Moonlight Masquerade

“That makes one of us,” Reede murmured as he collapsed onto his desk chair.

  Twenty-one

  “What are you doing for Christmas?” Henry asked Sophie.

  They were in his big garage working on a three-foot-wide sculpture of the Battle of Bunker Hill. The two of them had found a way to work that consisted of Henry trying to form the clay to look like some photo he’d found on the Internet, then he’d step back and Sophie would redo it for him.

  In the last weeks she’d come to know Henry well. For all that he was a quiet man, he was a powerhouse. She could see how he’d been able to rule a couple of very big businesses.

  He surrendered only to his small, round wife.

  “Henry! If you don’t get that mess out of my garage you’re going to find yourself living alone,” she’d said one day.

  The next time Sophie went to their sprawling estate, construction on a huge studio had begun.

  “Now you’ll be able to do your own work,” Henry told Sophie happily. “Come and see what I did yesterday.”

  He’d made an ugly little man sitting on a horse that had one leg a half inch shorter than the other. Worse was that if the man stood up he’d be a foot taller than the horse. Henry’s ambition was much larger than his talent.

  Repressing a sigh, Sophie tore Henry’s work apart. She tried to be gentle, but her bad mood wouldn’t let her. She pushed and pulled at the clay, then picked up a stainless steel tool and started gouging.

  Henry, rather than being offended, laughed. He was a man who knew how to delegate. “So what about Christmas?” he asked again.

  “I don’t know. Reede and I put up a tree and we went shopping and bought his family and friends gifts. It was fun.”

  “What are you getting him?”

  “He showed me some pictures of his travels and I’m going to make a sculpture of one of them. I’m hoping to have it cast in bronze, but it won’t be ready before Christmas.”

  Henry was watching her as she rearranged the clay man he’d made. He could always see when his sculptures were wrong. He just couldn’t figure out how to make them right. “You’re upset about something.”

  “No, I’m . . . ”

  “I have three daughters, remember? I know when things aren’t right.”

  Sophie wiped her hands on a cloth. “Yesterday a man came into the restaurant. Seems he’d been sent there by Reede’s nosy threesome.”

  “The women who work for him?” Henry was careful to keep his opinions to himself. If he’d learned nothing else from raising daughters it was that if he spoke against someone, they would take the opposite side. His middle daughter had almost married a kid with a record for armed robbery because Henry had talked to her “for her own good.”

  So Henry stood in silence and waited for Sophie to tell him whatever she wanted to. His personal opinion was that Reede Aldredge was suppressing Sophie’s magnificent talent. That she was wasting her time in that dreary little sandwich shop bothered him. His plan was that for Christmas he was going to offer her a full-time job. She’d have a good salary, benefits, and a great place to work. No more spending her days making tuna salad sandwiches.

  “His name is Dr. Tyler Becks and he wants to take over Reede’s practice,” Sophie said.

  Henry had heard a bit of the gossip around town, how Reede had given up his flamboyant, daredevil career to return to Edilean to help his friend. But then, Reede had been trapped here. “What did Reede say?”

  “Nothing,” Sophie said and there was frustration in her voice. “He didn’t even tell me about this doctor. Roan did. But then, I never know what Reede is thinking. We practically live together but I don’t know any more about him today than I did months ago.”

  “Everybody in town says he’s mad about you,” Henry said softly.

  “I guess.” Sophie looked away for a moment. In the distance she could hear the thump of a nail gun as the men framed Henry’s new studio. She had an idea that he was going to offer her a job in it, and she didn’t know what she was going to say.

  The truth was that she had no idea where her life was going. Roan teased her about leaving on the fifteenth of January as she’d said she was going to do. But where could she go? Lisa was quite happy at college now and was even planning to spend Christmas with friends. She no longer needed her big sister. Sophie knew she couldn’t go back to her hometown. To what? The only person she really cared about there was Carter, and he was here in Edilean.

  Sophie knew Reede was deeply jealous of Carter and there was a part of her that liked that he was.

  “Does any of this have to do with young Treeborne?” Henry asked.

  “No, Carter’s fine. I think he’s falling in love with Kelli.”

  “The baker? The one with the . . . ” Henry motioned around his eyes.

  “That’s her. She’s a really good pastry chef, and what I like is that she doesn’t take anything off Carter. I used to be so aware that he was a Treeborne that I treated him like a prince. I was in awe of him.”

  “But Kelli isn’t?”

  “Not by a long shot. She acts like his being a Tree-borne is something he needs to overcome.”

  Henry smiled. “That sounds good for him.”

  “It is. It’s how I should have treated him.”

  “What’s really bothering you?” Henry asked.

  “This man, Dr. Becks . . . The three women sent him to me. Not pointedly, they just strongly suggested that he get a sandwich at the Phoenix shop and ask for Sophie.”

  “Have they done that before?”

  “No, so I knew it was important, and I sat down with him to talk. Poor man. He’s a mess. His wife has been having an affair with the other doctor in his practice and she wants a divorce.”

  “And he wants to come here to little Edilean to heal his wounds?”

  “Yes. And I think it’ll be good for him. The locals will match him up with somebody, and by the time Tris returns he’ll be in recovery.” She stepped forward to make some more changes to the ill-proportioned sculpture Henry had made.

  “It all sounds like a good thing,” Henry said. “But you don’t seem to agree.”

  “I think it’s wonderful,” Sophie said. “I know this is what Reede wants. He wants to return to his charity work. That’s where his heart is. At least I think so. It’s not as though he’s ever actually told me so. A few weeks ago there was a piece on the news about a doctor who owned a big boat that was set up as a hospital ship. He went around the world to places where people had never seen a doctor in their lives. You should have seen Reede’s face! It lit up like a light had been turned on.”

  “What did he say about it?”

  “That’s it!” Sophie said. “Reede didn’t say a word. He just got up and went to the kitchen to get a beer. I went after him and asked him if he’d like to do something like that. You know what he did? He laughed. He said, ‘Do you know how much something like that would cost?! I’d never get funding for something as big as that.’ I tried to get him to talk about it, but he wouldn’t say another word.”

  “Funding, huh?” Henry said. “If he did get the money for such a project, then what? Would you go with him?”

  “What could I do? I’m not a nurse or know anything about health care. I’d just be in the way. Reede climbs down cables on helicopters. I’m terrified of walking across a roof beam.”

  Henry couldn’t help smiling. “So am I, but I don’t think that means I’m useless. Sophie, you have a wonderful talent. I’d think you’d want to use it.”

  “I do,” she said. “I mean, I think I do. But sometimes, I . . . I don’t know. All I know is that Reede didn’t tell me about the doctor who wants to take over his practice. I dropped about a thousand hints, but Reede didn’t take them. He was quiet all night. I’m afraid . . . ”

  “Of what, Sophie?” Henry asked.

  “That he’ll stay here because of me and give up his dream. Or maybe he’ll take this doctor up on his offer and I’ll be left behind. Either wa
y, one of us is going to be miserable.”

  Henry could see that she was on the verge of tears and he did the same as he did with his daughters and pulled her into his arms. Over her shoulder he saw his wife, but she turned away, sympathy on her face. She knew that her husband was very good with crying women.

  When any of their daughters fought with one another or their mother, one by one, wife included, they went tearfully to Henry, and he solved the problem.

  “Let me talk to some people,” Henry said as he released her. “I know some businesses that could afford to fund a doctor who wants to save the world.” He smiled. “And when he comes home you’ll be waiting for him.”

  “Good,” Sophie said and as she looked at Henry she knew that this was a bargain. A business deal. If she would give Henry what he wanted, which was a private teacher and a shot at placing his work somewhere important, he would fund Reede’s mobile clinic.

  She took a breath. This is what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? What she’d trained for. And now everything she’d studied for was right in front of her. Henry, this man who’d come into her life like a fairy godfather, was offering her a beautiful studio and endless supplies. No doubt through Henry she’d have fabulously wealthy clients who could afford a life-size bronze sculpture in their gardens. All she had to do was work with Henry, who was an easy man to be around.

  And as Henry said, she could stay there in Edilean and probably live in the house Reede had bought and wait for him to come home when he could. He could send her photos and call often. She could show him her work, tell him of her success. They could adjust to a life that was separate as well as together.

  It was all great. A perfect solution. So why did she feel like she wanted to crawl into a hole and pull a cover over her?

  “Fine,” she said at last. “I’ll talk to Reede about it all.”

  That night she and Reede were both quiet.

  “Is something bothering you?” she asked him.

  “No, nothing. What about you?”

  “No problems,” she said, lying as much as he was. If he didn’t want to tell her about Dr. Becks being willing to take over the practice, so be it. She wasn’t going to ask him. And if he was already making plans to leave, that was his right. But then she did not want to hear him tell her that she couldn’t go with him because she’d be useless. What could she do with sick people? Shape their pills into unicorns? Compared to what Reede did, her profession was frivolous. No, she didn’t want to hear him tell her—kindly and with gentleness, of course—that she wasn’t needed in the very important business of what Reede did.

  The next day it was too busy at the shop for Sophie to think about her own problems. It seemed that half of Virginia had put off shopping until the last minute, and they’d all decided to do it in cute, quaint, adorable little Edilean.

  Carter and Sophie made sandwiches, Kelli ladled soup, and Roan took over the pastry cabinet. His booming voice and persuasive manner made even the skinniest of people try the tarts that were dripping with cream.

  As for the cash register, a woman in her thirties took it over. She had belatedly answered Roan’s ad. “I didn’t see it until I changed the bottom of the birdcage,” she told Roan when she’d arrived early that morning. “My name is Danielle, Danni for short. I think I’m intelligent, I’ve been known to be creative, and I have some talents, but I am not and never have been entertaining. Sorry. However, I used to work in a restaurant.” Her eyes were alive with merriment as she said this.

  She was a pretty woman, with dark hair and eyes, a bit too much on her hips, but her large top balanced her. She was immediately likable.

  Sophie, up to her elbows in soup making, left it all to Roan, but when Carter nudged her shoulder, she looked up. Roan, big, gruff-looking, was staring down at pretty Danni in silence.

  Sophie grabbed a dry cloth, wiped her hands, and went around the counter. “Can you run a cash register?”

  “Yes,” Danni said, her voice calm and pleasant.

  “Then you’re hired. Roan tends to argue with people over money.” She looked up at him, and he was still staring at Danielle. “You have pastry duty today,” she said softly, then when he didn’t respond, she raised her voice. “Roan! Pastries?”

  “I like them,” he said.

  Shaking her head, Sophie went back to her soup and Carter caught her eye. “I smell love in the air,” he said.

  “Yes, you and Kelli do make a good pair.”

  At that, Kelli laughed and Carter’s face turned red.

  When Kelli went to the back to get something, Carter whispered, “Is it that obvious? I mean, can everyone see that I like her?”

  Sophie thought about making a joke but she didn’t. “Your father won’t approve of her.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said, and for a moment he kept slicing cheese, but then he stopped. “You know something? I don’t care anymore. Sophie, my fear of losing Treeborne Foods made me do something I’ll always regret. I lost you.”

  She stepped back from him. “If this is—”

  “No. That’s not what I’m saying. Even if my father hadn’t interfered I don’t think you and I would have been good for each other.”

  “Are you referring to the fact that I was in awe of you?”

  “No, I liked that part.”

  With a laugh, Sophie hit him on the shoulder. “Some prince you are!”

  “That’s it,” Carter said. “I could never have lived up to what you thought I was. I saw it in your eyes and when I was with you I felt that I was a great and powerful being.”

  “I never thought that about you.”

  “I was always afraid that you’d see the coward that I actually was. I’ve been terrified of my father all my life.”

  “There’s a whole town afraid of him,” she said.

  “But I’m not anymore.”

  “Because of Kelli?”

  “Yes or no,” Carter said. “Mostly no. I see now that I can earn my own living.”

  “What you make here isn’t going to supply you with what you’ve grown up with,” she said.

  “I have some money from my mother, and I plan to use it to open a bakery. And I think I’ll see if I can get some backers for frozen baked goods.”

  Sophie looked at him for a moment. “The Tree-borne ambition is alive and growing.”

  “Maybe it is,” Carter said.

  “What about your father? What does he say to all this?”

  “Ha!” Carter said. “I walked out in pursuit of you and I left no note, nothing. When I called the housekeeper about the cookbook, I asked her if Dad had asked about me. Not a word. I am a dispensable person to him.”

  He said the words lightly, but Sophie knew the pain behind them. “You can stay here in Edilean with Kelli and start your new business here.”

  “I think I will,” Carter said. “And what about you? Your boxing doctor ask you to marry him yet?”

  “I . . . ”

  Carter stopped slicing and looked at her. “You what?” When Sophie said nothing, he said, “I just poured out my heart to you, so I think you can tell me what’s going on with you. If this doctor has done anything to hurt you, I’ll—”

  “No!” Sophie said. “It’s just that—” She broke off because it was eight a.m. and Kelli had unlocked the front door. In an instant the little restaurant was full of customers, all of them hungry.

  Twenty-two

  At Christmas eve lunch, Lewis Treeborne showed up in the sandwich shop. He just walked in, ordered soup and a sandwich, then stood there and waited.

  Sophie recognized his voice and froze in place—and all her fears came back to her. Were the police with him? Would she be taken away in handcuffs?

  Carter, a bowl of soup in his hands, held it out to her. “Hey, Soph! Wake up. People are waiting.”

  She nodded toward the register, where Mr. Tree-borne was paying.

  Carter hesitated for a moment, then put the bowl down and turned his back on the man.

/>   “Shouldn’t you go to him? Or something?” she asked quietly.

  “I’m not afraid of him anymore,” Carter said softly. “He found me here, so if he wants more he knows where I am.”

  Sophie nodded and had to work to keep from hurrying to the man to ask what he wanted. She reminded herself that this was Edilean and that the Treeborne family did not own this town.

  But she couldn’t help watching the man sitting alone at a little table, eating slowly, never once glancing at the people behind the counter.

  “Why are you two whispering?” Kelli asked Sophie and Carter. “What’s going on?”

  “That’s Carter’s dad,” Sophie said, nodding toward the man.

  “Yeah? Ol’ Treeborne himself?”

  “The monster in the flesh,” Carter said with a grimace.

  Kelli looked from one to the other. “You two are cowards.”

  “You know us well,” Sophie said.

  Kelli rolled her eyes as she went to the big glass counter full of her freshly baked pastries and began to fill a plate full of slices.

  “What are you doing?” Carter asked.

  “Taking an opportunity,” she said. When the plate was full of samples, she got napkins and a fork and took them to Lewis Treeborne’s table. “Your son and I are thinking about using his connection to the Tree-borne empire to start a line of frozen pastries.”

  Lewis didn’t look up as she set the plate on the table and turned away.

  Sophie and Carter pretended they weren’t looking, but they were. And when Lewis picked up his fork and took a bite they drew in their breaths.

  “What’s going on?” Roan asked and Kelli told him.

  Even though there was a line at the register, Danni left it to ask what they were looking at, and Roan explained. By that time everyone in the shop had caught the tension and had stopped to look at the man with the big plate of desserts.

  “Does he like coffee?” Danni asked Carter.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  She poured a big mug of it. “Sugar? Cream? Milk?”

  “No,” Carter said. “Black.”

  The crowded restaurant was quiet as Danni took the mug of coffee and set it on the table beside the man.