by Kari Trumbo
“I’m surprised every year the town agrees to continue the sugar plum festival.” Carol took in the muffins and sweet pastries packed tightly from one end of the long table to the other. “I’ve heard stories about the very first one that would curl your toes.” She giggled.
Ruby’s eyes widened and she stepped back from the table. “What happened?”
“Well…” Carol lifted the side of her mouth. “I was told someone was almost…poisoned,” Carol whispered.
Ruby gasped.
Mrs. Cahill cleared her throat. “Oh Carol, you and your stories. It was no such thing. But, we do take care who we let on the committee now and we pay attention to each entry and mark it when the person arrives.”
Carol blushed. I bet they won’t let young women on the committee anymore now if Mrs. Camden has anything to say about it.
Carol searched for another topic and pointed to a suspiciously cloudy ale. It was quite a bit darker than all the others. “I’m guessing no one ever told you the story of the sugar plum vinegar?” Carol laughed into her hand and Ruby peered into the small glass she held and set it back down on the table. “No. Should I be scared?”
“No, Grandmother Cutter is long gone...but one year she made a drink she bragged to the town was sure to please. There was much fanfare, and everyone knew at the time it might be her last Christmas social so no one even tried to compete that year. There were a few pies and things, but only as a show. The whole town rallied around her to win.” Carol peered at Mrs. Cahill’s glare, spun around and shuffled Ruby off to a more private corner.
“Anyway, when everyone was ready for the tasting...because originally everyone used to come to the tables at once and taste. I was too young then, luckily. Grandmother sat behind the table smiling at everyone, her wooden teeth clapping against her gums.” Carol laughed and glanced around again.
“Well, the first person to taste it managed to get a sip down, but then old Mrs. Camden—she wasn’t so old then—took a sip and spit it across the table.” Ruby and Carol dissolved in a fit of giggles. “From that time on, Mrs. Camden has made rules about the making and fermenting of the drinks, and she won’t try any of them.”
“Oh, I don’t blame her.” Ruby stifled her bubbly laugh.
“What are you two doing over here in the corner?” Mrs. Camden asked striding up to them. Carol stifled a new fit of laughter fighting to burst forth.
Carol couldn’t keep the smile from her face. “I was just telling Ruby some of the colorful history of Cutter’s Creek, including the wife of our great founder, Clementine Cutter.” Carol held in her laughter, but Mrs. Camden made it difficult, as even the mention of Grandmother Cutter made her lips pucker.
“May she rest in peace,” Mrs. Camden muttered as she strode off.
Carol grabbed Ruby’s arm and they both burst into a laughing fit.
“Carol, you are plum too much. I haven’t even tried the mead yet.”
Carol led Ruby back to the table and picked up Ruby’s discarded cup up inspecting the contents. “I don’t ever drink it. Since it’s strong drink, I just let the flavor sit on my tongue for a moment, then spit it back in the cup.”
“Well, I don’t think the women here will be doing something so unladylike, I don’t spit in public, that’s a man’s thing. We can share one cup and each take a sip. If everyone followed the rules, we shouldn’t have to worry, right.”
“Yes, but there are at least eight competitors, that would be eight drinks…” Carol glanced at the full table.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.” Ruby pulled her along, and they carefully tasted their way down the judging table. By the end, Carol felt deliciously warm and happy. She couldn’t stop smiling, and everything Ruby said seemed rather funny.
The elder Mr. Cahill held his wife’s hand and cleared his throat. “Good evening residents of Cutter’s Creek! A few of the men have lit the torches over by the river, and we’re ready to walk over to do a bit of skating. Mrs. Clements’s winning sugar plum cider will be heated over the stove and brought over to warm everyone while they skate!”
A cheer erupted though the room, and Ruby and Carol were separated as the crowd shifted and pushed their way to get their capes and skates. Carol dashed into the press of bodies, grabbed what she needed and left, swinging her cape around her as she left the building.
The air outside the little church was crisp, and her breath hung frozen in the air as she shuffled over to the skating area on the river. Men were milling about the bank, and a few were in the middle, skating in broad figure eights, their arms tucked behind their backs. A light snow began falling on them, and Carol held out her hand to catch the flakes as she walked.
She spotted Ruby with someone who looked suspiciously like Beau. She smiled, hoping her new friend enjoyed the rest of her evening.
Manning shuffled up behind her. “Are we to be angry with each other all evening? I didn’t get a single dance with you. Will you at least allow me to accompany you around the river? I’ve been told I’m a somewhat accomplished skater.” He pulled his gloves on his hands splaying his long fingers.
“You may do what you wish. I certainly can’t stop you.” She searched the crowd for Ruby.
He held out his arm. “Can we start over?” His eyes were like dark pools in the faint light of the torches.
“Dr. Gentry—”
“Manning. Please, call me Manning.”
She frowned. “Manning. I have spent the greater part of the last two weeks trying to learn what my father wished I knew by now. I was a failure to him until recently. He finally has pride in me when we sit down to a meal. I’ve always had his love, but do you realize how important it is to me that he is proud of me? If I’m seen here on your arm, he’ll hear about it, and I’ll lose everything I’ve worked for. Trust which is lost is almost impossible to regain. Do you understand?”
He peered down at her, and the same pride she saw in her father’s eye now shone in his own. “I do. I will try to keep my distance, but you make it so difficult.” He smiled at her and touched her cheek. She glanced around to see if Josiah were near.
“Your brother is still over at the church helping to take down tables. If I may help you with your skates, we could take a few turns. I will let you be as soon as he comes. I promise you. Please, just a few minutes?”
Carol bit her lip. “I guess a few turns won’t hurt.”
He smiled and took her hand, leading her over to the crude benches made of stumps and planks. He carefully removed one wet slipper and pulled the wool stocking from within the skate. Drawing it up into a ball, he slowly put the wool sock on her foot, over her ankle. He took his time slowly slipping it up her ankle, grazing her calf and slowly to her knee, pausing to gaze at her before his hands traveled lightly back down her leg. She shivered at the sensations. Completely covered yet feeling exposed, she gasped, realizing her folly too late. Her eyes met his, and a storm raged within.
“I think I can manage the other.” She reached down for her skate, but he held it fast.
“Are you sure?”
She pulled at it. “You should see to your own skates.”
He smiled and let go, sitting on the bench next to her. Her hands shook as she slid the other sock on under her voluminous skirts. The skates were all the more difficult to tie, as her fingers were now cold and the leather hard against her feet.
Manning stood and stretched, then knelt in front of her and finished tying her laces. “Come. We don’t have much time before I must leave you alone. I’ll probably go back home as soon as your brother comes.”
She nodded, following his lead out onto the clear frozen river. He took a long stride and they glided across the sheer ice.
“Lovely night. I’m glad you told me about this social. I met so many wonderful people this evening. Cutter’s Creek isn’t at all what I expected Montana to be like. I’m afraid in where I’m from people think everyone out here is an Indian or a frontiersman.”
Ca
rol focused on matching his steps. “We don’t try to put on society here. Everyone is as genuine as the day they were born. If you’re in search of a group of people to accept you as theirs, there’s no better place than right here.” She tripped over the hem of her dress and Manning caught her, holding her close. He put his arm around her back and held her waist with one hand and her hand with the other.
“I…think I need a drink to warm up a bit.” She had been sure she knew what she was doing while Ivy was there. The reassurance of the right way to stand or hold your head steadily floated away with the snow, leaving her the scared girl who knew she had to marry too soon. She glanced over her shoulder to see him following her to the cider cask. A steaming mug was placed in her hand, and she held it to her lips, letting the steam hit her face. Manning collected a cup and stood next to her.
“I’ve been considering your father tonight. The only problem he has with me is he’s concerned I will be gone too much to care for you. The town doctor, Dr. Pierce, is rather old and does not travel at all anymore. I could easily help him retire and would not have to leave you at all. I would give up studying with the professor to stay here, I think.” His glance melted her. “Would you like that, Carol? Would you like me to make an offer of marriage to your father?” He reached down and pulled her chin up, bending slightly. She was lost. His face came closer and his sugar plum breath smelled sweet as his fanned her face and down to her lips. His hand, warm from the mug caressed her cheek and tilted her head up.
“Hey, you there. Leave my sister be!” Josiah’s voice boomed through her kiss fog.
Carol gasped and jumped back sloshing dark purple cider down the front of Manning’s suit. She watched as the stain crept its way down his front as he stood there, arms spread in shock. Carol felt her breath come faster, choking her. She turned and ran toward home, her skates making a clatter on the stone road. Distantly, she heard Josiah call her name.
Chapter Thirteen
Manning held his arms wide as he frowned down at his purple stained shirt. He heard the whispers around him and they penetrated something deep within him. His mama would’ve been mortified at his behavior. He hung his head as Josiah stomped toward him. Carol’s brother was obviously a working man...and not one he wanted to trifle with.
“Just what d’you think you’re doing? Just because my father can’t be here, doesn’t mean you can just take advantage of any young woman you wish. Who are you anyway?” He crossed his arms over his chest and the townspeople surrounded him.
“I’m sorry Mr. Williams. I let my feelings run away with me. I’ll go to your father and to Carol and make my apologies. Good evening.” He deeply hoped that would satisfy the angry Josiah.
“Just who are you that you know my family so well you call my sister by name?” Josiah stepped in his way.
“I’m the doctor your father sent for from Boston.” He sighed feeling much older than his twenty-five years.
“They must teach manners differently there. You best speak with my father. I’ll be checking to make sure you do.” Josiah gave him a hard stare then stepped aside.
Manning changed out of his skates on the bench, still feeling everyone’s curt stares. He grabbed Carol’s slippers from under the bench. She’d turn her ankle running in those blasted skates. How could he have let himself do that? Yes, he’d wanted to show her men could be cads and some wouldn’t look out for her best interest, but in the process he’d become a cad himself. He shook his head. He was the one who needed the lesson.
As he approached the house, he heard raised voices and waited by the door.
“…young lady, I’m talking to you! I don’t want you to have anything to do with Dr. Gentry. He’s moving back to Boston, tomorrow if I have anything to say about it, and I won’t have my only daughter living thousands of miles from me when I’m in no health to follow.”
Carol’s voice was muffled. “Father, I promise you, there is nothing between us. I went to the social alone.”
“Don’t lie to me Carol. I raised you better than that. You came home with drink sprinkled down your dress, your skates on and shoes missing. And we won’t talk about how the tint on your lips is messed up.”
Manning heard something get thrown making a loud thumping within, then he heard running up the stairs. He waited, wondering if he should knock or just walk in when Carol screamed, and his heart jumped into his throat. He threw open the door.
* * *
Carol held up her skirts and petticoats as she ran down the stairs back to her father, the vision of him rolling backward down the stairs so fresh it kept replaying in her mind. She couldn’t stop shaking.
“Father, please, can you hear me?” She could barely say the words past the lump in her throat.
All my fault…this is all my fault.
Manning knelt in front of Carlton. The doctor checked her father’s pulse, lifted his eyelids and looked into his eyes, then felt his head for injuries. “What happened?” He glanced up at her then continued to check her father.
Carol’s shoulders slumped, allowing her stays to keep her upright against the weight of what she’d done. “We had a fight. I wanted the conversation to stop, so I ran upstairs. He hasn’t been able to follow me up there in so long. I just wanted to be free of the fight.” She gasped in air. “He fell backward when he was almost all the way. This is my fault. I’ll never forgive myself.” She held the palm of her father’s hand to her cheek. “You can’t leave me too, Papa.”
“Carol, focus. I know you can do this. Where did Ivy go? We could use her help.” He shrugged off his coat and tossed it behind him, rolling up his sleeves.
“She ran as soon as father raised his voice. She doesn’t do well with arguing.” Carol tried not to notice at the strange angle of her father’s leg. They pained him so much anyway.
“If she isn’t here, we need to do this right away before it begins to swell. The longer we wait, the more difficult and painful it will be on him. You got your skates off, good. I want you to sit on his chest and hold his arms down.” He held up his hand when she gasped. “Please. Don’t make me explain why now, we don’t have time.”
Carol did as she was told, though she couldn’t keep the blush from her cheeks, and she prayed her weight didn’t hurt him further. When Manning grasped Carlton’s leg, she understood why he’d bid her to sit on him. Her father thrashed and groaned. It took all her energy to hold his arms down. When she heard a loud snap she was glad Manning had asked her to sit the way she was, it had been impossible for her to see what he’d done.
Carlton calmed down. A layer of sweat coated his face.
“I’m sorry to have had to do that to you, old boy.” Manning whispered. He laid his hand on her shoulder. “We need to get him into his bed as carefully as we possibly can. I cannot thoroughly check him out here.”
Carol’s face flamed, and she nodded. “I have two older thick wool coats of Josiah’s. We could put them under the legs of the table and push him across the floor. It was oiled this fall and it should slide easily.”
“Good thinking. Go get them.” He picked up his coat and tossed it over on the couch to be out of the way as Carol ran into brother’s former room. There was no sign of Ivy. Josiah had left a great deal of his old clothing in the house, which she was thankful for in that moment.
They worked together to get him pushed into his room, and Ivy came out of hiding to help heave him into bed. Manning turned and regarded them both with intense eyes.
“I don’t know how he will fare in the coming weeks. You need to be prepared for anything. He could have hit his head. The bone could have broken in more than one place. There could be infection. We just won’t know. He needs to stay in this bed.”
Carol nodded and Ivy turned to leave. “I’ll serve him meals in here. I can do that for him.”
Carol made it out to the parlor before she collapsed in front of the fire hid her face in her hands and cried. Manning knelt next to her and pulled her close.
“You did splendidly. Let all of it out.” He held her in his strong arms.
Her father had fallen down the stairs because she was too young to just face him with the truth. How often had he told her the truth was always best, and yet she’d lied to him. Her lie had made him angry enough to attempt to follow her up the stairs.
“I lied to him. I told him I didn’t see you at the social. He knew it was a lie, and he was angry. Now, I could lose him all because I didn’t want to face him.” Carol nestled into his warm chest.
His low voice vibrated through her. “You aren’t the only one to blame, Carol. I pushed you. I was coming home to apologize for my behavior. I don’t know what has come over me.”
Carol shook her head and pulled back from him, searching deep into his eyes. “It was completely my doing.” She tilted her head and dropped her gaze into her lap at the soft folds of emerald fabric. “In some ways, I pushed you into acting as you did.” She pulled on her bottom lip with her teeth then sighed. “I desired a good match with a man to take care of us, my father and I. I know it sounds archaic, but our account is bleeding out. I’m terrified he’ll die and leave me all alone. But what’s worse, I’ve realized since talking to Ivy I’m not so sure I’m willing to just trust men to take care of us. I have to marry someone, and soon, but I don’t want to.” A tear escaped her lashes and rolled down her cheek. Manning handed her his handkerchief and situated himself more comfortably, giving her a little space.
“I think your father is right, Carol. You should wait.” His eyes softened and in the firelight they appeared more green than blue. “Let me tell you about my parents.” He cleared his throat and clutched his hands in front of him. “I grew up on a ranch in Texas with my mother, father, older brother and four sisters. It was a lot of hard work, but I enjoyed it.”
Carol crossed her legs in front of her making sure her ankles and feet were covered. She wiped her eyes and focused on his face. He’d never shared anything with her about himself. Her vulnerable moment seemed to have brought out a new side to him.
