by Judith Stacy
Ethan sat at his desk writing on a tablet. Across from him sat Meg. Jason was more than a little surprised to see them together in the office.
Both leaned forward until their heads nearly touched, discussing whatever Ethan had written on the tablet. They looked good together, the two of them. Jason couldn’t deny that.
He shifted on the porch ready to walk inside when another person stepped up to the desk. His stomach bottomed out.
Amanda.
She positioned herself at the end of the desk, facing the window where Jason could see her clearly. With her attention on the tablet, she didn’t see him at the window. Amanda spoke and both Ethan and Meg looked up at her. She pointed. They nodded. She said something and all three of them laughed.
Jason’s heart ached. He curled his hands into fists to ward off the pain. It didn’t help.
Over a week had passed and they hadn’t spoken. It was his doing, his fault. He knew that.
He’d taken his anger out on Amanda. After he’d cooled off he’d realized what he’d done. Yelled at her. Said things he didn’t mean. Things that couldn’t be unsaid.
Now she stayed out of his way. She went about her business, though, seeing that the things on the mountain that needed doing got done.
Each morning she gave her manners classes in the cookhouse. When he’d first met her Jason had thought her an uppity city woman capable of nothing more than knowing proper etiquette. But she’d shown him she was much more than that. In fact, Amanda was a lot of things.
Just as she’d promised, she had overseen the work on the dormitory. She was there throughout the day, talking to the men, complimenting them, discussing things with Tom Redford, whom Jason had put in charge of the project.
Jason kept an eye on the construction, too. It wasn’t easy. Every time he looked at the plans, the big wrinkle across the middle reminded him of the morning in his office when he’d kissed Amanda so hard she’d sat down on the plans.
He’d wanted her so badly that day. He’d lusted after her, hardly able to find the strength to stop what they were doing.
Now, he missed her. He just plain old missed her. The ache in Jason’s chest deepened.
He knew he could change that. He could change it this minute, if he wanted, simply by walking into his office and talking to her.
But doing that meant carving off a big chunk of his pride and gulping it straight down. It meant acting just the way his father had, always bending to the will of his wife, consequences be damned.
Jason had seen it happen over and over growing up. He’d had to live with the results. And he’d sworn, over and over, that he’d never let any woman run his life.
He looked at Amanda through the window. Lovely, lovely Amanda….
Jason turned and walked away.
Chapter Twenty
“Step, two, three. Step, two, three. That’s it. Keep going.”
Amanda clapped her hands to the beat of Jim Hubbard playing “My Darling Clementine” on his harmonica, pacing off the steps, smiling, and trying to encourage her dance class. The men were first-rate lumberjacks, but on the dance floor they had a long way to go.
The afternoon breeze blew gently through the first floor of the brides’ dormitory bringing the sweet smell of sawdust with it. The building was ready, all but a few finishing touches. Freight wagons came from Beaumont daily, and more were expected with the brides’ arrival, which was now only days away.
The loggers on the dance floor had finished their noon meal; Jason had given them extra time off for their lesson. This was their third lesson and things hadn’t improved much.
They’d drawn a good crowd, however. Even men who weren’t expecting brides had shown up, lining the perimeter of the room, watching. Shady was there, standing by the door, keeping a watchful eye on things.
About a dozen of the bravest men were assembled in the middle of the room, stumbling along, stomping their boots against the wooden plank floor, mimicking Amanda’s dance steps, trying to follow the beat of the music. The other men looked on, wary and not quite ready to make fools of themselves yet.
Amanda sighed inwardly. At this rate, her get-acquainted social would be a total failure.
“All right, let’s take a little break,” she called. The men wiped their sweaty brows looking grateful.
“Brandon?” she called.
The boy hopped from his perch on the windowsill and hurried over. He seemed to be everywhere in the lumber camp, and nowhere. Brandon, apparently accustomed to keeping himself entertained, had an easy way about him, more like Ethan than Jason. He’d made friends with Todd McGee, despite their age difference. Ethan had taken them both fishing. Amanda had heard that Brandon helped out in the cookhouse and at the millpond, but Jason had put a stop to it when he found out.
Amanda gazed at her dance class trying not to look discouraged. While the lumberjacks on the floor were trying, most were simply going through the motions. The others hadn’t even joined in. Dancing was not a priority to them, obviously. Something was needed to spur their interest. Amanda jotted a note on the tiny tablet she kept in her skirt pocket and presented it to Brandon.
“Would you take this to Meg, please?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
She leaned a little closer and smiled conspiratorially. “It’s an emergency, of sorts. Please hurry.”
He glanced at the note and smiled back, understanding her meaning right away.
“Sure thing, Miss Amanda,” Brandon said, and took off.
Amanda spoke quietly with Shady for a few minutes. By the time the men had caught their breath and gotten water, Amanda heard the chatter of women’s voices and knew her dance lesson—and social—had been saved.
“Gentlemen,” she called. “Since you’re all doing so well, I’ve decided to move things along a bit. This afternoon, you’ll be dancing with partners.”
A rumble went through the men, heads snapped around, and they came a little closer as Meg, Becky, Idelle Turner and Frances Conroy came up the stairs into the dormitory.
“These ladies have graciously donated their time to help with your lessons,” Amanda said, gesturing to the women grouped together by the door. “Now, if you’ll come onto the dance floor, we’ll get started.”
All the men—even those who hadn’t participated before—rushed to the center of the room. There was some pushing and elbowing as they lined up.
“First of all,” Amanda said, “you must remember that when dancing with a lady you are to be respectful at all times. Any man who is not will be shot.”
Faint laughter rippled through the loggers until Shady stepped forward and pulled his pistol from his holster, and waved it in the air.
“That’s for dang sure!” he shouted, quieting the men.
“Now, let’s proceed,” Amanda said. She almost asked for volunteers but, fearing a stampede, selected men to partner with the women.
At Amanda’s signal Jim Hubbard blew into his harmonica and the dancing began. Such as it was.
Amanda circulated through the dancing couples offering encouragement and making suggestions. The men took her instructions to heart, trying harder.
After a few minutes, Amanda ordered partners to change, giving other men a chance to dance. None of them were shy about being on the dance floor now.
Ethan appeared in the doorway. When Amanda called for the next partner change, he approached Meg and they danced around the room. At the next break, he still didn’t give her up. Nobody protested.
Watching from the sideline, Amanda couldn’t help but feel happy for Meg. Ethan gazed down at her with affection, not bothering to hide it. Amanda had worked with the two of them a couple of times as they’d made plans for opening the store on the mountain. Ethan and Meg were well-suited for one another. She didn’t have to be the owner of The Becoming Brides Matrimonial Service to see that.
Her thoughts went to Jason then, as they often did. Amanda had about run out of patience with him. Th
ey still hadn’t spoken. She missed him.
She understood he needed time to come to terms with things. Having Brandon—the reminder of his own unhappy childhood—on the mountain wasn’t easy for him. She didn’t want to crowd him, or make the situation more difficult for him, but things couldn’t go on like this much longer.
“Miss Amanda?”
She turned to find Brandon standing behind her.
“There’s a man down at the office,” Brandon said, nodding in that direction. “He’s looking for Miss Meg.”
“Who is it?”
Brandon shrugged. “Name’s McGee. Gerald McGee. Claims he’s her husband.”
“I know this is asking a lot, but—”
“Don’t give it a thought,” Amanda insisted as she helped Meg carry her belongings into Amanda’s cabin. Todd came through the door behind them, dragging blankets and scowling. Meg tried to hug him, but he pulled away.
“I don’t want to live here,” Todd grumbled and dropped the blankets on the floor.
“I know, Todd, but—”
“Will Pa take me fishing? Like Ethan did?” he asked.
“We’ll see.” Meg patted his shoulder. “Why don’t you run along and play? I’ll call you when supper’s ready.”
Todd ran outside and Meg collapsed onto the bundle of blankets on the floor. She covered her face with her hands and started to sob. Amanda sank down beside her. She felt like crying herself.
“I—I don’t understand,” Meg said, looking up at Amanda with tear-streaked cheeks. “Why did this have to happen? I waited nearly a year. A year without a word from him. And now he simply shows up?”
Amanda passed her the lace handkerchief from her pocket. “I don’t understand either.”
“No one knows how I struggled when Gerald left,” Meg said, still sobbing. “I could barely feed my child. I was alone, and lost, and—and I didn’t know what to do. And now, he just shows up again, saying he’s sorry, and expects everything to be all right?”
Amanda had walked to the office with Meg to meet her long-lost husband, but the two of them had gone to the privacy of their cabin to talk. Amanda didn’t know exactly what had been said, but Meg had left a short time later and asked Amanda if she and Todd could move in with her for a while.
“What does Gerald want?” Amanda asked. “Where has he been all this time?”
Meg sniffed. “Looking for work, he claims. Now he’s found a job near Los Angeles.”
“Los Angeles? That’s so far away.”
“And he expects me to go with him,” Meg said. Fresh tears spilled over her cheeks. “Gerald says he wants his family back.”
“No….”
“I told him I needed some time to think. He can’t come waltzing back onto this mountain as if nothing had happened and expect us to…well, you know. I won’t stay in the same cabin with him. Not yet, anyway.”
“Stay here with me as long as you need,” Amanda said.
Meg clutched the handkerchief in her fist, tears rolling down her face. “Just when things were turning around for me. Just when I had a chance to make something of myself, and for Todd. A chance to build a solid future.”
A fresh wave of sobs shook Meg. “Oh, and Ethan…Ethan….”
Amanda put her arm around Meg and pulled her close. “What are you going to do?”
“What can I do?” Meg looked up at her. “He’s my husband. The father of my child. I have to go with him.”
“Dammit!”
Jason paced across the office, swearing and mumbling under his breath. He stopped and looked down at his brother. Ethan sat at his desk, elbows planted, his palms covering his face.
“That McGee bastard shows up,” Jason said, “after nearly a year. Just shows up like nothing happened. What the hell kind of a man would abandon his wife and son like that, then come back expecting to pick up where they left off?”
When Ethan didn’t say anything, Jason started pacing and cursing again. After a few minutes, he stopped.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
Ethan dragged his palms down his face and sat back in the chair. “What can I do?”
“You can’t let McGee take Meg off this mountain,” Jason insisted. “Not if you love her.”
“Great advice,” Ethan snapped. “Especially coming from you.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You know what I mean!” Ethan surged to his feet. “You’ve been acting like a bigger horse’s ass than usual these past few weeks!”
“I’ve got nothing to do with what happened between you and Meg!”
“But you sure as hell have something to do with what’s happening between you and Amanda!”
Jason backed off, shaking his head. “One’s got nothing to do with the other.”
“At least I tried!” Ethan told him. “Meg knows I care about her. All you’ve done since Amanda got here is try to run her off this mountain. And all because of something that happened years ago that has nothing to do with the two of you!”
Jason looked at him for a long minute but didn’t say anything. He fell back to pacing again. Ethan sank into his chair after a while.
Arguments between the two of them never lasted long. The fact that they disagreed on something gave Jason no cause for concern. He respected his brother for having a different opinion, they talked it out—sometimes fought it out—and moved on. It had always been that way between them. It suited them both.
But it didn’t suit Jason that Ethan was hurting right now. He had half a mind to go up there and run Gerald McGee off his mountain, once and for all. It would feel good. He’d wanted to hit somebody for a while now. He’d do it, too, except that it wouldn’t accomplish anything in the long run. Things had to be settled, one way or the other.
Jason dropped into the chair in front of Ethan’s desk. “What are you going to do?”
“I know what I’d like to do.”
Jason nodded. Knowing his brother, the same solution had crossed both their minds.
“But I can’t.” Ethan sighed heavily and slumped deeper into the chair. “I can’t force Meg to choose. She’s married to the man. She bore him a son.”
“And he abandoned both.”
“McGee is a son of a bitch, no doubt about it,” Ethan said. “But what kind of man would I be if I asked her to choose between me and him? Asked her to break her marriage vows, vows she made in church, before God? How can I ask her to do that?”
“She loves you,” Jason said. “She’ll pick you over McGee in a heartbeat.”
Ethan shook his head. “They’re married. They have a son. That’s a strong bond. Besides, if I asked her to choose, in the end she’d just resent me for forcing her to make the choice.”
Jason shook his head. “Damn.”
“And what about Todd? That man’s his pa. What right have I got to come between the two of them?”
“You’ve got to do something,” Jason insisted.
“You tell me what I should do and I’ll do it.”
Jason got up and started pacing again. A timid knock sounded on the door and he yanked it open.
Rory Connor stood in the doorway, his face white, his hat crumpled against his chest.
“You’d better come quick, Mr. Kruger,” he said. “Your little brother’s damn near cut his hand off at the sawmill.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Meg had asked for some time alone to think and compose herself, and Amanda agreed it was for the best. She left Meg sitting at her table, staring at a cup of coffee, clutching her lace handkerchief and sniffling.
Amanda closed the door of her little cabin and walked down the front steps. Her thoughts were with Meg and the decision she faced, so at first Amanda didn’t notice the eerie silence on the mountain.
She stopped, her senses alert. No voices carried on the breeze, the birds didn’t sing in the treetops. And there was no sound from the sawmill.
The door to Jason’s office burst o
pen and Jason and Ethan both ran up the mountain. Rory Connor, the sawmill foreman, trotted behind them, as if uncertain whether he wanted to follow.
A sick knot jerked in Amanda’s stomach. She picked up her skirt and ran.
She reached the sawmill only a moment after Jason and Ethan went inside, and just seconds ahead of Rory Connor. The crew had broken back against the walls, unmoving, staring. The saws and their spinning blades were silent. The air was thick with tension.
Jason stood in the center of the room, glaring at his men. Ethan huddled with three other men in the corner. Amanda pushed her way to Ethan’s side.
She gasped aloud.
Brandon sat on a small keg, his head resting against the hard wooden wall, eyes closed against his colorless cheeks. His right hand and arm were wrapped in rags, and soaked in blood. Dark red stains streaked across his shirt, his neck, his cheek.
“Who’s responsible for this?” Jason’s voice boomed in the silence.
Ethan pulled back the rags and sucked in air between his teeth. Amanda looked at the bloody mess and her stomach heaved.
“Who’s responsible?” Jason demanded again, turning in the center of the room, eyeing the crew. “Who was running that saw?”
A tall, thin man with a heavy beard stepped forward. “It was me, Mr. Kruger.”
“You’re fired!” Jason swung the other way. “Where’s the foreman?”
Rory Connor reluctantly held up his hand. “Right here, Mr. Kruger.”
“You’re fired!” He swung the other way. “Who else was involved in this?”
Amanda left Brandon and stepped up to Jason. She touched his arm. “Jason—”
“I want to know who saw this and did nothing about it!” Jason shouted, glaring at the crew.
“Jason,” Amanda said softly. “Your brother needs to go to the doctor.”
Fierce anger contorted his face and he looked down, as if seeing her for the first time.
“Now, Jason,” she said quietly. “Now.”
His gaze darted to Brandon in the corner, the urgency of the situation dawning on him. He looked again at Amanda, but she’d already turned away.
