Page 17

“Usually once a month,” she said. “Sometimes a little more often if something important comes up, like Northwest Pacific wanting to do some clear-cutting.”

“Is that unusual?”

Her lips parted to reply, but Gus the waiter reappeared right then, and they had to pause as he set down their glasses of chardonnay and asked if they were ready to order.

Ben had already decided on the sea bass, and it appeared Sidney knew the menu well enough that she didn’t even have to look at it.

“The shrimp scampi, please.”

Once that was handled and Gus had taken their menus and departed again, she seemed ready to pick up the thread of their conversation.

“Well, it’s not usual,” she said in response to his question about Northwest Pacific Lumber.

“I mean, I vaguely remember them doing some cutting when I was still in grade school, but that was twenty years ago. Maybe they think enough time has passed that it should be okay to go back in. I honestly don’t know how much has regrown, but a friend of mine — Sam Tucker, one of the rangers here — would have a better idea. ”

Her cheeks flushed faintly pink as she mentioned the other man’s name, and Ben experienced an odd stab of jealousy. Was Sam an ex? A prospective boyfriend?

Hard to say, since he knew next to nothing about her personal life except that she’d suffered an unimaginable tragedy only a few months earlier.

“But I suppose we’ll find out at the meeting,” she continued, then reached for her glass of wine. “I know most of us will be against any kind of cutting, so I have to hope the mayor will listen to us and know he should abide by the will of the majority.”

“Does he have a habit of not doing that?” Ben inquired.

A lift of her shoulders, and Sidney said, “Well, a lot of people think he’s a little too much in the pocket of corporate interests rather than doing what’s best for Silver Hollow.

Luckily, the town charter states that he can’t make unilateral decisions on anything that would adversely affect the overall population, so even if he might push for Northwest Pacific to start cutting trees in the forest again, as long as most people vote against that kind of initiative, we should be okay. ”

It sounded as if whoever had first established the little town, they’d made sure to have it be a “power to the people” kind of place, which Ben thought was pretty advanced for the 1850s.

Or maybe not, since back then, there might have still been a few old-timers around who’d been alive during the Revolution.

“That must be a relief to everyone,” he said, and she flashed him a grin.

“Well, probably not to the Northwest Pacific execs, but yeah.”

He smiled in return, and the conversation flowed on to entirely normal stuff, like the differences between small-town living and being in a huge exurban sprawl like where he was currently located.

“I still can’t really wrap my head around the idea of Southern California,” Sidney remarked, and Ben tilted his head at her.

“You’ve really never been there?”

She sipped some chardonnay and then set down the glass.

“My parents took me to Disneyland when I was around eight, but that’s it.

I remember it all being big and kind of scary — we flew into LAX and rented a car and drove down to Orange County.

It felt like there were way too many buildings, even back then. ”

Not quite twenty years ago, Ben guessed, which wouldn’t have been far enough in the past for Southern California to be materially different from how it looked now.

No, based on old photos he’d seen and comments his parents had made about their childhoods — they’d both been born in Orange County — you would have had to go back to the 1970s to revisit the days when hundreds of acres were still covered by orange groves and strawberry fields.

“There are quite a few,” he agreed, and her mouth quirked.

“Are you teasing me?”

“Not quite,” he replied, and that small lift at the corners of her mouth turned into an outright smile.

Gus arrived with their entrées then, so the two of them were quiet for a couple of minutes while they helped themselves to a few bites. His sea bass was perfectly prepared, succulent and brushed with butter-lemon sauce, and Sidney’s shrimp scampi appeared equally delectable.

When their conversation resumed, they talked about Silver Hollow, but ordinary stuff, like how the pet store she was currently overseeing had been established back in the 1960s by her grandparents, and how the town sometimes grew a little and sometimes contracted and yet always managed to remain its own unique self.

No talk of glowing plants or shimmering white horses, nothing to indicate the place was anything more than one of many quaint settlements that dotted the Pacific Northwest.

After dinner — Ben had grabbed the check too quickly for Sidney to even look at it, since he was the one who’d invited her and he didn’t want her to even consider paying — they walked over to City Hall.

He’d noticed the place when he was strolling along Main Street the day before, one of the few stone structures in a town that appeared to be mostly wooden houses and buildings.

It only made sense for most of the houses and storefronts to be made of wood, considering how they were surrounded by evergreen forests, and he wondered where the stone had come from.

It was reddish in hue, with turrets at either side, distinctly Victorian in its style of architecture, an impression proven by the small bronze plaque affixed to the wall by the main entrance that declared it as a National Historic Register site and stated that it had been built in 1878.

Quite a few people had already gathered in the large meeting space on the first floor, so he and Sidney had to sit near the back.

Ben was all right with that, though; he was only observing, and he got the feeling that if she needed to make her voice heard, she’d stand up and make sure everyone was able to hear what she was saying.

Two men climbed the stairs to the low stage at the far end of the room.

Ben recognized one of them as Victor Maplehurst, and although he’d never seen the other man before, he guessed he must be the mayor.

He was probably close in age to the Northwest Pacific exec, but the resemblance ended there, since Silver Hollow’s mayor was short and balding, and definitely didn’t look like the kind of person who would be interested in restoring vintage MGs.

During dinner, Ben had wondered if he should ask whether Sidney had voted for the guy, then decided such a question would be far too intrusive.

For all he knew, she hadn’t participated in the last election at all, since she would have been away at school.

True, she could have voted absentee or come home to cast her vote, but mayoral elections generally didn’t tend to be at the top of the priorities list for college students.

The last few rows of seats were now filled, so it seemed the mayor had decided it was time to get things started.

“Welcome, everyone,” he said in a voice somewhat at odds with his appearance, smooth and mellow as a radio announcer’s. For all Ben knew, that voice was part of the reason why he’d gotten elected in the first place. “I’m Mayor Tillman…but you already knew that, of course.”

A low rumble of laughter filled the hall. Although Ben had already been disposed to distrust the guy, based on what Sidney had told him about the mayor’s pro-big-business bent, he had to admit that the man knew how to handle a crowd.

“With me is Victor Maplehurst, CEO of development at Northwest Pacific Lumber. I thought it better to let him talk about his company’s plans, since he’s the expert on the subject. Victor?”

The mayor stepped away from the podium to give the other man space.

Victor moved up to the microphone, looking utterly assured.

No doubt he’d given plenty of these same speeches at various town halls around the region, although Ben assumed the man probably tailored each one at least a little to adapt it for his current audience.

“Hi, everyone,” he said. He must have read the room in advance, because he wore jeans and a plaid button-up shirt, although they’d probably come from Ralph Lauren rather than Carhartt.

“I thought we’d have a little chat so I could address some of your understandable worries about Northwest Pacific starting up clear-cutting in your forests again. ”

People murmured around them, but it seemed as if they were willing to hear him out, because no one spoke up.

Next to Ben, Sidney was sitting upright in her folding chair, gaze fixed on the man at the podium.

It was obvious that she was tense, although she also remained silent, fingers wrapped around the strap of the backpack-style brown purse in her lap.

“Let me talk first about where we plan to cut,” Victor continued.

“It’s an area of the forest not visible from town, and we’re pretty sure that you won’t be able to hear us, either.

We won’t be cutting more than five thousand acres.

This is a strategic clearing, one that will actually help the overall health of the forest by clearing a section that’s become far too overgrown.

Cutting it back will aid in fire prevention and will also help with removing some invasive undergrowth. ”

Again, the people in the watching crowd murmured among themselves. However, it seemed as if so far Victor Maplehurst hadn’t said anything to upset them too much, because again, no one spoke up to ask questions.

On the surface, everything that Victor had said so far sounded pretty good.

Certainly, nobody wanted to argue against a practice that might help to prevent forest fires, and invasive species could also be an issue.

From what Ben had been able to tell from his admittedly limited explorations of the woods outside Silver Hollow, it didn’t seem as if they’d been affected by fire any time in recent memory, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen despite the area’s normally damp climate.

Terrible fires had swept through northern California in the past, so there was no reason to believe this particular area would be spared forever.

Someone near the front raised their hand. Maybe the faintest of frowns creased Victor Maplehurst’s brows, but he sounded pleasant enough as he responded, “Yes? What’s your question?”

“Where exactly are you planning to cut?”

The person asking the question was a man, although Ben couldn’t see the guy because of how far back in the audience he and Sidney were sitting.

“Near a spot called Welling Glen,” Victor replied.

Next to Ben, Sidney went stiff, and her fingers tightened so much around the strap of her purse that the knuckles stood out white against her lightly tanned skin.

Her lips moved, and although no sound emerged, Ben thought he could still make out what she was saying.

Oh, no.

What was so important about that particular location?

Whatever it was, the rest of Silver Hollow’s population didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it. Another murmur moved through the crowd, but no one asked any follow-up questions.

The rest of the meeting didn’t take very long, with a few people inquiring as to how much traffic would increase in the area, and others wondering where all the workers would be housed.

Victor Maplehurst assured everyone that, since this was a fairly small operation, they would have the logging crew stay in mobile housing for the time while they were there, which sounded as if it wouldn’t be much more than a month or two.

While the operation was going on, there might be a slight increase in traffic, and the local restaurants and shops might be a bit more crowded, but overall, there shouldn’t be much impact on the community.

The listening crowd seemed satisfied with that description of the operation, and the gathering broke up soon afterward.

Ben followed Sidney outside, noting the tight set of her lips and the way she’d practically stalked out of the hall, as if she vibrated with an inner rage she couldn’t allow herself to express.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked once they were outside and well away from most of the other people who’d attended the meeting.

She stared at him blankly for a moment. Whatever had upset her, it seemed to be crowding her thoughts to the point where she wasn’t paying very much attention to her surroundings.

But then she blinked. For just a moment, he thought she was going to assure him everything was fine…even when it clearly wasn’t.

Then she said, “Yeah, I actually do want to talk.”