Eddie’s Prize (23 page)

Lisa had had no idea how many men worked for Ray. Faron Paulson was the sheriff, and Steve Herrick was the works director, in charge of maintaining the roads and building in town. Each of them had a dozen men who reported to them. Ray personally handed over the plates of cookies for them to pass out in turn to the men under them who did not live in the compound.

There was also Cory Haas, who ran the weekly newspaper, and Charles Driscoll, who ran the bank, and his son Chas, who handled Ray’s accounts. Lisa cut a dubious glance at Ray when she learned that. Should Ray be in control of the media and the money? It smacked of Big Brother to her. She hadn’t really thought of how Kearney was governed. Was this a dictatorship or a democracy? Or something else? Lisa squeezed Eddie’s gloved hand and decided to ask him about it later.

Terry Packard was in charge of Ray’s horses and wagons. Lisa was careful to smile only the slightest bit when he answered the door with one of his sons behind him. She wanted to avoid being rude, while not rousing Eddie’s stupid jealousy. It must have been the right amount of friendliness. Eddie didn’t as much as growl. In fact, he seemed to exude good cheer. Lisa’s confusion dissipated when Eddie waved his hand at the stable door to their right.

The other of the Packard boys came out leading Alexander the colt with a large red bow around his neck. Lisa blinked.

Eddie slung an arm around her shoulders. “Merry Christmas, Lisa-love.”

Lisa blinked again, confused when the boy held out the lead to her. “What?” she said.

“Alexander is my Christmas present to you,” Eddie told her. “I didn’t think I could fit him under the tree.”

“But,” said Lisa, gripping the rope lead. “I…”

Bree laughed when Alexander nosed Lisa’s gloved hand. Lisa couldn’t keep her smile back when she hesitantly reached to scratch the colt’s nose.

“He’ll have to stay here with the Packards for a while longer,” Eddie explained. “He needs to grow and be trained before you can ride him, but he’s yours. You can come and visit him whenever you want.” He stepped close to whisper, “I’ve made the arrangements with Terry. Don’t worry about me being jealous. I apologized, and we’ve worked it out.”

Lisa buried her face in the colt’s shaggy mane. He stepped restlessly as she hugged him, but didn’t try to pull away. She wiped her eyes with her mitten and sniffed. She put her arms around her husband and squeezed.

“Thank you, Eddie. He’s the best present ever!”

Eddie kissed her. His lips were cold, but her heart was warmed by his gift. She gave the lead back to the Packard boy and promised to visit again after the holidays.

There were others who worked for the mayor and lived in his compound, so it took three hours to hand out all the goodies. With the bright blue of the sky clouding over and the wind picking up, Lisa was frozen nearly stiff by the time they all got back to the big house. She peeled off her snow-caked boots and left them in the mudroom to thaw while she stood close to the stove in the kitchen. Her husband’s arms wrapped her in warmth.

“I’m glad you liked my gift.”

“The horse is wonderful, Eddie. Even better is the fact you’ve made up with Mr. Packard.”

Eddie stilled. “I know I’m unreasonable at times.” His tone struck Lisa as a careful balance of honesty and evasion. “I’m trying to control it.”

“That’s all anyone can ask.” She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Let’s get some of the hot cider I smell.”

“Okay. Mom has it in the living room. It’s time to open gifts.”

Lisa nodded and followed him into the living room, where the gifts awaited them under the tree. Nerves bit at her stomach. Her gift of a plain shirt seemed insignificant compared to a horse. In the past, the only gifts she chose herself were the ones she gave to whichever man she was living with and the ones she sent to her little brother, Derek. The others had been chosen by her personal shopper. The only gifts she received that meant anything to her were the ones Derek sent her. Even the ones her boyfriends gave her were just expensive baubles. She appreciated the value of diamonds, but Derek’s gifts were unique things he made himself, like hand-blown glass bowls and vases.

God, she missed Derek. What had happened to him fifty years ago? It hurt to think he was probably dead now. Christmas was about family. As much as she loved her in-laws, she missed her own family. Well, not all of them. Really, it was only Derek she missed.

Some of her ache was soothed by the genuine delight on the faces of her in-laws when they opened the gifts she’d made for them.

Bree glowed when she held her dress up against herself. “Lisa, it’s the prettiest dress I’ve ever had. Thank you!”

Those simple words were conventional courtesy, but Lisa felt the sincerity all the way down to her toes. “You’re welcome.”

Eddie kissed her, his new shirt between them. “I’m touched you went to the trouble to learn to sew just to make me a present. Thank you.”

“It’s not much compared to a horse,” she fretted.

He leaned very close to whisper, “I had the rest of my present last night.”

Lisa’s cheeks brightly flushed. She knew he wasn’t talking about sex, but her declaration of love. She smiled, and instead of her old, flirtatious smile, it was almost shy.

Ray gave her a full length coat lined in fur, and Darlene gave her boots that looked warm if not elegant. Lisa was extraordinarily pleased. She really needed a warm coat and boots for her walks to Hannah’s and to the Plane Women’s House and the den. Bree had knitted her two pairs of warm wool socks, a jaunty blue, cloche-style hat, and a matching scarf. Lisa was overwhelmed.

“Where on earth did you find time to make these?”

Bree giggled. For once the sound didn’t grate. “Well, it was tricky. I had to put the scarf and the hat away when you came over, but you watched me working on the socks lots of times.”

For the delicious traditional Christmas goose dinner, all the Madisons put on the shirts and dresses Lisa had made for them. She spent dinner looking around the table at them with pride.

It was the best Christmas Lisa ever had.

Once the hustle and bustle of baking and sewing for Christmas and New Year’s was over, Lisa set herself to designing the perfect dress for the mayor’s Gala, held on the last Sunday in January. Since coming to this new world, her life had been nothing but work. It was often satisfying work, and she took pride in her growing domestic skills, but she was ready for a party.

When Hannah saw the sketches for the dress, her eyes rounded. “Are you sure you want it that tight?” she asked.

“It won’t be tight if we cut it on the bias. Then it will drape nicely. And it’s only close-fitting to the top of my hips. After that it flares out, see?”

Hannah looked a little dubious, but went through her fabric bolts. “Here’s some lightweight wool that might work.”

Lisa fingered the silvery blue fabric. “It’s very soft.” If she could have chosen any fabric, it would have been heavy silk satin, but silk was unavailable here. The wool was the right weight to drape well. She could imagine it falling in folds from her hips. As she had predicted months ago to Carla, her hips and thighs had gained some extra padding. Eddie was as pleased as if she were a prize calf he was fattening for slaughter. In bed he loved to stroke his clever hands down her sides, following the slightly more generous curve of her hips. Of course, by Kearney’s standards she was still too thin, but she had put on weight in spite of the physically demanding chores and vigorous walks to the Plane Women’s House and the den.

“I think it will be beautiful,” Lisa decided. “You have a wonderful sense of color, Hannah.”

Hannah blushed. “But it’s your talent for dress designing that gets people’s attention. We’ve sold nearly all of the things we made before Christmas, so you have a nice amount in your account. Let’s get started on your party dress right away so we can put it in the window as an advertisement. Everybody dresses up for the dancing at the party, but no one wears anything this fancy. We can start a new fashion.”

Lisa shook her head. “No, I want to surprise Eddie.”

Hannah’s face fell. “Can you design something else I can display? I think after people see your dress and some other party dresses at the Gala, everyone will want to wear something that elegant next year.”

“Sure.”

Lisa stayed so late at Hannah’s Eddie came looking for her. When Nate Martin called up the stairs to the women that Eddie was there, Lisa dropped the pencil she was drawing with.

“Oh, no! Look at the time! I suppose Cory got tired of waiting and went to get Eddie.”

Lisa hurried down the stairs to the store. Eddie was leaning on the counter, chatting with Nate about how many animals were needed to feed the party goers at the Gala. Lisa went to him with a contrite smile.

“Eddie, I’m sorry. We were busy working, and I lost track of time.”

He scooped an arm around her waist to give her a squeeze. “That’s all right. I was coming this way when I saw Cory and Dean were still here. I sent them home so I could escort my wife home myself.”

It was definitely colder now, and Lisa was glad to have the new knee-length coat he held for her. She pulled the cute hat Bree had knitted over her ears. They said good-bye to the Martins and headed down the icy street. Lisa held her husband’s arm for balance. If either of them slipped, the other was likely to go down too, but as far as she could tell, Eddie never slipped.

They hadn’t gone far when they heard the sound of sleigh runners slicing over the icy road. Lisa peeked over her shoulder and saw a sleigh pulled by two horses pull up to the store. Two men jumped down, one going to the horses’ heads and the other coming toward them. Dane Overdahl waved an arm and called Eddie’s name. The arm beneath her fingers tightened until the muscle felt like iron.

“Eddie! Wait, I have news you’ll want to hear.”

Her husband halted, but Lisa could see his face was not welcoming. Unlike her, he was bare-headed, the icy breeze tossing his blond hair around his face. The coldness on his face had nothing to do with the temperature. She stepped closer to his side, holding his arm even more tightly.

But aside from a brief nod, Dane ignored her. “Eddie, there’s been a gunfight at the Wolfe place.”

Carla! “Oh, my God!” Lisa whispered. “What happened?”

Dane didn’t glance at her. “Richard Dickinson attacked the den.”

“Is he crazy?” Eddie said.

“Must have been. He’s dead now, along with all his men. Some of the wolves died too.” He glanced quickly at her to smile reassuringly. “None of the women were harmed, but Dickinson attacked because he wanted one of them.”

Tami Casper. Lisa was sure it had been Tami that Dickinson wanted. For the first few weeks the rich rancher had tried to court Connie Mondale, but the crashed plane’s co-pilot had repeatedly refused him. He had switched his attention to Tami. A couple of weeks ago Tami left the Plane Women’s House to live at the den. Lisa remembered the way the den was patrolled by both men and wolves and wondered why the rancher thought he could successfully attack?

Eddie stepped a little in front of her, blocking Dane’s line of sight. “How do you know this?”

Dane tucked his hands into his coat pockets. “Me and Neal were coming into town to do some shopping. When we passed the Wolfe place, we could see the fence was torn down in places, and there was blood on the snow. We stopped to see if they needed help.” Dane shrugged, his thick coat almost hiding the movement. “They didn’t. One of them gave me the story, or at least the barebones of it.”

Lisa’s hands clamped tight on Eddie’s arm. “None of the women was hurt?”

Her husband made a low growling sound and put a little more distance between them and Dane. Lisa dropped her eyes.

“No, Mrs. Madison, none of the women was hurt. Those wolves aren’t letting anybody close to the women, though, not even someone who wants to help. Not after what Dickinson pulled. Dickinson had twenty-five men with him. Not a one survived.”

“What did he expect?” Eddie growled. “Trying to steal a woman the wolves think belongs to them is the same as committing suicide.”

“Yeah,” Dane agreed. “They’re already trying to get the fence back up. The ground is too hard to sink new fence posts in. I don’t know why they’re trying.”

“Wolves are stronger than most men,” Eddie said. “They’ll get it done.”

Dane looked like he was considering that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And the den is guarded by lots of pissed off wolves who look like they don’t think they’re done killing attackers. I doubt anyone else will be stupid enough to try anything, though.” He glanced back at the sleigh. “I better get back to Neal.” He leaned around Eddie to smile at Lisa. “I hope you’ll save a dance for me at the Gala?”

Eddie shoved him away so hard Dane slipped and nearly fell. Dane held his hands out innocently. “It’s just a dance, Eddie.”

Lisa spoke quickly to head off one of Eddie’s jealous rages. “Thank you for asking, Mr. Overdahl, but I’m saving all my dances for my husband.”

Dane laughed as if Eddie wasn’t standing a foot from him, ready to blow up. “The Gala is neutral ground. It’s a place where feuds and hard feelings are put aside. Any man can dance with any woman. If you don’t dance, people are going to feel slighted.”

Eddie turned on his heel and walked away so quickly Lisa’s grip on his arm was all that kept her from falling. He put an arm around her to keep her upright, but he didn’t slow down until they were through the gate to the mayor’s compound. His pace was only slightly slower as he pulled her down the road and up the steps to their little house. Lisa didn’t try to talk until they were safely inside.

“Eddie, I tried to not talk to him, but I was so worried about Carla and the other girls.”

Eddie stalked into the kitchen and threw some wood into the stove. Lisa fumbled to take her coat off and draped it over a kitchen chair. “Eddie?”

“I know.” He sounded like he was clenching his teeth.

“And I refused to dance with him.”

“I know,” he said again. His jaw flexed. “But he’s right, damn him. The Gala is a place where any woman can dance with any man.”