Moonlight Masquerade (27 page)

“I liked you,” he said softly.

“You liked that I cleaned your apartment and cooked for you.”

“No, I like that you care, that you listen, that you make me laugh, that you . . . ” He trailed off for a moment. “In that first call I didn't know who you were and I confided things in you that I've never told anyone else. I'm sorry about my driving. I'll never again take my eyes off the road. I . . . ” He reached into his trousers pocket and withdrew a new cell phone and put it on the counter. It was an unseasonably warm day, and he had on a T-shirt and jeans that hugged his body. “I owe you this.”

“You don't owe me anything,” she said.

The hostility in her voice seemed to startle him, and for a moment she thought he was going to leave, but he didn't. He looked around at the little restaurant. She hadn't yet had time to do much with it.

Last night when she and Roan had returned from shopping, he'd insisted on going inside with her,
even to walking her upstairs, and she soon saw why. While they were out, the little apartment had been transformed with gently used furniture, even some rugs. There was a pretty mahogany bed in the back, complete with blue and white sheets and lots of pillows.

“Guilt offerings,” Roan had said.

But whatever the reason, the kindness of the people of Edilean made Sophie smile.

When she looked back at Reede, he was staring at her.

“Do you
want
to open a restaurant?” he asked.

She wasn't going to lie. “No, not really, but it's just temporary. I'm staying here for the Christmas season and New Year's.”

“Then what?”

“I don't know,” she said. “My life seems to just happen to me. I have work to do, so you need to leave.”

Reede stood where he was for a moment, then walked behind the counter to stand near her.

Sophie drew in her breath. It was so strange that this man was so familiar but at the same time she felt that she'd never seen him before. She'd thought his eyes were beautiful behind the mask, but seeing them now made her skin grow warm. “I don't think . . . ” she began, but he stepped past her as though she hadn't spoken.

“I'll help you,” he said and motioned to the ladder.

Sophie frowned as he picked up a tall stockpot and held it out to her.

She thought she should tell him to get out and that she never wanted to see him again, but she couldn't
make herself do it. She stepped up on the short ladder and took the big pot.

“I sent the Treeborne cookbook off to a friend of mine who likes to break codes.”

“You did what?”

“I sent the—”

“I heard what you said but what gave you the right to do something like that? I wanted it returned to him. You said—” She broke off when Reede's phone buzzed.

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled it out of his pocket. “I have to take this. When?” he said into the phone. “Did you tell them not to move him? Meet me at Sophie's new place.” He clicked off and looked up at her. “It's Heather with an emergency and I have to go. I—” Reede blinked a few times, then reached up and put his hands on Sophie's waist and lifted her down. “You're going with me.”

“I can't go with you,” she said.

“Please?” he asked. “Let me try to make you believe that whatever I did had no malice in it. If I'd shown you who I was at first you would have slammed the door in my face. You would
never
have gone out with me that first night. You—Damn! I have to go. It's an emergency. Please, Sophie. Go with me.”

She was sure she shouldn't, but his eyes were so compelling that she couldn't resist. And she wanted so very much to go with him, to hear him out. She gave only the slightest nod and Reede took her hand, pulled her around the counter, and out the front door.

Outside, Heather was getting out of the Jeep and her eyes widened when she saw Dr. Reede holding on to Sophie with a firm grip.

Since the vehicle floor was quite high, Reede picked Sophie up at the waist and set her sideways in the driver's seat.

She knew she should hold out and say she wasn't going with him, but the prospect of spending the day putting things away had no appeal for her. And she already knew that when Reede was around exciting things happened. “I'm supposed to drive?”

His look made her swing her legs over the gearshift console and get into the passenger seat. Reede was right behind her.

“I'm no Frazier but you'd better buckle up.”

Sophie had no idea what that meant but she did fasten her seat belt. “Wait! I forgot to lock the door of the shop.”

Reede gave a scoff of a sound, glanced at Heather, and she nodded. He'd silently asked if his medical kit was in the back. “It's Edilean,” he said as he put the Jeep in gear, flipped a switch, and a siren and red lights went off. When he pushed the accelerator, the vehicle leaped forward.

Sophie held on to the armrest on the door with one hand and the seat with the other. When Reede swerved around three cars, barely missing them, she couldn't repress a squeal of fear.

“Okay?”

“Yes.” He went over a pothole and she went flying up to nearly hit the ceiling. She knew she was angry at him, and that she had every right to be, but something suddenly hit her. “So what's the third date going to be?”

The image of her in a red corset, him on a horse
that didn't want to obey, and the two of them walking across a beam high above the floor came to him. Date number one. And this was the second. He jerked the steering wheel to miss a dog that was sauntering across the road, then laughter began to bubble up inside him. In the next second they were both laughing as they held on for the wild ride over what had turned into a dirt road.

“Who? Where?” Sophie managed to say over the sound of the Jeep hitting every hole in the road. Even as little as she knew about Edilean, she could see that they were heading out of town and into the surrounding nature preserve.

“Campsite number eight,” Reede said. “Some guy hurt himself playing with a bow and arrow. Or that's what I think Betsy said.”

“Is it serious?”

“It depends where it went in. Hold on, as it's about to get rough.”

“And just when I was getting comfortable,” Sophie said, making Reede smile.

But he didn't look at her. “See? Even when the prettiest girl I've ever seen is smiling at me, I don't look away from the road. Oops! Sorry. These roads are bad. Okay?”

“I'm going to need dental work, but I'm fine. Watch that one!” She held on as Reede went onto the bank to miss a six-foot-long rut in the road.

“I'll get the Fraziers to bring a dozer out here. Sophie, I really am sorry about nearly running you down. I saw the papers and heard your phone crunch but I didn't see you. I would never—”

“Left!” she yelled and he jerked the wheel. “I know. But why did everyone
lie
to me?”

“Self-protection. I haven't been too happy about being back here.”

“Roan says you're a monster. Or thereabouts.”

“Roan would betray his own mother to get near you.”

“He's been nothing but a gentleman.”

“A gentleman, yes, but did he tell you about his book yet? It's really boring.”

“No,” Sophie said, her eyes straight ahead. “But he did give me a restaurant free for four months, and he's going to pay my employees' salaries for three months.” She couldn't help how pleased she was at the look Reede cut her. Good. Let him be jealous.

Reede drove down the narrow gravel road at what seemed to be the speed of light and skidded to a halt just as another Jeep came from another direction. Out jumped a big man Sophie recognized as Colin Frazier, the town sheriff. She'd met him at the Halloween party when he'd been costumed as an Old West sheriff. Everyone had teased him that he hadn't actually worn a costume but had come as the way everyone saw him. Colin had taken it all so good-naturedly that Sophie had liked him.

Reede grabbed his medical bag from the back, jumped out of the vehicle, and started running. Sophie didn't at first see where he was going, but then she stared in horror. Behind a picnic table spread with food was a man pinned to a tree by an arrow going through his shoulder. Before him was a gray-haired
woman, her hands on his shoulder as she stopped the blood from flowing out of his body.

As Reede ran to the man, Colin went to the back of his vehicle to get out a big toolbox. He slung huge metal cutters over his shoulder and ran toward the man and the tree.

Sophie got out of the Jeep, but she didn't know what to do. She watched as Colin cut the arrow that held the man and Reede caught him as he fell. The woman still had her hands on the man's shoulder.

As Sophie went to the table she heard Reede quietly giving orders to Colin and the woman. It seemed she was a retired nurse and Reede was using her expertise.

Sophie was wondering how the man had been shot. Was it an accident? Someone playing with a bow and arrow? Or had it been with malicious intent?

She looked at the table for a bow. Instead she saw a stack of paper plates and three packages of hot dogs. There were paper cups with cartoon characters on them. Kids! she thought and spun around. Under some trees was a green minibus with the name of a Williamsburg church on the side of it. It looked like they'd taken advantage of the warm day to have one last picnic before cold weather set in.

She walked around the table to stand behind Reede. “How many children are here and where are they?”

Reede looked at the nurse.

“Eight,” she said. “They were really scared when Jim was hit and they were screaming, but I couldn't leave him. I told them to hide until I came and got them. But I can't . . . ”

“Sophie, could you—” Reede said but she cut him off.

“I'm on it.” She was genuinely pleased to have something to do. Turning, she looked back at the woods. They began just a few feet away and the pine trees were so dense she couldn't see but a few feet into them. There were no children in sight.

She wanted to ask their ages but the adults were so busy that she didn't. How could she round them up when she was a stranger? In the center of the table was a bag of potatoes and beside it was an old paring knife, the blade worn down, the handle rough from many washings. There was also a metal spoon with a narrow tip, and she took that. On the ground was Colin's open toolbox. “Could I borrow these?” she asked as she held up a rattail file and a couple of small screwdrivers.

“Sure,” Colin said as he looked at Reede, but he just shrugged. He had no idea what Sophie was up to.

She took some potatoes and the tools into the woods. It was cool in there, certainly too cold for the children to be in there alone. There wasn't a sign of any of them. No doubt they'd been traumatized by seeing an arrow that had to have flown across the table, hit the man, and pinned him to the tree. That their other guide, the woman, couldn't get him down must have further frightened them.

Part of her thought she should call out to the children, but then what? Chase them down? Just her and eight kids? It would never work. It would either frighten them more or entertain them so much that they'd make her chase them up the trees.

Instead, she was going to do what she'd done
when Lisa was little and would run away and hide.

Sophie found a clearing in the woods, close to the campsite, sat down on the cold ground, and leaned back against a fallen log. She moved slowly, listening, but she heard nothing. She put the potatoes and tools beside her and picked up one of each.

“I'm a sculptor,” she said loudly into the silence, and the word gave her a feeling of purpose. It had been a long time since she'd called herself that.

“Do you know what that means? I was given a gift when I was born. I see shapes and I can form clay or stone or in this case potatoes to look just like them.”

As she spoke she was cutting the potato by chunks, her hands working quickly.

“I have a sister who is much younger than I am and when she was little I made her laugh by cutting all her food into funny shapes.” Sophie held the potato up so if the children were near they could see it. “This is going to be a rabbit. My sister Lisa loves rabbits and she had one when she was little. She called it Annie and she wanted me to make all her food into rabbits.”

Behind her, Sophie heard leaves rustling and to her right she thought she saw movement. But she didn't look. She just kept carving as fast as she could. And thinking.

“You should have seen my little sister's plate for every meal. I had to make everything into a rabbit. The pancakes were easy and mashed potatoes were a breeze, but how do you make applesauce look like a rabbit? Know what I did?”

She waited in silence, carving quickly, but not answering her own question.

“What did you do?” a little girl asked.

Sophie looked at the child, saw the fear in her eyes, and smiled. “I made two round puddles of applesauce, put in raisin eyes, and pieces of carrot for ears. But . . . ” She paused as another girl and a boy quietly came close to her. Sophie lowered her voice. “I was afraid the bunny would wake up and eat his own carrot ears.”

The children laughed. They were about six years old and seemed to be glad to feel safe again.

“Is Mr. Jim okay?” a child asked.

“Yes,” Sophie said as she set the potato rabbit on the log beside her.

“Bet you can't make a dragon,” a boy said from her left.

“Are you kidding?” Sophie said. “If they gave out awards for potato dragons, I'd get one. Get me some little sticks that look like fire coming out of his mouth so I can make a real dragon.”

One by one, seven children tiptoed toward her and sat down on the ground and watched. She finished the dragon, stuck a branched stick in for fire, and the children moved closer.