Sugar Plums for Dry Creek & At Home in Dry Creek (13 page)

Judd was frowning by the time Pete sat down in his pew. Judd knew he was being uncharitable and it made him irritable. The truth was, Pete probably did know more about family life than
he
did.

Mrs. Hargrove stood up next. The older woman carried a can de la bra with several candles in it. She said she was lighting candles for those in her family who couldn't be here. “And one of them should be,” she added. “And will be by next Thanksgiving if I have any thing to say about it.”

“Amen,” Charley said from his place in the church, and several people nodded.

Judd noticed that the middle-aged man who sat next to Charley didn't nod like every one else in the church did. He didn't even smile or look the least bit
thankful. That must be Charley's son. Judd wondered if the poor man had any idea what his father and Mrs. Hargrove were planning for him. Probably not. But the man looked like some one who could take care of him self, and Judd had enough of his own trouble to worry about.

Bobby went up with his candle after the Curtis twins had finished.

“I'm thankful that my Mom is okay even if I don't know where she is,” Bobby said bravely after he added his candle to the table. Judd noticed Bobby had wrapped a yellow rib bon around the candle. It must have been the rib bon his mother accidentally left when she left the children with Judd.

“Shall we go up now?” Judd whispered in Lizette's ear.

Lizette nodded and stood up when he did.

Judd set Amanda down on the floor so she could walk with them.

Sometimes a man had more to be grateful for than he could share with other people. Having Lizette come up front with him and the kids be side him made him feel humble and proud all at the same time. When they were together in church, Judd felt like he be longed some where and to some one. He wondered if church did that to other people.

“I'm grateful that the town gave me a place to set
up my ballet studio,” Lizette said as she set her pink candle on the table. “It's made my mother's dream come true. I wish she were here to see it.”

Judd wished he'd had a chance to meet Lizette's mother. She must have been a special woman to raise some one like Lizette all by her self.

“I have two candles,” Judd said as he reached into his pockets. Both Amanda and Bobby were on his right, so he handled their mother's candle to them. “The first candle is for Barbara, Amanda and Bobby's mother. If she were here today, I think she'd tell you that the thing she is most grateful for is her two wonderful children.”

Bobby and Amanda carefully set their mother's candle on the table.

Judd pulled the other candle out of his pocket and set it on the table. “As for me, I'm grateful for—” Judd stopped. He meant to say he was grateful for the dog that had wandered onto his farm last spring. And he
was
thankful for the dog. He'd never had a pet be fore. But he suddenly wanted to be more honest with the people of Dry Creek who were watching him. So he cleared his throat and began again. “I'm most grateful for feeling like I'm part of a family today.”

There, Judd told him self. He'd been open and vulnerable and no one had stood up and called him a liar or any thing. In fact, what he could see in the dim
lighting was that most people were nod ding their heads like he was right to be grateful for that. Judd stood with the kids while they waited for Lizette to light her candle.

The rest of the people in the Dry Creek church lit candles. Some of them mentioned being thankful for good health. One or two were thankful for the year's good crops. Still others were grateful that family members were all able to be together for the holiday.

When every one had finished taking their candles up to the front of the church, the two women in choir robes sang a song about amazing grace. Judd figured they had that about right. He'd never seen much kind ness or grace in his life, but he was beginning to think that the people in this church knew something about grace that he didn't. Maybe he should take the kids to church here until their mother came to get them. He'd like for them to know about this amazing grace that was in the song.

He sighed. He guessed if he was going to do this church business, he should do it right. Maybe he could order a tie from the cat a log. While he was at it, he'd order a suit, as well.

Judd looked over at Lizette. He wondered if she'd wear that cute little hat to church again if he wore a tie. At least as long as the kids were with him, Judd was pretty sure she'd sit with them in church.

And Sunday was only a couple of days away. Maybe it wouldn't be such a hard ship to go to church after all.

I
t was the Monday morning after Thanksgiving, and Lizette was making progress on plans for the Nutcracker. She'd seen Mr. Elkton in church yesterday and he'd offered her the use of the barn he owned on the out skirts of Dry Creek for the performance it self. She'd been assured by Mrs. Hargrove that enough people would come to see the Nutcracker performance that they would need to have more space than Lizette had in her dance school.

“Plus, we can set a refreshment table up at one end of the barn for those lovely pas tries you mentioned, and we'll need some punch, of course,” Mrs. Hargrove said. “Don't you worry about it being a barn. The building hasn't been used as a barn for ten years or more. We keep it clean just for events like this. We'll have our Christmas pageant there on
Christmas Eve, so we'll just get things ready earlier and have the Nutcracker in the barn, too.”

Lizette planned to have the ballet this coming Friday evening, December 3. She'd walked over to the barn after church yesterday and checked to see if the floor was smooth enough for ballet movements. It was.

Plus, the barn was charming. There were several windows on each side of the barn, and the sun light showed off the square features of the structure. There were rafters and square trim around the windows and the large double door. The wood was all golden as if it had been polished.

It was easy to believe that there had been other performances in the building. There was even a small sound system that had been wired around the rafters so that the music she used for the Nutcracker would be easier to hear.

“We're get ting to be a regular cultural center here in Dry Creek,” Mrs. Hargrove continued. “What with the ballet and then the Christmas pageant. I can take my Christmas tree over to the barn anytime you want and Charley can move the fire place he made over so we'll be all set for the ballet. And with the hay loft, there's even stairs you can use for when Clara goes up to her bed room to sleep.” Mrs. Hargrove stopped all of a sudden and shook her head. “There I go again. Making every one's plans for them. I'm working on controlling my organizing spirit this Christmas.”

“Don't worry about it with me,” Lizette said. “I'm happy to have a little guidance.”

Mrs. Hargrove nodded. “Well, I sup pose you do need some one to show you the ropes for the first time. It'd be a pity if we didn't have everything ready for our Dry Creek ballet premiere. At least I think we should call it a premiere in our advertising, don't you?”

“Advertising?” Lizette had a sinking feeling. She'd been focused on practicing and get ting the costumes ready. “It's probably too late for advertising. I wasn't thinking. Newspapers usually need more notice. The performance is Friday.”

“Edna will free up some place in the Miles City section of the paper,” Mrs. Hargrove said. “It won't be much, but that's only one way to let people know. We can also put up posters.”

“I don't have much money for printing and things like that,” Lizette cautioned her. “I thought this would be a small performance since it's our first one.”

“Don't you worry about a thing,” Mrs. Hargrove said. “And, believe me, we won't have a small turn-out.”

Mrs. Hargrove should run for president, Lizette thought a few hours later. And not just of the USA. Mrs. Hargrove could run the world. She had arranged for Edna to do a re view of the Nutcracker at a special dress rehearsal the cast would do Wednesday after
noon. That way people in the area would know about the Nutcracker and Lizette wouldn't have to pay for an ad. And, if that wasn't enough, the older woman also talked with Glory Curtis, the pastor's wife, and got an offer from the woman to create full-color posters to hang both at the hard ware store and at several locations in Miles City.

“She's an artist, you know,” Mrs. Hargrove confided to Lizette when she hung up the telephone. “She used to work as a police sketch artist—that's what she was doing when she first came to Dry Creek—and now she's gaining quite a reputation for her portraits.”

“That's an un usual occupation for a pastor's wife. A police sketch artist?”

“Oh, well, she wasn't married to Matthew then,” Mrs. Hargrove said. “Although she's al ways been an in de pen dent-minded woman, so it wouldn't make any difference to either of them if she was working for the police still—except for the fact that Matthew didn't like the thought of people shooting at her.”

“Well, no, I sup pose he wouldn't.”

“I tell my daughter, Doris June, that a woman can be and do about any thing in Dry Creek these days. She's al ways so worried about her career, but there's nothing to say she can't have a career right here.”

“I hope your daughter does come home soon.” Lizette had heard about Mrs. Hargrove's plans to
have her daughter come home and marry some local man from Judd. She hated to think that the older woman would be disappointed, but Lizette thought it was likely. “It must be hard when your daughter doesn't do what you want her to do.”

“Ah, well,” Mrs. Hargrove said. “A mother can hope.”

Lizette was glad she was able to make her mother's dream come true even if her mother wasn't here to enjoy the fact with her. Sometimes, when the day was done and the streets of Dry Creek were quiet and dark, Lizette talked to her mother and told her all about what was happening with the Baker School of Ballet.

Sometimes, in stead of pre tending to talk to her mother, she actually called Madame Aprele and told her about what was happening. The odd thing was, she didn't exactly tell either woman the whole truth.

Lizette didn't want to disappoint them, so she made it sound as if the school was a real school and not just space in an old store. She made her students sound like real students and not just a few people she'd man aged to talk into dressing up in costumes. She certainly wouldn't tell either of them that her premiere performance was going to be held in a barn or that both her Mouse King and her Nutcracker were hope less at ballet.

One thing she could tell them, though, Lizette thought cheerfully, was that she was having some one from the local paper come to the dress rehearsal to write a re view of the performance. That should make them both feel that her school was doing well.

 

Judd never thought he'd worry about the problems of being a Nutcracker. “If he's wearing a red military coat and black boots, you know he'd never agree to having some little girl stand in front when he's battling a mouse.”

“Rat,” Pete corrected him. “I'm a rat.”

Pete was standing be side the fire place that they had just moved over to the barn from Lizette's dance studio.

“When he's battling a large rodent,” Judd corrected him self. “A Nutcracker just wouldn't do that. He's got more dignity.”

Judd had got ten a better picture of the pride a Nutcracker would have when he'd seen the poster Glory Curtis had drawn. The poster showed the Nutcracker standing tall with the little girl, Clara, at his side. Glory had used both Judd and Lizette for models in the poster, and even though the sketch was in pencil, Judd swore it was the best like ness any one had ever made of him, and the girl looked exactly like Lizette.

Judd figured people would know him as the
Nutcracker for miles around. He didn't want people stopping him in the grocery store and demanding to know what kind of man he was for let ting a girl stand between him and danger.

“But Clara owns the Nutcracker,” Lizette protested. She was draping an afghan over a wooden rocking chair that Charley would sit in as the narrator. “She's only protecting what is hers.”

Judd had nothing to say to that. Actually, he didn't want to say much to that. It made him feel pretty good.

Pete, how ever, had something to say. “It's only a nut cracker. Who'd be fool enough to risk get ting a rat bite just to save a wooden utensil? You could get rabies.”

“He's her prince, that's why,” Lizette said as she tucked the back of the afghan into the arms of the rocker and then stood back to look at her work. “There. That's straight.”

Pete grunted. “It doesn't do any good to have a prince if you're dead because of rabies.”

“Don't worry,” Lizette said as she moved the rocker closer to the fire place. “You'll do a good job of fighting him in the beginning and look very impressive.”

“I could still switch and be the Nutcracker,” Pete suggested.

“Not on your life,” Judd said. He knew Pete wasn't
so much dismayed at being a dead rodent as he was envious of Judd for get ting to kiss the ballerina. Well, actually, he hadn't kissed the ballerina since that first time, but he figured one of these days Lizette would for get about the stage kiss and go for a real one.

“It's too late to make changes,” Lizette said as she put a picture frame on the mantel of the fire place. “We have the dress rehearsal at two o'clock to morrow afternoon—I know it's not our usual time, but Edna needs to come then in order to get our re view done for the paper.”

“She's not going to take pictures, is she?” Pete asked.

Lizette shook her head. “I don't think so. She said there's not much room for the re view even.”

“Good,” Pete said.

“You'll be able to get off work, won't you?” Lizette said to Pete. Pete nodded.

“I know you don't have to worry,” Lizette turned and said to Judd.

“One of the good things about owning your own place,” Judd said as he helped Lizette place a small rug in front of the fire place. “I'm free as a bird when it comes to my schedule.”

Judd hoped she appreciated that he was a man with prospects. It didn't seem like she even noticed.

“I'll start with a quick rehearsal of the kids a cou
ple of hours earlier, so I won't take either of you away from your work any longer than necessary,” Lizette said as she straightened up after placing the rug.

“I can spare the time. I don't answer to any one,” Judd said as he brushed his hands on his jeans. Lizette wasn't even listening to his declaration of in dependence, so Judd gave it up. “As long as you've got plans for the kids, that'll give me a chance to run into Miles City with out them. I want to check with the courts about their father. I'm wondering if any one has asked him for more information about Barbara.”

“You should have plenty of time to go to Miles City and back,” Lizette said. “And if we finish early, I'll just put all of the kids to work cut ting up those dried plums for the pas tries I'm making.”

“Really?” Pete brightened up. “The boys in the bunk house have been asking what kind of pas try these sugar-plum things are.”

“It's like a cream-filled croissant with raisins, except there's a different kind of cream and the raisins are plums and it's not really croissant dough.”

“But you don't need to go to the ballet to get one, do you?” Pete asked.

Lizette laughed. “I'm afraid so. I know you're hoping the others won't come, but that's the only way to get a sugar-plum pas try. Unless there are leftover ones after the ballet.”

“There won't be any leftovers,” Pete said.

“If you need any last-minute things from the store in Miles City, let me know since I'll be going in there any way,” Judd offered.

“I haven't thought of what to use as a cloth on the table where we'll be serving the pas tries and punch,” Lizette said. “Maybe you could buy some white silk fabric at the store—some of the washable kind would work best.”

“I haven't seen any fabric stores in Miles City,” Judd said. He didn't add that he wouldn't know silk if he saw it. He was more of a denim and flannel kind of a guy.

“Oh, I'm sure they must have a store that sells bolts of fabric,” Lizette said. “You'll just have to ask around.”

Judd decided he would have to take her word for it. She was probably right any way. It was the kind of thing a woman would know.

Besides, Judd thought to him self, at least buying some silk would give him a good reason for going into Miles City apart from his vague un ease. He was beginning to wish that Amanda and Bobby's father was al ready in the jail in Billings. Maybe there was something Judd could do to speed up the process if he went into Miles City and talked to who ever was in charge at the jail. Surely they could find room in the Billings jail if they put their minds to it.

Judd didn't know why he was feeling nervous. Everyone he had asked said that the jail in Miles City was built like a rock. A body had more chance of freezing to death in side their cell there than of actually making an escape.

Of course, Judd wasn't sure he was worried about the jail.

For all Judd knew, his un ease might not even be about the kids' father. It might be about the up coming ballet. Judd figured he knew his part as well as he was ever going to know it, and he was smart enough to realize that Lizette had organized everything, so he more or less stood still while she went twirling and dancing around him. He was more of a post than a dancer. Still, he was un easy about the whole thing.

He'd never in his life performed in front of an audience. When he was riding in the rodeo, there had been an audience, but there was nothing required of the performers but to stay on the back of a horse. It was different than the ballet.

In this ballet, he was supposed to be the prince. Him—Judd Bowman. He knew that Lizette didn't have many contenders for the role, but still. He'd never figured he was a prince kind of a guy. He was more like the guy out in the stables who took care of everything while the prince was in side talking to people and impressing the princess.

If Judd had known that the Nutcracker was more than a utensil, he'd have thought twice about volunteering for the role. Even now, if any man but Pete stepped for ward and said he wanted to play the role, Judd would be tempted to let him.