RNWMP: Bride for Curtis (Mail Order Mounties Book 26) Read online

  The ladies gathered around while Caitlyn showed off her work. They weren’t perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but she was proud of them nonetheless. All three of her friends ooh’d and aah’d at the appropriate places, and even teased her when she turned to the page with her new married name scribbled all over it.

  “How many ways can you sign your name?” Adele said, nudging Caitlyn as she took her seat again.

  Caitlyn blushed furiously. “I dunno, I just like the sound of it. Mrs. Curtis Lange. Caitlyn Lange. Mrs. Caitlyn Lange. Any way I say it, it sounds like a poem, doesn’t it?”

  Miss Hazel chuckled and stirred another spoonful of sugar into her tea. “I dare say all the ladies feel the same about their new names.”

  “That’s true,” Violet agreed, smiling softly.

  “Two days?” Adele asked, her eyes wide with wonder. “You were able to spend two days, just learning how to draw? I barely have enough time to knit a little in the evenings.”

  A spasm of guilt shot through Caitlyn. Her friends thought her outside interests were a waste of time too! But they weren’t, she was sure of it. Maybe they didn’t keep the house clean or pay for food at Dandy’s Mercantile, but they would keep her sane during the long winters. There would always be dirty laundry, but how many days would she be able to spend outdoors, enjoying her new home and learning a new skill? She intended to take advantage of as many as she could, while still attending to her responsibilities.

  “Miss Hazel, I’ve been meaning to tell you that you were right.”

  “Of course, I was,” Hazel sniffed, then tipped her nose upward. “About what?”

  “About treating my duties like they were my new job. I’d always considered them chores, and I remember feeling so proud when I was hired as a secretary. No more chores!”

  Hazel smiled knowingly.

  “But really, my work was just a series of chores, with a different name. I tell you, I have a whole new outlook on my new ‘job’. I’m actually excited to get back to finish them all up so I can have dinner ready for Curtis tonight.”

  “Something with meat, no doubt,” Adele said, winking at Caitlyn.

  “Probably. I made him bacon for breakfast this morning, but I think he has a better understanding of me now. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I may be getting him interested in becoming vegetarian as well.”

  Adele and Violet shared a glance, and Miss Hazel made a point to clear her throat and stare into her tea. They didn’t believe her!

  “No, really. He’s enjoyed a few of my meatless meals.”

  “Dear, that doesn’t mean he will eschew eating meat for the rest of his life.”

  Caitlyn frowned, then sighed and slumped in her chair. “Maybe not. I suppose I don’t really expect him to, but a girl can always hope. At the very least, he’s turning into quite the animal lover.”

  “Oh?” Adele asked.

  Caitlyn glowed with pride for her husband. “Yes, he’s actually going to go relocate Bob and his family today.”

  The other three shared confused looks again. “What? Really?”

  “Yes, he told me last night that he was going to take care of them first thing this morning. Isn’t that sweet?”

  Her heart warmed again at the memory from the night before, when she’d asked him point blank to relocate the animals instead of killing them — for her — and he’d said yes. If they hadn’t already been married, she would have asked him to marry her on the spot. And not just because he had looked at her as if the moon rose in her eyes. She sighed happily, remembering what had come next.

  “Caitlyn…” Adele said, glancing between the other women.

  “Hmm?” Goodness, Adele’s scones were delicious. Caitlyn would have to get the recipe one of these days.

  Miss Hazel jumped into the conversation. “Dear, I may be wrong, but I believe when Constable Lange said he would ‘take care of’ the beavers, he meant that he was going to…” She paused, cleared her throat, and continued. “Kill them.”

  Caitlyn snickered at Miss Hazel’s joke, but the seriousness in the woman’s eyes nearly stopped her heart. She was wrong, she had to be. After last night, Curtis would never…

  “No, that can’t be.”

  Adele and Violet reached out to take Caitlyn’s hands, their eyes dripping with pity and sadness. Fire kindled down deep inside her, licking upward until her head felt as if it might explode.

  “But he promised!”

  George had already taken off on his rounds by the time Curtis arrived at the station, so he didn’t get a chance to talk to the commander about the beavers blocking up the river. For some reason, George had a soft spot for the critters, but he’d also said that if they were going to cause flooding, they’d have to deal with the situation. That was good enough for Curtis.

  Loading his rifle as soon as he walked in the door, Curtis glanced at Richard and Liam. “Anyone up for some beaver hunting?”

  Liam frowned and looked more troubled than when he’d shown up at the train station to meet his bride without a bouquet of flowers. “Um, I’ll keep an eye on things around here,” he said, frantically scribbling on a report.

  “I could use a walk,” Richard said with a shrug.

  As they walked toward the dam, Curtis thought he’d never tire of the beauty of the Northwest Territories in the summer. Winter offered its own beauty, but the harshness of it made summer all the more delightful. Except the mosquitoes. Once they hatched, they’d be the size of, well, flying squirrels, and their bites itched for weeks. As far as he could tell, they were the only downside to summers in the NWT.

  “You sure you want to kill them?” Richard asked.

  “‘Course! Why wouldn’t I? They’re blocking up the river and going to cause all sorts of trouble pretty soon.”

  Richard didn’t answer, just gave him a curious look and kept walking. It was a lovely morning, with just a bit of crispness to the air. Practically balmy, compared to winter, but Curtis was still happy for his red wool coat.

  His mind wandered during the walk, naturally thinking about how well everything had progressed with Caitlyn. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he thought about her, especially how mussed her hair was this morning when he’d woken up with her snuggled in his arms.

  “You know, our commander is a genius,” he said, grinning madly.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “When things weren’t going so well with Caitlyn, I asked him for some advice. I tell you, it was spot on!”

  “What’d he say?”

  “I can’t remember word for word, but basically he told me all I had to do to make her fall helplessly in love with me was to clean the house a bit and cook dinner.”

  Richard’s brows pulled together and he squinted up at Curtis. “Really?”

  Curtis waved the hand not carrying his gun. “Something like that, anyway. Whatever he said, it worked! I cleaned up a few muddy footprints, did the dishes, and cooked dinner, and she acted like I’d done her the biggest favor in the world. It wasn’t really even all that hard. Too bad I didn’t have time to do the laundry.”

  “You know how to do laundry?” Richard looked shocked.

  Curtis laughed. “No, but I know how to take dirty clothes out of a basket and put them back in the drawers they came from. She’ll never know the difference since they’re my clothes anyway.”

  “Oh, I think she’ll know the difference all right,” Richard scoffed, pinching his nose in distaste.

  “Maybe,” Curtis conceded, “but not for a while. And in the meantime, she’s totally and completely head-over-heels for me.”

  A quiet “Mmmhmm” was Richard’s only response as they turned toward the lake. Curtis got the distinct impression Richard didn’t fully agree with him, but before he could convince his friend, the trees and bushes up head rustled loudly.

  Bears would be hungry after a long winter’s sleep, so Curtis raised his gun and readied himself to shoot. But instead of a grumpy grizzly, an abso
lutely massive caribou stepped proudly out of the foliage. Its antlers shot straight up, then pronged out in an impressive display. The behemoth lumbered into their path, then stopped and slowly turned its ponderous head toward the men.

  The beast would not only feed Curtis through the summer and winter, but probably the other Mounties and their wives as well. Moving so slowly a fly wouldn’t have noticed, Curtis raised the rifle and sighted down the barrel. One shot just behind the shoulder would hopefully hit the animal’s heart, killing it quickly.

  He breathed out to steady his nerves and gradually increased pressure on the trigger. Then the stag tilted his head, ever so slightly, as if he was curious what the silly humans were doing. Caitlyn would have thought it was ‘adorable’. She also would be horrified if he dragged home a caribou carcass and butchered it in the front yard.

  His finger trembled.

  “Are you going to shoot it or ask it to dance?” Richard whispered.

  Curtis let out another breath and moved the barrel a bit. He had no doubt he’d hit his target, as difficult as the outcome would be. Relaxing his body, he squeezed the trigger.

  BLAM!

  The bark on the tree just behind the caribou exploded, then the animal jumped and bolted back into the trees, not a speck of blood on it.

  “I can’t believe you missed!” Richard cried, staring open-mouthed at Curtis. “How could you miss a shot that easy?”

  “Didn’t help having you pestering me in my ear,” Curtis groused as he started walking again.

  Richard hurried after him, his head whipping back and forth as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. “Hey, don’t blame me.”

  Curtis kept a grim face as if he was angry, but inside he was a jumble of emotions, and anger wasn’t one of them. He’d missed the stag on purpose, but he didn’t want to admit that to his friend. It might make him look weak, and a Mountie should never allow himself to appear weak. More than that though, he didn’t want to admit Caitlyn’s feelings played a big part of his decision. He didn’t want to see her cry, not ever. And he certainly didn’t want to be the cause of her tears.

  Only trouble was that he loved caribou. As much as she didn’t want to eat meat, he wanted just as much to eat it. So how was that going to work? He knew she wouldn’t hate him for hunting for his food, but he didn’t want to cause her pain. He scrubbed the back of his neck over the conundrum. They’d just have to sit down and have a nice, calm discussion to figure it all out.

  Odd, though, that she didn’t seem the least bit perturbed by the fact he was heading off to kill an entire beaver family, one she’d called adorable more times than he could count. Maybe she just had more sense about practical matters — such as wide-spread damage caused by flooding — than he’d thought. He was still puzzling over the incongruity of it all when they spotted the dam up ahead.

  “It’s bigger than the last time I checked,” Richard said.

  If Curtis hadn’t known better, he would have said his friend looked sad, maybe even upset. About a beaver. Was everyone catching Caitlyn’s animal obsession?

  “Would you look at that?” Curtis groused. “The river is almost entirely blocked. Won’t be but a few days before folks upstream are affected.”

  Richard shook his head. “Too bad.”

  “So you agree? You think George would approve my plan, right?”

  “Hate to say it, but yes.”

  Curtis’s heart broke and he had no idea why.

  “Okay, good,” he said to cover his true feelings, ejecting the spent casing and loading a fresh bullet into the chamber. “I need to get a little closer.”

  Each footstep took an extraordinary amount of energy. His feet had never felt to heavy in his life. But he kept moving forward, reminding himself he was only doing his duty to serve the people of his community. So why did it feel as if he was betraying them? Or someone, anyway.

  As he crept closer, he saw Bob waddling around in the shallows near shore. The beaver was mostly submerged — not ideal. He’d just have to hunker down and wait until Bob either climbed up on his dam or came ashore. He’d aim for an instantaneous kill — he didn’t want the animal to suffer — and then he’d have to go track down Bob’s “wife”.

  And babies.

  And kits, he chastised himself. Still, their fluffy little brown faces kept popping into his mind’s eye. He’d seen them scampering about on the dam previously, and there really was no other word for them than adorable. It would be harder to kill them, but with their parents dead, it would be a kindness. Maybe if he told himself that enough, he’d eventually believe it.

  Kneeling down into the soft earth, Curtis took aim and waited. Bob splashed around a bit, made a few odd hooting noises, which his mate replied to, then waddled ashore. Curtis held his breath. This was the moment. His finger tightened on the trigger and he let out his breath in a soft sigh.

  The sound of a galloping horse pulled his focus away from Bob. Caitlyn rode toward them on the back of his horse at a full gallop, her hair and skirt whipping in the wind. Her eyes were wide and wild, and in that moment, she looked like a princess. Or a warrior. Or a warrior princess.

  She was also shouting something he couldn’t hear over the pounding of the hooves.

  Panic seized Curtis. She didn’t look hurt, but something bad must have happened back in town for her to come tearing after him like that. His mind raced over the possibilities. Then he heard her.

  “Stop! Don’t kill Bob!”

  9

  Reining her husband’s horse to a stop, Caitlyn leaped off its back and ran for the dam, startling Bob into diving back into the water. Curtis and Richard gaped at her, and probably thought she was a lunatic, but she didn’t care. She stopped at the edge of the water, her shoes sinking into the soft, moist earth there as she blocked Curtis’s line of sight.

  “Don’t kill Bob!” she shouted again, holding her arms out to make the biggest target. “If you want to kill them, you’ll have to kill me first, Curtis Lange!”

  Curtis stared at her open-mouthed and wide-eyed. He’d lowered his gun as soon as she rode up, so hopefully he wouldn’t kill her. Even if he didn’t, she suspected she’d pay a heavy price for this little rescue mission, but it would be worth it in the end.

  “What the Sam Hill…” Curtis said, a frown creasing his brow. “Caitlyn, what do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m saving Bob and his family!”

  “Why?”

  “How can you ask me that?”

  “But you never objected to me taking care of these beavers before.” He stood from his crouching position and scowled at her.

  “Exactly! You told me you were taking care of them, not killing them!”

  “Oh, for criminy’s sake,” he said with a huff. “What did you think I was going to do, take them out to dinner and buy them pretty dresses? We can’t allow the river to flood, Caitlyn.”

  She did feel rather foolish for not realizing what he’d meant, but that wasn’t going to stop her from doing what she could to save the beaver family.

  “You promised to relocate them. You promised!”

  “I think I would remember making that promise, and I never did.”

  “You did too! Last night, when we were doing dishes. Don’t tell me you forgot!”

  His eyes grew wide and his jaw tensed. He had forgotten!

  “Where exactly do you expect me to relocate them to?” he ground out through clenched teeth.

  “I-I don’t…“

  She hadn’t thought that far out. Her priority had been to stop Curtis from hurting the beavers, not what to do with them after she was successful. In her momentary confusion, she took a stumbling step or two backward, sinking deeper into the muck, then lost her balance and sank bottom first onto the very edge of the dam.

  A terrifying screech ripped through the air and something caught hold of her ankle. Bob’s wife, had chomped her amazingly long, yellow teeth onto Caitlyn’s ankle and was tugging violently. T
hankfully, she had a mouthful of boot instead of flesh.

  “Hey!” Caitlyn cried. “Stop that, Betty!”

  “Betty?” Richard snorted, slapping a hand over his grinning mouth.

  Caitlyn wiggled her foot, hoping to gently dislodge the protective mama, but Betty held fast. Then another screech sounded behind Caitlyn and Bob latched onto her other boot.

  “Bob, no!”

  The beavers didn’t seem to care one whit that she was there to save them. Glancing over her shoulder, Caitlyn saw three tiny beaver faces peering out between the twigs and leaves of the dam. She’d come too close to their nest and the parents weren’t happy about that, apparently — regardless of her intentions.

  Caitlyn tried standing, but tumbled sideways into the water, soaking her dress. Kicking a little more forcefully, she managed to dislodge Bob, but Betty was more determined. The little monster growled and gnawed and tugged, as if she alone could drag Caitlyn away from her babies.

  With at least one free foot, Caitlyn pushed up with her hands, but the mud was too soft and she wound up face-first in the murky water. Strong hands pulled her out of the water, sputtering and wiping mud out of her eyes.

  “Don’t kill her!” she cried, struggling against Curtis.

  He wrapped his arms around her from behind and leaned in close. “I won’t, I promise. I really promise.”

  She relaxed and gripped his arms as she shook her foot to knock Betty away. Once he’d dragged her up the riverbank to a safe distance from the dam, Betty released her and waddled back home. She gave them one more glare, then dove into the dam to check on her babies.

  Good mama!

  Curtis dropped to the ground so Caitlyn ended up cradled in his lap. A quiet snicker came from Richard’s direction and she shot him a dark look. He was just an innocent bystander, but she didn’t care to be laughed at — even if she’d just made a fool of herself. He raised his hands in surrender and backed away.

  “Sorry, I’ll just leave you to…um… Bye!”