The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

Going up to the back door, Audry hopped onto the stoop and kicked the snow off her boots. Her eyes raked over the back of the lodge before she went in. Covered wood piles were stacked to one side. But on the other side was this weird chicken wired area which had never made sense to her. It was empty, with the semblance of a small chicken coop. But they did not keep their own chicken. It was always empty. Audry had peeked into it once during the summer to make sure. And once she had asked about it, but the head cook--Mrs. Grace Gruber--said occasionally they had chickens. Just not that day. It didn't make sense to occasionally have chickens. You either had chickens or you didn't. At least that was what Audry thought until one of the other staff explained that the Deacons liked fresh meat, especially chicken meat.

Ugh. Audry turned her back on the chicken yard. She thought it barbaric that the staff at the lodge was occasionally forced to kill meat for their employers. If they had asked her, she would have refused.

Opening the heavy door and stepping inside, Audry smiled at those who were bustling about the kitchen. Mrs. Gruber, a kind yet dumpy lady in her early fifties, was busy working on the cafeteria's marvelous fare of well roasted and sauced dishes as well as brewing up a large pot of cocoa which they always had on hand for the patrons using the lodge. Mrs. Gruber had the cutest chubby cheeks, which when she smiled dimpled as her eyes shined. Her hair was almost always pulled back into a bun and put under some kind of old-fashioned kerchief. Audry had no idea how long it was, but she suspected that the woman maintained it to around her waist and treasured it. Mrs. Gruber also talked like she was a character in a Jane Austen novel, calling people dear and love and miss, which to those who did not know her made them believe she was incredibly sweet and soft. But Grace Gruber was actually the brains behind the lodge. The front manager took his orders from her.

"How was your day, sweetie?" Mrs. Gruber said when she saw Audry as she set out a cup of cocoa for Audry on the work table in the middle of the room. Audry was tempted to call it the scullery, since it was spacious with a cold stony floor, several large ovens and a huge collection of cupboards with an old fashioned pantry.

Shrugging, Audry took off her coat, shaking it out over the door mat then hanging it on the hook next to the doorway. "Same old. Same old. Nothing bad. Nothing uber exciting."

Smiling at her, Mrs. Gruber folded up the tea towel she was holding and tucked it into her apron. Her eyes pierced Audry in ways that even her own mother's gaze never did. It was like that woman could see into the souls of others, but in a good way that didn't intimidate. You wanted her to see into your soul and have her hug you, soothing every pain away.

"Did that no-good boyfriend of yours call you again?"

Audry shook her head, used to this from her. "No."

The woman eyed her with chastening amusement.

"He texted," Audry said.

Nodding, Mrs. Gruber walked over to her sauce and stirred it. "Ok. Have at it. What did he say this time?"

Shrugging again, Audry replied, "Same old. Same old. He missed me. You know.... That kind of thing."

"He still wants to get into your pants?" Mrs. Gruber said, raising his eyebrows.

"Obviously," Audry muttered. "But for some stupid reason I can't seem to convince him that marriage is important to me."

Nodding, Mrs. Gruber sighed. Then she bluntly stated--for the thousandth time--"You should dump him."

Moaning, Audry nodded, but then she shook her head.

"Look," Mrs. Gruber chastened with a wooden spoon in one fist, "He is what is known by Austen fans as a blackguard. That's a man who just wants sex for fun. You want commitment. He wants to just play around. So it's simple. Dump him. Find a better guy."

Moaning more, Audry explained, "I know he sounds bad when you put it like that, but we have so much in common. And if you set aside that he has a sex drive like a tornado, he's--"

"A man who does not respect you," Mrs. Gruber said.

"He has never forced me," Audry retorted, straightening up. "Despite everything else, Harlin has respected my boundaries."

Shaking her head, Mrs. Gruber came next to her. "No—though you are right, technically—but he is trying to shame you into doing something you know you will regret. You are dating to find someone to marry. You told me so yourself. So I will say it again. Ditch the guy and look for a true gentleman. Look for someone who is seeking the same end goal as you, because that Harlin of yours looks to me like a troublemaker."

Chuckling painfully to herself, Audry nodded. Admittedly, that was her curse. She was attracted to the troublemakers.

First there was Bill--or William as his mother called him. Bill was a friend from French club. Though homeschooled, Audry was part of several community clubs growing up. French club was one of her favorites, along with soccer and her camping-hiking group. She dated Bill when she was fifteen. Bill had an overprotective mother, and he secretly smoked just to get back at her... if that made any sense. Audry liked Bill's devil-may-care attitude, or so she told herself. But really, her mother said that Audry was just attracted to dangerous things, which worried her. Bill eventually ran away from home, ended up joining Antifa rallies for a while, then later came back when it got too intense. Bill was now studying accounting and he wore a tie.

Around the time Bill had run off, Audry was with Robert Owens. Robert liked to play with knives and was into knife throwing for a while. That is, until he cut a chunk out of his skin and had to get eleven stitches. Her father had once physically dragged Audry away from Robert and threatened to scalp him if he came near his daughter ever again.

Then there was Tony, and then Brian, then Davis, and lastly Gawain whose parents were utter hippies and had moved them to Colorado so they could grow pot. Since that time, Audry had gone off to college and casually dated a number of ordinary unimpressive boys--up until she met Harlin. Honestly, Harlin had knocked every other boy out of her head, which was why it was so difficult to separate from him now.

"I find gentlemen boring," Audry finally said.

Raising her eyebrows, Mrs. Gruber then shook her head. "You’d better lose that attitude, young lady. For your own good. And for your own safety."

"Some girls are just attracted to dangerous men," one of the other cooking staff said.

Audry looked to him. Occasionally they interjected in her conversations with Mrs. Gruber, usually with remarks about her veganism, her activism, and her 'weird obsession with animal poop'. It wasn't an obsession, she had tried to explain when she had been examining the samples she had gathered and labeled for her project. It was a scientific study on what the animals ate, as evident in their fecal matter. But non-scientific people did not understand the value of things they called 'poop', or shedding, or animal tracks, or the nature of their living habitats. They were too busy gossiping over vapid shallow things like popular trends, music stars, and TV shows.

"A fatal attraction," one of the gals chimed in, smirking at her.

Audry rolled her eyes and looked back to Mrs. Gruber. "Anyway... I should be able to finish up my work in two days. So this will be it for me."

"Well, it was a pleasure to have you around," Mrs. Gruber said, though the others did not chime in. They didn't like any of the graduate students that stayed in the spare rooms and invaded their workspace. They clearly thought she was a 'silly college girl'. Some of them even called her a special snowflake, which Audry found extremely annoying. Mrs. Gruber was the only one who was sympathetic.

"I hope you got what you needed for your project," Mrs. Gruber added.

"I got enough." Audry nodded, smiling for her benefit. With a look to the others she added, "And soon I will be out from underfoot."

One of them leaned to the other, "At least she wasn’t as bad at that guy from the bee project."

The other nodded.

Truthfully, a lot of grad students came and went from the lodge year round. But Audry found it unsettling that these folk looked at her the same way she looked at her second cousins who were part of the one percent. It wasn't fair at all. She worked her butt off to get where she was.  

Around then the back door to the kitchen opened again. Audry didn't look at first, figuring it was one of the rangers who occasionally came in to thaw and get some cocoa. But when she heard several breaths draw in, she turned.

Closing the door to keep out the cold was none other than Howard Richard Deacon the Third himself. He looked a little taller than the last time Audry had seen him, which was two years ago when he had signed her permission form. Wrapped up in scarfs and a knit hat, she still recognized his phenomenal gray eyes which were as piercing as ever. He also had an almost animal like way of moving, which for some reason reminded her of a wolf avoiding being seen. His reddish brown hair poked out like fur.

Mrs. Gruber rushed up to him, arms out and grabbing him in a hug. "Oh! Howie! What a surprise!"

"Mrs. Gruber," he said with an almost pained sound, "I thought I told you to call me Rick now."

"Oh, tosh!" She waved it away, pretending to be a British lady from the eighteen hundreds again. "You were fourteen when you said that. I thought you were just messing with me. Besides, you're early. I thought you were not coming for a couple more days."

Rick Deacon shook his head, chuckling in a familiar way while setting an overnight bag to the side of the door. It looked heavy with clothes. "Change of plans, I'm afraid. I was followed to where I was going, and had to sneak here early instead. I hope you don't mind."

For some reason Mrs. Gruber's eyes turned sad as she gazed sympathetically on him. Her voice betrayed loyal concern, even adoration. "Of course you are welcome anytime, Howie. I can have the family suite set up with fresh sheets instantly."

"Oh, no. That won't be necessary," he protested with hanging shoulders, as if the very idea was too much for him. "And Mrs. Gruber, I wasn't joking back then. It's Rick now. And I don't want to take up the family suite. Is there an extra staff room available? I just need a bed for two nights."

Unwrapping his scarves from off his neck and shoulders then taking his hat off his head while standing on her tip toes, Mrs. Gruber gently replied like a mother who had greatly missed him, "You will always be Howie to me. And as for the room, it is taken by that young lady over there."

Rick looked. His eyes rested on Audry. For a second his cheeks colored, but then it was more likely he was overheating in his heavy winter coat as his body thawed in the room.

Mrs. Gruber helped liberate him from his coat, hooking all that up on the wall next to Audry's coat and the others. "You signed her permission form to use the room for her grad school project, remember?"

"Oh." He continued to stare