Eddie’s Prize (29 page)

He shook her again. “What do you know?”

“Nothing! I invited her to stay with us last night, but … I saw her with Cory later.”

“Cory?” Disbelief stabbed him. “My friend, Cory Haas? Where did they go?”

“How would I know? I only saw them for a second through the curtain while I was getting ready for bed.” Bree jammed the edge of the dish into his belly. “Let me go, Eddie.”

He did. Without a word he left the house. He ran flat out down the street, ignoring the startled people he passed. Cory lived on the far edge of the mayor’s compound in a house he shared with three other young unmarried men who worked for the mayor. Usually, a brisk walk would take a man that far in ten minutes or so, but Eddie got there in less than five. All four men who lived there were friends of his, and he knew which room was Cory’s. He thundered into the house and up the steps to Cory’s room. He burst through the door without knocking, letting it crash against the wall while he swept a furious glare around the dim room. There was more than one person in the bed.

Lisa. Grief battled hurt and surrendered to rage. Without thinking, he charged the bed and grabbed the arm of the woman there, jerking her out of bed.

“What the hell, man?” bellowed Cory.

The thick, brown hair and soft, pale face weren’t Lisa’s. Eddie stared at the naked woman sprawled on the floor in blank horror for a moment before letting her go as if her arm was on fire.

Cory flung himself out of bed, heedless of his nudity. Eddie saw his fist coming, but was too slow to duck. He crashed against the wall, pain blooming over his jaw as Cory yelled again, “What the hell?”

“I thought it was Lisa,” Eddie said stupidly, hand to his aching jaw.

“What?” Cory looked ready to punch Eddie again, and Eddie wouldn’t blame him. “Why would I be in bed with your wife?”

“You were seen with her last night.”

“So? I took her over to the Plane Women’s House. I was heading there to pick up
my
wife and bring her home.”

Eddie shot a quick look at the woman who had scrambled back to the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. Her face was familiar. She was Val, one of his wife’s new friends. “You’re married?”

“Moron.” Cory took half a step back, scowling and dragging a hand through his short, brown hair. “If you would have stayed at the Gala, you would have seen it. You would have seen plenty.” He stabbed a finger at Eddie’s chest. “Like your wife turning down all invitations to dance, sitting alone and trying not to cry for the rest of the night. You know, I should thank you for showing me how
not
to treat my wife.”

Val snorted, holding the blanket in clenched fists. “Lisa deserves someone a lot better than you. I hope she finds her real Mr. Right.”

Eddie turned to go. “Sorry,” he muttered.

The energy to run to the Plane Women’s House just wasn’t there. Eddie plodded the icy streets to the gate in the fence around the women’s house. One of Des’ men stood guard behind the gate.

“Let me in. I’m here to see my wife,” Eddie said curtly.

The man looked at him with eyes as cold as the packed snow under their feet. “Can’t let anyone in. Doc’s orders. Besides, Miss Anton ain’t here.”

The words were a jumble in Eddie’s head. Doctor Whitten had given orders to not let anyone in?
Miss Anton
? “My wife is Mrs. Madison.”

“Nope. Not anymore.” The wolf seemed to enjoy drawling the words. “She repudiated you.”

The street wasn’t so icy that Eddie would slip, so why did he feel like he was falling? His fingers clawed for a grip on the chain link fence. “
Where is she
?”

The guard shrugged. “She left last night.”

In the dark? “Who was she with?”

The guard smiled a small, taunting smile. “That’s none of your business anymore.”

The animal inside Eddie made an escape attempt, and Eddie was so weak it almost succeeded. “Where is my wife?” he screamed.

Another man came out of the house and walked to the fence. He was Des, the man in charge. Eddie relaxed. Maybe now he’d get answers.

“Bad news,” Des said. He was speaking to the guard, but he nodded grimly at Eddie. “Doc Whitten confirmed. It’s the Woman Killer Plague. We’re all under quarantine here until further notice.”

The fence blurred. Eddie found himself sitting on the ground, his head swimming. Woman Killer Plague. Oh, God, no. “Lisa?” he croaked.

“She’s been exposed. All the women who were at the Gala were exposed.” Des’ usually dour face got grimmer. “Doc Whitten will be here for a while. You better go home and tell your dad about the plague. The sooner you get all the women in town locked down, the better.”

Eddie used the fence to climb to his feet. “I will. What do we know so far?”

“Yesterday afternoon some of the women complained of feeling ill. After we got home from the party, they got much worse, so we called for Doc Whitten. Kathy, Jas, and JaNae are confirmed. Doc thinks the woman from Omaha who showed up with Vann might be the carrier. She visited here as soon as they got to town to collect the taxes. You have to track her down and confine her.” Des suddenly drooped, his hands clenching the fence. “This is going to be awful. If it wasn’t for the Gala, it wouldn’t be so bad, but how many people did she infect?” he said almost to himself.

Eddie leaned on the fence. “Where’s Lisa? Just tell me where she is so I can check on her.”

Des gave a shrug, not quite hiding his spite. “She left with Dane and Neal Overdahl and some others. Someone’s got to go out to their place and warn them about the Plague. You can ask out there about your … Miss Anton.”

A dozen knives stabbed Eddie’s chest. “Right. Tell Doc to come to my dad’s office as soon as he can.”

As he stumbled away, his tears froze on his cheeks in the early morning air. His beast was yowling inside with pain and fury, wanting to go immediately to the Overdahl place, but Eddie knew he had to give the warning about the Woman Killer Plague to his father first.

Oh, God. The last time the Plague had come to Kearney, they’d lost over twenty women. That had been ten years ago, and Eddie knew men who had never recovered from the loss of their wives. How many would they lose this time? If Lisa died, would he recover?

It took him more than an hour to reach his father’s house. He stopped everyone he saw and told them the news, urging them to stay home to not risk spreading the infection. As usual when the town faced trouble, the mayor would have newssheets posted around town as soon as possible to keep citizens updated.

“Mom! Bree!” he shouted as he opened the door to the kitchen.

Bree was there, mixing something in a bowl. “For heaven’s sake, what is wrong? Keep your voice down. Mom’s not feeling well, so she went to lie down for a nap.”

Terror made Eddie shake. His mother couldn’t die. “Bree, stay in the house, okay? And don’t let anyone in. It’s really important. I’ll explain soon.”

He left the kitchen, leaving Bree’s alarmed face behind, and went to his father’s office. His father was sitting behind his desk, reading something by the light of the window. He looked up as Eddie hurried in. “Did you find your wife?”

“No.” Eddie put his hands on the desk and leaned forward to catch his breath. “I have terrible news, Dad. Doctor Whitten has confirmed three cases of Woman Killer Plague at the Plane Women’s House. He thinks it got started by the woman with Peter Vann, and since she was at the Gala… Everyone could be infected by now.”

His father’s face turned gray. “Where’s your mother?”

“She’s lying down.” Eddie had to force words out of a throat that felt like it had been stuffed with cotton balls. “Bree said she wasn’t feeling well.”

His dad drew a deep breath and blinked hard. “Okay. We need to alert the town. Find Faron and Steve and have them round their men up to send out with the news. Fetch me Cory Haas. He needs to start printing news flyers. Then find Doc Whitten and send him this way.”

Eddie had never had more respect for his dad. Even through his fears for his wife, Ray Madison was thinking of the welfare of his town. “Doc Whitten is still up at the Plane Women’s House. Des will send Doc along as soon as he can. I want to head up north, to the Overdahl place.” He swallowed. “That’s where Lisa probably is.”

“Fine,” agreed his dad. “First you have something to eat and get a short rest. You look like hell. When you get up, Haas should have some flyers printed up. You can take those with you and hand them out along the way. Visit the Wolfe place too. Some of their men were at the Gala.”

Eddie gathered his strength and went out to find Faron and Steve. He also had to face Cory and his new wife again. Would Cory be a widower the same week he’d become a husband? It was a painful thought Eddie tried to not ask himself. He found Faron and Steve, gave them the message, and went to Cory’s house for the second time that morning.

Cory and his new wife were in the kitchen. Cory may not have been pleased to see him, but he was polite. His new wife wasn’t. She glared at Eddie from the table.

“Sorry to bother you. Again,” Eddie added meticulously. “Bad news. Three women at the Plane Women’s House are sick with the Woman Killer Plague.”

Cory clutched his wife’s hand.

“My dad needs your printing press fired up to print flyers. Go meet him as soon as possible. Your wife needs to be segregated until this burns itself out.”

“Right.”

Eddie left Cory explaining to his wife why she had to stay indoors. He had run without pause since the night before, and during that time he’d had only a rabbit, which his beast had eaten with messy enjoyment. As much as he hated having to take time to sleep, he knew he was ready to give out. On his way back home he was stopped frequently by townsmen who heard rumors.

“Yes, it’s true,” he told the worried men. “We’re dealing with the Woman Killer Plague. The good thing is we’ve caught it early. You know the routine.” Everybody knew the routine for dealing with an outbreak of the Plague. “Keep your women at home. No one should be leaving their houses more than necessary. If anyone becomes ill, hang a light colored cloth on your door and help will come. If you need food or other supplies, write a list of what you need and tack it to your door. If anyone dies, hang a dark colored cloth on your door. Mr. Paulson and his men will be patrolling around the clock. News will be delivered as soon as possible.”

The mood in Kearney was grim, but it was a weight off Eddie’s shoulders to see that no one was panicking. He reported to his father’s office, where Faron Paulson and a dozen other men were talking in bleak voices, was told to eat and sleep, and dragged himself to the kitchen where his frightened sister had a steak and re-heated fried potatoes for him.

“How’s Mom?” he asked, shoveling food into his mouth methodically.

“She says she’s okay, just tired. She doesn’t have a fever.”

One of the weights that threatened to crush his heart disappeared. “That’s good.”

“Yeah. Did you find Lisa?”

The weight thudded back into place. “No.” He put the fork down. “Bree,” he whispered to the fist he pressed to his mouth. “She’s repudiated me.”

His sister sighed. She sat down at the kitchen table with him. “You have been pretty hard on her,” she suggested gently. “And at the Gala…”

“I overreacted. I know. But she knows how I feel about her and Dane. If she hadn’t danced with him, I wouldn’t have lost my temper.”

“So, this is her fault?” Bree shook her head. “When Dane asked her to dance, she said no. But dad told her to go ahead.”

He was too tired to finish eating. He pushed away from the table. “I’m going to lie down for an hour. I’ll be at my house.”

When he stripped off his clothes and fell into bed, Lisa’s lingering scent wrapped him in a cold embrace. The need to hold her clawed at his heart as he dropped into the black well of sleep.

He had a strange dream. His dream self walked into the kitchen, expecting to see Lisa at the stove. But the only person in the kitchen was a stranger sitting at the table. It might have been Mr. Gray as he had been fifty years ago. Or maybe it was Eddie’s almost identical twin brother. There was resemblance. The stranger’s hair was almost the same blond, but longer and bushier, and his eyes were yellow-green rather than blue-green. He was wearing a worn cardigan and sipping a fragrant cup of the mint tea Mr. Gray favored.

“Sit down, Eddie,” the stranger said pleasantly. “We need to talk.”

“Do I know you?” Eddie asked, pulling out a chair.

“You’ve been trying very hard not to know me since your eighth birthday.”

The tone was that of a prissy English butler. Or what Eddie imagined an English butler would use. It was the same tone Mr. Gray used when he read dialogue out loud from novels by Dickens and Austen. Eddie had been enthralled by those readings, which the entire town attended the way people in the Times Before might have attended a party. The words sank in. Eighth birthday? That was when the monster had first come out.

Eddie gave the stranger a sneer. “
You
are the monster I’ve been cursed with? You look pretty civilized for a creature who eats rabbits raw and roars like a wild beast to get his way.”

The stranger put his cup down very gently. “I am not a monster, or a beast, or a creature,” he said precisely. “I am a cat, the other side of you. We should be two halves of a whole, but you have chained me and muzzled me until I am only a shadow of what I could be. I appear in this form to reassure you. What I have to say is important, so listen.”

Eddie winced when those eyes—cat eyes, he now recognized—glowed balefully across the table.

“We are brothers, born of the same womb. Your mother has taught you nothing of what we are.”

“How can she? She doesn’t know anything,” Eddie protested.

“Perhaps,” the stranger conceded. “Her sire may have taught her little before he died. He should have taught her more.”

Eddie pinched his thigh under the table, willing himself to wake from this weird dream. “He was murdered when she was only nine years old! Murdered because of his crea—cat, just like the rest of his family had been murdered.”