A SEAL's Triumph Page 17

  She wanted everyone to know how happy she was—right now. She’d spent a lifetime dreaming of the joy of planning each and every detail of the splendid day she joined her life to someone else’s. She wanted to revel in it for as long as possible. Ten days were barely enough. Five were a joke.

  “You can still get started on planning your wedding. You’ll just have to pretend you’re planning mine,” Elizabeth told her.

  “No one will buy that I’m planning your wedding to Walker,” Avery pointed out.

  “Sure they will. You’re such a pushover. We’ll pretend I bullied you into it.”

  Avery looked to Walker for support, but he shrugged. “You’re definitely too nice for your own good.”

  “I’ll have you know I steal from SEALs,” she said, thoroughly affronted. She wasn’t… nice.

  “Before you know it, I’ll be gone, and Walker will sweep you off your feet and down the aisle,” Elizabeth promised. “You’ll have five wonderful days of preliminaries and a beautiful wedding.”

  “But I’ll have to watch you two be all lovey-dovey until then.” They’d explained Elizabeth’s fear that Fulsom would make her leave the show, and Avery had to admit the man was capable of kicking her off. That didn’t make it any easier to swallow.

  “I’m not going to be lovey-dovey,” Elizabeth said. “People would really wonder what was up if I started acting that way. Anyway, it’s just for a little while. Then you’ll do the big reveal that you and Walker planned to marry all along, and everyone will be shocked and happy, and your wedding will be all people talk about!”

  “I guess that will end the show with a bang.” She sent a sideways glance Walker’s way. “You promise you’re actually going to marry me after all this?”

  “I promise. Just give me a few more days.”

  A trickle of unease threaded through Avery’s veins, although she tried to shrug it off. A few more days. Just one more day. He’d said that before, and he hadn’t come through.

  This time he would, she told herself. He had to.

  They’d all lose Base Camp if he didn’t.

  He’d asked too much of her already, Walker thought as he watched Avery take it in. How could he ask her to trust him when he’d betrayed that trust several times already?

  Avery had been so happy when she’d thought he was free to marry her. She’d waited so patiently for so long, then he’d dashed her hopes again, agreeing to help Elizabeth when he should be putting her first and foremost.

  “What happens after the hearing?” Avery asked.

  “There’ll be a vote on whether to allow the drilling. It’s scheduled for May thirtieth—probably right when you’ll be walking down the aisle. Private interests are pushing hard on legislators to get it done. I’m pretty sure they’re the ones who got the hearing postponed so it’d be a one-two punch. They don’t want people to have much time to digest the information our side is bringing and look into it more before they hold the vote.”

  “If you’re trying to influence legislation, why aren’t you using the show to do that?” Avery asked.

  Elizabeth cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

  “State your case so our audience, which is huge, by the way,” Avery pointed out, “can make up its own mind. Teach them how to call their senators and lobby for the result you want. I thought you were all about lobbying, remember?” That’s what Elizabeth had told her when she’d first arrived.

  “Is that possible?” Elizabeth asked. “I mean, would I be allowed to do that?”

  “Have you not watched this show?” Avery asked her. “People get away with a lot!”

  “Wouldn’t that make people suspicious, though?”

  “Maybe,” Avery conceded, “but maybe not. We’re all passionate about something. If I were you, I’d set it up so someone asks you questions about your job, and you can innocently answer with all the information you want people to know. Renata would be the one to work with on that front.”

  “That’s genius,” Elizabeth said.

  “That’s generous,” Walker corrected her. It was just like Avery to take the side of a woman who had been her enemy just minutes ago.

  “It’s important,” Avery said. “That’s why we’re here, right? To save the world?”

  “Something like that.” Elizabeth hugged Avery impulsively, then pulled back, blinking hard. “Sorry. I don’t usually act like that.”

  “Don’t be sorry. That’s the first nice thing you’ve done since you’ve gotten here.”

  “I’m not always a bitch, I promise,” Elizabeth said.

  “Only when you’re fighting for everyone’s future. That’s fine.” Avery waved it off. “Do I really get to plan my wedding?”

  “Of course. But we can’t be friends—not until after this is all over.”

  “Deal. Enemies.” Avery held out her hand. Elizabeth took it, and they shook.

  “Enemies,” Elizabeth agreed.

  “And then—get this—she marries him! The guy she didn’t recognize for half a year even though she worked with him every single day!” the Star News announcer, Marla, said. She turned to her co host. “The question is, Paul, why did Greg marry Renata? Is he used to being ignored? Did his parents keep mistaking him for a coat rack when he was a kid?”

  “Maybe they had anger issues,” Paul said. “Heaven knows Renata Ludlow does. All that ordering people around. Playing with their lives. How do we know she didn’t force Greg to propose to her? Maybe she’s blackmailing him because she knows some deep, dark secret. She’s a master manipulator.”

  “That’s true, Paul. She could be blackmailing him. All of America—the whole world—could be watching a hostage situation play out on live TV. And the radical left is probably celebrating it!”

  “Turn that off!” Greg roared, startling Avery, who found that her mouth was hanging open as she watched the show while gathering her things to prepare for a visit to Two Willows. Star News had said a lot of poisonous things about Base Camp, but comparing Greg and Renata’s marriage to a hostage situation took the cake.

  It was a rainy afternoon, and while some groups were still managing to do chores, others had come back to the bunkhouse to wait for the shower to end.

  “Ready?” Elizabeth asked her. “The Russells are here. I’m glad they sent a closed carriage this time.”

  “Their barouche has a hood you can put up,” Avery told her, “but you’re right, a closed carriage is better in this downpour.”

  “I’m not sure why we aren’t simply taking a truck.”

  “Because if James Russell was forced to spend a whole day inside without exercising his horses, he’d fall into a depression and never recover again, as Maud told me when she called earlier.”

  Nothing Elizabeth could say about their transportation could ruin Avery’s good mood, even if they were supposed to be enemies. She was going to try on wedding dresses today. Everyone thought it was Elizabeth who Alice would be fitting for the gowns, and more than one of her friends asked why she was accompanying her on such an errand, but Avery brushed them off, saying she needed to order a few new things of her own and added a couple of veiled references to keeping your enemies close.

  Elizabeth had been touchy today. Avery understood she was nervous about the hearing tomorrow, but her mood improved during the carriage ride over. No one could remain gloomy in a carriage, and by the time they’d arrived, Jericho and Curtis in tow to be their bodyguards, she was almost chatty. The rain was tapering off, and the sun threatening to come out. It might turn out to be a nice day, after all.

  “Where’s Daisy?” Avery asked Curtis.

  “With Samantha.”

  Avery nodded and allowed him to help her down from the carriage. Curtis helped Elizabeth down, too.

  “I always thought I’d get a plain gown,” she announced for all to hear, “but now I’m thinking something really showstopping. A dress that belongs in a fairy tale.”

  Avery appreciated the bone Elizabeth was throwi
ng her. Now she could get Alice to design her exactly the kind of gown she wanted. Even though everyone thought that gown was for Elizabeth, they wouldn’t be suspicious if they saw it.

  “Whatever.” Avery made a show of pushing past her grumpily to meet Alice, knowing she had to keep up the pretence until she was upstairs in the studio situated above the bays of the old carriage house. Jericho and Curtis would remain outside, standing guard.

  Alice’s studio was as bright and cheerful as ever, especially with the sun breaking through the clouds. Avery shrugged out of the jacket she was wearing and shook the skirts of her gown. They were a little damp, but not bad.

  Elizabeth stepped into the large, open room behind her and stopped. Avery knew just how she felt. Alice’s creations hung on clothing racks everywhere you looked. Large tables filled the center of the room, some of them empty, waiting to be used to cut fabric or pin patterns. Others held sewing machines of all sorts and kinds. At the far end was an array of mirrors and a changing room.

  Elizabeth moved toward the first rack of costumes as if drawn by them and was soon leafing through them, taking some off the rack to look at more closely.

  “These are… amazing,” she said.

  “I have some Regency gowns ready for you if you’d like to try them on.” Alice gestured at the far end of the room. “They’re in the changing room.”

  “Oh, it’s Avery who’s getting the wedding dress. I thought you knew,” Elizabeth said.

  “Yes, but you’re living at Base Camp. You should have some gowns. I’d hoped you’d surprise me and come sooner, you know.”

  Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “How would that be a surprise? You couldn’t have known I wouldn’t.”

  Alice shrugged. “I knew.”

  “Go try them on,” Avery urged. “Yell if you need help with the underthings.”

  “I’m here only a few more days.”

  “Shift first, then corset,” Alice instructed. “I’ll be over in one minute to show you how.”

  Avery thought Elizabeth would protest, but in the end she drifted down the room and pulled the curtain shut on the changing room.

  Alice turned to her. “Let’s look at material first. I picked out an array of possibilities for you. And here are some preliminary designs.” Alice placed a pile of material swatches and sketches in front of her. “I’ll help Elizabeth and come back to see what you like best.”

  Avery barely heard her leave, she was already so entranced by the drawings and the wonderful materials Alice had left. A few minutes later, she heard the door open and close again but didn’t look up until a young woman sat down next to her.

  “I like that one.” It was Josephine Reed, Jo for short. She was the youngest of Alice’s four sisters, and as usual, she was holding a black-and-white puppy. Jo bred McNabs, placing them in homes only if she determined the owners were worthy. She and Avery had talked about bison before, although Avery had found Jo’s older sister Lena had more to say about the critters. The Reeds ran a cattle operation, and while Lena was curious about Base Camp’s experiment with bison, she was a die-hard cattlewoman, and Avery didn’t think that would change.

  “I like it, too.” It was a very traditional-style Regency gown with cap sleeves, a fitted bodice and an interesting train.

  “Did I hear someone talking about a wedding?” Another Reed sister came through the door, the oldest—Cass. She was a pretty blonde, who Avery thought of as the mother hen of the family. Cass was always in her kitchen, waving through the windows when anyone arrived to talk to Alice or visit one of the others, keeping Two Willows running despite all the chaos around her.

  Things were a little chaotic despite Cass’s best efforts, Avery thought. The five sisters were all in their twenties, all unmarried, and their boyfriends were… well… questionable, in Avery’s opinion. How such wonderful women could choose so badly when it came to their partners, she didn’t know. She supposed it wasn’t any of her business, though.

  “You heard something,” Avery told her, “but you have no idea who the bride is and isn’t.”

  “Really? That sounds intriguing.”

  Avery knew the Reed sisters could keep a secret. Riley, who’d met them occasionally over the summers she’d spent in Chance Creek growing up, had told her a little about them. How their father hardly ever came home when they were little, working his way up through the ranks of the military until he became a general. Then he stopped coming home at all after their mother died when they were still fairly young.

  “They were basically raised by wolves” was the way Riley put it. “They never went to school. Hardly ever came to town. I’ve never, ever seen all five of them together in one place except at Two Willows. It’s like their ranch is enchanted, and they can’t bear to leave it.”

  Avery thought the whole situation was romantic—except for those boyfriends, whom she’d met now and then on her trips here to see Alice. Maybe someday a bunch of princes would come along and set them free.

  Cass didn’t seem to need saving, however. She bent over Alice’s designs happily, debating them with Jo until Alice returned.

  “We like this one best.” She pointed to the fanciest of the bunch. “I’m not sure which one Avery likes, though.”

  “She’s playing it close to the vest,” Jo agreed.

  “Off you two go. The bride has to choose for herself,” Alice told them. “I’ll bring Avery and Elizabeth over for tea before it’s time for them to leave.”

  Cass and Jo left good-naturedly, and Alice took a seat beside Avery. “Which one do you like?”

  “This one. It’s simple, but it’s stunning, and I can’t take my eyes off it.” Avery pointed to a design that showed a plain gown gathered just below the bustline and swooped over the model’s curves, with a gossamer overgown that trailed behind it.

  “That’s the perfect one,” Alice exclaimed. “These are the fabrics I would use for it. In fact, let me show you. I couldn’t help myself.” She moved swiftly to the other side of the room and came back lugging a dressmaker’s form.

  Avery laughed. “You already made the dress?”

  “Just a mock-up, but… well… yes.” Alice blushed, looking prettier than ever. “I knew it had to be this one.”

  The gown was satin, the overlay sheer with the most delicate embroidery around the hemline. Avery knew she’d be the image of grace and purity in it. Maybe she was far from pure in life, but somehow the gown embodied who she wanted to be—regal and joyful, something bright and beautiful in the world.

  “It will look fabulous on you,” Alice said. “Let me finish up with Elizabeth and then you can try it on. I made it to fit your measurements.”

  She moved off again toward the fitting room, and Avery circled the mannequin, entranced by the wedding dress Alice had created for her. When she looked up again, she sucked in a surprised breath. Elizabeth was standing close by, her sensible clothes replaced by a deep wine-red Regency gown.

  “Oh, you’re stunning!”

  She could only wish for Elizabeth’s tall figure, high cheekbones and the glorious fall of her long, dark hair. “If Walker saw you in that, he’d ditch me in a minute.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “Walker has eyes only for you. I wonder what—” She bit off the end of her sentence and just smiled. Avery’s curiosity grew. Was there someone else Elizabeth wanted to impress?

  Interesting.

  “Your turn,” Alice told Avery and ushered her to the fitting room. She helped Avery change into the fabulous gown, then led her to the mirrors.

  Tears pricked at Avery’s eyes when she took in her reflection. She was no tall, dark beauty, but the draped fabric accentuated her curves, while the delicate overlay took the design to a higher level. With her auburn hair tumbling over bare shoulders, the fitted bodice emphasizing the curve of her breasts and the long skirts trailing behind her, she’d never felt prettier.

  “Walker is going to lose his mind,” Elizabeth told her when she saw her. “Avery
, that’s wonderful.”

  “Thank you,” Avery said happily. “You’re right,” she told Alice. “It’s perfect.”

  When they left the studio some time later, she reminded herself that Elizabeth was the one who’d supposedly tried on wedding gowns and tried to erase the beatific smile from her face. Jericho and Curtis were suitably impressed with Elizabeth’s new wine-red gown, which she was still wearing.

  “Can we check out that hedge maze?” Jericho asked when they were done oohing and aahing over Elizabeth’s new clothes.

  “Of course,” Alice said.

  “I’ll take them.” A woman stood up from where she’d been weeding rows of carrots nearby. Sadie Reed. Her kitchen garden was enormous, and Avery knew she ran a vegetable stand through the summer months along with brewing herbal remedies in her greenhouses.

  “I’ll help Cass with the tea,” Alice said. She squeezed Avery’s hand before she left. “Sometimes your dreams come true even if your dreams don’t come true,” she said kindly and was gone before Avery could ask her what she meant by that.

  She followed the others to the hedge maze, Alice’s words tickling at her like the buzz of a fly in a bedroom at night. She’d heard rumors of the woman’s fey qualities, as Riley called them. Had Alice seen a glimpse of her future?

  Were her dreams not going to come true?

  Avery shook off her fears and hurried to catch up to the others. Alice wouldn’t have spent an hour helping her choose her wedding dress if she didn’t think she was going to marry Walker.

  She forgot all about the strange incident as they paced the dark, green passages of the maze, the evergreen shrubs that formed the walls stretching high above their heads.

  “How do you keep it trimmed?” Elizabeth asked.

  “It isn’t easy,” Sadie told them. A young, sprightly woman, her love for all growing things was evident. She ran her hand along the hedge as they walked. If Avery didn’t know better, she’d have thought Sadie was communing with it.

  When they finally reached the center, Elizabeth gasped. “How did that get here?”