Rugged and Relentless (20 page)

“Your very comment proves I’m not foolish at all to call you presumptuous.” Her hand, which had nestled so agreeably in the crook of his arm, became stiff and somehow hostile. “Merely observant. While I’m grateful, to an extent, for your efforts on our behalf, you take too much upon yourself, Mr. Creed.”

“Miss Lyman told us last night the four of you hadn’t planned on dealing with prospective grooms showing up in person. The four of you as good as said you can’t handle the situation.” Jake kept his tone even. “The men took things too far, and it would have gotten worse if someone hadn’t stepped in.”

“Presumptuous! We didn’t say we couldn’t handle it!” She gave a little huff. “Nor did we ask you to interfere, as I mentioned before. Reminding the others to behave as gentlemen is something we all appreciate. Taking it upon yourself to create rules for our town is most certainly not!”

“Yep.” His agreement threw her off balance for a scant second before he added his final assessment, “Foolish, all right.”

She started seething again, her fingers curling into his sleeve like a harmless creature trying to develop claws. Which, in Jake’s estimation, didn’t land too far from the truth.

“Words don’t hold up without action behind them. Same with rules, Miss Thompson. They can’t make a difference if no one enforces them. What does it matter who makes the rules, if they’re good ones and will be enforced for your safety and the good of the town? I’m going to be blunt here.” He stopped, pivoting to face her and tightening his arm against his side so she’d stay put and hear him out. “You four can spout laws until
you’re blue in the face, but if all you have is cooking to keep a crowd in line, you’ll run into trouble sooner or later. Men want things other than food, and out here, there’s places with five men to every woman. Why do you think they’re all here?”

He paused to let that sink in, to let it register that she stood, alone, with a man she didn’t know. “Placing that ad and coming here was foolish. Not admitting you need help now you’re all here is foolish. And yes, Miss Thompson, I’m presumptuous enough to warn you about it.”
So you can stop the foolishness
.

“It seems, Mr. Creed, that we’ve reached an impasse.” Evie drew herself up to her full, if unimpressive, height. “You want me to stop making my own decisions; I want you to start apologizing.”

Never mind the fact I’m very much afraid your assessment is dead to rights
. She couldn’t really tell if it was guilt over not agreeing with his good sense about the ad and their position or worry over the safety of her friends, but a sharp pain jabbed her side, a sort of stitch beneath her ribs.

“You misunderstood, Miss Thompson. It’s not that I want you to stop making decisions.” He started walking again, covering the last few steps to the house before leaving her with his final, parting shot. “I want you to start making better ones.”

     THIRTEEN     

T
here’s nothing worse than letting a man get the last word,” Cora fumed, prying open another packing crate as the four women stood in the midst of the parlor. “Nothing at all.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Evie nudged a traveling case toward the pile they’d designated for “upstairs.” “First, there’s the matter they think they’ve bested you.”
Insufferable, arrogant dictator, he is. Handing out orders right and left
.

“And once you know precisely how you want to respond, to put him in his place, it’s too late.” Naomi scooted a box toward the narrow door leading to the woefully inadequate kitchen, where two large stewpots already simmered away for dinner.

“Couldn’t you both simply … oh, I don’t know”—Lacey’s voice came out a bit muffled, what with her head half buried in a steamer trunk clearly belonging in the “upstairs” section—“simply pretend not to have heard the last little bit?” She emerged with a triumphant sound, waving an airy scarf at them. “Or let them know you ignored it, as beneath your attention?”

“No.” Evie and Cora answered as one, with emphasis.

“Oh.” Lacey blinked. “I, for one, ignore most of what Braden says to me. I find it makes life much more pleasant.”

“Well, Mr. Creed isn’t the sort of man a woman can ignore,” Naomi offered. “There’s a certain quality about him. …”

“Arrogance.” Evie didn’t like the look in Naomi’s eye. “The quality Mr. Creed possesses is arrogance. Can you imagine the nerve, telling us all we need to be making better decisions?”

“I don’t know, sis. He only said something to you.” Cora’s amusement didn’t douse the anger still burning beneath it, fueling her abrupt movements and keeping her from more tears.

Some things, an older sister knew all too well. Mostly because Evie learned, after years of failure, there were some things she couldn’t fix. There were times when words offered little comfort, and logic could only make things worse. Time, prayer, and love were the only way to wear away deep hurt.

But laughter smoothed away the ragged edges.
If nothing else, I’ll forgive Creed’s interference because it gives Cora something to think about, a way to tease, a reason to smile
. Evie fought her own smile at a sudden, ironic realization.
Maybe that’s the first of my “better decisions”—to not resent them. Actions over words …

“I’m the first one he found the opportunity to speak with,” Evie shot back. “Seems as though he could’ve made the same comments to any one of us, from where I’m sitting. I took the insult personally, but I’m also offended on your behalves!”

“My behalf feels wholly fine.” Cora thumped a box onto the ground as though to squash her own terrible pun as they groaned.

“Oh, that wins as worst of the trip.” Naomi shook her head. “For what it’s worth, although I dislike Mr. Creed’s high-handed manner, I’ll admit to a nagging sense there’s some truth behind his observations. We can’t handle this on our own, ladies.”

“That’s why we advertised for husbands!” Lacey stretched the scarf between her hands. “We knew we’d need help with the entire sawmill venture, or it would fail before it began.”

“But now we need help with hiring your husbands. I know I’m not really in any more of a position to say anything than your Mr. Creed, Evie, but—” Cora’s comment ran into a delay.

“He isn’t mine!” Evie protested immediately. “Don’t try to pawn him off on me, as though I should be the one to deal with the one man so headstrong he tries to take over an entire town the very night he arrives! I don’t claim Mr. Creed.”

“Not yet,” Naomi teased. “But you have to admit, he knows how to surprise you. I knew the moment he pointed to your sign and swept the hat from his head that we were looking at the stranger who’d made such an impression on you in Charleston.”

“That’s another thing!” Evie tried to push a crate of books into the corner and failed. It was one of many—not one of them had been willing to part with a single work of literature. “How on earth did he show up here? No one knew of our plans!”
Not that he would have followed me, in any case
. She’d considered the glorious, far-fetched notion and discarded it the moment she’d seen him the night before. A man like that could take his pick of women.
And he wouldn’t pick a foolish one
.

“You won’t claim Mr. Creed.” Lacey helped her wrestle the books out of the doorway, where they’d hitched on an uneven floorboard. “Perhaps he’s come all the way here to claim you.”

Evie’s heart thumped in her chest, a result of moving too many heavy boxes, to be sure.
Only ninnies go giddy at the idea of opinionated men striding into town to sweep them off their feet
. Unfortunately, the stern reprimand did nothing to quell her inner ninny, who chose now to make her presence felt.

“Like Evie said, he wouldn’t know who placed the ad, which puts paid to the notion he followed her to Hope Falls. Honestly, so many men trickled through her café it would be a wonder if she never ran into any.” Cora walked over, frowning.

“Even if he didn’t know Evie placed the ad,” Lacey insisted, “anyone could tell he was pleased to see her here!”

“That’s true.” Naomi joined them, looking at the stacks of crates holding their assorted volumes with something akin to awe. “I don’t remember bringing quite this many books.”

“When she had to give up the house after Papa’s death, Evie
refused to give up any of his books, even if they crowded our rooms.” Cora shrugged. “So there will be more than you brought.”

“Naomi refused to leave behind a single volume from Lyman Place,” Lacey commiserated. “She packed up every tome from the study to bring out here. Added to your books, and the novels we purchased to read on the journey, we could start a library.”

“Precisely!” Naomi’s exclamation made them all jump. “Ladies, these crates contain the Hope Falls Library! A bit of knowledge, education, and culture to civilize the wild.”

“That’s a wonderful idea.” Evie caught on to her friend’s enthusiasm. “We’ll simply choose a building and have the men move the books there. After things settle and we’ve time, we can go about unpacking and organizing the library.”

“Good—at least that’s one section of crates that won’t be underfoot!” Lacey peered around. “We’ve boxes and luggage all through the parlor and study down here, creeping into the kitchen, and nothing but our carpetbags in the bedrooms. Have you three sorted out what you’ll need in your rooms, and what you’ll put in the third as storage until … needed?”

Even Lacey, the originator of the entire Hope Falls scheme, faltered at putting the end result into words. She and Naomi would share one bedroom, Evie and Cora the other one that was outfitted with a bed. The third, they’d designated as storage for all the household goods they’d brought to set up their homes—once they each chose a husband and married him.

“Now that we’re here, and the men are already here, it’s going to be much faster than we planned.” Naomi’s voice lacked the enthusiasm from when she talked about the library.

Which just goes to show there’s something very wrong—or very foolish—about all of this
. Evie sighed.
We can make the best decisions possible from here on out—not because Mr. Creed wants us to, but because it’s what’s best, and the Lord bids us to seek out wisdom
. She sighed again.
No matter the source
.

“Plans change. So do people.” Cora snatched a hatbox from
one pile and shifted it to another. “We can adjust accordingly.”

“We agreed no one would rush into any wedding,” Lacey reminded her cousin, “and that much stays the same. If he’s the right man, he’ll wait until you’re certain of it, too.”

“I think we should wait until we’ve all chosen our grooms and then share one big wedding.” Evie seized the opportunity to propose the idea. “With so many men here, it’s not safe for us to leave this house one by one, and it sends the message we aren’t going to be in a hurry.”
By then, hopefully, Cora will have gotten through to Braden, and they’ll join us!

“I like that idea!” Naomi’s agreement came a breath before Lacey’s but several beats before Cora’s slow nod. “But I’d like to add something on to it—we should have the approval of at least two of the others in whomever we choose.”

“Absolutely.” Cora supported the suggestion almost before Naomi finished giving it. “That’s the best decision yet.”