A Soldier's Journey (25 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

T
WO
WEEKS
PASSED
in a blur. Andy didn't have
time to think about the evening with Nate, nor did they have more than a few minutes together.

She missed the dinner at the Rusty Nail she and Nate had planned the night they'd made love in the cabin. The script committee meeting had lasted late into the night and she had to stay. It started a pattern that continued.

Time wasn't only
her
problem; it was also Nate's. He and Josh finished their construction job and immediately started building the sets for the pageant with Craig and other volunteers. They also had the inn and the tourism guests to consider.

Publicity for the pageant had already started. Reality struck everyone then. Covenant Falls was committed, and failure would really damage the effort to draw tourists or business to the town.

The pageant committee had originally planned to hold the pageant on Friday night to introduce Covenant Falls to the incoming tourism-related guests, but the committee had asked that it be changed to Saturday to draw a larger crowd and perhaps entice out-of-town people to come early and eat at Maude's or one of the saloons.

With the pageant moved one day later, Josh and Nate had to rearrange activities for their incoming guests. They decided to hold a dinner at the inn on Friday night. Entertainment would include Clint and members of the high school choir singing traditional American and Western songs.

Making things even more complicated, Nate and Josh decided to open the inn to the general public the week of the pageant. Requests for reservations had come in from people in outlying areas who'd heard about the pageant, checked the internet and found the Camel Trail Inn.

They dropped into the community center to tell her. “We decided it was better to have a packed inn than empty halls when the tourism folks arrive,” Nate said when he and Josh dropped by the community center where Andy was stationed. “But it means additional work for Ethel and Susan, who are already shorthanded since nearly everyone in Covenant Falls is in the pageant or has some role in its production.”

“I have faith,” she said.

“I'll take some of it,” he said.

“I also have news,” she said. “Stephanie found two camels and decided to make them her contribution to the pageant. She either took us seriously or thought it a good joke on us. She swore, though, that they were gentle and would come with a handler. The script committee is, well, a bit puzzled about what to do with them.”

The phone rang. Someone from the prop committee wanted to know about the weather next week.

“Should be good, according to the long-range weather report,” she said. “I'm checking on it daily.”

No sooner than she'd hung up, the phone rang again. She listened, then said, “I'll pass the suggestion on to the props committee. It's a good one, thank you.” She sighed and looked up at Nate. “I seem to be the go-to person for everything between heaven and earth.”

“What was that about the prop committee?” Nate said.

“The actor for the brother—Liam—wanted to make sure he would have a snake to bite him.”

Nate started to laugh. “Since that's in the realm of my responsibility, I'll see what I can find in the way of deadly snakes. I do have some remarkably creative members of the high school drama club on my team.”

“I think we can do without a real one,” Josh said.

Nate grinned. “Josh has a reason for caution. He had a close encounter with a rattler at the cabin. It bit young Nick and Amos.”

“The cabin? My— I mean,
your
cabin?” she asked Josh.

“Yeah, but not to worry,” Josh said. “I think it had been hurt by an eagle or something and crawled under the porch. Eve shot it. No relatives that I could find.”

“That's comforting,” she said, but her tone wasn't quite as sure as the words.

“How are the programs coming?” Nate asked, changing the subject.

“Ah, the programs,” she said. “I finished the copy with Susan's help. Eve approved it but you should take a look at it before we start printing them. Al's office staff will be printing them and handling the folding.”

Josh shook his head. “I'll never understand how you charmed that old bas— I mean, pillar of the community.”

Nate chuckled. “I think I know how. I ran into a few nurses in Iraq. You did
not
want to cross them,” he said, then added, “I'll take a look at the copy, but if Eve approved, I'm sure I will. She's the boss on that aspect.” He moved toward the door. “We have to go. We just wanted to make sure you weren't being overworked.”

“I am,” she said, “and the pay is really pitiful.”

“But it put a sparkle in your eyes,” Nate replied.

Josh raised one of his eyebrows. “I don't think it's the piles of paper that did it, my friend.”

“Don't forget the snake,” Andy said, smiling sweetly.

“Snakes and camels,” Josh mumbled as the two men walked out. “They'll want pet vultures next.”

“Great idea,” Andy called from her desk.

After they left, she realized she was grinning like an idiot.

* * *

T
HE
SCRIPT
WAS
still being written and rewritten. The first half was completed but no one could quite agree on dramatic elements in the second. Sara brought more entries from later journals. One mentioned Angus hiring a man to travel to Santa Fe, buy mules and bring back supplies. His name was Samuel Cates.

Sara said, “He didn't return from the second trip and everyone thought a gang of outlaws got him. It was sad. He had a wife and son. I think they left.”

Andy decided to kill any mention of a mule train. “I really don't think Josh and Nate will go for it,” she said. “Not with the camels munching their way through the streets.”

Sara laughed. “I don't know how or where Stephanie found them, but they do add a certain...”

“Quirkiness?” Louisa, the drama teacher, offered.

“Welcomed or not,” grumbled Al, who had wandered into the room. “Seems she should've asked.”

“Kids will love it,” Sara chided in a gentle voice.

They went onto another scene then, an emotional one in which Angus sends his daughters to school in the northeast, where there was less discrimination.

“Why not his son?” someone asked.

Sara shrugged. “From the photographs, he looked as if he could take care of himself. Maybe thought he could better handle it.”

But he couldn't, and that was also included in the script.

At the end of the evening, they felt they had the last half of the pageant. There would be a lot of drama intertwined with the growth of the town, the coming of the Civil War and the loss of half the men who had lived in Covenant Falls and, finally, the fight for statehood.

After the meeting, Andy decided to stop by her “office” to run off copies of the script changes. The entire cast was meeting the next day. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly ten and the building was empty.

She was locking up when Nate drove up and stepped out of the car. His hair was rumpled. He wore jeans and a brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked so darn appealing she wanted to jump his bones right then and there.

But when she looked closer, she saw the lines in his face, particularly around his eyes. There was worry in them. She knew how much the upcoming weekend meant to him and Josh. They had bet everything on it, pouring even more money into production and promotion.

She stood up on tiptoes and kissed him.

“I have a bottle of wine,” he said. “I've been driving around with it for the past few days.”

Andy was tired, bone weary, but she nodded. She would much rather be with him than stay up reading until she fell asleep. That was what she had been doing to keep the old demons away. “I have the Bucket,” she said. “I drove over from the Monroe house.”

“I'll follow you,” he said.

“You think people will notice?”

“I think they've already noticed.”

She sighed. She knew all about the courtships of the previous occupants of the cabin. Why should she be any different?

Once at the cabin, Andy watched as he opened the bottle of wine. She took two glasses from the cabinet and then, without words, they walked to the sofa. He sat down, then pulled her down next to him. He put both arms around her and sighed, a long sigh. “You don't know how much I've wanted to do this,” he said softly.

For a moment, she just closed her eyes and savored the comfort of his arms. They didn't need words. They had never needed words, she realized now.

She took a sip of wine, noting that it was very good. All the tension of the past few days faded away. She felt him relaxing, as well. “I know it's late,” he said, “but I had this fierce need to see you. In fact, I've had it for several days, maybe even a week, and I restrained myself. It just quit today, that restraint.”

“Good,” she said as she ran her finger along the planes of his face. There was stubble there and it only added to his attraction.

“I didn't have time to shave,” he said ruefully.

“I like it.”

“Then, I'll let it grow. Look the part.”

“There's not much time before the pageant,” Andy said.

“You don't have to remind me. I feel like I'm on a runaway train.”

“The play is good,” she said. “Really good.”

“I know. I attended the auditions. And the kids who are planning the props and sets are amazing. They're damned creative. They've begged a couple of covered wagons from a ranch that offers recreational wagon trail rides. They promised great publicity and huge crowds of covered wagon adventurers. One of the kids' fathers is a truck driver who has trucker friends, and they're going to bring them up here.

“And—” he grinned “—Stephanie's camels will arrive Thursday before the pageant. Temporary plans are to put them in Eve's corral and move her horses over to a neighbor's barn. Stephanie said the guy who's providing them is sending an attendant.”

“Something tells me this is getting out of hand,” Andy said after bursting out with laughter.

His arms tightened around her. “I could become addicted to that laugh.”

“I think I'm addicted to
you
,” she replied, startled by her admission. She kissed him. It wasn't a wildly passionate kiss like before. Instead, it was warm and tender and lingering.

“Then, it's a mutual addiction,” he said when the kiss ended.

He rubbed her neck with his thumb and took a sip of wine.

Nate brought Andy's hand to his mouth and nuzzled it.

“Then what?” Andy asked.

She reached up and kissed him with a tenderness she didn't know was still in her.

“Wow,” he said when she pulled back, then he studied her face. “Is it too early to say I'm falling in love with you?”

She looked up at him. “No. I think the same thing is happening to me. But I also think we should take it slow. I'm still raw. I'm better, but sometimes there's moments...”

“We'll go as slow as you want.” He gave her the big grin she loved. “But then there's slow and then there's...maybe not so slow.”

“I think there may be some leeway there,” she replied after due consideration.

He led her into the bedroom. She trembled at the fierceness of her need. He undressed her, and she did the same to him, reveling in the hard, muscled body. She leaned against him and he kissed her with such tenderness her world shook. They sank down on the bed.

“I love you, Andy Stuart,” he said as he took her slowly and with such care tears came to her eyes. But this time they were tears of wonder, not of pain.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I
T
WAS
TWO
days
before the pageant.

Andy sat at her desk in the community center and planned her day, but Nate kept getting in the way.

Nearly two weeks had passed since she and Nate had made love, and he intruded into every thought.

He had stayed with her at the cabin until 2:00 that morning...

I love you.

She could barely wrap her mind around his words.

She tried to get back to business. The camels had arrived earlier today. They were accompanied by their handler, a wizened man named Murdoch.

She didn't have time to ponder the question of whether the camels were a good or bad idea. At any rate, they were written into the script. It was, Andy had to admit, one of the little historical oddities that brought added interest to Covenant Falls.

Word of the production had traveled by social media, thanks to Susan at the inn, and news releases went to newspapers around the state. The community center was flooded with calls asking about tickets. Andy finally recruited two women to answer and return those calls while she used her cell phone for other pageant business.

The sets were completed and their young creators were practicing moving them quickly. One set fell apart and she had to call Nate to repair it. Some of the costumes didn't fit, and the sewing-circle ladies were called in to make alterations. One actor sprained his ankle tripping over a prop. They were looking for a substitute.

It was midday when she received a frantic call from Maude. Camels were running down Main Street and residents were running for safety. The camels had apparently broken out of Eve's corral, and Murdoch had disappeared. Stephanie was in emergency surgery and couldn't be reached.

Andy sent someone to check the different bars and saloons in and around Covenant Falls. She couldn't think where else the man would go if he wasn't at Maude's. Then she headed for Stephanie's office, leaving Joseph in the care of a volunteer. She wasn't sure how he would react to camels.

There was a traffic jam on Main Street, probably, she thought, the first in history. One car had run into another while trying to avoid a camel. Maude hadn't been exactly right. The camels weren't running. At least not now. They were sauntering down the middle of the street, occasionally taking a bite off a tree. Two of the town's police officers were trying to lasso them, but the camels' heads were too high and the deputies didn't appear too competent at roping.

Andy hurried over to Stephanie's office. The tech met her. “Stephanie knows,” her assistant told her, “but she's in the middle of removing a baby shoe from the stomach of a dog. She can't come now, but she said the camels' names are Martha and Sally, and they like bananas. She said if you offered them one, they will probably lower their heads so you can fasten a rope to their halter.”

Muttering, “Thanks a lot,” Andy left the office and met the officers who were looking baffled and holding useless ropes in their hands. “Have you tried going up to them?” she asked.

From the looks on their faces, apparently they had not. “I don't know if they bite,” one officer said. “I don't know anything about camels.”

“Go to the grocery store and get bananas,” she told one of them.

“Bananas?” He looked at her as if she were crazy. “I didn't know camels liked bananas.”

“Stephanie says these two like bananas, so they get bananas. Where's the chief?”

“Tom is rehearsing for that play. He said not to bother him no matter what.”

Andy thought about countermanding that order, but Tom had one of the most important roles. And today was the dress rehearsal.

“You,” she said to one of the officers. “Commandeer those bananas.”

“How many?”

Patience.
“A
big
bunch should do it.”

He left while his partner stayed behind. Andy evaluated the camels. Did camels bite? She knew they spit. But these two elderly-looking ladies didn't look angry. Just kinda confused.

“Martha,” she called. One of the camels turned around and stared at her.
What in the hell did you say to a camel?
Now she wished she had brought Joseph. He might have been able to herd them.

“Sally,” she tried. The other camel turned around, looked at her, then came strolling over. The officer who'd stayed with her wore a look of total panic.

Sally looked at Andy with big camel eyes, then spit out some leaves, several of which landed on her right shoulder. Well, she'd had worse spit on her. Part of being a nurse. She just hadn't expected it to be part of being a coordinator or whatever she was now.

Undeterred, she caught the halter with her good hand and asked the officer to tie his rope to the halter. She hated to ask him, but her left hand just didn't have the dexterity to tie a knot. The camel didn't appear to object. In fact, she looked a little relieved.

Then she turned her attention to the other camel, who was staring at her.

This one didn't look as benevolent as the other. “Martha,” she called again.

The camel lumbered toward her at the same time the second officer returned bearing an armful of bananas.
Do they like them with the skin on or off?

Just for safety's sake, she took two of the bananas, peeled off the skins and handed one each to the camels, who took them carefully between their almost prehensile lips. She held on to Martha's halter until the second rope was attached. She rubbed between Martha's eyes the way she rubbed Joseph's fur. The camel ducked her head for more.

She turned to the officers. “They're gentle as lambs, and they are all yours,” she said. “Walk them back to Eve's ranch and stay with them until their keeper arrives. Tell him if he leaves again, you'll throw him in jail for creating a public nuisance.”

“Yes, ma'am,” one said.

Barely aware of the clapping behind her, Andy strolled back to the cabin, changed into an unsoiled blouse and returned to the community center, where she found herself confronted by two angry women.

The women of the Baptist church planned to sell hot dogs at the pageant to raise money for its missionary program. It seemed they had learned that the Methodist women were doing the same. They were told to come to her for a ruling. “I personally think popcorn would make you more money,” she told the complaining party, a woman about her height and twice her girth. “Besides, it's a lot less trouble.” They went away arguing over who would do popcorn.

She finally made it over to the high school auditorium and took a seat in the back. Joseph happily squeezed himself under it. The rehearsal was underway.

Today's rehearsal was a run-through of the play with costumes. Another would be held tomorrow at noon at the pageant site. The park would be roped off.

About ten minutes into the rehearsal, Nate slipped in beside her. “I hear you're now a camel whisperer.”

“Things
do
get around in this town even faster than the speed of light,” she said, giggling. She never giggled.

“You scared the hell out of the police officers. Jay and Leon were more afraid of you than the camels. They're in awe.”

“That was my military nurse persona,” she said. “You get pretty good at bossing even superior officers around.”

He slipped his hand around hers as, on the stage, Clint joined members of the wagon train and started “Amazing Grace” while playing the guitar.

“He does have a fine voice,” she said.

“You can hear him tomorrow night,” he said. “He's going to be entertaining our guests at the inn. Some students, too. Will you go with me?”

“I would love it,” she said, “but there seems to be no end of emergencies and final details left. Maybe after...” Her voice trailed off.

Once the pageant was over, her reason for being in Covenant Falls was over. She had written the short history, helped with the pageant. She could function again. It would be time to turn the cabin over to someone else. Wasn't that the implied agreement?

“Okay,” he said. “But we've been invited to Al's home Sunday night for a festive dinner, as he put it. He invited every committee chairman.”

“I'm not a chair.”

“You are the chair of the chairs,” he said. “And if that's not good enough, chairs can bring a plus one.”

“What if the pageant bombs?”

“Then we cry in our beer and wine at Al's expense, because we'll all be too poor to buy any.”

The idea didn't seem to bother him. But then, nothing much seemed to unsettle Nate. “I accept,” she said.

“That's great. I have to go. We've had some calls at the inn for reservations this weekend. We decided to book all but one room and save that one in case a last-minute tourist promoter appears. We have to finish up hanging paintings and a few final touches.” His fingers tightened around hers, then he let go and left.

She watched him leave, then turned back to the stage. Maybe she was too close to it, but it was good. Really good. She checked her phone and found four frantic messages. She sighed and returned to the community center.

* * *

A
NDY
DIDN
'
T
SEE
Nate again that night, but he was at the noon dress rehearsal outside the community center at the picnic area.

The weather bureau promised sunny weather for the next three days, and the main set—the trading post facade—had been erected along with two large tents on each side. Two covered wagons were behind the community center, along with eight horses for the hitch. The camels were separated from them on the other side and secured to a post. Murdoch, having been threatened with bodily harm by Stephanie, stayed close to them.

Andy had bought a couple of bananas at the store and gave each camel the treat, then talked to them for a minute. They seemed attentive. Joseph had given her a new perspective on animals, both small and large.

She stood back and watched the play progress. She felt certain it was good, but then, she was prejudiced. The animals behaved toward the end. Louisa had indeed enticed the Ute dancing group to appear in the marriage scene between Angus and Chiweta.

All in all, it would be quite a spectacle if all went as planned.

If.

* * *

I
T
DID
.

The pageant was better than any of them had expected. The churches had loaned them chairs, which filled up fast. Then a number of people brought blankets and settled down on the ground. There was hardly a vacant inch anywhere.

The sky was painted with a brilliant sunset as Clint strummed his guitar and sang a Scottish melody, “O'er the Sea,” as the opening number.

Andy watched with a big grin as the camels appeared during a brief encounter between Angus and an outlaw who tried to steal them. The animals complained all the way, and Martha spit on Stephanie, who was leading the second camel. Much against her will, she was dressed as a camel driver with her hair piled under an old soiled cowboy hat. A duster hid her feminine body. Andy thought Stephanie would never, ever agree to anything civic again. If there was another pageant, Andy doubted it would include camels.

The choir's versions of “Wagon Wheels,” “The Colorado Trail,” “Oh Shenandoah” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” brought the audience to their feet, as did Clint's performance of “Amazing Grace” at the death of Angus's brother, and the state song, “Where the Columbines Grow,” at the end.

The applause was thunderous when the pageant ended and even more when the cast was introduced and Sara Monroe brought on stage as author of the drama.

Sara looked beautiful. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkling as a member of the cast handed her a bouquet of roses. Andy watched as she walked off the stage and into the arms of her husband. Al Monroe beamed.

As Andy walked out, she saw a number of people heading for the donation boxes. A sense of pure joy and accomplishment flooded her as she watched happy people file out, all of them talking eagerly to each other. She suspected Maude was going to have a very good night.

She looked for Nate, wanting to share her excitement with him, then saw him. Dressed in Western casual, he was talking to a mixed group of men and women. When he saw her, he gestured for her to come over. She hesitated, aware of her ugly left hand and jeans. He gestured again and she went to him. “This,” he said, “is the young woman who is the heart of this event. It never would have happened without her.”

His eyes were warm with approval, with pride, and she felt as if she'd been handed the best present anyone could give her. She shook her head. “If there's ever been a community effort,” she said, “this is it. I don't think there's one person in Covenant Falls that didn't have a part in this.”

A tall, distinguished-looking man smiled. “I'm Neil Brock with the tourism bureau. I must confess, I'm astonished. Clint said you put it together in six weeks?”

“Nearly seven,” she said. “The whole town put it together,” she corrected.

“I'm certainly impressed,” a woman chimed in. “I'm with a news syndicate, and I can't wait to tell this story. You
are
going to keep doing the pageant?”

Andy looked at Nate.

“We've been thinking of Saturday nights during the summer,” he said.

“And you haven't seen our falls yet,” Andy said. “They're pure magic.”

“I'm certainly looking forward to it,” broke in one of the men. “I had no idea you had waterfalls here. The entertainment last night was great, and the food... You really have a fine town.”

Andy excused herself and left. Not knowing exactly what would happen tonight, she had left Joseph at the cabin. She was on the way out when Al Monroe stopped her and gave her a hug. “I didn't think it was possible,” he said. “You gave my wife life again. Now she wants to write a book.” He turned and looked at Sara with awe.