A SEAL's Triumph

by Cora Seton

  “What did make you decide against it?” she asked. Savannah had tried out to be mentored by a famous pianist she’d always admired but had decided it wasn’t the path she wanted to take.

  “I didn’t want to be playing for people, I wanted to be playing with people, like I do here,” Savannah said without hesitation. “I didn’t want to perform. I wanted to be part of what was going on, like when I play and you all dance or when we have singalongs. I wanted that immediate connection, not to be on some pedestal. But…”

  “But what?”

  “Sometimes I wish I was challenged more. I play fun, pretty pieces for you all, but I don’t play sonatas, you know?”

  “Sounds to me like that’s a goal to keep in mind going forward. The reality show is almost over, Savannah.” She gestured at the crew filming them as they walked. “A month from now we’re all going to have more time to do what we love. Remember what Boone said—we should be taking more time for what we love now. Jacob looks sleepy. Could you put him down for a nap at the manor and practice a little?”

  “Can I hold him?” Gabe asked.

  Savannah seemed as startled as Avery was by his question. He’d been so quiet walking behind them she’d almost forgotten he was there. Angus and Byron were several paces behind them, having a conversation of their own.

  “Uh… okay. I guess.” Savannah didn’t immediately hand over Jacob, though.

  “I won’t drop him,” Gabe assured her. “I’ve got five nieces and nephews, and I babysit all the time.”

  “Where are you from, anyway?” Savannah transferred her son to Gabe’s arms but hovered nearby just in case.

  “I’m based in Washington, DC. Work for the government. Do a lot of traveling.” Gabe cradled Jacob carefully. “Look at you,” he murmured to the sleepy baby, “so brand new to the world. Makes it all worth fighting for, doesn’t it?”

  Savannah exchanged a look with Avery and raised an eyebrow.

  Avery bit back a sigh. Sure, Gabe was a nice guy. He was enthusiastic. Good with kids.

  But he wasn’t Walker.

  “I guess I could practice for a while if I can get Jacob down for a nap,” Savannah said. “But don’t forget we’re going to Maud and James’s house for a party tonight.”

  Avery had forgotten about it.

  “Party?” Gabe perked up.

  She was glad someone was looking forward to it. Normally she loved Maud and James’s get-togethers. The food was always wonderful, the dancing fun.

  Tonight she figured it would be interminable.

  “This is all your fault, you know,” Clay said when he cornered Walker by the window overlooking the Russells’ expansive front yard later that evening.

  Walker didn’t answer him, knowing Clay wouldn’t need any encouragement to go right ahead. He wasn’t the first one who’d felt the need to put a word in his ear since Gabe arrived.

  “You should have proposed to Avery the minute you drew the short straw. Everyone knows she’s the one you want. Why are you hurting her—and yourself—by dragging all this out? Tell Elizabeth you’re over her and move on.”

  Elizabeth was talking to Maud Russell, who was giving her advice about finding a good tailor so she could “outfit herself according to the customs of the region,” as Maud put it, gesturing to the Regency-era gowns she and all the other women present wore. Elizabeth, wearing a perfectly nice modern skirt and blouse, was having trouble keeping her disdain out of her responses.

  “You were taking a chance before, but now Avery’s got a backup husband. Are you really going to let him steal her away?”

  Walker didn’t need anyone to remind him about Gabe. Even now Avery was chatting away happily with him. He’d heard about Gabe’s run-in with Elizabeth when he first arrived, but he and Avery already seemed thick as thieves.

  He wondered what Gabe had said that had made Elizabeth so mad. He hadn’t asked her, and she hadn’t said a word to him about any of it, remaining stiff and silent the rest of the day until it was time to go to the Russells’ house. Then, even though she’d told Maud she wasn’t coming, she’d made a big deal of claiming her seat next to him in one of the carriages the Russells had sent around to pick them up. Walker wasn’t sure who that performance was aimed at. If it was Avery, she was far too busy hanging on Gabe’s every word to notice.

  What did she and Gabe have in common?

  He didn’t realize he’d asked the question out loud until he caught Clay shrugging.

  “I don’t know. She showed him all over Base Camp this afternoon. Answered every question he asked. The crew loved every minute of it. I think she even took him wading in Pittance Creek.”

  “Had to be cold” was all Walker could say.

  “Made great footage, according to Byron,” Clay said. “I haven’t seen Avery this happy in ages,” he added thoughtfully, then seemed to remember who he was talking to. “Sorry. I think Nora wants me.” He hurried off.

  “Lord, that woman can talk.” Elizabeth rejoined him as Maud bustled away to the kitchen. Tracing his gaze, she groaned. “Guess Avery’s not so devoted to you after all, huh? She sure took to Gabe in a hurry.”

  “Sounds like you and he had a bit of a scrap this afternoon.”

  Elizabeth frowned. “He showed up unannounced. I was taking care of it until Boone interfered.”

  “You thought it was your place to take care of it?”

  She took her time answering. “This is my home now, remember? I’m going to be your wife. We’ll live happily ever after in our tiny house.” She tossed her long hair over her shoulder, practically daring him to deny it.

  “You handed in your resignation to your job, then?” he retaliated.

  She blinked. “Why would I—?” She stopped. Laughed. “Okay, you caught me. I haven’t resigned yet.”

  “Why not? If you’re so set on staying and marrying me?”

  He thought he had her at a loss for words, but a smile slipped over her face, and she held up a hand and wiggled her fingers at him. “Put a ring on it, sweetie, and I’ll make the call. I might be old-fashioned, but I’m not stupid.”

  Walker cursed the cameramen who were getting all of this. He had no doubt that exchange would show up on the next episode of Base Camp. “You’ll get your ring when I’m sure of your motives, because I don’t buy for one minute that you actually—”

  “Be right back. All this punch is going straight through me.” She handed him the crystal glass she’d been sipping from and made for the bathroom, leaving him gaping after her. He snapped his mouth shut. Set down the glass on a nearby end table. Spotted Avery alone on the other side of the room near the refreshments table and started for her, wondering where Gabe had gotten to.

  He knew it wasn’t fair of him to interfere if she’d made a connection with the other man.

  But he couldn’t stay away from her a moment longer.

  “Where’s your new lady-love?” Leslie’s voice carried across the room. Avery, helping herself to a glass of punch, turned to see she and Byron had cornered Walker.

  Maud, coming back from the kitchen, was drawn like a moth to a flame to their conversation. The woman loved gossip, although Avery didn’t think she had a mean bone in her body. Avery busied herself with her punch glass, hoping no one realized she was listening in, too.

  “Well? Where’s Elizabeth?” Leslie pressed Walker. “Elizabeth is the woman Walker’s promised to,” she told Maud. “Anyone who watches Base Camp has heard of her.”

  “Ah! An arranged marriage?” Maud tittered, ignoring the reference to television the way she and her husband ignored references to all modern conveniences. “How unusual in the new world. How romantic.” She must have noticed Avery nearby. “How inconvenient, I mean,” she added.

  “Walker’s like a lot of men,” Leslie said airily. “Men like to have everything all at once, you know. They’re horrible at choosing. They want this girl and that girl and the other one, and even when you tell them the law says they can marry only
one, they seem to think maybe it doesn’t apply to them. I knew a girl who married a man in Palm Springs and then found out he was married to sixteen other women—all of them in Palm Springs! Her children had sixty-five half siblings! How do you get away with that? It’s a man thing. Men are sneaky! Except my man.”

  “I should imagine the poor fellow was quite exhausted,” Maud interjected. “How did he keep them all straight? What if two wives chose the same name for their children?” She bent closer to Leslie as if to whisper, but her voice was as loud as ever. “How did he keep all those women satisfied?”

  Avery needed fresh air. She was sure Gabe would find her when he got back from his foray to find a bathroom, and anyway, there were plenty of other people to entertain him while she was gone.

  Outside, on the Russells’ front porch, she sifted through her whirling thoughts. Showing Gabe around Base Camp had distracted her for a few hours this afternoon. He was an intelligent man with more of a sense of humor than she’d first suspected when she’d come upon him arguing with Elizabeth. She didn’t know how he’d pissed off Elizabeth so much in such a short period of time when he seemed to be perfectly capable of being a charming companion.

  They’d walked all over Base Camp enjoying the fine weather, Avery pointing out every landmark and Gabe comparing them to the way they appeared in the show. As they went, she’d been able to introduce him to most of the cast and crew members, too. He seemed pleased as punch to know them all.

  He was a nice guy.

  But he’d never touch her heart the way Walker did.

  When the door opened behind her, Avery wanted to tell whoever it was to go away.

  “We’ve got only a minute,” Walker said, coming to stand beside her. “Avery, you’ve got to know this is killing me.” He gathered her hands in his and turned her to face him.

  “Then do something about it.”

  “I’m trying. I need time.”

  “That’s what you always say.”

  The anguish in his eyes twisted her heart. “I—”

  The door opened again. “Walker? You out here?” Elizabeth called sharply.

  “Avery?”

  That was Gabe. He pushed past Elizabeth onto the porch.

  Walker let go of her hands as they approached.

  “Everyone’s wondering where you got to,” Elizabeth announced. “Come back inside.”

  “There’s going to be dancing,” Gabe said, crooking an arm Avery’s way. Wordlessly, she linked her elbow through his. “Dancing is fun, right?”

  “I guess.”

  It would be if she was going to dance with Walker.

  But that didn’t seem likely anytime soon.

  Chapter Four

  ‡

  “See? All’s well that ends well,” Sue said several days later. Walker, Elizabeth, Avery and Hope had just returned from chores to find her sitting on a log section at the fire pit. The others had gone inside to clean up. Elizabeth was nodding at Sue, and Avery was studiously ignoring her.

  Walker came to join her, but he wished he didn’t have to. There were hours to go before bedtime, but he was already looking forward to when he could turn in for the night. As long as he could sleep.

  Everyone was still bedding down together in the bunkhouse, although there had been talk of groups of four or six peeling off into several tiny houses close by. Quarters were much too close, and everyone was cranky and bleary-eyed, their disrupted sleep patterns throwing them off. He figured all the pregnant women had to be suffering, but this was a good group, and people tried to keep their spirits up.

  Sue gestured to the big bunkhouse window, through which it was possible to see that Avery and Gabe had taken seats on opposite sides of the little table there that held a scale model of the ranch, carved by Greg.

  “She’s moved on. Found her soul mate. Which is as it should be because Elizabeth is your destiny.”

  Destiny?

  Elizabeth was visible from here, too. She’d just come back outside and was standing some distance away with her phone to her ear like always, talking, talking, talking to her coworkers in Washington at the job she claimed she would put behind her when they were formally engaged.

  Over the past few days, Walker had noticed that wherever Elizabeth stood, her back was to the rest of them, whereas Avery was always in the center of things, always reaching out to someone else, always getting involved, helping out, looking for a way to belong. He knew she’d been shocked when Renata dumped a backup husband on her, but Avery had been nothing but kind to Gabe, who even Walker had to admit wasn’t a bad guy.

  “You think she’s here to stay?” he asked his grandmother, nodding at Elizabeth.

  Sue hesitated long enough to tell him she, too, worried about that. “I think she knows where her duty lies.”

  “And you think it lies on the reservation?”

  “Where else? There’s plenty of work to do there even if neither of you seem to notice it.” Sue pinched her lips together. “There has to be a wedding in a few weeks. Your rules, not mine,” she pointed out. “I’ve heard no plans. No one’s consulted me about the guest list. That’s why I’m here. These things must be done right.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Elizabeth exclaimed into the phone loudly enough for both of them to hear. Walker could have seconded the sentiment. “That’s not good enough!” She took a few steps away from them and lowered her voice, and they couldn’t make out any more of her words.

  “Seems to me she plans to head right back to Washington.” He ignored Sue’s prior statement. He didn’t want to marry Elizabeth. Hated watching Avery through the window as she tilted back her head and laughed in the company of another man.

  She and Gabe bent over the table again. Were they moving elements around the map? Coming up with ideas for the community? He wanted to be at that table, alone with Avery, making plans.

  “I’ll talk to Elizabeth.” Sue’s disapproval was clear.

  “Find out who she’s on the phone with all the time. Something’s up she’s not telling either one of us, and if she runs off at the last minute—”

  Sue snorted. “You have your backup bride.” She shot a severe look Avery’s way, and Walker followed it to find Avery looking off into the distance and Gabe focused on—

  Elizabeth.

  Sue must have seen that, too. “Oh, no,” Sue said, shaking her head at him, even though Gabe wasn’t looking at her. “That man better get his head on straight. If he thinks—”

  A scream, long, high and loud, echoed across the little valley from the direction of the manor on the top of the hill, raising the hairs on the back of Walker’s neck. He started running before he made up his mind to it, racing down the incline from the bunkhouse and then up again, following the track to the back of the three-story mansion.

  “Someone was here!” Addison yanked the door open and called out when she spotted him. “Someone was looking in the window—just a minute ago. Nora saw him, and she almost fainted.”

  Clay sprinted past Walker into the house. More men were coming behind him. Knowing Addison and Nora were safe now, Walker veered across the backyard, avoided the clothesline and slowed as he approached the forest. They’d caught an intruder here once before, a man who was hunting Win. Was someone lurking in these woods?

  “Spread out.” Boone caught up to him. “Let’s do this methodically.”

  They did so, falling in line and walking forward through the trees at an equal pace, inspecting the underbrush and looking for any indication someone had been there. They gave it their best, but the intruder had gotten too much of a head start, and an hour later, they had to admit defeat.

  Returning to the manor, they found most of the women gathered in the kitchen around a large table. Avery was setting out cups of freshly brewed tea; she must have seen them coming. Nora, cradling her baby in her arms, was pale and drawn. Clay sat as close to her as he could. Angus was pacing the room.

  “Did either of you get a good look at
the guy?” Boone asked Nora and Addison.

  Nora shook her head. “Just a glimpse.” Her voice was low and rough, and Walker could only imagine what she was feeling. Months ago, her stalker had followed her here from Baltimore and nearly killed her in the little old schoolhouse across Pittance Creek. Before his attack, he’d snuck around Base Camp, playing mind tricks on her, making his existence known without providing her the proof she needed to get the rest of them to take her seriously. “Mid-thirties, maybe. Tall and blond.” She shrugged. “That’s all. He was looking in right there.” She pointed to a large window that had been opened wide to let in what little breeze there was. “Then he was gone.” There’d only been a screen between the women and the intruder.

  They were lucky nothing worse had happened.

  Elizabeth sat at the far end of the table, bent over her nearly empty tea cup, running a thumb over its surface, lost in thought. Always on the fringes, Walker thought. Always disconnected from what was going on.

  She must have felt his gaze because she straightened, looked his way and shrugged almost defensively.

  “Did anyone else see anything?” he asked, still watching her.

  This time her eyes widened. “I didn’t see a thing,” she said. “I was down at the bunkhouse with you, remember?”

  “It was a general question.” When he realized everyone else was looking at them, he added, “Someone’s testing our defenses again. Why were you women up here? We’re supposed to stick together, remember?”

  “We were sticking together.” Addison came to Nora’s defense.

  “I was upstairs with Hope and Win,” Angus spoke up. “We were all inside the house with the doors locked. I didn’t think it was a problem to spread out, but I should have kept everyone together.”

  “Why were you up here at all?” Boone asked.

  “We came to make sure nothing was going to spoil in the refrigerator and see if we’d forgotten anything,” Addison said. “We figured we’d be in and out of here in fifteen minutes.”

  “We’ve got to be more careful,” Boone decreed. “We’ve got only a few weeks to go, and a lot is at stake. We don’t know how many enemies we have—people who want to see us fail. It’s not just Montague. Lots of folks have a vested interest in everything staying exactly how it is. We’ve got to be smart. We can let chores go if they put us in too much danger. That includes checking on the manor.”