Tall, Dark, and Determined (13 page)

She left no doubt just whose manners she felt were lacking.

“Maybe he wanted you to sit down,” the eldest—Chase began to wonder when he'd have names to put to the women—suggested.

“Someone did.” The other one whose name he didn't know—the sister to Granger's woman—assessed him with one coolly logical blue eye and one amused hazel one. She looked just long enough to make him wonder whether she'd noted his signals to Decoy before turning her attention back to Miss Lyman. “You'd gone pale as a new moon, and—Lacey! What have you been hiding?”

Her gasp barely preceded a storm of movement as she descended upon her now-seated friend and whisked away the concealing shawl. Decoy's antics had nudged it askew, so it came away easily. “Why didn't you go directly to the doctor?”

Now here's a woman a man could get along with
. Chase shifted to the side to get a better view of Miss Lyman's now-exposed shoulder. The converging womenfolk managed to oust Decoy, who came slinking back to Chase's side. He caught another glimpse of pink fabric gaping open in jagged rips along one side, revealing a creamy shoulder smeared with darkened blood. At this distance he couldn't tell how deep the scratches were, only that Miss Lyman lost what little color she had left when her oldest friend brandished a bottle of witch hazel.

“Make your choice, Lacey. Either we go upstairs and you submit to my ministrations,”—a threatening wave of the bottle punctuated this—”or you let me take you to the doctor.”

“Later. First we need settle the issue of Mr. Dunstan.” She bobbed her head to glower at him through the crowd of women.

“Thanks for the thought, but I'll see myself settled, miss.” He really shouldn't enjoy poking fun at her this much.

“He'll get on just fine,” Granger hastened to assure them.

“That's not what she meant.” Granger's woman tossed the comment over her shoulder. “But we'll see to it after we see to Lacey's shoulder. It needs cleaning to prevent infection.”

“All this over a scratch!” Miss Lyman twisted away, only to gasp when the motion pulled her wound. She closed her eyes.

The one with the witch hazel admonished, “Stop trying to make it sound like nothing. That wasn't a little kitten, Lacey.”

“It wasn't full grown.” Her defiant mumble made Chase fight a chuckle. At least she'd listened to his assessment earlier. “I'll go see the doctor as soon as we finish this discussion.”

“You'll have to trust us to finish it without you.” Cora knew when her best friend had decided to dig in her heels. Worse, Lacey's pretty shoes left wicked marks behind any scuffle.

For whatever reason, Lacey decided she didn't like the enigmatic man quietly watching them. If Cora hadn't seen otherwise, she would have assumed it was the mammoth beast accompanying the fellow that put Lacey on guard. Instead her fastidious friend favored the beast and overlooked—no, openly set herself against—this most interesting male.
But why?

She'd certainly never find the answer so long as Lacey stayed in the room, shooting daggers at the poor fellow. Besides, her friend had committed several sins against the agreement the four of them made before journeying to Hope Falls, and now she needed to pay the price. Lacey Lyman might own the bulk of the town, but that didn't mean she escaped its rules.

“It's not that I don't trust you, Cora!” Lacey sounded aggrieved. “But if I'm not present, it won't be a united decision, as all of our judgments are supposed to be.”

“We already disagreed once today,” Evie answered for them all, reminding Lacey that she'd voted against allowing Jake to be her husband. “In any case, you've already failed to uphold some of the decisions we all agreed to. Now you need medical attention, and you can't expect Hope Falls to grind to a halt.”

“That's … that's not fair, Evie! You know I don't expect everything in town to stop just because I see the doctor.”

“But you did break agreements—first by not telling any of us where you were going, then again by not seeing the doctor straightaway.” A familiar, helpless anger threatened to cut off her words, so Cora spoke more quickly. “Everyone gave me her word not to take any risks if one of us was sick or injured.”

The single assurance I asked before I came here, the simplest way to safeguard us all, and Lacey didn't honor it
. From the stricken expression on her friend's face, Lacey's knack for reliving conversations caught her now.
I followed Braden here after my fiancé broke his promise to me, instead going into the mines on a regular basis until they caved in atop his stubborn skull. Now his sister does the same sort of thing. It must end before another of us winds up bedridden and bitter
.

“Oh Cora.” Lacey could see the tears Cora swiftly blinked back—her dearest friend always caught her distress before anyone else. Even her sister, Evie, couldn't match Lacey's perception when it came to these things. The vivid, guilty flush came in startling contrast to her previous pallor. “You're right, of course. I didn't think—I'll go see the doctor straightaway.”

“Jake will see you safely there.” Evie volunteered her fiancé, throwing him the don't-even-think-about-arguing glare for good measure. That glare never failed, so far as Cora knew. “Since he doesn't want any of us going anywhere alone, and it looks as though you could use the support of a strong arm.”

None of the women missed the questioning look Jacob Granger aimed at the new man—Mr. Dunstan. Nor was there any mistaking the nature of the question behind it. Something along the lines of,
If I escort your main detractor to the doc, will you resent being abandoned to the mercy of the remaining three women?

If she didn't find it amusing, Cora would think it insulting. Instead, she waited for Dunstan's response. If he indicated he wanted Granger to remain, the man didn't possess enough strength to stay in Hope Falls—much less look after it. Lacey seemed dead set against the idea, so he'd need considerable backbone to convince the rest of them otherwise.

Ah. There
. Dunstan didn't nod or shake his head in overt answer to Granger's oh-so-obvious query. Nevertheless, Cora caught the slight angling of his jaw toward the door, a silent bid for Granger to take Lacey and take his leave.

The man didn't say much. It would be interesting to see how he fared in the ensuing conversation.
It'll take more than tilting his head and silently issuing orders to his dog before we decide Hope Falls needs him. Although
, she acknowledged,
a woman could glean a lot from the way he made Decoy nudge Lacey back into her seat. If his words speak half so well as his actions, I'll welcome him here. He'll do Lacey some good
.

These women were up to no good, but they weren't boring. Chase denied Granger's nonverbal offer to remain in his company. No offense to Granger, but it didn't look as though his friend were faring all that well for himself. Falling in love with the spunky cook probably had something to do with the veteran sawmill manager's sudden demotion to taking orders from women.

Chase would fare better without Granger trying to smooth his way. Rough edges kept a man sharp, and Chase learned early on to keep his instincts well honed. If that shaved off a few of the finer points, so be it. Best that the women understood from the start he wouldn't pander to their finer sensibilities.

“Thank you, Mr. Granger.” The cook's sister turned her two-toned gaze toward the door as he escorted Miss Lyman outside. Whatever lay behind her reminder of the promise to safeguard one's health, it had proven effective in guilting her friend to the doctor. Guilt was one of those weapons women wielded well, and a man could do nothing but stand in awe of the results.

“After you see Lacey settled, I'm certain Mr. Dunstan would be pleased by your return.” The woman spoke pleasantly, but anyone could hear the statement wasn't a request. “After the intensity of yesterday's events, I'd rather not see Braden overset again. We won't be delaying his recovery any further.”

Granger frowned. “He'll not thank me for the omission, Miss Thompson. You know good and well the only thing to upset your fiancé more than a cougar attacking his sister is for him to be the last to know about it. Besides, he should meet Dunstan.”

So Granger knows Lyman—at least, the man claiming to be Braden Lyman
. Chase digested this, batting around the idea of allowing the meeting.
I'd find out if it's really Braden. If it isn't, I'll know what direction to take my investigation of the mine collapse
. That would save a great deal of time and wondering over the bedridden patient, as well as whether the pink fluff ball of the forest was Miss Lyman or an impostor.

But if the true Braden Lyman lies in the bed, he'll recognize me, and I'll be wedged into a too-tight corner
. Because Chase had no way of knowing whether a Braden injured in the mine collapse could know of the shifty practices employed by his partners during his absence. If Braden were involved in skulduggery, the man would either protest Chase's presence outright or throw up obstacles to impede his search.

Too risky. I need more information. There might be a way to discover the identity of the man in that room before I face him
. The only real decision to make was how to avoid the meeting without raising any suspicions, but he had an idea.

“No sense in meeting the man when I might not be staying.” Chase shrugged and shot his friend a grin. “Looks like I still have to run the proverbial gauntlet before I'm found worthy.”

“Hardly anything so barbaric as a gauntlet.” The woman with the single white streak in her hair protested the comparison.

“Though we'll be sure to keep your suggestion in mind,” Miss Lyman promised as Granger half escorted, half tugged her out the door. She knew she'd been temporarily outmaneuvered, but that last comment told Chase she wasn't declaring surrender.

    ELEVEN    

O
ne skirmish at a time
. He might not understand why women ran the town, but Chase understood he wouldn't be able to unearth the answers to his questions unless they tolerated his presence. Even with Miss Lyman out of the room, the remaining three women left him and Decoy seriously outnumbered.