A SEAL's Pledge (SEALs of Chance Creek Book 3)

by Cora Seton

  And she would love every minute of it.

  Chapter Eleven

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  It took all Harris’s strength the following day not to allow his actions to betray what had happened between him and Samantha the previous night. At breakfast, he took his plate of eggs, bacon and hash browns to one side and sat by himself. Each time he stole a glance at Samantha, he met her gaze, and she quickly looked away, her cheeks reddening. It was a good thing he’d be spending his morning at the Egans’, Harris thought. Or they’d never get away with this.

  It helped that Clay and Nora had returned from their extended honeymoon, and everyone’s attention was on them. Nora looked far healthier than she had when she’d left, and Clay was beaming with happiness. Still, the other women bustled around Nora solicitously and decided she would spend her day up at the manor, taking it easy but helping finalize the plans for the guests who were to arrive on the weekend.

  “Listen up, folks,” Renata called. “Let’s meet in the bunkhouse in ten minutes to watch the next episode.”

  A good-natured groan rose up from the crowd, but people began to finish their meals, return their plates to the bunkhouse kitchen and get ready for the showing.

  “Just wait, you’ll see,” he heard Avery say to Samantha as he followed the rest to the door. “You won’t even recognize yourself on the show. It’s incredible what they do with the footage they have. It looks totally different than real life.”

  Sam turned back to him, worry creasing her brow. She waited for him to catch up. “Harris—about the show…”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s always awful, but we get over it.”

  “But that’s the thing. Curtis—”

  “Move it, people!” Renata broke in before Sam could finish what she was saying. She pushed between them and herded everyone inside.

  Harris ended up on the far side of the room from Sam, which was probably for the best if they wanted to keep last night’s exploits to themselves. He wanted to touch her—badly. He was losing patience with having to wait so long. Today she looked sweet in her Regency gown, with her hair tucked up under her bonnet. But he couldn’t help remembering how she looked last night. Flushed, wanton—fully satisfied. He couldn’t wait to be with her again, and he had to forcefully wrench his thoughts away before he became too uncomfortable.

  “Everybody ready?” Renata said a few minutes later. She nodded to Boone, who clicked the button on his laptop, and the show began to play on the large screen behind them. Everyone settled in and there was an uncomfortable lull as the opening credits started in the semi-patriotic music played behind them.

  This week’s episode began with a recap of the events that preceded Nora and Clay’s wedding. Watching Samantha, Harris saw her wince along with everyone else at the footage of Nora’s lifeless body being wheeled out of the old schoolhouse on a gurney and lifted into an ambulance. Clay looked pale as he watched himself on-screen at the hospital pacing, waiting for news. Harris doubted that there was a dry eye in the room when the surgeon came out to announce that Nora had made it. They covered Nora’s convalescence, and the plans that had been previously made behind the scenes to find a backup bride for Clay. They showed Boone and the other men making the decision to allow Clay to wait for Nora’s recovery, and the drawing of straws to see who would marry a stranger in his place.

  When on-screen, Renata narrated that Curtis was the one who drew the short straw and would marry Samantha Smith when she arrived, Curtis said audibly, “You got that right.”

  Harris forced himself to unclench his fists. Last night had proved he and Samantha belonged together. He didn’t have to worry about Curtis. Soon enough Sam would announce her choice, and he would marry her all over again.

  As the show continued, he found himself sinking lower in his seat, however. Somehow Renata had managed to piece together footage that showed him slinking off from Base Camp as if had deliberately planned to steal Curtis’s bride away from him. He couldn’t believe how much Renata had fabricated.

  The footage of his return to Base Camp with Samantha, however, was all too real, as was the scuffle between him and Curtis afterward. The show played up the tension between the two men, but instead of focusing on Samantha’s desire to be with Harris, Renata and her crew had managed to make it look like Samantha was torn between them.

  Then there was the scene at Delmonaco’s. None of their tricks had worked. All their flirting had been cut out, but the show made much of Sam’s description of her parents as singing about environmentalism but accomplishing nothing. A helpful graphic popped up detailing the environmental costs of Deader Than Ever’s constant touring to drive the point home.

  When Harris glanced at Samantha again, she was biting her lip, her hands clutched together in her lap. Curtis, on the other hand, looked far from beaten. He was sitting back in his seat, his legs wide and his arms crossed over his chest. The smirk on his face seemed to say he knew something Harris didn’t.

  Harris soon found out what it was. The footage on the screen jumped to Samantha’s date with Curtis just two nights ago. The scene began with Curtis solicitously helping Samantha into his truck, and getting in himself. They took a long drive down a winding highway to an area Harris recognized with a sinking heart. When Curtis turned off in the very place Harris had taken Samantha on their wedding day, he leaned forward, dread and anger knotting together in his stomach. He’d forgotten he’d pointed out the track to Curtis once on a trip to Bozeman. He couldn’t believe the man would take Sam there.

  The cameras caught Curtis lifting Samantha down from the truck, speaking together in low tones, Curtis’s hands resting on her hips. They were obviously talking about something important, but the cameras didn’t pick up their words. At the end it was clear that Curtis had asked her a question. Samantha nodded, allowed him to take her arm and lead her into the woods. Just as they disappeared around a bend in the path, Curtis turned around and gave the cameras a big thumbs up.

  What the hell? Harris was on his feet, but Jericho grabbed his arm and yanked him back down again.

  “Renata is fucking with you,” he said. “Don’t make an ass of yourself.”

  Harris’s heart raced as the scene unfolded in front of him. Curtis and Samantha sat having an intimate picnic on the very same ledge where she’d been with him that first time. The two of them talked and laughed as the sun went down. Curtis moved closer. Samantha allowed him to. The cameras faded away just as Curtis bent toward her, obviously moving in for a kiss.

  But that wasn’t the worst of it. Harris couldn’t believe his eyes when the scene jumped again to show the two of them arriving back at Base Camp, getting out of the truck and heading together into the bunkhouse. He’d seen that with his own eyes, but knowing what had come before made it even worse. Curtis and Samantha had to know the cameras were catching their every move, so he expected some kind of slow good-bye. Perhaps a peck on the cheek. Maybe Curtis would linger too long holding her hand.

  Instead, Samantha gestured for Curtis to join her in the bathroom. Harris’s jaw dropped open. The cameras followed them even then, and he was forced to watch his rival unlace his wife’s dress, help her pull it over her head and get to work on her stays as she leaned forward over the sink to give him access. Curtis took his time, and Samantha didn’t rush him, even when he slid a hand over her exposed skin.

  When Curtis peeled off her stays, Samantha turned to face him, and Harris tensed again. Jericho’s grip was tight on his arm, but Harris didn’t think that would stop him if Curtis kissed Samantha on-screen.

  He didn’t, but he might just as well have. It was clear Samantha wanted him to, clear that she was dying for him to do more. When Curtis left her, flushed, almost panting, Samantha kicked the bathroom door closed in the camera’s face. The episode ended.

  No one said a word.

  “It wasn’t like that at all,” Samantha said loudly when she finally caught her breath. People were already standing, hurrying toward the
door as if they were desperate to escape. She didn’t blame them; they all knew she was married to Harris. “None of it happened like that; they manipulated everything to make it look worse than it was.”

  No one was listening to her. A few of the men had gathered around Harris, muttering consolations. Riley confronted Curtis and was shaking her head at him. Most of the women were already slipping out the door, the glances they threw back at her making it all too clear they weren’t sure what to think.

  Samantha stood up, panic clawing at her throat. They had to believe her. This couldn’t be happening. With one episode, Renata had managed to turn everyone against her. “Harris?” She took a step back when he turned her way, cold, hard anger tightening his features.

  She tried again. “Harris, I swear—”

  “Don’t want to hear it.” He was out the door in two long strides.

  Tears stung Samantha’s eyes. She moved to follow him, but Win blocked her way. “Give him time to cool off,” she said. “He knows as well as anyone else how much Renata manipulates the footage. That doesn’t make it any easier to watch another man undress you.”

  “I just needed help with my stays. No one else was around,” Sam protested.

  “Except an entire camera crew,” Win pointed out.

  “We’re not supposed to talk to them. What was I supposed to do? Wear my stays to bed?”

  “Maybe this once it would have been the wiser choice.”

  “We all know Renata is completely capable of twisting things to suit her needs,” Boone said when he caught up with Harris in the barn. The other men filed in after him. Camera crew members followed, too—a whole horde of them. Harris wondered if there were any left to film the women.

  “Fuck it. If she likes him that much, let him have her.” His chest pulsed with white-hot anger, and he flexed and clenched his fists, wishing there was someone to fight. He didn’t know where Curtis had gone; probably after Samantha. They were probably together right now, laughing at him.

  “I can’t believe how much happened in the few days Nora and I were gone,” Clay said. “But Boone’s right, I don’t think all that footage went together the way they showed it.”

  “Don’t try to look for ways to explain it,” Harris said. “It’s clear to me.”

  “You’re going to let Curtis win?” Boone asked.

  “You said yourself you brought Samantha here to marry him.”

  “I brought Samantha here to marry Clay, but that’s changed several times, hasn’t it?”

  Harris didn’t care. If Samantha hadn’t slept with Curtis, she might as well have. He didn’t know what kind of game she was playing. Maybe she got off on pitting them against each other. Maybe she was the kind to sleep around. Maybe she wanted the notoriety of being the bad girl on a television show.

  Whatever had happened, he was over it. He might be slow, but he wasn’t stupid. The message from the universe was clear: he still wasn’t the marrying kind.

  “Tell them they have my blessing,” he said, and moved to leave the barn, but Walker took a step in front of him and blocked the way. “Move it.”

  Walker shook his head. “One day.” He held Harris’s gaze.

  “One day what? What the fuck are you saying?” Harris tried to push past him, but Walker wouldn’t budge.

  “Wait one day. Say nothing. Do nothing.” He looked for Harris’s acquiescence.

  Harris shook his head. “Fuck that. I’m done with this. Maybe I’m done with all of this.”

  Walker crossed his arms over his chest. “You can stand one day.”

  “Listen to the man,” Clay said. “He won’t steer you wrong.”

  “What good will it do?”

  “What good will it do to throw away your wife before you even know for sure what happened?” Clay challenged him.

  Before Harris could answer, Boone stepped in. “Aren’t you due at the Egans’? Get in the truck and head over there. Do your work. Take the opportunity that man’s giving you. Cool off. We’ll talk about this again tomorrow.”

  “Fine,” Harris growled. He was out the door before anyone else could say another word.

  “Come with me,” Savannah said quietly when Sam finally left the bunkhouse. “James will meet us with the carriage out on the street. We’re going to sneak off to Alice’s house for the afternoon.”

  “Okay,” Samantha said a little shakily. Anything to get away from Base Camp for a while. She was devastated by how she’d been portrayed on-screen, and the way Harris had reacted. He still was so quick to believe she’d let him down. Sam was beginning to think nothing would make him trust her. She’d given herself to him. Didn’t that mean anything?

  Only a small camera crew followed the women when they headed up the hill. Most of them had traipsed off after the men when they’d trooped out of the bunkhouse. The rest were deep in conversation with Renata. Once at the manor, Avery picked a loud fight with Riley over whose turn it was next with the cell phone they shared. With the camera crew engaged, Sam and Savannah slipped out the front door and met James. Half an hour later, he dropped them off at the Reeds’ big white house, and Alice came out on the front porch to meet them. “I’m glad you could come,” she said, holding out a hand to Savannah. “Especially you. I’ve got a dress I want you to try on. Sam, why don’t you go find my sister in the herb garden behind the house. I know she wants to show it off to you.”

  Alice led Savannah inside, and Samantha took a path that wound around the outside of the house to the backyard. This time, instead of heading straight to the carriage house, where Alice had her studio, she ventured into the gardens, where a young woman was bent over the plants.

  The woman looked up as Sam approached, stood and dusted her hands on her jeans. “Hello. You must be Samantha.”

  “That’s right.” Sam shook hands with her, taking in her practical clothing, warm expression and kind eyes.

  “I’m Sadie. Sadie Reed. It’s nice to meet you. Some of the other women from Westfield have been over to the house, but you just arrived, right?”

  “A week ago,” Sam told her. “You have a beautiful garden. Do you do all of this yourself?”

  “Yes; it’s a full time job. Sometimes I get help when I’m completely overwhelmed, but mostly I try to do it on my own. It’s important for me to stay connected to what I grow.”

  “I get that.” It was a good way of articulating what Sam felt when she was working in the gardens at Base Camp. No one else seemed to talk that way about it, though.

  Sadie was looking at her curiously. “Skullcap, I think. Blackberry leaf. And a little rosemary.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I see sadness. False accusation. A need for clarity. Is that right?”

  It was as if the ground shifted beneath Sam’s feet. “That’s right.” To her surprise her voice was thick with tears and her throat ached with them. She hadn’t looked for such understanding from a stranger.

  “Sometimes I get a sense of what people need to feel better.” Sadie shrugged. “It’s Two Willows; this place is special. You know—because of the stone.” She moved among her plants and harvested a leaf here and a root there.

  “You’ve lost me.” Sam had no idea what she was talking about.

  “I’ll show you later. I think Alice and Savannah need some privacy.” She nodded toward the tall green hedge that bordered the large garden. Alice and Savannah were walking quickly along its base, and as Sam watched, they turned a corner and were hidden from view.

  “What is that?”

  “The hedge maze. Later,” she said again. “Come to my greenhouse. I’ll mix this up for you.”

  Samantha followed behind her, but her gaze kept trailing back to the tall hedge that blocked everything behind it from view. She was curious about the maze Sadie had mentioned. She’d seen them in photographs, but never in real life.

  Inside the greenhouse it was warm and humid, and Samantha soon longed for fresh air, but she waited as patiently as she co
uld for Sadie to clean and chop up the herbs and roots, then add them to a pot of water she had boiling on a hot plate. They chatted while the mixture cooked, and Samantha learned Sadie and her sisters had lived here all their lives, each of them helping to keep the ranch running in their own way. “Cass runs the house,” Sadie explained. “Lena runs the cattle operation. Alice does her costumes and brings in some extra money. I care for the gardens, make herbal tinctures and sell produce at a roadside stand. Jo takes care of the animals—all kinds. She’s really good with them.”

  After some minutes had passed, Sadie strained out the herbs and poured the liquid into a tall mug. She handed it to Sam. “Here. Drink this.”

  Grateful it didn’t taste too bad, Sam did so as Sadie showed her more of the greenhouse and then led her back outside into the gardens. There they wandered until they met Alice and Savannah leaving the maze and heading toward the carriage house. Savannah was pale, and Alice walked close beside her. Sam sensed they didn’t want to be interrupted, so she nodded at them as they passed, but didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll show you the maze now if you like,” Sadie said.

  “I’d like that.”

  When they entered it on a grassy path, Sam was surprised at the way the sounds of the outside world fell away behind its green walls. Someone had been mowing in the distance, but now it was hardly a buzz. Sadie led the way to the first crossroads, where she hesitated. “Some people like to pick their own path. Others like us to show them the way.”

  “I’ll pick my path.” Sam thought Sadie approved of that. She made her choices at random until Sadie laughed.

  “We’re doubling back.”

  “Sorry. Maybe you should lead.”

  “At least you gave it a try,” Sadie said. “Some people are chicken. If you want you can come sometime and spend an afternoon at it. You’ll eventually find your way through. My sisters think everyone should be led to the center, but I think it’s fun to try to find your own way.”