Chapter Sixteen
Sixteen
Beau was whistling as he crossed the muddy yard to the hotel.
He was carrying his dress shoes, so they wouldn’t get ruined.
After Ellie had left, almost inarticulate with bashfulness, wriggling out of his kisses, saying she had to get ready for the dance, he’d cleaned up after his bath and fancied himself up.
It wasn’t every night a man got engaged and he wanted to look good for it.
He’d grinned as he poured the bathwater off the back porch, remembering the way she’d snapped the towel at him.
He was still grinning now, as he navigated the mud.
He’d never felt so alive in his life. His body was singing.
Memories of the feel of her, the taste of her, the sound of her moans kept flicking through his mind.
Part of him wished there was no dance, and he could have kept her in bed.
But another part was desperate to get inside and dance her around that romantic wonderland.
If there was one woman who could appreciate romance, it was Ellie.
There was no one he’d rather experience the dance with.
She was fun, and lively, and open to throwing herself headfirst into things, whether it was surviving a bear or falling into bed.
Beau had never felt anything like he was feeling now. He didn’t think there were words for it. It was a soaring kind of feeling.
“Oh love, don’t you look fancy!” Mrs. Champion exclaimed when he waltzed into the kitchen. “Like a proper gentleman!” She clapped her hands. “Wait till the girls get a look at you!”
There was only one girl he cared about, and she’d already got a look at him, he thought, grinning as he shed his outdoor coat and changed into his good shoes.
“Beau!” Junebug came swinging into the kitchen, in her harebell blue dress, with her curls pinned up. She wore a paper flower crown and was itchy with excitement. “Kit’s here!”
“I told you.” He swung her about. He couldn’t wait to tell her that she’d won their bet. But not yet. He had other people to talk to first.
“Can I take the sandwiches out now?” Junebug all but threw herself at the table of food as Beau headed for the back stairs. He could hear Jonah tuning up on his fiddle. It was going to be a night of nights.
Beau took the back stairs two at a time. When he reached the first floor, he ran into Flora and Frances. They looked like hothouse flowers in their bright dresses, with paper roses pinned in their hair. “Ladies, you look lovely!”
“Mistletoe!” Flora pointed up.
Beau laughed at the sight of the mangled stem and dropped a chaste kiss on each of their cheeks. “I have a feeling I’m going to be doing this all night.”
“Hopefully!” Their giggles trailed after them as they glided downstairs.
Beau took a deep breath and knocked on Diana’s door.
“Wow,” he said when she appeared.
“You like it?” She turned on the spot. “I re-made it after I finished Ellie’s.” It was the watermelon pink dress she’d worn on the day she’d arrived in Bitterroot, but more formal. A cascade of lace fell from each sleeve at the elbow. She waved her arms, so he could appreciate the effect.
“You look lovely.”
“So do you.”
He scratched his nose and cleared his throat. “I was wondering if we could talk quickly.”
Diana cocked her head and regarded him curiously. “Of course.” She stepped back so he could enter.
“Best leave the door open,” he advised. “For the sake of your reputation.”
“I assume this is about Ellie?” Diana said, as she moved to the dresser and dabbed some perfume on her wrists. The thick scent of lilies filled the room. She gave Beau a knowing look.
“She told you?” He felt a wave of relief. That would make things easier.
“No. She hasn’t told me anything. But I know my friend.” Diana gave him a sly look. “And you’re as easy to read as an open book.”
Beau winced.
“Her blushes alone give her away.” Diana laughed. “Not to mention the energy between the two of you. I’m sure you’re both responsible for melting all the snow in Bitterroot today with the heat you generate.”
Beau exhaled. “You don’t mind?”
“Of course I mind. I came all this way for you!” But she didn’t sound mad. “Still, I wanted out of Fall River, and I’m out of Fall River.” She bit her lip. “And your sister said something the other day…”
Beau groaned. “Don’t listen to her. Nothing good ever comes of it.”
“Except Ellie,” Diana said lightly.
Yes. There was that.
“What did Junebug say?” he asked warily.
“She asked me how I’d feel if you picked Ellie instead of me,” Diana said bluntly.
“?‘Wouldn’t you be happy for her, the way she’s happy for you?
’ she said. And to be honest, I had to think about it, and—I’m not proud of this—I didn’t think I would be.
” Diana’s ink-blue eyes grew suspiciously shiny.
“Which is horrible of me. Because Ellie does everything for me. She’s been there through every bad moment, holding me up, comforting me, rescuing me.
Look at her with you! She’s clearly head over heels in love with you, but she won’t even consider it, because of me . ”
“You think she’s… in love with me?” Beau’s throat grew oddly tight at the thought.
“Of course she is. And you’re clearly in love with her.
” Diana gave him an impatient smile. “I didn’t even realize until after Junebug gave me that talking to.
I didn’t see it because I couldn’t conceive of it.
” She cleared her throat, looking embarrassed.
“I’ve always been the one men pay attention to, you see… ”
He nodded. He did see.
“And Ellie’s always been… well, my friend. It took me a moment to realize that maybe this time she was the one a man was paying attention to, and I was her friend.”
“So when you came to talk to me…”
“I was telling you it was okay to be with Ellie.” Diana smiled at him. “I figured it would take her a while to come around, given how loyal she is to me, but I also have enough experience to know it’s hard to resist a man you have feelings for.”
“She didn’t resist me much,” he admitted, feeling a bit smug.
Diana rolled her eyes.
“Sorry,” Beau said sincerely. “I really did mean to marry you.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “But who am I to argue with love?”
Love. Beau felt a warm fizzing at the thought.
“There’s something else I have to tell you,” Diana said slowly. “And, again, I’m not proud of it…”
“The mistletoe was your idea?”
Diana shook her head. “No. The mistletoe is all Junebug.” She took a shaky breath. “All those letters I wrote you?”
Beau felt a wave of bittersweet feeling at the thought of those letters.
It seemed a long time ago that he was hurrying to the post office every week to collect her letters.
He remembered how his heart used to pound as he opened them, how he used to re-read them, running his fingertips over the energetic scrawl of her writing, trying to imagine the woman at the other end.
“I didn’t write them,” she blurted. “Ellie did.”
Beau felt like he’d been pushed from a ledge. “What?”
His mind spun as Diana explained. She was sheepish about the deception, but Beau had that soaring feeling back again. It was a big, winged feeling. Like he could fly off into the stars. Ellie had always been the woman for him. And on some level, he’d always known it.
“Ah, Diana, thank you!” He pulled her into a hug and spun her around. “You’ve made me the happiest man!” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’re an angel.”
She laughed as she spun, her skirts billowing. “It’s my pleasure.”
“You’re happier than a pig in mud,” Jonah observed as he took a break from fiddling to grab a beer.
The dance sprawled through the dining room, hall and parlor of the hotel.
Rigby and Abner had set up a table with alcohol for the menfolk.
Being Bitterroot, a lot of the womenfolk partook too.
Mrs. Langer was three whiskeys in already and was teaching Thunderhead Bill and Roy an old German song, which seemed to involve a lot of maudlin eye rolling.
“Beau was built for this kind of life,” Kit rumbled. After a long ride down the mountain from Buck’s Creek, Kit had spent most of the night dancing with his merry wife, and his face was flushed and sweaty.
“I was,” Beau agreed. He was also hot and happy from dancing with Junebug, and gleeful with anticipation. He’d expected Ellie to make him wait, especially after their tumble, and the longer she took the more he vibrated with expectation. She was right about this anticipation thing. It was a thrill.
The hotel was crammed to the rafters with people.
Everyone in Bitterroot had come out, as well as a lot of the miners from nearby.
Just about everyone from the Ella Jean mine was here, and Diana and Junebug’s brides were the belles of the ball.
They hadn’t stopped dancing all night. Bascom was dominating Flora’s dance card, courteous to a fault and clearly smitten.
And the regular cries of “Mistletoe!” led to smacking kisses on cheeks and rounds of cheers.
Outside, the fall night was crisp and clear, while inside drifts of candles flickered.
The paper snowflakes and stars twirled on their strings and the tables groaned with food.
Junebug was the queen of the night and Beau, Kit and Jonah grinned as they watched her careen around, her honking laugh rising above the noise.
“Shame Morgan’s not here,” Kit said, nudging Beau’s shoulder with his own. “It ain’t the same when we’re not all together.”
Beau could tell by the look in his brother’s eye that he was thinking about Charlie, his missing twin. “I’ll wait to have the wedding till Morgan’s back,” he promised. There wasn’t much he could do about Charlie, though. “It wouldn’t be the same without him.”
“I doubt he’ll accept it as legal if he doesn’t have a hand in it,” Kit said dryly.
“And is this here the lucky lady?” Jonah teased Beau, gesturing with his beer.
Beau’s heart leapt as he turned. But it wasn’t Ellie, it was Diana. She was pushing through the crowd towards him, and he could tell by the distress on her face that something was wrong.
“She’s gone,” Diana gasped. She was flushed from the heat of the crowded room. She grabbed Beau and pulled him away from his brothers.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Beau let her lead him out of the parlor.
“I went to look for her when she didn’t come down…” Diana dashed up the stairs, Beau in her wake. “Come see!”
They wound all the way up to Ellie’s attic room, which was dark and cold. And empty.
It was painfully neat. The little bed was made, but Ellie’s trunk was closed in the corner. There was a hastily scrawled note on it: The books are for Junebug. Other than that, there was no sign anyone had been staying up here.
“She’s taken her carpetbag and her clothes but left all her books,” Diana told him. “Where could she go? We’re in the middle of nowhere!” She was frantic. “And why would she go? Why now? Why tonight?”
Beau knew why now. Why tonight.
He sat down hard on the bed, trying to remember every second of the evening.
Her expressions, her tone of voice. He remembered teasing her with bad compliments as he’d tried to kiss her as she dressed.
He’d thought she’d been bashful and embarrassed—which was understandable.
But what if it hadn’t been embarrassment… What if it had been something else?
“Beau!” Diana was angry with him. “Get up. We have to find her! She could freeze to death. Or find another wretched bear!”
“Diana,” he said sickly, “I have to tell you something.” He needed help understanding Ellie right now. He didn’t know what to think. She’d been nothing but passion in his bed… but now she was gone. “Tonight, before the dance… we…”
Diana’s eyes widened. He closed his eyes and told her as baldly as he could manage.
“We, uh, were kissing. And things got, uh, intimate… ” He cleared his throat. “But we didn’t talk much. I mean, I didn’t tell her… I was saving it for the dance.” Beau felt a wild dread. “We… then she left… I thought she’d know…”
“What are you talking about?”
“I was going to propose,” he blurted. “I mean, I thought she’d know that. I thought she’d know I wouldn’t do those things with just anyone…”
There was a charged silence as his words sank in. Diana made a soft, shocked noise.
“I thought she’d be happy,” he admitted in a small voice. “Like I was.”
“Oh, you silly goose!” Diana wailed. “Now you really have to hurry.” She dragged Beau off the bed and pushed him towards the stairs. “Before she does something stupid.”
“Stupid…” he repeated numbly.
“Don’t you see? She’ll have gone off on one of her stupid imaginings, turning everything into an epic drama. She’ll be thinking she betrayed me! Can’t you imagine what that will do to her?”
Beau could. And his blood ran cold.
“Get your brothers!”
Beau was way ahead of her. He tumbled headlong down the stairs, yelling for Kit.