Eddie’s Prize (26 page)

Darlene’s tone gentled, showing weariness. “The vice mayor from Omaha is here. If he got you or Lisa, what would your father have to give to get you back?”

Bree’s head came up, eyes full of distaste. “Mr. Vann is here?”

“He arrived last night, with his usual forty man escort. And a woman. They’re staying in Faron Paulson’s house.”

Darlene echoed her daughter’s distaste, but Lisa wasn’t sure if it was the man who caused it or the woman.

Bree’s pale blue eyes rounded. “Mr. Vann got married?”

Her mother shrugged. “They’re from Omaha. I doubt they’re married.”

Lisa looked from one Madison woman to the other. “People don’t get married in Omaha?”

“Some do.” Darlene sniffed. “But there are several hundred women there, and the government fines them if they marry. The majority of women in Omaha are businesswomen.”

There was a place in this patriarchal world where women were allowed to stay single and have jobs? Lisa wanted to cheer. Her mother-in-law’s sour expression kept her quiet. “What sorts of businesses do they have?”

“The oldest profession, I believe it’s called”

The urge to cheer died. “Prostitutes. Do they
have
to be prostitutes?”

“No, but if they aren’t, they have to pay fines.”

Lisa took a step back. “What?”

Darlene nodded grimly. “Starting at age eighteen, any woman who isn’t in business pays an annual fine. When she marries, she pays a fine. It’s a large one, but it is paid only once.”

Lisa sat down. “That’s horrible.”

“Since not everyone can afford to pay the fines, most women go into business. I’ve heard they get to keep half of their earnings, and it’s a generous sum, so after a few years they can afford to marry if they choose.”

Lisa shook her head. She remembered being horrified and furious at being made a prize for a bride fight. “I guess I am luckier than I thought.”

Darlene reached and patted her hand. “Yes.”

“But why is this man here?” Lisa asked. “It’s winter, and Omaha is a long way from here.”

“He’s here to remind us to pay our taxes.” Bree sounded like she wanted to spit. “We pay every year so Omaha won’t attack us.”

“It’s a high price,” Darlene said tiredly. “But worth it to keep our freedom.”

Bree frowned. “Mom, you need to lie down for a little while. Should I ask someone to set up your cot?”

Darlene was about six months along in her pregnancy, but she looked like she could give birth anytime. In addition to her rounded belly, her ankles were hugely swollen, and her eyes showed exhaustion. She nodded. “That’s a good idea. You and Lisa will have to take charge of the potluck.”

Bree bent to give her a careful hug. “Mom, I’m sorry about not using an escort. It won’t happen again.”

While Bree was getting her mother tucked behind a curtain with a small brazier on the floor by her cot and a guard outside the curtain, people began pouring in. The men were sent off to help with the rest of the setup, while the women went to the kitchen area to drop off their dishes. Lisa accompanied them to the kitchen where stoves were lit to heat the food. She knew only a few of them, but she was familiar with the poorly hidden spite they showed toward her.

“Let me help you with that,” she offered when one girl’s Dutch oven wobbled in her arms.

“No, thank you.” The girl jerked away from Lisa’s helping hand. Baked beans overflowed the pot and ran down the side. “I wouldn’t want to bother you.”

The words were polite; the tone was a sneer. All her life Lisa had had to deal with the dislike of other women, but that usually stemmed from her looks. Here she wasn’t considered beautiful. Certainly she was no threat to their generous charms.

Hannah came in with another woman who was probably around Bree’s age. Lisa went to them with a smile, glad to see a familiar and friendly face. “Hello, Hannah. Are those twice baked potatoes? I love those. I haven’t had those in months. They smell so good!”

The younger woman with Hannah sniffed. “I heard you couldn’t cook.”

Some other girls heard her and giggled, shooting looks of malicious glee at Lisa.

Hannah gasped. “Ruth! Don’t be rude. Lisa, this is my cousin, Ruth Lemke.”

Lisa pasted on a serene smile. “Hello, Ruth. I’m certainly not up to my mother-in-law’s level, but I’m learning. Eddie hasn’t complained about my cooking yet.”

Lisa moved away as if she didn’t notice the covert sneers. One woman had a pair of young teen girls on either side of her and an older teen behind her. She smiled at Lisa.

“Mrs. Madison, you may not remember me. I’m Anne Gray. We met at Mrs. Wolfe’s concert at the library a few months ago.”

The memory warmed Lisa. “I do remember you. How have you been?”

“Well, very well. This is my daughter, Elizabeth, and my daughter, Amy. And this shy little thing is my niece, Eleanor.”

Eleanor bounced with high spirits, not looking very shy, until she saw Ruth looking at her with a sneer. “Hello,” she said, a wash of color staining her pale cheeks.

Lisa smiled back. People like Ruth were bullies. As a famous model with an army of fans, Lisa knew she should be beyond being hurt by people like her, but wealth, beauty, and fame couldn’t erase a childhood full of sneers.

“I think we’ve met before.” Lisa nodded at the brown-haired girl. “You’re Ellie, right? Taye Wolfe’s cousin?”

Some of the bounce came back. “Yes. I don’t think he’s coming today since Cousin Carla isn’t well, but Neal will be here. He’s my fiancé.”

Good lord, the girl was tiny, just five feet tall, and she couldn’t be old enough to be getting married. Lisa hid those thoughts behind another smile. “I hope you have a wonderful time today.”

“Oh, I will! I’m from Odessa, and in Odessa the elders don’t allow big parties like this.”

Lisa remembered the sour elders who had sent her and Carla off to be sold to the mayor of Kearney. Their idea of fun was probably a five-hour long sermon against dancing.

Hannah joined them. In a low voice she said, “I’m so sorry. Ruth has always been like that, and too many of the other girls are following her lead. It’s no wonder she’s still unmarried at twenty.”

Lisa managed a smile and made herself go back to deciding which pot or pan should be heated on which stove. These girls were more hurtful than the models Lisa worked with, and models were the cruelest people Lisa had ever known.

When Eddie came in, all the sneering young women melted into sweetness. Ah, Lisa said to herself cynically, jealousy was at the root of their meanness. Any of these girls would have been pleased to marry the mayor’s son. To have a stranger snatch him away must have put their noses out of joint. Pity.

Eddie nodded at them, but with nothing more than casual politeness. “Lisa, where’s my mother?”

“She’s lying down for a nap. Eddie, can I talk to you for a second?”

A shadow of impatience crossed his face. He jerked his head to indicate the hallway. She hurried past him out the door, ignoring the other women. He crossed his arms over his chest. “What?”

“I’ve wanted to talk to you all week, but you’ve been…” She backed away from accusing him of ignoring her. “Busy. Eddie, I love you. If you want to keep your secret to yourself, fine.” She looked blindly at his shoulder, not willing to look into his face and see the coldness he’d worn since their visit to the den. “I hope you’ll tell me someday, but I won’t mention it again.”

“You have to get into this now?”

The annoyance in his voice bruised her. “When else can I do it?” She tried to rein in the snap in her voice. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you before. Eddie, I’ve missed you. We have to talk about it.”

He took a step back. “We’ll talk later. I have to get back.”

Lisa watched him walk away, pain swirling into angry nausea in her stomach. She went back to the cats in the kitchen, feeling like she’d just been slapped in the face. Why was she putting up with his infantile attitude? She was his wife, for God’s sake, not one of the pets he collected and neglected. This had to end. Now wasn’t the time to run after him and slap him silly, but when they got home, she would make Eddie listen to her. She would force him to see how much it hurt her every time he turned away from her.

Bree came in only a few minutes later, followed by Renee, Connie, and Marissa from the Plane Women’s House, and Lisa was glad to give up command in the kitchen to Renee, who had been a chef in St. Paul’s most fashionable restaurant. Renee had been injured in the plane crash, the side of her face scarred and slightly misshapen from the accident, and the girls might have seen her as a target for their bullying, but Renee looked them up and down with unimpressed eyes and put them to work.

She stood beside Lisa and shook her head. “You might think, with so few women here, they’d get along better.”

Lisa shrugged, feeling a little more comfortable. “It’s like high school in a small town. Everyone knows everyone else, and there’s always the bully who has to make life miserable for the rest.”

Val, another of the plane crash survivors, came up and nodded. “No kidding. We had only eighty in my graduating class, and there were four girls who were so mean one of the girls they picked on tried to commit suicide.”

Ellie’s eyes were wide. “What happened to them?”

“Nothing.” Val tucked a strand of her shoulder length brown hair behind her ear. “The laws against bullying hadn’t taken effect yet. What would happen here?”

“Nothing,” Ellie sighed.

Bree agreed. “If they were boys, they might get sent to Faron Paulson, and he’d thrash them. But not girls. No one punishes girls except their dads.”

“Spoiled brats,” Renee muttered. She directed a glare at Ruth and her friends and raised her voice to be heard over the giggling. “Move it, chickies. Other people need to use that stove too.”

Lisa swallowed a giggle at Ruth’s wide-eyed expression of outrage. Eventually, under Renee’s experienced and firm hand, all the food was properly heated and ready to serve by late afternoon. Food was carried out of the kitchen to the long buffet tables in the large entry area. The windows were now framed in frost. It was pretty. Lisa carried her pies to the tables set aside for desserts.

“Here, put your stuff next to mine,” Bree urged her. “Mom can’t stand by me, so you have to be my chaperone.”

“Chaperone?”

Bree rolled her eyes. “All the men flirt with the servers when they come through the line. Single girls shouldn’t be alone.”

Right. Alone, with a hundred other women and a thousand men. Lisa imitated her sister-in-law and rolled her eyes. She’d forgotten the women were expected to serve the food they brought. “I’m starving.”

“Me too. Let’s hurry and get our plates so we can eat quick before the line starts. I want to check on Mom too.”

Each person had brought their own plates, silverware, and glasses. Paper plates didn’t exist anymore. Lisa reflected that her conservationist friends would approve. The women ate first, while the men hung around outside in the cold. Through the large windows, Lisa could see Eddie standing with Cory and some other young men. Val sat close to Lisa and sighed over Cory. Over the past few months, Lisa had gotten to know Cory. Her first impression of him had been a lanky, geeky intellectual with brown hair in a haphazard buzz cut, and he was still all those things, but Lisa now knew he was more. His sense of humor was goofy, he was loyal and protective, and though he didn’t talk much, one of his favorite subjects was Val.

“You know,” Val remarked, “Cory is a great guy. I hope he pops the question tonight.”

“Lots of people get married at the Gala,” Bree said. “I think there will be at least four weddings this time.”

Hannah was looking down the table at her cousin with a frown. “And at least two or three fights. Ruth just loves to play one man off another, and it always end up in a fight. I wish Uncle Bob would just pick someone for her.”

Renee chewed her barbecued pork with a considering look on her face. “I wonder which spices they used for this? Bree, who made the meat?”

They were talking about weddings, and Renee had her mind on cooking. Lisa had to smile because it was so like Renee to be thinking about cooking and not romance. Her husband was a tall, muscular, quiet werewolf named Hawk, and he was just about the only person who could pull Renee away from the kitchen.

Lisa’s smile died because through the window she could see Eddie laughing and having a good time with his friends. He hadn’t laughed or smiled at her in a week. He’d barely spoken to her. The one night this week he’d slept in their bed, he’d been very careful to not touch her and had been gone when she woke up. There had been no conversation between them, so she never had the chance to apologize. She wanted to make things right between them. She also wanted to slap him.

With Bree on one side of her and Hannah on the other, Lisa served her pie to the line of men who shuffled past, some of them shy, some bold, some flirtatiously commenting on how sweet her pie looked. She was uncomfortable with the flirtation, but Bree and Hannah flirted right back.

“It’s okay,” Bree told her. “It’s expected here.”

Hannah agreed. “As long as it doesn’t go too far, it’s acceptable to flirt at the Gala.”

“I don’t think Eddie would like it,” Lisa mumbled, cutting into her second pie.

Bree snorted. “Don’t worry about Eddie, just have fun.”

When Lisa noticed how her husband avoided their section of the dessert table and asked for a slice of cake from one of Ruth’s silly cow friends, she decided to take Bree’s advice. This was a party. She would enjoy herself. She smiled at every man who asked for her pie.

The line of men gradually dwindled, and the girls went into the arena to join friends and family at the long tables. The arena was filled with the roar of men laughing and talking, the clink of flatware against plates, and the squealing scrape of chairs on the floor. The head table was on a raised platform a little apart from the others, like the bridal party table at a wedding. Ray and Darlene sat there alone, although there were three other chairs. Eddie wasn’t there. Lisa looked for him and found his golden head at a table with his friends and some ladies. Val was beside Cory, smiling at him as they talked.