A Kiss for Cade (35 page)

The congregation sat down as the music died away, and Reverend Munson approached the podium with his Bible under his arm.

Turning his benevolent eyes on the newlyweds, he said, “Good morning, friends.”

“Good morning, Reverend,” the congregation chorused.

“And what a glorious morning it is. I see the Kolby family is with us today.” He inclined his head toward Cade and Zoe. “No better place to be than in the house of the Lord.”

The minister opened his Bible, and Zoe did a double take when she saw the outline of a six-shooter beneath his suit coat.

Cade leaned close. “Is that a gun?”

She put her finger to her lips and nodded, afraid someone would hear him. Her eyes widened when she noticed the blunderbuss lying across old Bess Harris’s lap.

“Reverend Munson carries a gun?” Cade whispered.

She elbowed him to be quiet.

“The Scripture this morning is about love. The Good Book tells us from the beginning of creation, God made them man and woman. For this cause, a man shall leave father and mother, and likewise shall a woman leave her parents, and the two shall become one. Consequently, they are no longer two, but one, flesh.” The minister paused, clearing his throat. “Where God has joined two together, let no man come between.”

He closed his Bible and grasped the sides of the pulpit, leaning toward the congregation. He paused for a moment as if in deep thought. “Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman and God.”

When Cade squirmed beside her, Zoe pretended she didn’t notice. Why Reverend Munson had picked this morning to preach on the sanctity of marriage, she didn’t know. Guilt nagged her. A week ago, the children had seemed a viable and sane reason to marry. This morning, the minister’s words reminded her that marriage was a sacred union not to be entered into lightly. Her conscience twinged.

What would God have had her do? Turn the children over to Laticia, and watch the fear in their eyes as they went off to be reared by a woman who would make a more appropriate elderly grandmother? Perhaps marriage wasn’t the right answer, but it had been the only one at their disposal.

Cade fidgeted in his seat, occasionally glancing at her. Did he feel the pressure, the focused eyes, the consenting nods in the congregation? Zoe suddenly felt too warm.

“A woman should cleave to her husband and he to his wife, forsaking all others,” the reverend said. “That’s what the Good Book tells us.”

Fanning herself with a hanky, Zoe blew a lock of hair off her forehead. He was looking straight at her and Cade. Thirty-five minutes of preaching felt like a month. She hadn’t realized she was as rigid as a board until she saw Woodall Thompson checking his pocket watch, signaling that the service was coming to an end.

She fanned harder when the reverend focused on Cade. “This morning I want to close this service in Cade and Zoe Kolby’s honor with the message found in First Corinthians.”

Zoe bit her lip, trying to control her emotions. The solemnity of the moment silenced all in the room. Not a whisper sounded or a head turned.

The reverend spoke now from memory, choosing words everyone in the room could understand. “If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them, and could thus speak in every language there is on both heaven and earth, but I didn’t love others, I would be talking only to hear myself talk. If I had the gift of knowing everything that will happen in the future, and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love.”

The pastor lowered his voice. “Love is patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand or seek its own way. It is not irritable or touchy, it doesn’t hold grudges and will hardly notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things.”

Zoe swallowed back tears, wanting to believe. Was everlasting, unselfish love between a man and woman possible? Across the aisle she saw Gracie and Lawrence holding hands. Their union had stood the test for more than forty years.

Edna and Walt sat together, Edna dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief as Walt patted her knee. Thirty-seven years ago, they had started life together.

Everywhere Zoe looked in the church, she saw couples who had taken vows and held them sacred. She had taken vows with a man who didn’t intend to keep them. Yet how could she presume to judge Cade when her own life needed a good housecleaning?

Reverend Munson stepped down from the podium. “In closing, the Good Book tells us that faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these is love.” He fixed on the congregation. “I hope each and every one of you in this room will remember these words and apply them to your own marriages.” His gaze rested on Cade. “For until a man finds his purpose, he will not find happiness.”

Chapter Forty-Five

A
fter the service Cade made his way out of the church, pausing to visit with well-wishers. Now that the children were settled and he had recovered from his bout with measles, Zoe knew their days together as a family were over. Reverend Munson’s sermon had been poignant, but they had come too far to abandon reason.

Cade promised to make the parting brief and unemotional. He’d tell the children that something came up and he had to leave. He wouldn’t mention that he wasn’t coming back. In time she would have to find the words to explain why he hadn’t returned.

Zoe watched him shake hands, and she knew she’d miss him even more this time. Her newly formed family would never be the same once he was gone. He’d leave a void big enough to throw Herschel Mallard’s dead bull through, but that was the bargain they had struck. Endless lonely days and cold nights was the price she must pay for the children.

The crowd started to disperse and Cade took hold of Will’s hand. Zoe noticed Missy playing nearby in a mud puddle and sighed. “She’ll ruin her dress,” she told Cade.

“It’ll wash, won’t it?”

She called for Missy to come to her, fishing a handkerchief out of her handbag. As Missy ran up, she handed Cade her purse and began to wipe at the muddy stains.

“Missy, you know better than to play in the dirt in your good clothes.”

Cade playfully draped Zoe’s reticule over his arm and began twirling it primly around his wrist in an attempt to make Missy laugh. She favored him with a toothless grin.

Holly giggled. “Uncle Cade, you’re silly.”

“And he makes a pitifully homely woman.” Zoe teased, joining in the nonsense.

Cade straightened, pretending to take offense. “I beg your pardon?”

Zoe handed him the soiled hanky, and he daintily shook it loosely in the air and executed several graceful pirouettes as the girls’ laughter grew louder.

Encouraged by their reaction, he twirled again on one foot, and landed in front of Shelby Moore, who was coming down the church steps.

Moore did a double take of comical disbelief.

The hanky in Cade’s hand sagged. “Morning, Shelby.”

Shelby pushed past him, muttering something under his breath that sounded like “sissy bounty hunter.”

Cade grinned as Shelby stalked off.

Gracie and Lawrence paused to watch Zoe and her family climb into their buggy before turning to speak to Edna, Walt, and Sawyer. Pop joined them, and the six visited for a few minutes.

Gracie’s eyes followed Cade and Zoe’s buggy as it rattled out of the churchyard. “They make a fine-looking family, don’t they?”

Lawrence nodded. “Cade will be leaving soon. It’s a shame. They make a fine couple.”

Sawyer bit off a wad of chew and stuck it in his jaw. “Yessir, that’s a real shame.”

“Don’t call it rain before you’re wet,” Pop said. “I have a feelin’ those two are gonna make it.”

Gracie shook her head. “I don’t think theirs is a marriage in the biblical sense.”

Lilith frowned. “You mean what I think you mean?”

Gracie nodded.

“Did Zoe tell you that?”

“Of course not. A lady wouldn’t tell tales out of school, but…” Gracie hesitated a moment, glancing at the men. “Missy mentioned that she sleeps between them at night.”

“Now, that is a shame,” Walt said. “Those two need some time alone.”

Sawyer spat. “That marriage needs some of that credible stuff.”

“It sure does,” Pop said. “Anyone in the mood for a shivaree?”

“A shivaree?” Gracie patted her handkerchief to her bosom. “Aren’t we a little late? They’ve been married more than a week.”

Pop cackled. “All the better. They won’t be expectin’ it.”

Zoe breezed into the mercantile, pulled off her bonnet, and called over her shoulder, “Get your clothes changed, children, while I make some sandwiches.” She walked through the store tying an apron around her waist. There were a dozen and one things she should be doing, but as soon as Cade agreed to a picnic, she’d known she was outnumbered. And besides, he would be leaving early in the week.

“Can I help?” Cade took off his jacket and draped it over the back of a kitchen chair.

“Thanks. Here.” She handed him an apron. “Don’t get your shirt dirty.”

“You mean Jim’s shirt.”

She looked away. She’d meant to dispose of Jim’s clothes, but she hadn’t had the heart. Cade’s broad shoulders strained the fabric across his back. The arms were tight, and the buttonholes stretched to their limits beneath his larger build.

When she looked back, he was holding up the apron, trying to figure out which end was top and which was bottom. She imagined he wasn’t too happy about wearing it.

“How do women get into these contraptions?”

Zoe glanced over her shoulder as she sliced bread. “Need some help?”

He nodded, holding the apron out to her. She slipped the neckpiece over his head, and then reached around his waist to tie the sash.

“Thanks.”