Issued to the Bride: One Soldier

by Cora Seton

  Her father.

  She fought to speak—the words hard to form—to separate from the floods of words flowing past in the memories and futures that weren’t hers.

  “L-love,” she managed. “I… love—”

  The hand gripped her tighter. Jack’s hand. “Please, Alice. Fight for us. Please come back.”

  “I… love… you.”

  Alice broke through the ocean of visions, floundering and gasping as if she’d come back from drowning. She came back fighting, surging up in the hospital bed she found herself in, ready to leap into action until Jack restrained her.

  “Easy. Easy. You’re attached.” He cradled her in his arms, softly laid her back down and straightened out her IV as she gulped in deep breaths of air and scrambled to make sense of her surroundings.

  “What—where—?”

  “You’re in the hospital. You’ve been unconscious,” Jack said as the room filled with nurses and doctors. “You’re okay.”

  “Dad?” She tried to sit up again, but an orderly restrained her. When she caught sight of a needle in one of the nurse’s hands as the woman approached the IV in her arm, she flailed out again. “No! Jack—don’t let them. I can’t go back down!”

  “Put that away,” Jack ordered the nurse. “She has to stay conscious.”

  “She needs to rest—”

  “Put it away, or we’re leaving,” Jack thundered.

  The nurse looked to the doctor, who nodded after a moment. She put the needle away.

  “Your dad is fine,” Jack assured Alice. “Everyone’s fine. What you did was amazing. We knew what would happen before it happened.”

  He seemed to take in the doctor’s interest in their conversation, and when he went on, he lowered his voice. “We’ll talk more later, but you did it—you saved us all.”

  “You saved us,” she countered as memories—her own memories—flooded her mind. “You moved so fast.”

  “You were in danger,” he told her. “I had to protect you. That’s my job. That’s always going to be my job.”

  Alice swallowed in a tight throat and nodded.

  “I need to examine the patient now,” the doctor said.

  “Don’t leave,” Alice told Jack. “Please.”

  “I’ll be right here,” he promised her. “Always.” He took a seat on one of the plastic chairs near the bed and kept hold of her hand, challenging the doctor with his gaze to say anything about it.

  The doctor shrugged and put a stethoscope to Alice’s heart.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Jack asked him.

  “I’m already okay,” Alice said.

  Chapter Twenty

  ‡

  It was several days before Alice was cleared to come home. By then the mess in Two Willows’s kitchen had been cleaned up and everything put to rights again.

  A new bullet groove scored the long wooden table, and one of the windows had been replaced—a cold job on a November day—but the room was surprisingly unscathed after the battle that had raged there. Will was dead. So were Beau and Ramsey. Cab agreed with Jack’s assessment that the threat to Two Willows was most likely over.

  Cass had dispatched Brian to town to bring home some pizzas. By the time Jack ushered Alice through the back door, Brian was pulling in, too. They decided to eat in the living room. Jack led Alice to a couch, wrapped a blanket around her and brought her a plate of pizza there. One by one, everyone else filed in holding a plate full of food and found a seat.

  “Glad you’re home,” Cass told Alice. The others murmured their assent.

  “Glad to be here.” Alice still felt fragile but strong, too, in a whole new way. She’d learned how to control her gift, and while the lesson had been harrowing, now that it was over she had a feeling it was like riding a bike—she’d remember how to do it from here on in.

  “How did you do that back there?” Logan asked tentatively. “Put images in our minds…?” He trailed off.

  Jack knew why he was asking. The whole thing had been uncanny. He’d gotten all the information just before he needed it. He’d seen what the attackers would do—and what he’d do in response—and then he’d done it. It was a kind of knowing that went well beyond the clues he was usually so astute at picking up.

  It boggled his mind he’d ever thought he and Alice were the same.

  A month ago, knowing they were so different would have set him on edge, and he would have worried it would make it impossible for them to be together.

  He didn’t feel that way now. On the contrary, he knew where he stood with Alice. He was her anchor. Her standing stone. His job was to keep her here—and now—and not let the slipstream of time take her somewhere else.

  “I’m… sorry,” Alice said, staring down at the plate of pizza in her lap. “I really am.”

  “Sorry?” Jack straightened. “What do you have to be sorry about? You have nothing to blame yourself for. I’m the one who kept insisting Landon was the one we needed to worry about. All along it was Will. I’ve never been so wrong.”

  “Neither have I,” Wye said. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and it didn’t take a psychic to know she’d spent much of the last few days crying. “I fell for that asshole.”

  Emerson winced but kept working to prop up the General’s leg on a couple of pillows. Jack felt for the man, but he felt for Wye, too. It was never easy learning you’d been fooled.

  “Mom told me never to put the future in someone’s head.”

  “I asked you to,” Jack reminded her. He nearly hadn’t, and that knowledge haunted him. Two things had made him want to shy away from taking such an action. One, he’d known that if he asked Alice to show him the future—and she did so—he’d have to believe her utterly. Which would change everything about the way he viewed the world.

  Two, he’d known it wasn’t enough for Alice to send him an image of the future—he had to open his mind to it. To her.

  After keeping his barriers up for so long.

  He loved Alice. Planned to pledge his life to her soon. And yet—until that moment when they were surrounded by enemies, bullets flying, he’d still been patrolling the boundaries of his heart.

  He was ashamed of that now.

  “You asked me,” Alice said. “But no one else did. I put those images there without their permission.”

  No one said a word for a long time.

  “How did you do it?” Sadie asked finally. Jack noticed no one dismissed the notion. On the contrary, everyone was braced for Alice’s answer.

  Alice shook her head. “I opened all the way to it. I got so angry—” She broke off and set the plate of pizza on the coffee table. “I got so angry, everything…. clicked. I could see it all. Send it all.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible.” Sadie sounded shocked.

  “I’m not supposed to do it,” Alice said. “And then I couldn’t stop. I nearly got swept away—”

  Cass was pale. “That sounds dangerous.”

  “It was dangerous. I nearly didn’t make it back. Mom saved me. She—and Jack.”

  Jack looked at her.

  “You called me back,” she said simply. “You held my hand. You helped me remember who I was.”

  “You saved all our lives,” Jack said evenly. “And I didn’t want to lose you.”

  “What about now?” Logan challenged Alice suddenly. “Are you still in my head?”

  “No!” Alice got control of herself. “I’ve never done that before—well, except to Priscilla once.” She sent Jack a look he couldn’t decipher.

  “Priscilla—the horse?” Hunter asked.

  She nodded. “I needed to get back to the barn—fast.”

  Jack remembered the time she meant, and chuckled. “She needed to get away from me,” he explained to the others.

  Cass smiled. Jo laughed. They all relaxed a little.

  “I would never do that again,” Alice told Logan earnestly. “I don’t want to do it again. It… was awful.”

  Jack’s a
rms tightened around her unconsciously. He didn’t like the idea of her being swept away. Didn’t want her to ever be in danger again.

  “You’re right; you can’t ever do that again,” Cass said sternly. “When it was over, you weren’t here—it was like you’d gone somewhere else—”

  “Like you did that day in the maze last spring,” Alice said softly.

  Cass’s eyes filled with tears. “We all need to stay here.”

  “That’s the plan, isn’t it?” The General spoke up for the first time, batting Emerson away. “Stop fussing, Corporal. Everyone is going to stay here. That’s why I sent you girls husbands.”

  “Guess I should have let you send me one, after all,” Wye said miserably.

  Emerson turned away. The General reached out and patted Wye’s shoulder. “Patience. Alice,” he went on softly and waited for her to lift her head. “Your mother had rules about her abilities. Strict rules. Made it mighty clear from day one what she’d do and what she wouldn’t. You’ll have to think of your own rules, and learn to abide by them. One thing she always said, though. Rules were made to be broken.”

  “How are you holding up?” Jo asked when she slipped into Alice’s bedroom. Alice had come upstairs ostensibly to shower and settle in, but the real reason was that she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about what had happened the last time she was in the house.

  “Not so well,” she confessed.

  “You’re pale as a ghost.” Jo came to stand beside her as she combed out her hair in front of the mirror. “Shaking, too.”

  “I keep… remembering.”

  Jo touched her arm. “You know, animals recover from danger and bad scares a lot better than we do. When they’re frightened, they don’t try to repress it. They react to whatever bad thing happens in the moment, and when it’s over, they shake a lot. They let it all run through them. When they’ve had enough, they sleep.”

  “I’m not sure I’ll sleep tonight.” It had been easier in the hospital. There had been noise and light at all hours to keep her visions at bay.

  “Why don’t you try?” Jo led her to her bed. “Climb in. I’ll make you a nest, and then I’ll go get some tea—and Jack. Animals like to cuddle together to comfort each other,” she added with a smile.

  “I guess that sounds good,” Alice said. She climbed under the covers and let Jo arrange pillows and blankets until she was surrounded in softness and warmth. Relaxing a little, she closed her eyes, but opened them again when images began to seep into her mind.

  “Alice? Can I come in?”

  “Yes.”

  Jack shut the door behind him and began to strip. Alice pushed up on one elbow. “I thought I was supposed to sleep.”

  “Jo sent me.” He climbed into bed, too, and insinuated himself into the nest Jo had created. “It’s warm in here.”

  “Comfy, too. Safe.”

  “You’re definitely safe here.”

  “I keep remembering.”

  “Hmm. Turn over.”

  She did and sighed when he began to rub her back. “That feels good.”

  “Shut your eyes. Try to empty your mind.” He kept up his massage. Alice focused on the motion of his hands. That helped. Jack kissed the back of her head. “Go to sleep.”

  “Aren’t you going to seduce me? You know, payment for your services?” she teased.

  “Not tonight. You need your rest, but tomorrow I’ll be back to collect what you owe me.”

  “Good.” She settled in.

  “I love you, Alice,” Jack said.

  “Love you, too.” His hands traveled up and down, up and down.

  When she opened her eyes next, morning had come.

  “I’m just glad everyone’s safe,” Richard said after Jack gave him a run-down of the attack. Jack had called first thing after he woke up and apologized for the way they’d left things after their last conversation. Even if they disagreed about his choices, he needed Richard in his life. Richard was several hours ahead in Washington, DC, and he didn’t mind early morning calls.

  “Me, too.”

  “Guess the General really needed men like you there.”

  “Guess so.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Richard asked.

  Jack, in the guest room, moved to his window and looked out at the snowy scene beyond it. The view had become familiar. Now it would be his home.

  “Have you ever come across something… uncanny?”

  Richard chuckled. “Like a seven-year-old who could identify a killer based on the truck he drove after hearing the engine only once before?”

  “Something that had no explanation. Not even a far-fetched one.”

  Richard was silent a minute. “Yeah. When you work the kind of job I do, you come across stuff like that once in a while. We don’t talk about it a lot. No one likes to admit some things can’t be explained.”

  “So you think some things can’t?” Jack pressed.

  “I think some things have an explanation we just can’t understand,” Richard hedged. “I don’t know, Jack,” he added. “We live in a big universe, you know?”

  “Yeah. I know. I’m getting married,” he added.

  “No shit,” Richard said and laughed. “You serious?”

  “Yeah, I am.” Jack braced himself for Richard’s reaction, but instead of the scolding he’d dreaded, Richard called out, “Janet—get on the phone. Jack’s got big news!” He came back. “You’re going to have to start from the beginning. Tell us everything.”

  Jack checked his watch. Other people would be getting up soon, but he did his best to fill his parents in, without giving away anything he knew he needed to keep secret. When he heard movement downstairs, he said, “Pop. Ma—got to go. I’ll call you again in a few days. Watch out for your invitation, okay?”

  “Will do,” Richard said.

  “Say hi to your bride—and everyone else,” Janet said.

  He couldn’t believe how happy his parents were with the news. He was whistling when he entered the kitchen a few moments later. The General was already sitting at the table alone, nursing a cup of coffee.

  “How are you this morning, sir? Feeling all right?” Jack asked.

  “I suppose I can’t complain: I fulfilled my mission, didn’t I? All my daughters are taken care of now. My ranch is back under my control, and the enemy has been vanquished. Victory all around.”

  Jack smiled. “I’d agree with all of that—except the part about controlling the ranch. I’d say your daughters have control of it, don’t you think?”

  “What kind of treason is this?” The General gave him a baleful stare.

  “It’s the truth, and the five of us men can handle that. This ranch is more than a bunch of acres to Cass, Alice, Lena, Sadie and Jo. It represents their link to their mother. Surely you must understand that.”

  “Of course I do. Still think a woman does best with a man by her side.”

  “Some women do. I like to think that in my marriage to Alice, the total will be more than the sum of its parts.”

  “I hope so, too. Things have changed since my day.”

  “Yes, they have. For the better, I think, when it comes to treating men and women like equals.”

  “Maybe so. Amelia never complained,” he grumbled.

  “Amelia didn’t have to—she had a good husband.”

  A strange look came over the General’s face. Something like… gratitude, Jack thought. It couldn’t be easy for the man to know his daughters held such harsh opinions of him. Jack had a feeling the man was all too aware of his own shortcomings.

  “Eat your breakfast,” the General said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The General was uncharacteristically quiet through the meal, and Jack was beginning to get worried by the time everyone else came down and ate, and they gathered for the muster session. He joined the others in the General’s room when the time came. The General was back sitting on his bed, his leg raised. Jack found his place next to Alice, took
her hand and dropped a kiss on top of her head.

  “Well,” the General said, looking around at all of them. “This is the last time we’ll assemble like this.”

  Jack, about to steal another kiss, straightened. He felt Alice stiffen beside him.

  “Why?” Brian asked.

  “I’ve come to realize something.” The General was as solemn as Jack had ever seen him. He got up from the bed slowly and stood as ramrod straight as he ever had back at USSOCOM. “You all worked like a well-oiled team the other day standing up to that rotten son of Manson’s.”

  “Thanks to Alice,” Connor said.

  “Thanks to all of you. I thought I needed to get this ranch under control—and keep it under control. I thought you needed me. I was wrong.” He linked his hands behind his back. “It’s time to turn this ranch over to the next generation. Time to step back and let you all take control. You don’t need any more muster sessions.”

  “What if we want them?” Lena said.

  Alice looked at her sister in surprise. Jack couldn’t blame her. This was a far cry from the Lena who’d railed against her father the other day.

  Lena met their stares. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I think this is a good way to start the day. It’s given us a chance to air things out and make plans.”

  “You don’t need me for that.” The General waved a hand.

  “Maybe we want you for that,” Lena said. “Maybe we need—to make up for lost time.” Her voice softened. “Maybe we need to get to know you again.”

  “That’s right,” Cass said.

  “I agree,” Jo said. Sadie nodded.

  “We’d be honored if you’d help us,” Alice said.

  “Well.” The General’s voice was gruff. “I guess… if you need me to keep things in line.”

  “We do, sir,” Jack said, but the General was watching Lena.

  She nodded. “We do.”

  “Then I’ll retain my command,” the General said.

  And smiled.

  “What is it?” Alice asked when she met up with Jack in the upstairs hall later that morning. “You look… worried.”