Issued to the Bride: One Soldier

by Cora Seton

  “Faster,” she coached him. Jack sped up. What else could he do?

  Bent over her, moving inside her, one arm wrapped around her, the other hand tangled in her hair, all Jack could do was hold on and go for it. Alice’s moans told him she was right there with him, but Jack wasn’t sure if he could have stopped if he tried. His body had taken over, moving of its own accord, desperate for relief from the tension every glimpse of Alice twisted tighter inside him.

  “Jack!” Alice cried out, pushing back against him. Jack went over the edge into an orgasm that spun on and on until he thought he’d black out. He pumped into her again and again, praying he wasn’t hurting her, reassured by her own cries of ecstasy as she bucked back, meeting him thrust for thrust.

  When it was finally over, Jack could barely move. “Woman,” he panted. “You’re going to kill me.”

  Beneath him, Alice’s shoulders shook, and for a horrible moment he thought she was crying.

  When he slid out of her and turned her over in his arms, he was relieved to find her laughing.

  “What?” he demanded.

  “Like you said before. This… works.”

  “Hell, yeah it does.” Jack gathered her close. “Am I wearing you out?” he added.

  “Is that possible?”

  Jack laughed. “I hope not. I want a lifetime of that.”

  “Me, too.” She sighed when he palmed her breast with his hand, then bent to kiss it.

  “But first there’s something we have to do.”

  “What’s that?” Alice leaned into his touch and caught his mouth with hers. “What do we have to do?” she asked again a few minutes later when they broke apart.

  Jack thought hard. What was it?

  Oh, right.

  “Go buy you a ring and make this official.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  ‡

  “Rose Johnson is like me, you know,” Alice said on the way to town. “She can see the future—at least a little bit of it.”

  “So you told me before.” Jack kept his eyes on the road. “What kind of ring do you want?” That seemed like a safer topic.

  “Something flashy and ostentatious.”

  The truck swerved a little. “Really?”

  “No—what do you take me for?” Alice grinned at him. “You were worried there a minute, though.”

  “I never know what to expect from you.”

  “Good. That’s the way it should be, don’t you think?”

  Jack parked in front of Thayer’s Jewelers, and when they went inside, Alice relaxed a little. The shop was cozy, one large wall filled with beautiful landscape paintings. “Rose did those,” she told Jack. “That’s Mia Matheson’s wedding planning business.” She pointed to an office.

  “Engagement rings are in the left-hand corner,” Rose Johnson said, not looking up from some documents she was filling in near the till.

  “Thanks, Rose.”

  “Oh—hi, Alice! Sorry!”

  “No worries. You look busy.”

  Rose bustled over to help them. “This is the part of my job I don’t like: paperwork. Are you here for a ring?”

  “Yes,” Jack said. “Something beautiful.”

  “And ostentatious and flashy,” Alice added with a grin.

  Rose smiled at their banter. “I have just the thing.” She unlocked a case and pulled out a tray of rings. “Try this on. I was wondering who it was for.” She pointed to a lovely ring that sat alone on one side of the tray, then moved away and bent over her paperwork again.

  Alice picked it up, slid it on her ring finger and clutched the counter with her free hand, the vision overtaking her almost instantly.

  It was of the past, not the future. Of Amelia—a much younger Amelia than she’d ever known—standing with a tall, handsome man—the General, long before he was a general—and beaming up at him as he slid a ring on her finger.

  “That’s much too expensive,” Amelia said.

  “It is,” the General told her. “We can’t get it today, but I swear, someday—”

  A shadow crossed her mother’s face, but she straightened her shoulders and smiled harder, and Alice was sure the General didn’t even notice. Amelia turned to another ring lying on a tray on the counter, one she’d tried on before, Alice thought. “No, Augustus. This is our ring.” She slid the fancier one off her finger. “This one belongs to someone else. Someone special.” She looked up, seemed to see Alice and smiled tenderly. “I hope she’s as happy as I am when she wears it,” Amelia went on. “I hope she knows I was always happy with my life and my marriage.”

  “Amelia?” The General bent closer to her, then turned to look in the same direction she was—right at Alice. “Who is it?” he whispered.

  “We don’t know her yet,” Amelia told him, “but we will. We’re going to be so happy, Augustus. And so blessed. Remember that.”

  “I don’t have to remember.” The General took Amelia’s hands in his. “I already know. Now let’s get married and get working on those five girls you promised me.”

  “Alice?” Jack’s hand supported her elbow. “Don’t you like the ring? Let me take it off—”

  “No!” Alice snatched her hand away. “I mean… I’m sorry. I—” She realized she couldn’t hide her visions from Jack anymore. If they were to be together, he had to know about them. “I… my mother’s here,” she said softly. “So’s my dad. They saw this ring, too. Mom tried it on, but then she had a vision and knew it was for me. She’s looking at me right now.”

  Jack followed her gaze. “I can’t see her,” he said, his voice low. But he didn’t try to convince Alice she wasn’t there. Alice loved him for that concession.

  “I know you can’t see her. Jack, she’s—they’re so in love.” And the General was so excited to be a father. He’d known he was going to have daughters. He’d wanted them.

  Jack put his arm around her waist to steady her. “Of course they are. Anyone who’s met the General knows he adored Amelia.”

  Alice’s heart expanded. Jack was right. She’d never doubted her father’s love for her mother.

  Now she knew he’d loved her, too.

  “She’s smiling at me. She can’t wait to meet me.”

  “Of course she can’t. I wish I could meet her.”

  “I know. I’m glad you’ve met the Gen—my father,” Alice corrected herself. Seeing the General so young and happy, so ready to face life, it occurred to Alice that he was just a man—

  He’d made mistakes. Like everyone else.

  That didn’t mean he didn’t love her. She knew now he did. He’d always loved her—and her sisters. Even before they were born. He’d looked forward to meeting them.

  Why hadn’t she realized that before?

  It was time to heal those old wounds for good.

  “I’ll do my best,” she told her mother.

  Amelia only nodded, but Alice saw the knowledge in her eyes. Amelia held up the ring, made sure Alice was looking, then carefully put it down on the side of the tray, exactly in the position Rose had lifted it from.

  Had it sat there all this time?

  Somehow Alice knew it had.

  Her mother had seen her wedding ring. Tried it on. That made up—just a little—for all the times Alice had wished Amelia could share an event in her life.

  Amelia waved and faded away, the General still close by her side.

  “They’re gone,” Alice whispered. Jack still held her tight.

  “What about the ring? What do you think?”

  “I… I love it,” she said to Jack. She looked down, only now seeing it properly. A beautiful diamond ringed with smaller stones that glittered like something that belonged to a queen. “But it’s much too expensive—”

  “No, it isn’t. You’re marrying a rich man.” Jack’s hand covered hers. “My parents’ ranch was sold after they died, the money invested for me. Richard and Janet never took a dime to raise me. We can afford this ring. Will it make you happy?”
/>   Her eyes filled with tears. Knowing her mother had touched it made it so special she’d be filled with joy whenever she looked at it. “Yes,” she said.

  “We’ll take it,” Jack told Rose. Alice handed it to her, and Rose clasped it in her hand a moment, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, she nodded. “There’s trouble ahead. I wish I could say otherwise, but later there’s happiness. Deep, deep happiness. You two are going to be blessed. Remember that when it gets tough.”

  “I don’t have to remember.” Jack took Alice’s hands in his. “I already know.”

  Later that night, the whole group, including Emerson and Wye, gathered at the table. The General sat at one end, Emerson on his right and Alice on his left. Brian headed the other end of the table, flanked by Cass and Connor. Jack sat by Alice, with Hunter, Jo and Sadie following along that side of the table. On the other side, Wye sat next to Emerson, with Lena and Logan beside her.

  “Everyone, we have big news. Alice and I are getting hitched,” Jack proclaimed.

  Connor cheered. Hunter clapped Jack on the back. Logan raised his glass in a toast. Brian grinned like he’d known it all along, exchanging a pleased glance with Cass.

  “Five for five,” Jo said, toasting the General, who looked more surprised than Jack would have expected. “Good going, Dad.”

  Everyone turned to look at her, and Jo blushed a little. “Well, he is our dad,” she said defensively.

  “That’s right. He is,” Cass said softly.

  “What do you say, General? Do I have your blessing?” Jack asked. Lena snorted but held her tongue.

  The General shifted in his seat. “Of course you do. Welcome to the family.” He turned to Alice. “Suppose you saw this coming all along.”

  “Not really,” she said.

  “But you do see things.”

  She nodded.

  “Amelia found it a hard burden to bear sometimes. I tried to help—”

  “I’m sure you did.”

  “And I plan on helping, too,” Jack said.

  Lena slapped the table suddenly and stood up. “Stop it!” she commanded. “Stop pretending everything’s okay, because it isn’t. Alice, Jack—I’m happy for you if you’re happy together. Don’t pretend the General had anything to do with it, though.”

  “He did send me here—” Jack pointed out.

  “I don’t care. After the way he’s treated us, I don’t care if he wins the Nobel Peace Prize.” She turned on the General. “I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done. The way you doubted me. Undermined me. Overrode me. Never saw what I was capable of!”

  “Lena,” Logan began.

  “No. Don’t try to make this better. Let the man gloat. He’s won, hasn’t he?”

  “Is that how you see our marriage?” Logan asked.

  “This has nothing to do with our marriage. It has to do with the way my father can’t see my sisters and me worth something on our own. I ran this ranch just fine without anyone’s help. All of us worked our asses off to keep it up, and all he did was interfere! He had no right!”

  “This is my ranch,” the General said. “You may not like me, but I expect a little respect.”

  “I’ll respect you when you show me some respect,” Lena retorted. “This isn’t your ranch. It belonged to Mom. She ran it first, and I’ve run it ever since. You were never here, and you didn’t care, and you ignored us, and you lost any right you ever had to call the shots here—or when it came to us! You should be court-martialed for dereliction of duty. You’re supposed to be such a hot-shot General. Why the hell couldn’t you handle coming home and helping once in a while?”

  Lena was pale. Her hands shaking. Maybe Alice had been wrong. Maybe the General’s defection had hurt Lena even more than all the rest of them.

  Alice fished in her pocket. Drew out the dog tags she’d found in the maze. Reached out and pressed them into Lena’s hand.

  “What—?” Lena broke off, staring at them.

  “I found them in the maze. We have to let go of the past, Lena. Of our pain,” Alice told her. “We’re all here now. Mom wants us to be together.”

  “Alice is right. I’m home now, and I’m your father.” The General got slowly to his feet. “Regardless of what you think of me, I’m still head of this house. I still own this land. I’m the one who calls the shots around here—”

  “Sorry to barge in on a family squabble,” a new voice said from the back door. Alice turned around in her seat to see that Will had come in. “But you’re both wrong. I’m the one calling the shots around here—starting right now.” He pulled out a pistol and swept the room, pointing it at each of them in turn.

  “Will? What are you doing?” Wye gasped.

  Alice sucked in a surprised breath. She hadn’t seen this coming, but now her mind filled with images. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire. Screams. Shattering glass. It didn’t take foreknowledge to know she was seeing the carnage that was to come. Will’s hand was steady, but his eyes glinted with fury. How had she ever thought him easygoing?

  Jack touched her leg under the table. “Stay calm,” he whispered.

  She was calm. She was caught like a fly in amber, the past, present and future swirling around her. She blinked away the visions, needing to stay in the present, but she had no idea what to do next.

  “I’m getting what’s mine,” Will growled.

  “I don’t understand—” Cass said.

  “I’ve been watching you. Watching all of you.” Will swept the barrel of his firearm sideways to encompass everyone in the room. “Just like my father used to do.”

  “Duke Manson,” the General said slowly. “You’re his son? Ought to have known. Any plumber who takes weeks to do a simple job—”

  I should have known, Alice thought. Why hadn’t she gotten any indication…?

  In a blinding flash, she realized she had. That creeping sense of dread that had haunted her—she’d pinned it on Landon—or the General coming home. That wasn’t right at all, was it? It had surged every time Will came to work on the pipes.

  “My dad hated you, General Augustus Reed. With good reason. You got him kicked out of the Army.”

  “Deserved it. Running drugs into boot camp. Getting recruits messed up and hooked on his wares.”

  “Just good business practices.” Will shrugged. “It was a good gig until you got in the way. He’d planned to make a bundle, put in his four years, go home a rich man and make something of himself. Instead he had to start at the bottom back home. Claw his way up. Wasted years doing that, working for other men.”

  “Wasted his life, if you ask me.” The General met Will’s gaze squarely.

  “You ruined him,” Will said. “Made him half the man he could have been. Now he’s dead, and that’s your fault, too.”

  “I didn’t kill him.”

  “You set the law on him. You sent that snitch Ron Cooper back to Tennessee to try to rat him out. You’re not going to get away with it, though. My dad couldn’t get the job done, but I can. I planned everything out. Cased this house until I learned it backward and forward. There’s nowhere you can run from me.”

  Will must have broken the spigot that set off his whole series of visits, Alice thought wildly. What would he have done if Cass hadn’t brought him back to fix the banging pipes—?

  Alice saw Lena, on the other side of the table, slip her hand under her flannel shirt. She knew her sister wore a shoulder holster, and if she could reach—

  Will took three steps forward and jammed the tip of the Luger to the General’s temple. “I wouldn’t do that, Lena. Unlike my father, I managed to serve my time in the Army. I know how to use this thing, and I won’t hesitate.”

  “What do you want?” the General asked.

  “I want everything, but I’ll start with Alice. She’s too good for Jack here. His silly surveillance system never stopped me, did it? And you, General, you wanted all your daughters married off, right? Well, coincidentally, I’m in the market for a w
ife, and Alice will do just fine. Sorry, Wye, you’re cute, but you can’t predict the future, can you?”

  Alice cringed. How did he know?

  Will chuckled. “Oh, come on, I’ve been listening to you all,” he said. “None of you thought twice about talking in front of me. Neither did the other people in town. Hell, Walter never shut up. Told me all about you Reeds. I’ve heard everything.”

  “You aren’t taking Alice,” the General said.

  “Yes, I am, and it’ll be a fine life for your girl. You won’t even need to worry about me running drugs anymore. With Alice helping me predict the stock market, I won’t need to mess around with stuff like that. I’ll treat her right, Augustus. I’ll squire her around the world. We’ll live on a yacht, party with the stars, visit every port. Not a bad life, eh? I can’t believe none of the rest of you thought of it. Working your asses off on this stinking ranch for years—too moral to place a few bets on the game? Come on. Landon Clark had the right idea, didn’t he? Oh, yeah—I know about all that, too. You aren’t the only one who can bug a room, Jack. What kind of surveillance expert doesn’t check to see if someone else is surveilling you?”

  “You’ll leave right now if you know what’s good for you,” Brian said. He was trying to distract Will, Alice thought. Trying to give the rest of them a chance to get to their guns and get a shot off. Lena sat tense, her fingers flexing, but she didn’t make a move for her pistol again. Jack sat frozen, but she knew his mind was working overtime. He was looking for information, noticing details, making plans.

  Will stayed cool. Kept surveying the room. Shaking his head at them. “I’ll leave as soon as Alice is ready. Say your goodbyes, honey. We’re going on a round-the-world tour.”

  Alice stood up slowly, knowing she needed to do something. Not knowing what that was. Why didn’t her gift ever give her any real information—?

  “Start predicting tonight’s games, darling,” Will added. “We need some cash for the road.”

  Games. She’d predicted all the games. All of them.

  Jack looked up at her. He was trying to send a message with his eyes. Trying to tell her something.

  But what?