The Wedding Cake War. Lynna Banning

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      “Are we-all ready?”

      “Leora, you look just lovely,” Carrie whispered as Fleurette’s hand reached out to snag the young schoolteacher’s sleeve. “But…” Carrie paused as Fleurette pulled her into position. “Somehow you seem…shorter.”

      “I changed my shoes.” Unable to trust her voice further, Lolly brought up the rear in silence, her lips twitching into a smile. What a picture they must make: The Three Musketeers turned out in full battle regalia.

      She knew she must look like a gypsy, and she’d removed her shoes because they pinched her toes like an iron vise. But at the moment she couldn’t let herself think about it.

      A hand reached out, clasped hers and pumped it up and down. The next thing she knew she was being introduced to the mayor, Cyrus Bowman.

      Then the mayor’s imperious-looking wife, Hortense, and the banker and his wife and, next to her, his mother-in-law, all named something that sounded like Shumaker. Next came the head of the school board; the town doctor and his twin daughters; a mill owner named Hickmeyer; the newspaper editor, Orven Tillotsen; a retired railroad builder; and more wives and daughters and mothers-in-law than any one town deserved. The blur of names and faces made Lolly’s head ache.

      Another outstretched hand grasped hers just as Carrie, one step ahead of her, made a little moaning sound. “There he is,” she murmured. “At the very end of the line.”

      Lolly could see nothing beyond Carrie except great clouds of yellow taffeta, but over the next mumbled introduction, Fleurette’s voice rang out.

      “Why, Colonel Macready, Ah have heard so much about you. So charmin’ to meet you at last. Ah, too, am a Southerner.”

      Carrie turned her head toward Lolly and rolled her eyes before stepping up to the next person in line. “Mrs. Whipple, may I present Miss Leora Mayfield?”

      Lolly tried to smile. “Mrs. Whipple.”

      The old woman in plum sateen shot her a keen look and nodded brusquely. “My dear.”

      At her side, Carrie heaved another sigh, and Lolly heard her quavery voice. “Good evening, C-Colonel.”

      After Carrie, Lolly was next in line. Great balls of brimstone, she was but one step away from the moment she had agonized about ever since she left Kansas—meeting a perfect stranger who would marry her.

      Kellen watched the three guests of honor unknot themselves from the circle they had formed and step up to the Meet and Greet Trail, as he termed it. Barbarous custom, receiving lines. An uncivilized way to trot out the goods for inspection before the fair.

      He knew Careen Gundersen from many previous occasions over the years, mostly birthday parties her parents had hosted. Careen had turned out to be a very capable young woman. Prim, maybe. And a tad…flat, somehow. The girl had always had a sensible head on her shoulders; it was beyond his understanding why on earth she, of all people, would want to enter this matrimonial charade.

      Gliding down the line ahead of Careen was a meticulously groomed lady in a voluminous flounced skirt that was wound up in the back like a beehive. Quite a lot of baggage resting on that derriere. He watched her navigate from Sol Stanton to Mrs. Whipple and on toward him, her posture so rigid that her golden-blond corkscrew curls didn’t bob but hung stiffly in place, even when she tossed her head. Sugar water and rag rollers, he guessed. Females put up with the damnedest things.

      The women looked somewhat like curious birds, though of different species. Careen resembled a baby wren, her folded wings yet untried. The lady with the curls reminded him of a yellow silk peacock.

      His gaze drifted beyond the peacock to the next person in the line, but he couldn’t get a clear view of her. All he could see was the gracefully flared black skirt she wore, which, now that he studied it over the bare shoulder of Miss—what was peacock’s name again?—struck him with its simplicity. Not a wren. Not a peacock, then. An elegant black swan.

      “Why, Colonel Macready…” The peacock’s voice chirped on. “…am a Southerner.”

      Kellen tore his gaze from the woman in black and focused on the beaming heart-shaped face before him. “I beg your pardon?”

      “Ah said Ah am also a Southerner, like yourself.”

      “Actually, after nearly fifteen years in Maple Falls, I now consider myself an Oregonian.”

      “Oh, now, Colonel. Ah don’t believe that for one li’l minute.”

      He made polite noises while she gushed on until he saw an opportunity to pass her on to the refreshment table, where Ruth Underwood and her husband were pouring champagne.

      And applejack, he remembered from his earlier conversation with the hotel bartender. He licked his lips. He couldn’t get there soon enough.

      Then Careen stood before him, sighing like a spring wind through the aspen grove.

      “Careen, it’s nice to see you.”

      “Good evening, C-Colonel. I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks and weeks.”

      “As have I,” he lied. “It’s a bit like one of your birthday parties, isn’t it? Except for the champagne, of course.”

      And the applejack.

      “Oh, Colonel, you will dance with me later?”

      “Why, of course. I’ve danced with you at every party since you were five years old. Remember how you used to stand on my shoe tops?”

      Why was she looking at him like that?

      “I remember,” Careen murmured.

      But Kellen was no longer listening. He found himself watching the woman in black, now speaking to old Mrs. Whipple.

      Her chin tipped forward, allowing a waterfall of loose, dark curls to tumble over her bare shoulders. And God in heaven, what shoulders! Some kind of rich-looking lace festooned them, allowing glimpses of creamy flesh through the open cut-work. He tried not to stare. The way her body curved in and out made his neck burn.

      She held on to Mrs. Whipple’s hand for an extra-long minute, and then Careen reached out and drew her away, toward him. The woman lifted her head, and her thick, dark hair danced against those satiny shoulders.

      And then she did something so completely unexpected he wondered if he was dreaming. She shut her eyes tight and stretched out her hand toward him.

      “Miss Leora Mayfield,” Mrs. Whipple intoned.

      “Please, please,” she whispered. “Hold on to my hand. I am having a nervous reaction.”

      Kellen clasped her hand in both of his and peered into her face. The woman was attractive. Extraordinarily attractive. He studied her wide mouth, the dark lashes against her cheeks. My God, she’s beautiful.

      “Reaction to what?” he managed.

      “To…this. All of these people.” Her lids opened and her eyes locked with his. They were so blue and clear they made his throat СКАЧАТЬ