel so strange if everyone moves out,” Cass said.

  “We’ll still be close by,” Sadie said. “Alice, where will you and Jack live? How many kids are you going to have? I want two, I think.”

  Alice felt a chill, a draft coming from one of the old arched windows. Would she ever have children? Was it fair to take a chance of burdening one with the “gift” Amelia had passed down to her? “I have no idea what the future will bring,” she said primly.

  Sadie rolled her eyes.

  “What’s going on? Are you all throwing a party without me?” Jo asked when she came in. Champ and Isobel, her McNab breeding dogs, followed her, their nails clicking on the wooden floor. The dogs came to check out Tabitha, who got to her feet, arched her back and puffed up her fur to make herself look big. Getting the message, Champ and Isobel went to explore, and Tabitha settled down again.

  “We’re just hanging out.” Cass passed a piece of cloth to Wyoming. “That color would look good on you, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe.”

  “We’re grilling Alice about Jack,” Sadie said.

  “He’s cute,” Jo said. “Not as cute as Hunter, but not bad. When’s the wedding?”

  “I met him four days ago!” Alice struggled to finish the puffed sleeve as Jo admired the gown hanging on the dummy.

  “I think you should wear this to your wedding,” Jo said.

  “She has to wear Mom’s dress, like everyone else,” Cass pronounced.

  Suddenly Alice couldn’t take it anymore. All these traditions—these foregone conclusions—were crushing the air out of her lungs. She put down her needle. “I’m going for a walk.” She crossed the room, grabbed her coat and gloves, and clattered down the stairs to the door.

  Outside, she pulled great gulping breaths into her lungs until she satisfied herself she wasn’t being suffocated. She’d never felt so hemmed in before. Was it Jack’s presence triggering this? Or the General’s imminent arrival?

  She stumbled to a stop when she caught sight of Jack near the entrance to the maze, charging toward it and then backpedaling just as quickly over and over again. She nearly groaned when she realized what he was doing. Each time he rushed forward, it closed, presenting an unbroken wall of green. Each time he moved back, it opened again.

  “Jack!”

  He was going to break the maze if he kept that up.

  Jack reared around, spotted her and came to an abrupt halt. “I was just—” he began when she came near.

  “I know what you were doing.” Maybe she could kill two birds with one stone. Get Jack away from the maze and herself out of reach of everyone else. “Come on; we’re going on a ride.” She grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the stable, afraid one or more of her sisters would follow and deter them. She needed air, motion—a good gallop, but they wouldn’t get that today. Too much snow; they’d have to stick to the nearby tracks that wound through the ranch.

  Jack followed her without a word. In the stable, she saddled Priscilla, her usual mount, then led out Button. She was surprised that Jack didn’t pitch in when she saddled Button. She noticed he stuck close, watching everything she did until she wondered if this was some kind of test.

  If it was, it seemed she’d passed. After they led their horses out into the wintry air, Jack was quick to mount. A few minutes later, she looked back to find him smiling broadly. Her chest tightened. So did her hands on the reins. Jack was something to see.

  “You look happy.”

  “It’s been way too long,” he called back.

  “Really? How long?” Alice felt her irritation slip away. Out here, the wind in her face, she could breathe easily. Nothing about this ride seemed preordained.

  He was quiet so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. “Twenty-five years.”

  Alice straightened in her saddle. “That is a long time. You’re doing really well.” A dozen other questions came to mind, but she didn’t want to be rude. All the other men the General had sent home were experienced with ranching. They’d taken to the work like old hands.

  Was that why Jack hadn’t saddled his own horse? She did the math in her head; he’d have been quite young the last time he’d ridden. She kept going, keeping a slow pace. Riding in snow could be dangerous, and she wanted to give Priscilla time to pick out a safe trail. Wanted to give Jack time to find his seat again, too.

  “Grew up in the saddle until then. I was born on a spread twice this big in New Mexico. Don’t mean to brag,” he added with a sheepish smile. “Just stating facts.”

  “Your parents threw in the towel?”

  He was quiet again. “They… died.”

  The vision that hit her nearly knocked Alice off her horse. She couldn’t tell where she was seeing the action from—somewhere down low. Closed in. Under a bed? From this vantage point she couldn’t make out much. A wooden floor. The edge of a blanket. Footsteps.

  Gunfire.

  A burst of it. A scream. Another burst that cut off all sound.

  “Alice! Alice? What’s going on?” A strong arm just caught her before she slid off Priscilla. “Alice?”

  She blinked, caught her breath and pushed Jack away, resettling herself in the saddle as Priscilla sidestepped and danced. She needed space. Room to clear her head of the vision.

  “Easy,” she told the mare. “Easy now.” She was talking as much to herself as to the horse.

  “What happened?” Jack pressed her.

  She passed a hand over her face, rubbing away what she’d seen. “You were under the bed when they were killed. You… heard everything.”

  Jack scowled and busied himself getting Button under control. His gelding was sidestepping, too, jittery at their unexpected behavior. “Who told you that?”

  “No one.” Alice shrugged. “I… saw it.”

  He looked away, his jaw tight. She saw indecision and something else on his face.

  Sorrow.

  “You don’t believe me.”

  “Come on, Alice. How could I? I’m not some ignorant, backwoods hick. You can’t magically know things. That’s not real.”

  Alice winced, then scolded herself. She was used to denial. She didn’t blame people for not believing her. It was different with Jack, though.

  She wanted him to believe.

  Chapter Six

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  How could she know what had happened when he was seven? The question chased Jack’s thoughts round and round until he could barely concentrate on the path they were taking.

  Alice had urged her mount forward after his last remark and kept going without looking back. She was angry, or disappointed, or… something. He couldn’t start their relationship o
ff on a lie, though. Maybe she’d fooled everyone else in Chance Creek, but not him. He simply couldn’t play along with some mumbo jumbo ruse.

  Not for a whole lifetime.

  The truth was too important. The truth righted wrongs. Explained puzzles. Caught criminals. It was lies that left things in the dark—

  But he didn’t want to lose his chance with Alice. Surely there was some way to make her see she could tell him anything.

  He urged his own gelding forward, hoping she wouldn’t try to get away. To his surprise, Alice slowed down and waited for him.

  “I’m not lying,” she told him matter-of-factly when he caught up. “I don’t expect you to believe that now. You have to figure it out for yourself. When you do, just remember I was always telling the truth.”

  There wasn’t any answer to that, so Jack kept silent. Alice sighed, and they rode on for a time without speaking.

  “Are you ready for your father to come home?” Jack asked finally.

  “No. I thought it would never happen. And to come now of all times, when I’m so rushed. I should probably be getting back,” she added, looking up at the sky as if there might be answers to all her problems there. “I need to finish those dresses.”

  “This is a big deal for you, huh?” Jack asked, urging Button even closer. The crisp air was doing him good as they moved through the snowy landscape. Ahead of them, the land fell away to reveal mountains in the distance. There was something about an open vista that put things in perspective, Jack thought.

  “The biggest. I’m usually called on by local and regional theaters. Occasionally I’ll get a commission from a movie company for something unusual. My costs are low in comparison to Hollywood costumers. This takes it to a whole new level. I really want this job. I’ll be in charge, for once,” she explained. “The lead designer.”

  “I’m sure you’ll get it,” Jack said cautiously. It was what he dreaded.

  “If I do, I’ll have to leave.” She studied the mountains, too.

  “Isn’t that what you want?”

  “Yes.” But she didn’t sound at all sure, and Jack’s heart began to beat faster. He’d mistaken her as being aloof when he’d first come and had been quickly proven wrong. Now he was assuming she wanted to leave Two Willows for good. Was he wrong about that, too?