Rugged and Relentless (26 page)

“Absolutely not,” Evie squawked, the first of dismayed clucks all around. “He shouldn’t have barged in here at all!”

“No,” Miss Higgins fretted. “Mr. Creed doesn’t have a say in how we run Hope Falls. You should talk with us, Braden.”

“We haven’t even discussed the plans for the mill!” Miss Lyman’s plaintive wail hit a shrill note. “You’ll want to—”

“Speak with Mr. Creed,” Lyman reasserted. “Now.”

“You can talk to him with us present.” His fiancée set her jaw. “We’ve set this in motion, we know the plans, and we’re the ones who will see it all through. Speak with Mr. Creed if you like, but you won’t try to make decisions without us present.”

“Seems to me you four made a few decisions without him.” Jake wanted to know what Lyman had to say. Besides, he upheld that ancient, unspoken code to stand alongside his fellow male when the so-called “gentler” sex started to run roughshod. “We all know it, so none of you can argue the point now.”

“You obviously don’t know them very well.” Lyman snorted. “They’ll argue anything.”

“That’s not true, and you know it!” His sister reached out and pinched his upper arm. “You take that back, Braden.”

The man on the bed dissolved into laughter. “Are you arguing to try to prove you’re not argumentative, Lace?”

“You tricked her,” Evie broke in. “If she said nothing, she agreed she argues anything. If she disagreed, she proved she argues. It’s like flipping a coin and declaring, ‘Heads I win, tails you lose!’ Either way,
you
come out ahead.”

“There’s always another option.” Jake found the one-sided
piece in his pocket, rubbing his fingers over the familiar squared edges. “She could tell him he’s entitled to his own opinion and leave him to talk it over man-to-man.”

“Or”—Evie reached behind and pulled back the curtain—“you could hop back out the window and work with the other men. Please notice that we are willing to compromise, Mr. Creed, so if you fancy a change, you’re welcome to try the door.”

     EIGHTEEN     

L
ooks like someone attacked that door earlier.” He’d noticed the tray and broken crockery, coated in clumps of butter and globs of honey, heaped at the base of the wall by the door.

For now, Jake found it difficult to keep his eyes off Evie.
She’s not going to forgive me for this anytime soon
. He realized he’d overstepped his place with their earlier conversation, but she’d been wise enough to listen and take his advice to heart.
Somehow I don’t think lightning will strike twice. One livid woman’s bad enough, but now I’ve got four on my hands. And the best of the bunch looks in the worst temper
.

“I wanted my lunch, and she stole it.” A guilty grumble confirmed Jake’s suspicions that Lyman didn’t confine his tantrum to shouts and profanity. “Rotten thing to do to a man.”

“Oh, I forgot about that!” Evie’s sister sprang forward to start cleaning the mess, righting the tray and placing broken bits atop it to be carried away. “It’ll be gone in a moment.”

“Here, Cora, let me help.” Miss Higgins abandoned her post by the bed, pulled a towel from her apron, and began scrubbing the wall until it became evident she’d need stronger measures.

“Lyman, I know they’ve tried your patience, but you and I need
to have a talk about the way you act around women.” Jake curled a hand around Lacey Lyman’s elbow and pulled her forward, trading places so he stood at the head of the bed. “I won’t let any of the other men use foul language or violence.” As he spoke, he placed his hand at the small of her back and nudged.

“That’s right, Braden. You’ve forgotten your manners!” his sister twittered at him, either unaware or uncaring of the steps leading her toward the door until Evie halted their progress.

“Yes, Miss Lyman, your brother needs some time to consider all the news and collect himself before he’s fit company.” Jake put his free hand at the small of Evie’s back and tried to guide them both toward the door. One of them resisted.

“I need some water,” Miss Higgins murmured and slipped out the door, presumably to go wet her towel and return.

“It’s not safe for her to wander alone,” Jake directed Miss Thompson, who already stood with the tray in hand.

“Right. I need to dispose of this anyway.” With that, she bustled after the other woman, leaving the room half empty.

“Stop pushing me toward the door.” Evie dug in her heels.

“You women need to stay together, and Mr. Lyman wants a word with me before he passes out from exhaustion. Don’t make it any harder on him or anyone else than it has to be.” He knew the whisper carried to Miss Lyman, because she threw a glance over her shoulder as though surprised by her brother’s fatigue.

“It’s Lacey’s place to speak with Braden, Mr. Creed.”

“That’s true.” Miss Lyman looked torn. “But he’s tired. …”

“And you yourself put me in the position of answering any questions the men had, bringing requests before you, and taking care of problems,” Jake said, reminding Evie of her previous trust, then lowered his voice. “Let me answer his questions, so he’ll be more comfortable, and bring his concerns back to you.”

“All right.” Miss Lyman headed for the door. “Braden, we’ll let you two alone this once, but if your behavior doesn’t improve, you won’t be allowed any other visitors until it does.”

“I’m not a child asking for a tea party, Lace.” Lyman nearly ruined Jake’s victory by snarling at his sister.

“You’ve got your work cut out for you, Mr. Creed.” With that, Miss Lyman sailed from the room.

“Now you’re stuck, Evie.” Lyman laughed. “If your position is that Lacey owns Hope Falls until I heal and it’s her right to inform me of how it’s run, you have to respect her decision.”

When cornered, animals become most dangerous, and Jake knew firsthand humans could outdo them all. Since Evie boasted more fight than most, he braced himself for her reaction to hearing the trap spring shut.
This should be interesting
.

She went still. “You’re entitled to your opinion,” she said, parroting Jake’s advised response for when someone found herself in an impossible conversation. “I’ll leave you to discuss it.” With that, she raised her chin and swept from the room in the most dignified exit Jake ever had the privilege to witness.

He followed in one step—and shut the door behind her.

The man had the nerve to shut the door. Evie whirled around to find wood blocking her view of the room. More importantly, the thick barrier blocked her plans to eavesdrop.

Her fingers crept toward the handle as a plan formed.
Maybe I’ll open it a crack, so slowly they won’t even notice a difference
.

The snicking of lock tumblers sliding into place stunned her.
How low will that man sink? What does he plan to discuss that he’s so determined not to be overheard? And what sort of suspicious mind expects to have someone listen in at all?

A rather brilliant one, Evie begrudgingly admitted. Then plucked a hairpin from her bun and set about trying to coax the lock open. But really, the last thing she planned to do was admire anything about the devious, double-crossing Mr. Creed.

“What are you doing?” Cora’s question made her jump, snap her hairpin in the lock, and lose all hope of opening it.

“Sssssshhhhhhhh!” Evie straightened up. “Lacey’s defection after you two went for cleaning supplies forced me to leave or admit Lacey didn’t have the right to make decisions for Braden. Then Creed shut the door on me.” She paused for Cora and Naomi to take that in before adding the
coup de grâce
: “And locked it!”

Naomi gave a satisfactory gasp. “The nerve of that man!”

“Lacey, you didn’t agree to leave them alone?” Cora took up the most important issue, if not the most timely.

“Braden’s tired and Creed will explain the town rules,” Lacey faltered. “So I went after you two to wait for them.”

“Leaving Evie alone to stop their plotting, until they forced her into the hallway,” her sister moaned. “Where they shut the door and locked it, adding insult to injury.”

“The sheer gall”—Lacey recovered from her regret to indulge in righteous rage—“to assume we’d eavesdrop!”

“Presumptuous men,” Evie agreed, and promptly set about trying to retrieve the other half of her hairpin from the lock. “Now be quiet so we can hear them better, will you three?”

Giving up the hairpin as a lost cause, and furthermore deciding it served Creed right if he had to jump back out the window if the lock jammed, Evie pressed her ear near the doorjamb. The other three joined her until they lined up almost like a show in the circus, with her crouching at the very bottom and the others leaning over her to try to catch any hint of the ensuing conversation. She hoped they had more success.

When Lacey disentangled herself and tiptoed down the hallway to the doctor’s study, her murmurs to the doctor further canceled out any chance of hearing Mr. Creed or Braden. She tiptoed back with two water glasses. She set one down and promptly leaned the drinking side of the other against the door panel, pressing her ear against the bottom of the glass. “That’s better,” she mouthed, then covered her other ear as though to better concentrate on the conversation only she could properly overhear in this thoroughly improper spying attempt.

A brief tussle ensued over possession of the other water glass. Evie made a grab for it with one hand, pulling Cora’s arm away from the prize with her other in a bid for victory. Her sister used much the same tactic in return, leaving the field open for Naomi to swoop in and claim the piece instead. A smile bloomed across her features as she copied Lacey’s posture, apparently with the same results.

When her smile faded, Cora jabbed Evie between the ribs in silent retribution.

“That was your fault!” Evie hissed. “I stayed in the room the longest and tried to listen in first. That glass was mine!”

“Ssssshhhhhhh!” Three women shushed her before two went back to their glasses, no longer smiling. Apparently the conversation had taken a turn for the worse.

That does it
. Evie rose to her feet. She’d sunk from her crouch into a kneel once the others joined her, and now her knees ached, anyway.
Creed closed the door, but I doubt he’d go so far as to shut the window. With those curtains, they won’t even see me so long as I’m quiet
.

She headed out of the building and around the corner, finding the window wide open, the low timbre of male voices carrying the conversation to her ears.
No water glass needed
. Evie inched closer until she stood beside the window. She stooped slightly. Her eyes peeked over the frame. One never knew when a stiff wind might blow back the curtain.

Thanks to Mr. Creed’s dramatic earlier entrance, the curtain slid back, revealing a slice of the room. When she shifted, she could almost make out Creed’s profile as he spoke to Braden. A foot to the left, and she’d have a better view, but the office was built on a hill. The top of her head would bump the sill, but she wouldn’t see anything at all over there.

Hmmm … perhaps if I scoot a bit forward and step on this muffin-shaped rock. Ooops!
She hopped off, looking at the now-sideways stone before gingerly pressing her toe on it then testing it with
more weight.
I’ll just grip the windowsill with my fingers and raise up on tiptoe, like this, and—