The City of Spearfish Lake is a fairly large town, as towns in the forest regions of the upper Midwest go. It has about 8,000 people in the winter in the town itself, and about half that many living in the townships around the lake just outside the city. The population of the area balloons in the summer as much of the north and west shores of the lake are lined with summer cottages. Lumber and wood products are still the main source of the economy even though the area was largely cut over in the great white pine clearcut of the late 1800s; trees of the caliber harvested then are pretty rare anymore. The forest today consists of scrubbier trees, aspen, poplar, birch, red pine, and a dozen others useful in making paper and other wood products.

Spearfish Lake is a pretty normal town in most respects; it has the stores and markets and services that you'd expect in a town that size anywhere. The town is too small to have a daily newspaper, but has a strong weekly, the Spearfish Lake Record-Herald. The school system is considered to be pretty good, and the school's sports teams, the Marlins, are usually better than average although critics contend the local fans are a little too crazy about football.

When Dylan O. Sanford began his development of summer homes, the city was much smaller and its borders more distant from the development, so Point Drive never became a part of the city. That was something that irked the city fathers for most of a century, seeing a large tax base that they couldn't use. However, Spearfish Township, which surrounds the city, was happy indeed about the situation and fought off all attempts by the city to annex the development with the assent of the residents, which were content with the lower tax rates the township charged.

Much the same situation obtains at Hannegan's Cove, which is along the lakeshore on the far side of the city from Point Drive. The homes in the cove are generally not quite as old as the Point Drive houses, and are generally far more modest. It's a much more mixed neighborhood with small summer cottages interspersed with larger, year-around residences, old and new.

The newest house in Hannegan's Cove was a big house -- although not nearly as big as the Walworth's -- but modern to the point of being avant-garde and very striking; it would have seemed way out of place on Point Drive. The cathedral-ceilinged living room had exposed wood beams reaching high above and a huge glass wall facing the lake, making the view even better than the Walworths'. The only reason that Randy and Nicole Clark could afford it as their first house was that Randy was for all practical purposes the manager of Clark Construction. He had been able to cut himself a deal to build it at cost, so long as he was willing to stretch the work out over flat spots in the company's schedule. The company stockholders didn't mind a deal like that since they consisted solely of his grandfather and his father and mother, each of the latter holding only tiny shares to fill out the board. The house had taken nine months to build in fits and starts, and there had been some concern whether it would be ready for Randy and Nicole's wedding, just two weeks shy of a year ago.

The view of the sunrises from the Clark house could be awesome; with its east view, as opposed to the north view at the Walworths', they were in full view most of the year. Sunsets were nothing much from this end of the lake for anyone; besides, at this time of night, the sun had long set this late in the year anyway. There was nothing but darkness outside with the view of house lights and Christmas decorations on the far side of the cove and stretching out into the distance along the lakeshore.

Though Randy and Nicole were aware of the view, they weren't paying attention to it. Instead they were paying attention to their close friend and guest as she related the high points of her eventful day in the wake of a dinner that, while good, even Nicole admitted wouldn't have held a candle to the sort of thing that Blake could whip up without thinking about it. She'd seen Blake at work all too often over the years.

"I honestly thought Blake was joking," Myleigh grinned. "But then he picked up the phone and called Tiffany Archer, who said she not only knew a dog musher in this town near where John has his cabin, but was willing to call him on her other phone while we waited. So, within five minutes we were on a conference call with this friend of hers, Dean something or other, who said he'd be willing to go out and get John if he had to. But he said he thought he was having breakfast at a saloon in town. As it turned out, he was, so the business was quickly concluded. But I do find it amusing that Blake was prepared to actually send a dog sled for this man."

"They do have a long reach," Randy laughed. He was a short, dark man, hardly taller than Myleigh, but lean and muscled, with a darkish skin, short hair and a neatly trimmed Van Dyke. "But that one was right down their alley."

"It could have been worse," Nicole laughed, shaking her head. She was actually a little taller than Randy, though not much, with short dark hair; like him, she was in good physical shape, and was nicely shaped anyway. "John could have been in Nashville and just not answering his phone."

"Dare I ask how it could have been worse?"

"Bubba Winslow lives there," Randy laughed at the thought, understanding Nicole perfectly. "We've never met him, but we saw a short on him while we were watching a race on TV last fall. He's got this Monte Carlo that's all tricked out to look like his race car, right down to the 'Jenny Easton Productions' paint, the number 27, and all the decals, but it's street legal."

"Oh, my," Myleigh laughed at the vision. "Oh, my!"

"So here's John, sitting peacefully in his house with a bad hangover," Nicole carried the thought. "All of a sudden there's a big roar outside, the windows are shaking, then Bubba Winslow wearing a fire suit and helmet pounds on the door and says, 'Miss Jenny done tole me to have ya'll call her raatt naaw.'"

"Oh, dear," Myleigh laughed, helplessly shaking her head. "I must say that reaches toward my sense of the absurd."

Nicole shook her head. Myleigh was in fine form tonight. It must have been a pretty heady day for her. "So you're going to do Black Haired Rebel Girl, then?" she smiled.

"I believe so," Myleigh replied with a smile. "It is, after all, a very intense and touching piece of music. I have loved it ever since Randy introduced me to it."

"I truly envy you," Nicole replied. "The only thing I can play is the radio."

It was nice to see her happy, to see a break that she'd earned go her way for once, Nicole thought. She's worked so hard!

She'd first met Myleigh years before, back when she'd stayed with Randy's folks for the summer. A little to her surprise she'd become fast friends with the harpist. She'd been prepared to resent her, and it had proved to be impossible.

Nicole had known Randy since kindergarten. They'd been friends all through high school, and for a while more than that. But, when they'd made the decision to attend different colleges in opposite directions from home they'd become just a little jaded with each other, and had decided to put their romance on hold until after college. Each of them expected that would be the end of it.

In her second year of college Nicole had met an interesting guy, and the romance got hot and heavy. Along in the second semester he'd offered her a ring, and in the excitement of the moment she'd accepted. A month later, she gave the ring back -- actually, she threw it back. There were a lot of reasons, but they come down to the fact that she'd discovered that she was pretty far down the guy's priority list. She'd come back to Spearfish Lake for the summer with Randy as a boyfriend sounding pretty good to her after all.

She soon discovered that Randy wasn't available anymore -- at least, not just then. Over the last semester Randy had somehow acquired not one, but two close girlfriends -- very close, she was to discover later, and somehow it didn't surprise her, since Randy was one of the nicest guys she'd ever met. The fact that the two girls not only knew about each other but were roommates and the closest of friends themselves, sometimes having three-cornered discussions about who was going to get to spend a night or a weekend with Randy -- well, that was a surprise.

Randy admitted to her right up front that he was just as surprised about it as she was. The only way it worked, he explained, was that everyone involved knew that it was going to be a short-term deal. By then it was dead clear that Randy's best bet was coming back to Spearfish Lake for a career -- the family businesses were just too valuable for him to turn his back on to go elsewhere. Both the girls, Crystal and Myleigh, had plans that didn't involve Spearfish Lake. Neither of the girls would be much of a fit in Spearfish Lake, and they all knew it. Nicole had finally come to the realization that if she could wait Crystal and Myleigh out while staying friends with Randy, the other two girls would go their separate ways, and he'd come to her in the end.

These days, as a high school teacher, watching all the hormone-powered high school romances and the involved treachery and fast-changing allegiances and alliances, she was surprised that she'd been able to take that kind of long view. But, with the decision to wait Crystal and Myleigh out came the realization that if Randy was going to have his fun, there was no reason she couldn't have some of her own while she was waiting. To a degree, she did -- and let Randy know about it, partly because he had been up-front with her, but partly so neither could ultimately guilt-trip the other.

In the long run, it worked. Not only had she gone along with the deal, but she became friends with both Crystal and Myleigh in the process. In those days, Crystal worked summers in Tennessee, but she and Myleigh and Randy had some fun, if clean, times together where the two had introduced her to surfing, among other things. She didn't meet Crystal until the following Christmas break. Crystal proved to be much more her type, and they became instant buddies. In fact, they became such good friends that she and Crystal spent several weeks together hiking the Appalachian Trail from central Virginia up into Pennsylvania. That was what almost wrecked Nicole's plans -- she'd fallen so in love with the trail that she'd made plans to do the whole thing herself later, and Crystal offered to come along. That part hadn't quite worked out -- Crystal had discovered something she liked to do even better. Considering what it was, Nicole didn't blame her for grabbing the opportunity. Still, she'd wound up hiking the trail a year and a half before with a former counselor at a Girl Scout Camp where Nicole had worked for several years.

The trail, and the fact that she had to do an extra year of college, thanks to changing majors twice, meant that by the time she was ready to turn back to Randy for real, he was pretty much over Crystal and Myleigh and ready for her. Crystal and Myleigh were still close friends of theirs but were mostly gone from their lives, and frankly she'd come to miss them at times -- but by waiting them out, she'd won.

They hadn't seen Crystal for a year, now -- not since their wedding -- but Myleigh had spent several weeks with them last summer, working with Jennifer and with Randy and the others in the band. She had her own life now and no longer seemed like a threat, especially now that Myleigh had a fun-sounding, intense boyfriend of her own. So, it was good to see her again; she was usually fun to be around and had her own mischievous outlook on life. The way she talked and acted could be fun of itself. When you got right down to it, Myleigh was one of a kind. Screwy, but fun screwy.

"So how long is this going to take?" Nicole asked. She knew that the rehearsals and recording weren't a quick process, especially to start from scratch. Though she was pretty unmusical she had watched the amount of work that had gone into the process. Since Randy's busiest period was in the summer, spending an evening rehearsing could take a lot out of him after a long day at work. But the checks from Back Porch had been welcome, and every indication was that the checks from Saturday Night were going to be even better. With the size of the mortgage they had, the checks could make a difference, even though she and Randy both had good paying jobs. As nice as it was to live in this house, it was a reach.

"Jennifer and Blake and I shall not be taking Randy away from your loving arms that much," Myleigh smiled. "We shan't need him for Dark Haired Rebel Girl at all, and while I shall have to work on Travel Section, his part should be relatively minor. We have not decided on the other two pieces involved, even though we spent much of the afternoon going through the library. It's possible we might not need him for one or both of those."

"I don't mind," Randy told her. "If you need me during the day I should pretty well be available. It should pick up a little once we're past the holidays, but it's just dead slow around the company right now."

"What about the Blair School job?" Nicole asked. "I thought that was going to keep us at home for the holidays."

"Hadn't had the chance to tell you yet," Randy said. "We lost the bid."

"Oh, great," Nicole said in a sarcastic tone. "How bad is it going to hurt?"

"Hard to say yet," Randy shook his head. "Not that bad, really. I didn't think we had better than a fifty-fifty chance of getting it anyway. We lost out to Solkow-Warner from down in Camden, and if they can build it for what they bid, more power to them. I didn't really look forward to working with the architects they've got on that job. They kind of cheaped it out. The school down there may save a few thousand on the front end, but they'll more than make up for it in maintenance over the next forty years. I'm just as glad they're not going to have the Clark name on it."

Nicole shook her head. "So where does that leave the summer?"

"Don't have a big project on the board now," Randy frowned. "That could change, of course. Some piddly stuff, like I spent some time today talking with Josh and Phil about their dog barn, but that won't keep us busy for long. On the other hand with mortgage rates what they are, the housing market is going great guns, so I don't think we're going to lack for work. Maybe not as much overtime, though. But no big projects, so if I don't have to put too much time into Whispering Pines, I might even be around home some this summer."

Myleigh took a sip of her wine and interjected, "From what Jennifer and Blake said they may not be putting much time into Whispering Pines themselves. They appear to be unsure how much Jeremy may impact their lives, and I got the definite impression that much of the album may come more or less directly from their library."

"I sort of figured that, too," Randy agreed. "It's clear that they're going to want the band on some of it, but how much is hard to say. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"I suppose," Nicole said. This was going to cause an unexpected issue after the phone call she'd gotten while waiting for Randy to get home. Myleigh had beaten him home too, so she hadn't had the chance to tell him. Oh well, it could wait.

"I find myself struck with a sudden inspiration," Myleigh grinned. "If you are not going to be as busy as you anticipated over the holiday season, perhaps you would be interested in accompanying me to Buddha and Giselle's once my business in Spearfish Lake is completed. Much of the group from Flagstaff plan to be there, including Crystal, of course."

"That is an idea," Randy said. "The last time I talked to Crystal she asked us to come down if we had a chance. Nicole, what do you think?"

"I am ready," she grinned. "Especially after the way we got jerked around with our schedule last spring, so we could only get a couple flat days there." That had been a bummer -- they'd cleared away the whole week of her spring break with the intent of having a real honeymoon, since their "official" honeymoon had only lasted a day and two nights, one of them very short, with an unexpected obstacle in the way as well. But then, a bid presentation had come up, one that Randy couldn't duck -- and it had been right in the middle of the week. In desperation, they'd salvaged what they could, but it hadn't been very satisfying. "It'd be great to see Crystal again, and I actually think I'd like to get to know the others under less, shall we say, trying conditions."

"They are most interesting people," Myleigh grinned. While Randy knew most of them to one degree or another, Nicole had only met the rest of the Flagstaff bunch at the wedding. They seemed like interesting people if she could dare to turn her back on them. She knew that Myleigh had spent last Christmas in Flagstaff with them, and a number of interesting and really fun stories had come out of the experience. At one time Myleigh had planned to make a quick trip to Flagstaff for this Christmas, but when it worked out that the whole gang was going to Buddha and Giselle's, she figured she'd save the air fare.

"Sounds like a possible, then," Randy nodded. "I didn't really talk much with Crystal about it, but it was pretty clear at the time that I wasn't going to be able to get away."

"Works for me," Nicole agreed. "You're flying down, right?"

"Yes, that's the plan," Myleigh agreed. "The day after Christmas, unless, of course, Blake and Jennifer should need me longer. But that's far enough off that I cannot believe that we shall not have our sessions concluded."

"I'd say fly down," Randy said, "If we can get reservations. We just about have to be here for Christmas. If we can't fly, that means two days driving each way, and that cuts the heart out of a long week pretty bad."

"Could if we had to," Nicole said. "Take the Chrysler and drive all night. With the three of us to drive, it might not be that bad. It wouldn't be the first time we've had to put on a lot of road miles and probably won't be the last. I do have to be back on the second, though."

"We can try for reservations," Randy said. "Something damn solid, so we don't get bumped. I've been overbooked once too often."

Nicole agreed with a nod. A year and a half before, they'd gotten bumped at a particularly stressful point in their lives, and it had made her just about as leery about it happening as it did Randy. "Well, see what you can do, but I don't mind driving. It'll be good to get away, even if it's behind a steering wheel."

"You've got that right," Randy agreed. "So, Myleigh, the plan is still that you're going to spend Christmas here?"

"Yes," Myleigh agreed. "It will be good to share the festivities with your mother and father again, and I should be able to slip away for a while to spend some time with Jennifer and Blake."

"Probably no big Christmas party for them this year," Randy agreed. "Not as far along as she's getting."

"That is my understanding," Myleigh said. "However, a few quiet minutes should be welcome, I should think. In any case I believe they plan on having dinner with her parents and family."

"That fills your schedule right up," Nicole said. "Aren't you planning on seeing Ron this trip?"

"No, we had not planned to," Myleigh said a little downheartedly. "There are other arrangements."

"That's a shame," Nicole said. "None of us have ever met him, and from what you've told us, he's got to be sort of interesting." They'd laughed themselves silly at Myleigh's story of meeting Ron at a renaissance faire. Ron had been part of a group that was tweaking members of the audience into having their feet locked into foot stocks and getting them tickled. Nicole had laughed too, but with an uneasiness that reached down into the pit of her stomach -- her feet were very ticklish. Myleigh had never admitted she'd been one of the victims, but she'd left broad hints while telling stories of bantering with Ron in Elizabethan English, which Myleigh knew well from her studies of Shakespeare and other writers of the time.

Without having met him, Ron had been important to Nicole. Myleigh revealed to them two years ago Thanksgiving that she had been very taken with him. As Nicole heard the story it had become clear that any danger of Myleigh coming between her and Randy was over with. She and Randy had moved forward from there to the point where she'd been able to take off for months on the Appalachian Trail, leaving him behind. Even now she wondered if she'd have been able to do the hike, knowing the amount of magic that had once existed between Randy and Myleigh.

"Yeah," Randy said. "In fact, when we heard you were going to be spending Christmas here we thought of asking if you might like to invite him up for dinner."

"No," Myleigh shook her head. "I fear it shall not be possible."

"Well, some other time then," Nicole said casually, then an understanding swept over her. "Or, is it going sour between you two?"

"No, it's not that," Myleigh said, hanging her head. "But you shall never meet him."

"Why, Myleigh?" Randy asked, clearly observing her distress. "Did something happen?"

Looking at the floor, Myleigh shook her head. In a voice that sounded tearful she said so softly that she could hardly be heard. "I am ashamed to admit that I have a confession to make to you. There is no Ron. He never existed."

"Myleigh?" Randy asked softly, but with a question in his voice.

"He was but a figment of my imagination," she said. "The stories I told you about him were fabrications based to a small degree on the renaissance faires I attended many years ago. I was aware that you would not believe a story that did not have a touch of the exotic."

"Myleigh," Nicole asked gently. "Why would you make up a story like that?"

The tears were obvious in her eyes as Myleigh looked up at her. "It was for your sake, Nicole," she said. "Do you remember when I told you about him? I knew that you planned on being away all summer, and I was aware that considerable magic still existed between Randy and me. I could detect it as we all sat in front of the fire in his parents' living room, and found myself terribly worried. Nicole, I knew you were planning on being gone all summer. While Randy and I had often discussed the fact that we had no possibility of a real future, the possibility still existed that things could happen which could ruin matters for you and him, since I could see that affairs had become far advanced between the two of you."

Not long before they were married, Randy had admitted to Nicole that he and Myleigh had been intimate as recently as a year before that Thanksgiving, so she knew that there was still a warm spot in his heart for Myleigh. It was a fact of life that she knew she had to live with, but she'd agreed to marry him knowing that. Myleigh was her friend too, after all. "So you lied," she nodded.

"I had to take myself out of the picture," Myleigh said intensely. "For your sake, and for Randy's. I had not anticipated the situation, but it was the best idea I could come up with on short notice. I realized that you would make a good wife for him while I could not, and I so did not want to ruin things for the both of you."

"And you were still playing the part when we met at Marienthal on my way back from the Canyon a year ago last fall," Randy observed. He'd told Nicole about that, too -- he was on his way back from the Grand Canyon and dropped by to make contact with her, to see how she was getting along. He'd admitted to sharing a hot kiss with her -- but the guilt that he felt from that kiss had told him that the old days were gone, and that Nicole had truly won his heart.

"Yes, I had no other choice, you surprised me so," she admitted. "I was not expecting your appearance at my office door. I had been avoiding you for months while Nicole was hiking just to eliminate temptations. Randy, I almost let it get out of hand. I knew it was the wrong thing to do, so when you suggested I go to him it offered me a way out. I had no choice but to grasp it. I'm sorry to have lied to you, but it was for your own good."

"But what about that quality time you planned to have with him last summer?" Nicole asked. "Your taking off in the middle of rehearsals for Saturday Night turned the last weeks before shooting into a mad rush."

"Please do not tell Jennifer and Blake about it," she said. "But Nicole, in the six weeks you had to be out of town, I spent six weeks of very poor quality time in my apartment at Marienthal, extremely bored while rereading books that I had read many times before, or reading obscure old novels that have just cause to be obscure. I hardly was able to bring myself to touch Blue Beauty, although I did force myself to practice the pieces we would need for Saturday Night. I did give some consideration to visiting Crystal, but it was at the height of her busy season and I thought I should not bother her."

"Things would have gone smoother if you'd been here," Randy said. "But even Jennifer said you deserved some time out for love."

"Even though you were married, I dared not stay in Spearfish Lake," Myleigh said flatly. "I think I could have controlled myself, but I decided that for your sake it was best to avoid the appearance of evil, or even the possibility that it could have existed."

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