Moonlight Masquerade (41 page)

Carter was about
to lock the shop door, but three women threw it open and burst inside. It was two weeks after Christmas and quite cold out but they didn't have on coats and they looked like they'd been running.

“Sorry, but we're closed for the day,” he said. “If you want something special maybe we can make it tomorrow.” The women just stood there blinking at him. He'd seen them around town but couldn't remember where. One was older, one middle-aged, and one was young and pretty. “Dr. Reede!” he said. “You work for him.”

“We do,” said the middle one, “and we need your help.”

“If this has to do with the doc's boxing lessons, leave me out.”

“No, it's about Sophie. I'm Betsy, this is Alice, and this is Heather. She's expecting.”

For a moment Carter wondered what she was expecting to happen but then he understood. “Congratulations.”
The women just stood there staring at him, as though waiting for him to do something, but he had no idea what it was supposed to be. If this was about Sophie maybe they thought Carter was trying something with her. After all, Dr. Reede hadn't popped the question yet.

Two days ago Roan had asked Sophie about that. “I've only known him a few months,” Sophie said.

Roan put on his professor face. “In this case I think it's a matter of experience that precludes time. He didn't ask you and you turned him down, did you?”

“Not that it's anyone's business, but no.” Sophie left the room. It was obviously something she didn't want to talk about.

Carter was sure that half of Edilean—and probably Sophie—knew that the day after Christmas Reede had bought a ring with three diamonds on it. Since his sister owned the shop he hadn't done it over the counter, but her assistant, Carla, had told everyone of the deal.

But Sophie kept showing up at work with no ring on.

Carter looked at the three women standing in front of the door and couldn't help putting his hands up, as though for protection. “I'm involved with Kelli and we're working on a deal with my father. He wants me to return to Texas, but I told him no. I need more time to stand on my own feet before I get eaten up by the Tree-borne machine. Besides, Kelli and I like it here. We're thinking of opening a branch of the new business here. We'd be giving jobs to the people of Edilean.”

The women were still standing there and looking at
him pointedly. The older one, Alice, shifted her weight from one foot to another, but they didn't speak.

“I take it you're not concerned about Sophie running off with me,” he said, smiling a bit at his own ego.

“We're dealing with real love,” Heather said quite seriously. “
True
love. The kind that lasts forever. Look, we only have forty-five minutes for lunch and if I don't sit down I'm going to hurl.”

Carter grabbed a chair off a table and set it on the floor. “Please.” As he got down two more chairs he realized he was nearly joyous that the women hadn't come there to berate him. Ever since he'd arrived in Edilean he'd felt he had to prove himself. After Dr. Reede hit him—and his nose was still a little sore—all of Edilean had found out why and Carter'd had to answer a lot of questions.

“I don't have any coffee made but the refrigerator's working,” he said. When the women looked blank, he added, “How about sampling some new pastries Kelli made and telling me what you think? If you can stand them with milk, that is.”

For the first time the women smiled at him, and Carter grabbed a tray as he went to the fridge.

Minutes later, they were still sitting at the table, three empty pie plates in front of them. The women hadn't eaten entire pies but most of them. Heather had been nearly insatiable. She'd licked her spoon so hard Carter was afraid the design was going to come off.

“So you want me to find out what's really going on with Sophie?” he asked.

“Exactly,” Betsy said. “You're the only one who knows
her well enough to talk to her. Her friends, Kim and Jecca, aren't here, so that leaves you.”

It was on the tip of Carter's tongue to say that he didn't know Sophie either. Not
really
know her. The frightened, overworked young woman he knew back in Texas wasn't like the Sophie he'd met in Edilean. For all that she'd never run a shop before, she was good at it. A natural organizer.

“Comes from years of managing two jobs and a household of people who thought ‘Let Sophie take care of it' was a way of life,” she said when he complimented her.

“And you put yourself through college,” Roan added. “That wears out the students.”

But since Christmas things had changed. Sophie'd told them about her new job offer and that in April she'd be leaving to become a full-time sculptor.

“That's cause for celebration!” Roan said. “Carter, go buy some champagne and make sure it's cold.”

“No!” Sophie said. “Really. No. It's a job and I . . . ” She didn't seem to know what else to say. “We need supplies for tomorrow so I . . . ” She grabbed her handbag and left the shop.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Roan mumbled and went back to clearing out the register.

After that no one mentioned the new job, but they all saw that Sophie wasn't happy about it. At first they thought it might be because she'd be working with Henry, but Sophie seemed to genuinely like the man.

One afternoon as they were closing up and Sophie was away, they all decided that she was upset because Reede hadn't asked her to marry him.

Danni spoke up. “Yesterday I had to go to him for the burn on my arm and he looked miserable. Those two are
very
unhappy people.”

They'd spent the few minutes speculating on the cause of the misery, each person having a different opinion.

“Bad sex,” Danni said. “If the sex isn't good, no matter how much you love someone, it's not worth it.”

“I agree,” Kelli said.

Carter and Roan looked at the two women with eyes full of concern.

“Are we . . . ? I mean . . . ” Carter said to Kelli.

“Baby, we're great!”

He sighed in relief and so did Roan when Danni kissed his cheek.

“So what's the problem between Sophie and Reede?” Danni asked. “What's making them the two unhappiest people on earth?”

Not one of them could come up with an answer, but now Dr. Reede's three employees were asking Carter to help them.

“You see,” Betsy said, “we sort of made a vow that we'd do whatever was necessary to make the doctor happy. We were the ones who kept the secret of who he was.”

“And the corset was us,” Heather said.

“But Sara helped with the horse,” Alice added.

“And the doc's costume, of course,” Heather said.

“We had nothing to do with the robbers, but Mike took care of that. He's been a real asset to this town,” Alice said.

“So you see,” Betsy said, “how hard we've worked.”

“And it's paid off as Dr. Reede's temper has greatly improved since Sophie came to town,” Alice said.

“But now he's so glum that—” Heather began.

“That's too mild a word,” Betsy said as she looked hard at Carter. “The truth is that Dr. Reede is so depressed that he's barely functioning. And we think Sophie isn't much better.”

“They are
very
polite to each other,” Heather said. “The day I'm polite to my husband is the day I'll ask him for a divorce.”

The three women stopped talking and stared at Carter.

“Ladies,” he said slowly, “I have
no
idea what you're talking about. Not a word of it.”

Betsy looked at the clock on the wall. “We have to get back to work or we'd stay and explain. But it all boils down to the fact that
you
have to talk to Sophie and find out what's going on between her and Dr. Reede.”

Immediately, Carter saw a thousand things wrong with that idea. Kelli, for all that she pretended not to be, was quite jealous of Sophie. “This past summer?” she'd asked. “Just a few months ago you were thinking of marrying Sophie and now you want me to believe that you're completely over her?” Nothing he'd said had made her believe Sophie was in the past—the recent past.

Besides that, Roan and Reede glared at him, and the giant who was the local sheriff stopped in often and looked at Carter as though he were a criminal he had to keep close watch over. Although, since Christmas,
the sheriff had seemed to be looking at Sophie with less than affection.

As for Sophie, she still moved away when Carter got too near.

“Really and truly,” Carter said, “I don't know what's going on.”

Betsy stood up and the other women followed her lead. “That's just the point. No one knows what's going on but
you
are the one who has to find out.”

With that, the three women left the restaurant. Carter locked the door behind them then flopped down onto a chair. At this moment the thought of returning to Texas and the little town that was virtually owned by his family appealed greatly to him.

He looked around the empty restaurant. Everything was clean and no one was there. Kelli had gone to get supplies, and Roan and Danni were . . . Wherever lovers went in Edilean. Sophie was upstairs in her apartment, where she often went in the afternoons now. No more staying downstairs and helping clean. Since Christmas Sophie looked as though she would never smile again.

Part of Carter wanted to flee, but the bigger part of him knew the women were correct. Right now, in this town, he was the closest thing Sophie had to a girlfriend.

With a sigh, he started up the stairs. She probably won't see me, he thought. She'll probably—

He knocked once and Sophie opened the door.

“Oh. I thought you were Reede. Sometimes he gets off early.”

Carter stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “We need to talk.”

“Carter, if you and Kelli have had an argument and now you want me back, it's not going to happen. I—”

“No argument. I came here to find out what's wrong with
you
.”

“Nothing,” she said. “You need to leave. You saw what Reede did the last time he got jealous.”

Carter's eyes widened. “Sophie, is that what's wrong with you? Is he horribly jealous? Does he . . . Has he hit you? I can get you some help. I can—”

Sophie plopped down on the sofa. “Of course he hasn't! Reede couldn't be kinder. He's very sweet to me. Very courteous.”

Carter sat in a chair across from her. “Sophie, you're driving us all
crazy
! You look miserable but no one can figure out
why
. What is wrong? You have a fabulous job coming up, some doctor is mad about you, you have friends, and—”

“Reede won't leave. I can't get him to go.”

“You want to break up with him?” he asked with sympathy.

“Heavens no! Where did you get that idea? I want to marry him and get pregnant immediately. Don't you think Reede was made to be a father?”

Carter ran his hand over his face, then looked at her with eyes full of pleading. “Sophie, help me out here. I was told to talk to you and find out what's wrong between you and Dr. Hit-First-Talk-Later but all I hear is good.”

“I did tell you,” Sophie said. “What's wrong is that Reede won't leave.”

“Last I heard, if the man leaves no babies are made.”

Sophie looked at the windows to the outside. She desperately needed to talk to someone. The last two weeks had been hell. Reede had been so resolutely cheerful that she wanted to strangle him. Instead, she'd smiled back at him as sweetly as she could. But several times when he'd thought no one was looking, she'd seen the look of . . . well, fatalism on his face. She could see that the happiness he tried to show her was only skin deep.

“Okay, Sophie,” Carter said, “I know I'm failing the girlfriend test but I really don't know what the hell you're talking about. You want to marry him; you want him to leave. Make up your mind.”

Sophie shook her head at him is disbelief. “You are failing as a girlfriend. Carter, I want Reede to leave and I want to go with him.”

Carter still didn't understand. “So go. Now, is the problem solved?”

“No, Mr. Rich Boy, the problem is not solved. Reede can't leave to go save the world because he has no money for funding. I can get the money but only if I stay here and work for Henry. But Reede won't accept the gift and leave because I can't leave.”

Carter blinked at her for a moment. “ ‘The Gift of the Magi.' ”

“Right,” Sophie said. “ ‘The Gift of the Magi.' ”

They were referring to the O. Henry story where the very poor couple who were deeply in love wanted to buy each other gifts. He sold his gold watch to buy her combs for her glorious hair; she sold her hair to buy him a fob chain for his watch.