Tall, Dark, and Determined (25 page)

But I agreed to back her up when asked
. Chase gritted his teeth at the realization he'd been drawn into one of her deceptions.
Worse, she uses the thing to validate my presence in Hope Falls, so even if I were the sort of man to go back on my word, I wouldn't be able to. She's devious
. He avoided the impact of her smile as she aimed it at him again.
And brilliant
.

“Isn't that so, Mr. Dunstan?” She, along with everyone in the diner—which was basically everyone in Hope Falls—waited.

Chase fought for the right balance between corroborating her account and maintaining his honesty. “All I can say, gentlemen, is that I'd watch myself around this woman. The little pistol she carries in her purse is more than decoration!”

A chorus of appreciative guffaws told him he'd hit the right note, though none of the men took his warning seriously.
Their mistake
. Chase hadn't come here to keep grown men from making fools of themselves. He'd come for answers. Tonight, however, all he'd get were questions. Of the stupid kind.

“How big was it? I mean from snout to tail, not tall….”

“Didya get a yeller one, or was it one a them pumas?”

“Which one screamed louder, the cat or the girl?”

At this last, Miss Lyman stiffened. Some of her glow dimmed, and she fixed the unfortunate lack-brains with a haughty stare. “What, Mr. Gripley, makes you assume that I'd scream?”

“Because”—Mr. Gripley swallowed hard—”that's what women do, isn't it? Not all the time, but when they're attacked?”

“Miss Lyman didn't.” Chase stepped in to save the man. “But she's an unusual woman, just as Hope Falls is an unusual town.”

“See? Unusual can be good.” Williams, not one to learn from past failures, shouldered his way forward again. “We like things the way they are, Dunstan. We don't need you changing things.”

    TWENTY    

L
ife brings change whether we wish it or not.” Cora joined the conversation from where she hung back with Evie and Naomi. Lacey and Mr. Dunstan managed well so far, but who knew when that tentative truce might fail? “If the growing needs of Hope Falls conflict with your own, Mr. Williams, you have choices.”

“Fewer now that Miss Thompson's off the market.” His snarl inspired several men to start muttering. “And you were taken before anyone so much as stepped foot in this place. Seems the choices around here are getting pretty thin on the ground.”

“Don't be sayin' things to upset the ladies!” Clump trundled forward, bullish expression on his face. “Yeah, Granger got Miss Thompson's hand—but it's a fool who talks like Miss Lyman and Miss Higgins are anything less than treasures.”

“Thank you, Mr. Klumpf.” Naomi's voice held more warmth than Cora had heard in days as she spoke to the short German.

“We came into this eyes open.” Bear Riordan, so huge he didn't need to move forward to gain attention, joined in. “All o' us knew there were three ladies to be won, and no more.”

“Williams is just sore that the cook picked Granger,” someone yelled from the back. Chuckles rippled through the room.

“That's right.” A high climber by the name of Bobsley, memorable for his slighter frame and crooked smile, wasn't smiling anymore. “Nothin' round here's changed ‘cept you didn't win your woman. You made it awful clear which lady you wanted, Williams. Now you cain't have her, you plan to make trouble?”

“We don't allow rabble-rousers.” Shorter than everyone but Clump, Lacey nevertheless managed to look down her nose at the entire room, ending with Williams. “From the moment you came to town, you aired suspicions that our ad was a hoax. We overlooked your poor manners and groundless accusations once, Mr. Williams. Don't imagine we'll be so tolerant now that you know better.”

“Ah, and when I expressed those justifiable concerns, what did your men do?” Williams spoke more calmly. “I recall them throwing around words like
old, spotted, hideous
, and the like. But here I stand, bemoaning the fact one of the three ladies is taken, and I'm taken to task for being insulting?”

“It weren't so much what you said as the way it sounded.” Clump flushed at the reminder of their unsuccessful attempt to keep Williams from staying in town, but didn't give up now.

“Combined with the things he's said before.” Lacey rubbed her forehead with her right hand—the signal they'd agreed meant “wait and listen.” She'd never used it before, which made the possibility of what she might say next slightly unnerving for Cora. Nevertheless, she and the other women dutifully waited.

Williams shifted. “Things said before can be taken different ways now. It's best to go by my meaning here and now since no one can remember the exact words on a later date.”

And now Cora saw where Lacey had led him. No one she'd ever met, man or woman, had anywhere near the ability to recall conversations the way Lacey did.
She remembers things I said more than a decade ago. Williams goes back mere weeks in comparison
.

“I remember, Mr. Williams.” Lacey's triumph made her glow.

“Whatever you think you remember,” he hedged, “it's best to leave as bygones. Like you said, I've learned better now.”

“Now, sir.” Tall and balding beneath his ever-present top hat, the veteran known as Gent began what he did best. Namely, admonishing the younger hotheads for their behavior. “You took it upon yourself to throw our ill-judged phrases into the conversation. Don't cry ‘bygones' when faced with your own!”

Guffaws and agreement sprinkled the crowd. If embarrassment over hasty words was universal, so was the desire to see Williams get his comeuppance.

“ ‘Some men know right away which women they're willing to court and which they won't' ” Lacey recited. “ ‘I'm one of those kinds of men who knows his own mind and doesn't change it.' ”

Surprise held the men in its spell. Several looked astonished, some stared at Lacey in awe of this new ability. Granger, who'd taken a dislike to Williams from the start, grinned. Williams, of course, looked poleaxed.

But the most interesting reaction, from Cora's point of view, came from Mr. Dunstan. When Lacey first claimed to be able to remember Williams's words, the men were expectant. They'd been in Hope Falls that day and had a rough idea what sort of comments Lacey might dredge up. Dunstan looked mildly amused.

His amusement faded as soon as he realized Lacey was, in fact, quoting a conversation from several weeks ago. Instead of astonishment, speculation glinted in his dark eyes as he watched her put Williams in his place. Mr. Dunstan didn't give Lacey the admiring gazes the other men did, but he stood transfixed anyway. For the first time, Cora found herself wondering what had gone on between the two of them when they met in the forest.

“The lassie remembers it true.” Riordan clearly approved. “And we all ken which woman you chose to court, Williams.”

Williams kept his jaw shut, but a muscle worked as someone jeered, “Doesn't that mean you should be moving on?”

“Or have you changed your mind after all?” Lacey didn't challenge him. Maybe she should have, but instead she asked the question that gave Williams the opportunity to stay on.

“As Miss Thompson said, life brought that change. I'm willing to adapt to it.” A wolfish smile spread across his bearded face. “Seems to me, a woman who pays close attention to what I say is the woman I should have courted from the start!”

Chase tensed.
Williams shouldn't be allowed anywhere near her
. It didn't have anything to do with their differences in background either. Miss Lyman had bested the bully, but Williams wouldn't leave with his tail tucked between his legs.

No. The man wanted to win, he wanted a wife, and he wanted to make her pay for it. His predatory hunger as he eyed Miss Lyman was tinged with malice.
Like a cat tracking a mouse
.

Some of the other men seemed to pick up on the same thing. A low rumble of dissent grew to more audible grumbles. But, as Granger had filled him in, Williams was a bull-of-the-woods. Leader of at least one work crew with an established temper, he carried enough weight to quell any outright challenge.

Sheep
. Dunstan shook his head, disgusted with the lot of them.
A man determined to win her wouldn't leave it to Miss Lyman to refuse Williams. He'd stake his claim now by objecting
.

Yet here stood more than a dozen burly men, doing nothing.

The problem didn't lie with Miss Lyman. These fools couldn't know whether she schemed her way into Hope Falls. All they saw was a wealthy, beautiful woman willing to work alongside them to make a go of this sawmill. They wanted her—Chase could all but sniff it in the air. But they were cowards.

Riordan stepped directly in front of Williams and shook his head. At about the same time, a fellow with round glasses pushed forward from way in the back. No lumberjack here. Everything from his slight build to his neatly pressed suit to the words he spoke set him apart from the men surrounding him.

“Now listen here, Williams. Miss Lyman ought to be a man's first choice.” He cast a nervous glance toward Granger and swallowed. Hard. “If he's to enjoy courting her, I mean to say. Thinking she would accept the attentions of a man who pursues her only after he fails with another is preposterous.”

This one wouldn't last a minute if Williams started swinging, but Williams didn't look inclined to hit him. And Chase knew it wasn't just because the smitten engineer ranked higher. It was because Williams plain out didn't need to bother.

The engineer's words didn't put the upstart in place; they sent a ripple of unease through the room. With Miss Thompson no longer available, every man who'd declared an interest in her found himself looking at the remaining women instead. They knew good and well that if Williams went, they could be next.

“Are you planning to kick Clump out along with me then?” Williams played on their discomfort. “For that matter, how many more of you will be gone when the next bride's off the table?”

“Don't be silly.” Miss Lyman's laugh tinkled through the throng. If Chase hadn't been standing close enough to see how tense she'd become, he'd have believed her little act. The other men perked up for her decision. “We foresaw this little issue. That's why we asked you all to name two of us early on.”

The crowd relaxed at her reminder. They were safe.

“Williams didn't.” Granger spoke for the first time since he'd announced Chase's position. “Only man here who didn't.”

Williams looked like he'd been kicked in the teeth, but recovered quickly. “That's because a man should only focus on one woman at a time—then, once she's won, for a lifetime.”

Clever comeback
. Chase appraised the manipulation and found another reason why the lumbermen might not have spoken up. Brawls would earn them the boot, but he doubted any of these men could match Williams for verbal sparring.
What a shame
.