Sugar Plums for Dry Creek & At Home in Dry Creek (7 page)

“I don't know yet. I might have to be a snow flake if we can't get any other kids to be in it with us.”

“Ah,” Mrs. Hargrove murmured. “Snowflakes are wonderful things. Especially at Christmas. Each one is different.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Bobby said with out much enthusiasm.

“Why don't you go help your sister with that costume?” Judd said to Bobby. Judd had a feeling that Mrs. Hargrove wasn't going to tell him the news she had as long as either of the children were around to hear it.

Bobby pushed his chair back from the table and left to follow Amanda.

Mrs. Hargrove sat down in the chair Bobby had left. She didn't waste time but got straight to the point. “Have you heard from the sheriff this morning?”

Judd shook his head. “The kids have had les sons this morning, and I come in with them. I've been here.”

“That's what the sheriff thought. That's why he called me. He wanted you to know that they think they've arrested the kids' father over in Miles City. The man won't say who he is, but he had that picture Lizette de scribed with him.”

“Did the man have a tat too of a snake on his arm?”

Mrs. Hargrove nodded. “The sheriff said it was a cobra.”

“That sounds like it's him, all right. Did he have a woman with him when he was arrested?”

Mrs. Hargrove shook her head. “No, it was just him. Are you thinking your cousin is hooked back up with him?”

“I don't know what to think,” Judd admitted. “She should have been back here weeks ago, even if she'd had car trouble on the way to Denver. Besides, I don't know how he would know where to find the kids if he hadn't got ten the information from my cousin. Though I can't understand why she'd be foolish enough even to talk to the man.”

“She must have had her reasons,” Mrs. Hargrove said.

“Well, I hope they were good ones.”

Mrs. Hargrove nodded. “The sheriff said they caught the man breaking into a gas station in the middle of the night.”

“How long will he be in jail?”

“Long enough. They took him to the jail in Miles City for the time being. In a week or so they'll take him to the jail in Billings. If he is the children's father, apparently there's an other war rant out for his arrest from the state of Colorado, so when they finish with him here, they're going to ship him down there.”

“He's a popular guy.”

“I'd say so. The sheriff figures they'll be sending him to Colorado some time after Christmas.”

Judd nodded. “That'll be some Christmas present for the kids.”

Amanda and Bobby were starting to walk back to ward them with the fairy costume in their hands. Even from here, Judd could see the excitement on Amanda's face.

“Do you think it will upset them to know their father's in jail?”

“I wish I knew,” Judd said. “On the one hand, he is their father. But on the other hand, they're afraid of him. Knowing he's in jail might make them more comfort able even coming into town here. They seem a little nervous when they're not at my place.”

Mrs. Hargrove nodded. “I wondered if that's why you haven't brought them to Sunday school yet.” She didn't leave time for Judd to think of the real reason he hadn't brought the children. “But now that it's cleared up, I'll hope to see you this Sunday. It's the last Sunday be fore Thanksgiving, and the kids
will be decorating candles and thinking about what they're going to say at the service we have the night of Thanksgiving.”

“I heard about that—”

“It's a wonderful thing for families to do together,” Mrs. Hargrove said as she turned to smile at Bobby and Amanda, who had just reached them.

Amanda was holding the pink costume out for Mrs. Hargrove to see.

“Oh, that's beautiful,” Mrs. Hargrove told the little girl.

Watching Amanda talk with the older woman made Judd decide he would take the kids to Sunday school this Sunday. It would do Amanda good to talk to more people, and she certainly seemed to have no trouble chat ting with Mrs. Hargrove. It would be good for Bobby, too, to meet some more kids.

The only one it might not be good for, Judd decided, was him self. He would be a fish out of water in church. Maybe he could leave the kids at the church and then walk over to the café and have a cup of coffee. Now that sounded like the way to do this. Although, now that he thought of it, he couldn't remember if the café was open on Sundays. He thought Linda went to the church in Dry Creek, too, so she probably didn't open the café that day.

For the first time, Judd wished Dry Creek were a bigger town. In a place like Billings, or even Miles
City, no one would notice who was going to church and who wasn't. They probably had coffee shops that were open on Sunday mornings as well.

Maybe he'd just have to sit in his pickup for the hour or so that the kids were in side. Yeah, he could do that.

J
udd still hadn't talked to the sheriff about it all, but it was Saturday, and it had been two days since Judd had learned that the kid's father had been arrested. Hearing that news had surprised Judd enough. But what he was looking at now made that surprise go clear out of his head. He figured pigs were going to start flying down the street of Dry Creek pretty soon. He couldn't believe his eyes. Right there, in the middle of Lizette's practice room, was Pete Denning trying to do a pirouette.

The man's Stetson hat was thrown on the floor, and his boots were next to it. He wore one white sock and one gray sock, but both of his feet were arched up in an effort to hold him on his tip toes.

“We should start with something simpler,” Lizette was saying. She was dressed in her usual black prac
tice leggings and T-shirt and had stopped her stretching on the practice bar to watch Pete.

“No, I saw this on TV and I know I can do it,” Pete said as he tried again to stand on his tip toes.

The man looked like a pretzel that had come out of the ma chine wrong.

“I see you got an other student,” Judd said. The kids and Charley were in the other room get ting out of their coats and into their dancing slippers. Judd should have positioned him self in his usual chair out side on the porch, but he'd seen Pete, and that had changed everything.

“It's a free country,” Pete said.

Judd lifted his hands up in surrender. “I didn't say any thing.”

“Yeah, but I know what you're thinking.”

Judd chanced a quick look at Lizette. She'd paused mid way through a stretch, and the curve of her back was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He certainly hoped the cow boy didn't know what he was thinking.

Pete didn't wait for Judd to answer. “You're thinking that a Montana man like me wouldn't know what to do with a little culture.”

“I didn't say that.”

“But you would be wrong even to think it,” Pete continued with out listening. Pete was looking at Lizette, too, now. Lizette had stopped bending and
was stretching her arm along the practice bar. A faint sheen of perspiration made her face glow, and tiny wisps of black hair had escaped the braid she wore.

Pete sighed. “A true man can appreciate fine art.”

Judd didn't like Pete looking at Lizette. The cowboy didn't have fine art on his mind. Judd knew that much at least.

“You might have to wear tights,” Judd said. That got the other man's attention away from Lizette, so Judd added, “Pink tights.”

Now he had the cow boy's full attention.

Pete wasn't looking at any one but Judd. He looked horrified. “Nobody said any thing about tights.”

“I said there would be costumes,” Lizette said as she lifted her leg onto the practice bar and made an other curve with her body.

“But ‘costumes' doesn't mean tights,” Pete said as he watched Lizette.

For a moment, neither man spoke.

Pete breathed out slowly. “Well, maybe if they're not
pink
tights.”

Lizette finished her ballet move and turned to look at the two men. “Don't discourage him, Judd.”

Judd felt that odd sensation in his stomach again. The last day or so Lizette had started calling him Judd, and he liked the sound of his name coming from her lips. Of course, it
was
his name, so it
shouldn't be any big deal. It was just that he wasn't used to people saying it all of the time. If he was on the phone with some one, he was usually called “Mr. Bowman.” In the rodeo, people had just called him “Bowman.” His uncle had called him “You,” if he called him any thing at all. Judd guessed first names were more of a woman's thing.

“I won't discourage him,” Judd finally said. “I'm looking for ward to seeing him prance around up on stage.” He could see the panic return to the other man's eyes.

“If he backs out, Judd Bowman,” Lizette warned. “You're going to have to take his place.”

“Me? Up there?”

“It would do you good,” Lizette said. “Especially if you scare away any of my students. I don't know what the phobia is about tights any way. They're really no tighter than foot ball uniforms.”

“Yes, but with f-foot ball—” Pete stuttered. “Well, with foot ball, you get to knock people around.”

“I'm hoping you're not going to say that that makes you more of a man than ballet does,” Lizette said to Pete.

Judd felt a little sorry for the cow boy. The two of them both knew that, of course, foot ball made a man more of a man. And real men wore boots and not ballet slippers. They just couldn't tell any of that to Lizette.

“No, ma'am,” Pete finally said. “I'm not going to say that.”

“Good, because I'm expecting three more new students today, and with any luck, we can start some serious practicing for the Nutcracker.”

Judd al most groaned. He hoped she wasn't expecting three more of Pete's cow boy friends. He couldn't stay out on the porch with all of those cow boys in here practicing their moves. And he didn't know what excuse he would give Lizette for guarding her classroom from in side the room, especially now that they all knew the kids' father was in jail in Miles City.

“This Nutcracker you want me to play,” Pete said. “Does the Nutcracker wear tights?”

Lizette smiled at the cow boy. “Usually, he does.”

Pete nodded glumly. “The guy sounds like some kind of a nut all right.” Another look of alarm crossed Pete's face. “He is a guy, isn't he?”

Lizette laughed. “Yes, he's a guy. He wears a tall red hat with a black band under the chin.”

“And tights,” Pete said.

“Yes.”

Pete shook his head.

“I sup pose if you insisted, you could be a snowflake. It's just that I was saving those parts for the little kids.”

“Maybe I could be an usher,” Pete offered. “They get to wear clothes, don't they?”

“Of course they wear clothes,” Lizette said. “Everyone wears clothes. All dancers are fully clothed at all times. What made you think they weren't? I can't afford for that rumor to get around. I won't even keep the students I have if people hear that.”

“Maybe you need some help with the scenery,” Pete finally offered. “Something with hammering.”

Judd watched the disappointment settle on Lizette's face.

“Charley has al ready offered to build the fire place that we need. Mrs. Hargrove has offered us her artificial Christmas tree. And we won't have enough dancers to do even a small version of the Nutcracker if you back out now,” Lizette said.

Judd was a fool. He just couldn't stand that look on Lizette's face. “I could do something.”

“Charley al ready offered to build the fire place,” Lizette said.

“No, I mean, I could do a dance part.”

Judd wished he'd offered sooner. Lizette looked at him like he'd just hung the stars in the sky.

“You would? Dance a part?”

“Now, just wait a minute,” Pete said. “I haven't said I
won't
do any dancing. I was just offering some extra help. Besides, I thought the deal was that the first people to sign up got their pick of the parts. Isn't
that why your little girl gets to be the Sugar Plum Fairy?”

Judd nodded. He guessed those were the rules.

“So I pick the meanest dancer in the whole thing,” Pete said. “Someone who commands respect on the street. Is there a part like that?”

“Well, if you're sure you don't want to be the Nutcracker, you can be the Mouse King,” Lizette said, and then added quickly as Pete started to frown, “he's not a furry little mouse. He's really a rat. He comes charging out of the fire place and tries to take down the Nutcracker.”

“Kind of like in foot ball?” Pete said with a smile. “And I bet he doesn't have to wear tights.”

“Well, he does usually wear tights,” Lizette admitted. “But the rest of the costume covers them up pretty much.”

“So Judd here's going to be the Nut guy?” Pete asked.

Lizette raised a hopeful eye brow at Judd.

“I guess so,” Judd admitted. He only hoped the Nutcracker got to fight back when the Mouse King tack led him. Judd didn't relish going down with out a fight.

“Good,” Pete said with satisfaction as he looked at Judd. “Let's hope that little black band keeps the hat on your head when I come after you.”

Judd hoped the little black band kept his head
on his shoulders when Pete tack led him. “This Nutcracker guy, he's not a coward or any thing, is he?”

Judd had just realized he might be required to run away from Pete. He'd decided to make this little community his home, and he didn't want to get a reputation for running away from trouble.

“Oh, no, the Nutcracker fights him back,” Lizette assured them both. “It's a glorious battle. All done in ballet, of course. The audience doesn't know until the last minute who wins.”

Judd wondered how he was going to de fend himself if he had to do it on tip toes.

Just then the out side door to the dance class room opened, and in walked Mrs. Hargrove and the pastor's twin boys.

“Well, we're here to learn to dance,” Mrs. Hargrove said as Lizette moved to greet them.

Judd had to admit he was relieved. At least the new students weren't more cow boys.

“Oh, we're going to have such fun,” Lizette said as she led Mrs. Hargrove and the twins back to the area where they could take off their coats.

Judd was less enthusiastic. His only consolation was that Pete didn't seem any hap pier about the arrangements than he was.

“I hope you've got room in those tights for some knee pads,” Pete finally said, but he said it like the
fight had al ready gone out of him. “I'd hate to bang up your knees too bad when I bring you down.”

“My knees will do just fine,” Judd said.

Pete was silent for a moment. “You don't sup pose the guys are going to come to see this ballet thing, do you?”

Judd grunted. He figured there was about as much chance of the guys not coming to see this particular ballet production as there was of those pigs deciding to fly down the main street of Dry Creek. No, he and Pete were doomed to be every one's merry entertainment for the holidays.

“You'd be welcome to come over to my place and hang out for a couple of days after the show if you want,” Judd offered. He knew what a bunk house could be like when it came to teasing. “You could tell people you'd gone on a trip or something.”

“I've been wanting to go to Hawaii.”

“Well, maybe you could take that trip then. Winter's a slow time in ranching,” Judd said.

“Can't afford to really go,” Pete said.

“Well, then I'll just put some Hawaiian music on and turn up the heat in the spare room.”

“I appreciate that,” Pete said. “That doesn't mean I won't hit you hard when I can, but I do appreciate it.”

Judd understood. Pete could no more take it easy on him than Judd could run away when Pete came
after him. Even though Lizette had not told them how the fight turned out, Judd figured any one who was named King, even if it was Mouse King, was the one who won the battle. Judd supposed Pete figured it the same way; the cow boy sure didn't look worried that he'd lose.

When the rest of the dancers came back to begin practice, Judd and Pete were both ready. Judd wondered what kind of non sense he'd let him self in for. But he was a man of his word, and one thing he knew for sure—Lizette was counting on him to dance a part. His might not be the best part in the whole ballet, but it was the part she needed and he was willing to play it for her.

Judd only hoped Lizette thought he was doing it for the kids. He wouldn't want her to know he'd taken one look at her disappointed face and agreed to make a fool of him self. No, a man had to have some pride, even if he was a nut cracker.