by Cora Seton
“Which is why we have to keep doing whatever we can!”
Elizabeth sighed. “That’s what I keep telling myself, but sometimes I wonder—why not forget it? Why not just take a round-the-world cruise, see it all before it disappears? I don’t have kids. What do I care what the world looks like in fifty years—or a hundred?”
“If you feel that way, why marry Walker?” Avery asked her.
The look Elizabeth gave her twisted something low in Avery’s gut. Determination and desperation were at war there, and for a moment Avery almost pitied her. When Elizabeth turned on her heel and walked away to join the others without answering, all her pity evaporated, and anger simmered in its place. Elizabeth didn’t deserve Walker. She certainly didn’t love him.
Avery wasn’t going to give him up without a fight.
Chapter Three
‡
A week later, Walker ducked into the stables after a quick trip to the bunkhouse to grab a drink, and found Elizabeth on her phone, her back to the door. Greg and Hope were sorting through tack at the far end, out of earshot. Avery was hard at work mucking out a stall at the far end of the row.
He edged closer silently, wondering who Elizabeth was talking to.
“I’m being careful,” he heard her say. “There are ten Navy SEALs here and cameras on me at all times.” He must have made a sound because she turned, spotted him and frowned. “It’s under control.” She ended the call and faced him.
He waited until she’d pocketed her phone and picked up a pitchfork. “You’re with the EPA, right?” He hoped she’d think he hadn’t heard anything. She hadn’t sounded like she was talking to a boss or coworker. More like someone who cared enough about her to worry about her safety. Had she told him or her about the intruder?
She headed for the nearest stall. “That’s right.”
“Shouldn’t you be working, then?” He stepped in front of her, opened the door and sent Lucifer into the corral outside the stable. Elizabeth began mucking out the stall as soon as the horse left.
“I’m on leave.”
Leave was temporary. Did that mean she didn’t actually intend to marry him? Or that she’d put her job on hold until the show was over? He figured a direct question wouldn’t get him any answers. Elizabeth seemed determined to keep him off-balance.
“You’re researching wildfires and air quality?” He pulled that last fact out of his memory. Something Sue had told him once when he hadn’t asked about Elizabeth. She was always feeding him tidbits of information despite his lack of curiosity. “Elizabeth is moving up in the ranks. She got a promotion.” He’d barely bothered to listen.
“That’s right.”
“There’ve been some fires around here the last few years.” The cold winters they’d had didn’t seem to stop them.
“It’ll be worse this year.”
His head snapped up at that. “You think?” The way temperatures had shot up in the past days had left him worried about what the summer would bring, but Elizabeth was the expert.
She nodded.
“That’s what the government is saying?”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’m saying. I can’t predict the weather any better than anyone else, Walker, but I’ve worked fires for years. I’ve got a feeling.”
Walker was a big believer in feelings. They both grew up here and knew Montana in all its moods.
Elizabeth got back to work without answering the real question he wanted to ask. Why had she come here? The girl he grew up with wouldn’t throw over work she loved for an old promise she never believed in.
It wasn’t like Elizabeth had been pining for him, either, no matter what she claimed now. She’d never shown him an ounce of respect, let alone desire when they were young. As for him, she wasn’t his type. Even if he’d never met Avery and he wanted a partner, he wouldn’t choose a wife so aloof from him. Sue was aloof like that. His father had been, as well.
He wanted something different.
Hell, he hadn’t wanted anything at all—not for years. Not knowing the way the world was going. Now he did, and it was going to be taken away from him.
“Why are you here?”
Elizabeth sighed and leaned on her pitchfork. “I made a promise—” She cut off and started again. “We made a promise to someone special, Walker. To the one person who was always there for me. I intend to keep it. Don’t you understand that?”
Another gut punch. Walker grabbed a rake. Elizabeth knew all his buttons. Knew calling on Netta’s memory would strip him of all his ammunition against her, since he wanted to honor Sue as much as she wanted to honor Netta. They were all caught in a spider’s web of duty, and Elizabeth was tugging on a crucial strand. She had the power to cut through the ties that bound them or to snare him tight.
She was choosing to snare him.
“Netta wanted us to be together,” Elizabeth said primly. A corner of her mouth quirked. “Don’t forget I’m madly in love with you.”
She didn’t sound madly in love, and Netta had been terrified of the thought of leaving an eighteen-year-old Elizabeth alone in the world, that’s all. Now Elizabeth was a grown woman. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her.
“Why do you think I’ll go through with it?”
Elizabeth blew out a breath. “Because you promised Netta—and Sue. And you don’t break promises. Especially one that gives you the chance to make up for what your father did.”
After that, Elizabeth didn’t speak at all.
She didn’t have to. Bringing up his father was a punch below the belt that left him feeling helpless. Despite what Sue thought, he’d always felt Netta and Elizabeth had forgiven Joe. What if he was wrong? Did Elizabeth hate his father? Would she hold him accountable for Joe’s sins?
He fought the urge to throw the rake to the ground, push past Elizabeth and get the hell out of here, take one of the trucks and drive.
He could abandon it somewhere up north. Go deep into the woods.
Disappear.
Down the row, he heard Avery talking to Hope, and he swallowed down the frustration burning in his throat. He caught Elizabeth watching him, her expression almost pitying.
He set the pitchfork aside as carefully as he could. “Need some air,” he growled and moved for the stable door again, cursing the necessity to stay close to the others. He stood outside it, took a few deep breaths and got himself under control.
The morning seemed endless, and when their chores were done, Walker led the way to the bison pasture like he and Avery always did to check on the herd. It wouldn’t be the same with Elizabeth and Hope trailing them, but he hoped a little time with the herd would put things in perspective.
Avery walked ahead, eager to see Champ cavort around its mother. Walker wished he could speak to her alone, but Elizabeth stuck close.
“That’s a healthy calf,” she said as they approached the fence.
“He really is beautiful,” Avery said. When Champ got too rambunctious and nearly tripped over its own feet, a fleeting smile quirked her lips. “Aren’t you?” she called out to the animal. “Aren’t you beautiful?” She stepped along the pasture fence, getting closer to it. Hope followed her. Walker noticed she’d taken on an almost protective role, placing herself between Avery and Elizabeth whenever she could.
“That girl feels things too much,” Elizabeth muttered.
Avery was crooning to the calf now, trying to entice it closer.
“Maybe she feels the right amount,” he countered in an equally low tone. “Maybe we should all feel so strongly.”
Elizabeth studied him. “I think—”
“Walker! Avery!” a familiar voice trilled from some distance behind them.
“Expecting someone?” Elizabeth turned and her eyebrows shot up. Walker knew why. That was Maud Russell’s voice, and Maud Russell could be a shock to anyone’s system. He braced himself as the stout older woman and her husband hurried their way, waving and calling out.
“Oh, my God, they’re even worse in person,” Elizabeth said.
“They’re good people.” Walker didn’t want to think about Elizabeth watching the show enough to know who Maud and James Russell were. They’d appeared on a number of episodes but were by no means on every week.
Had Elizabeth watched Base Camp front to back, studying each episode to determine just how far his relationship with Avery was progressing? Had she balanced her need to finish her work in Siberia with knowing she had to get back to Montana before he married someone else?
The idea of it made his skin crawl.
“How can they live like that?” Elizabeth asked.
He knew what she meant. While the women of Base Camp wore their gowns to signify their dedication to their various creative pursuits—and as part of running a Regency-inspired bed-and-breakfast—the Russells had simply decided they preferred the Regency to the current age and went about life as if they were living in it.
James and Maud Russell attended every Jane Austen re-enactment they could. They lived in a true manor-size house, with kitchen staff, and drove everywhere they possibly could in a carriage. Their outsized personalities took over any social situation, and they loved to throw parties and include the inhabitants of Base Camp.
Their arrival freed him of having to answer Elizabeth’s question. As far as he could tell, the Russells were experts at creating the reality in which they wanted to live.
He wished he was.
Avery left her post at the pasture fence and came forward to give them both hugs. “Maud, James, good to see you.” Was it Walker’s imagination, or did she cling to Maud a little longer than usual?
“We’re hosting a small get-together tonight,” Maud said without preamble and beamed at them, as if assured they’d be as thrilled to receive the news as she was to pass it on. “I do hope you’ll join us. And I see you have a guest with you. Please, by all means, join us tonight,” she told Elizabeth. “I’m Maud Russell, and this is my husband, James.”
“This is Elizabeth Blaine, a friend of my family,” Walker supplied. “She grew up on the reservation, like I did.”
“Wonderful! You will come, won’t you?”
“I don’t think so,” Elizabeth said shortly. “I’m not much of a partygoer.” She could barely hide her distaste at the Russells’ elaborate costumes, and Walker had the urge to nudge her to remind her of her manners. “I’ll be at the bunkhouse,” she told Walker and strode off before he could tell her they were supposed to stay with their groups. He relaxed when he saw Boone and his crew meet up with her not far away. Boone turned, waved at Walker and moved on with her at the center of his work party.
“Well,” Maud said, looking after her. “One doesn’t like to see such diffidence in a young lady. She’ll wind up a spinster with an attitude like that.”
Avery covered up a choked exhalation with a cough. Caught Walker’s eye, flushed and turned away. Maud patted her on the back solicitously. “Do you have something in your throat, dear?”
“I’m… fine.”
“Never mind, my love,” James said to his wife. “We’ll still have plenty of company without her. But you make sure your friend knows she’s always welcome,” he added to Walker. “Some people don’t like invitations that take them unawares, you know. She may come to a different opinion of the matter later.”
“That’s true,” Maud said cheerfully, giving Avery a final pat. “I’ll tell Mrs. Wood to set an extra place at the table just in case! See you tonight!” She took her husband’s arm, and they hustled off toward the bunkhouse.
“If Elizabeth is going to marry you, she should be nice to your friends,” Avery said tartly when they were gone and Hope had moved back to the fence to watch Champ gambol about.
“She’s not going to marry me,” Walker said.
“Really?” A flash of hope crossed Avery’s face, but she caught herself and schooled it into an indifferent nod. “Someone should tell her that.” She turned on her heel and went to the pasture fence. When he made to follow her, she held up a hand. “You’ve got a fiancée. Go spend time with her.”
“I don’t have a fiancée.”
“Then what do you have?”
“I’ve got a family problem I have to sort out.” He swallowed the frustration building inside him. This was all his fault; Avery was the victim here, and she didn’t deserve to be the recipient of his anger. He couldn’t explain more than thirty years of history to her in a moment. Didn’t want to explore his family’s dirty laundry with a camera crew filming all of it. Sue would hate that. It had been bad enough the first time around.
He could show Avery how he felt about her, though. He moved closer. Took her hand gently and drew her in against him. “You know I want you.”
“No, I don’t.”
Avery stood rigidly in his arms, but Walker was patient. He knew she felt as strongly for him as he did for her. They worked together, always had. She was fighting it, but he could see it was a losing battle, and when she finally relaxed against him, he circled his arms around her, needing her even closer. Avery’s curves sparked a hunger in him he knew could never be satisfied. He’d need a lifetime with her.
“No.” Avery pushed him away, and he let go, surprised at her vehemence. “You don’t get to make me feel like this when you’ve got another woman waiting for you in the bunkhouse.”
“A woman I don’t want.”
“A woman you haven’t sent away,” Avery countered.
“Because I can’t. Because—”
She waited for his explanation, but how could Walker explain generations of pain and obligation? She didn’t grow up on the reservation. Didn’t know how important promises could be when your people had once been hunted and hounded and forced into settlements that bore no resemblance to their previous way of life. Off the reservation, a man’s word meant little these days. You could always explain your behavior based on extenuating circumstances. Change your mind? Let down a friend? Renege on an obligation? Who cared? There was enough money, people, possessions, distractions to solve any little crisis your behavior might cause.
On the reservation, things were different. Everything was finite, everything counted—and a broken promise could lay waste to networks and alliances that held the whole nation together.
He’d spent a lifetime keeping his family’s secrets. Spilling them now felt like—
Walking on his father’s grave.
“I’ll get it sorted out,” he said.
“You could sort it out today if you wanted to. Right now. Find Elizabeth. Tell her you don’t want her. Send her on her way.”
“It’s not that simple.” His family owed Elizabeth’s family a debt that couldn’t be repaid. If he broke his word, it would kill Sue. She was depending on him to redeem his father, to set right the wrongs he’d committed. Sue might not be demonstrative, but she’d loved her son. Sometimes Walker thought it was a miracle she remained alive with his father gone. Especially after Netta passed away.
Her determination to set things right was part of what drove her. All that would be undone if he broke the promise he’d made to Elizabeth. He needed to give her time to admit she didn’t want him. “Be patient. Elizabeth won’t marry me. You’ll see.”
“She won’t marry you?” Avery echoed. “But you’ll marry her if need be?”
“I don’t want to.”
“This is ridiculous. Walker, talk to her. Tell her what you want.”
The one thing he couldn’t do—not without pushing Sue to the brink. He reached for Avery again, but she nimbly evaded him, backpedaling out of reach.
“She’ll make you leave, you know. Elizabeth,” she added when he didn’t respond. “I looked her up, and her work takes her around the world for months—years—at a time. She’ll take you away from Base Camp. Is that what you want?”
She didn’t give him time to answer.
Walker watched her walk away, her back straight, her head high. He knew Avery well enough to kn
ow she’d be fighting against tears by now. She hated any tension in the social fabric, especially between them.
Like Elizabeth said, she felt things too strongly.
Hope rushed past him in pursuit. “Walker, we’re supposed to stay together!”
He heaved a sigh and followed them.
“Avery, there you are! I was just coming to look for you!”
Avery sighed when Boone came bounding up, wishing more than anything she could escape to the manor, let herself into one of the guest rooms, lock the door behind her and be alone for a while.
She couldn’t keep going on this path, waiting to find out what Walker planned to do instead of making up her own mind about her future. She needed time to harden her heart if Elizabeth was going to make off with him in the end.
She’d never seen him so stymied by a situation, and that left her deeply unsettled. Normally when a problem came up, Walker surveyed his options and acted decisively. She’d never seen him second-guess himself until Elizabeth came.
For some reason, he’d assumed Elizabeth wouldn’t want him and was surprised when she’d showed up and said she did. He didn’t seem to think he could call off the relationship but felt Elizabeth had that right. Why?
“What do you need?” she asked Boone, still tangled in her thoughts. Had Walker expected Elizabeth to come home, tell Sue no and let him off the hook?
She couldn’t square that with the take-charge man she knew.
“I’m taking Avery to join my crew,” he called back to Walker and the others.
“We’ll make sure you get there okay.” Walker and the others followed them to the back of the bunkhouse and stood watch while they walked.
“Is that really necessary?” she asked Boone, gesturing to them.
Boone didn’t bother to answer that. “Come and see what we’re doing.” As they drew near the greenhouses, she was surprised to see them empty. They kept going, and soon she saw a small group gathered where the ground began to slope upward. Several men were pounding in stakes, and beyond them a series of rectangles were laid out along the rising ground. Renata was directing a film crew to capture the activities. Jericho, Savannah, Clay and his father, Dell Picket, Angus, Win, Byron and Leslie were looking at plans.
