Alicia's Misfortune (17 page)

Galen was inside of her again. Hard with desire for
her.
 
This time, after she had found her
pleasure, the sensation of their union was quite different.
 
The pleasure was almost too much for her to
take.
 
Galen moaned and groaned as he
pumped.
 
Both of them trembled and shook,
weak with passion but driven to move.

Her ankles tangled around the wide expanse of their
back.
 
He rose up onto his knees and took
her that.
 
Addie’s curves shook with the
force of his driving.
 
She closed her
eyes and decided she could be this way for every, it felt so wonderful.

Galen threw his head back and howled as pleasure took
him.
 
Addie copied what he did before and
touched herself in back and forth motion.
 
It was magic.
 
It pleasured them
both.
 
She had his undivided
attention.
 
He struggled to watch as his
lids were so heavy with passion. She climbed, climbed, climbed until once again
she shattered with ecstasy.
 
This time it
struck it was all the more powerful.
 
She
wailed with all that she had.

It was not long after that, that they collapsed into a
dreamless sleep until chores awoke them.

Galen let Addie sleep late.
 
She heard him rise from their bed before sun up but she fell back to
sleep.
 
He returned to wake her.

“Rise and shine.
 
Time
to get married,” he said.
 
“We have time
to have our breakfast after we dress.
 
The preacher will be here nigh on an hour.”

Galen and his brother hoisted a tub of water into the
bedroom for her to bathe.
 
It was lovely
and the first bath she had had in days. Addie squatted in the tin tub and
splashed wherever the water did not reach.
 
She had carried a cake of soap for herself.
 
Oh but she was tender.
 
The water was soothing.
 
When she was through, she smelled of roses.

She dried off with her own personal towel and powdered
everywhere.
 
She slipped into her Sunday
clothes and brushed her hair.
 
She was
ready to be married. When she was properly dressed she called to Galen to
remove the tub.

He stopped in his tracks at the sight of her.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

Addie believed he meant it.

“I am going to take seconds on your tub.
 
I’ll be but a moment,” he said.

Addie put on an apron and cracked some eggs in a skillet for
them.

He too emerged from the bedroom looking sharp in his church
finery.
 
He called to his brother who
entered the house in a suit.
 
Together
the men carried the tub out and dumped it.
 
They returned and sat at the table as Addie dished them up breakfast.

“How's our rustler?” asked Galen, digging in robustly.

“He's fine. Resting comfortably in the barn. Funny thing is
Gale; he says he is not a rustler,” said his brother.

The brother shoveled fried eggs into his mouth aggressively.

“No?” asked Galen. “Good cooking, Addie.”

Addie poured coffee all the way around and sat down and
sipped a cup.
 
She waited for her eggs to
cool.

“Says he's after your bride," said the brother.

Addie’s eyes flew opened.
 
Terror trickled to her belly.
 
She
wasn’t eating her eggs after all.

“Does he now?” said Galen like he was amused.
 
“Oh you know what? Where are my manners?
Adaline Filcher, I don't believe I properly introduced you to my brother.

"Emory Calhoun, Adaline Filcher," said Galen
coldly.

Addie pushed back from the table.
 
How small could the world be that the brother
of the man she was about to marry was the man she swindled out of cash.
 
Of course, it had been a set up.
 
And she fell for it.

"What is this?" she asked, her face slack with
fear.
 
The rattle of the preacher’s rig
grew louder and louder till it came to a halt.
 
The preacher parked the rig out front.
 
Galen came around behind her.
 
He
gripped her beneath her armpits and encouraged her to stand.
 
Addie locked her legs but Galen scooted her
out the door, in front of their house, to her place beside him in front of the
preacher.

"This here's a wedding," said Galen answered
finally.

Emory framed her in. Between two big brawny men there was no
escaping.
 
Addie shook her head.

"Oh yes.
 
You're
going through with this ceremony. You're taking your medicine," said
Galen.

Addie resisted.

"Do I need to turn you over to the magistrate?"
scolded Galen.

Addie's lip trembled but she remained silent.

"Then behave," said Galen.

Pictures of the moments she shared with Galen played through
her mind like a salve to her broken heart.
 
She felt she had fallen in love with him at the height of their
passion.
 
It was a bitter pill to swallow
indeed to know that such tender exchanges could be made so callously.
 
Galen was playing her.
 
Sort of like the promises she made to Emory
Calhoun without a second thought.

“What’s my name going to be?” she whispered.

“Calhoun,” he said with a scolding glare.

Addie decided that no matter her fate, she was going to take
her vows to heart. If it made her right with God, she would not take her vows
in vain.
 
It was bothersome that the
magistrate was shackled just off to the side of the ceremony venue.
 
He and Addie looked one another in the eye a
few times.
 

With a few words and promises, Addie Filcher was a married
woman.
 
Every other waking thought was a
prayer.
 
As soon as the brief ceremony
was through and Emory loaded the magistrate into the preacher’s rig, Addie
gripped Galen’s rock hard arm and begged him for mercy.

“If you take him back to town, they’ll hang me.
 
Please at least let me tell you what
happened,” she said.
 

Galen mulled it for a moment.
 

“Emory gets to hear.
 
He has a right to listen to this,” said Galen.

“Fine by me,” she said.

“Hey preacher,” Galen called.
 
“Hold up.
 
We need an impartial witness.”

Then he looked to the magistrate.
 
“You run off on me while I have words with
the preacher, I will skin you alive.”

The magistrate’s eyes flared with fear.

Emory, Galen and Addie sat at the meal table.
 
The preacher leaned in the doorway, a pistol
on the magistrate in case Galen’s threat did not hold. Addie folded her hands,
gathering her thoughts.

“My father disappeared for a week.
 
We had a little bit of farmland left just on
the edge of the city proper.
 
Just enough
for a cow, chickens, pigs.
 
Daddy was all
the time getting offers on it.
 
He had no
intentions of selling.
 
Anyhow, he
disappeared.
 
The next thing I know this
man - the magistrate -- shows up at my door, explaining how daddy was strung up
by a group of angry people -- “

Emotion broke her words.
 
She drew a deep breath and continued.

“Said daddy sold the farm twice,” said Addie.

“Runs in the family,” Galen said acidly.

“So he showed me papers saying I had to pay back one of the
buyers and vacate the property so the rightful owner could take possession,”
said Addie.

“Mrs. Calhoun,” said the preacher. “You ever attend a formal
proceeding?
 
Were you ever arrested or
meet these people who your father allegedly swindled?”

Addie searched. “No sir.
 
I just only met the magistrate
  
He said I had to come up with the money or they would hang me too,” she
wept.
 
“I had to do something.”

Galen and Emory and the preacher made the same face as
though struck by the same thought.
 
The
brothers’ jaws popped and flexed intensely with a new fury.

“Are you going to kick his ass or am I?” growled Galen.

Both brothers rushed the door.
 
The preacher blocked them.

“Now boys, you don’t want to be doing something
foolish.
 
Don’t want to be leaving this
poor creature bereft of the only family she has now, do you?” counseled the
preacher.

“I don’t understand!” cried Addie. “Will someone please
explain to me?”

“Mrs. Calhoun,” said the preacher.
 
“You were swindled.
 
There was no double buyer or likely even a
buyer for the farm.”

Addie brightened.
 
“Then daddy –“

The men shook their heads.

Emory charged.
 
He
said more in the next sentence than Addie heard the entire time she had
arrived.
 
He flew into a rage.

“You sonofabitch! I’m going to knock the living stuffing out
of you!” he shouted.

“Now wait a minute!” protested the magistrate. “I didn’t
figure on her going and being so stupid.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what you figured on,” said the
preacher.

Addie staggered.
 
Had
her father been murdered for his prime real estate?
 
Had she really been swindled?
 
How could she be so dumb and not see the
game?
 
And then to flee thinking she was
getting away from it all only to have been duped again.
 

“What you think preacher, think we should run his likeness
by the sheriff and see if he’s wanted for something?” asked Emory.

“Might be reward money in it,” said the preacher coolly.

“How much did you take off of my wife?” asked Galen.

“I took no money,” insisted the magistrate.

“Try that again. How much?” growled Galen.

“I am a magistrate,” insisted the magistrate.
 
“I am legitimate.”

“How the law can come after her for someone’s alleged
crime?
 
You ever see a body, Addie? Go to
a burying?” asked Galen.

“They took care of all of that,” she said, her heart
breaking just thinking about it.

The pain made her crumple where she sat.
 
Galen braced a powerful arm around her.

“It’s not any kind of a weddin’ day to have us go back in
town but I don’t think the preacher here should be left to fend against him by
himself,” said Galen. “What’s say we drop him off at the jail and stay the
night in Great Falls.Might be a nice place for a honeymoon.”

It was the first time since he was angry with her that he
looked in her in the eye, gently.
 
Vivid
memories of him above her in their bed, flooded her mind’s eye. Her face was
hot in an instant.
 
Galen’s eyes
twinkled.
 
Once again, Emory could not
look at her.

Emory.
 
He had sent
such tender letters and she in response.
 
It was an ugly but necessary game she played or so she thought to save
her hide.
 
If had been another place and
time, Addie might have been married to him instead of Galen. But Galen had her
heart.
 
She was in love with him and
there was no turning back.

Though she had genuine feelings for both men, there was one
thing for certain.
 
If this magistrate
turned out to be con, Addie vowed she would kill him.
 
No matter what Galen told her to do, if he
told her to wait outside while he talked to the authorities, she would disobey.
 
She was going to hear for herself what kind
of man had her so afraid.
 
And took her
father from her.

“I can ride in with preacher,” said Emory.

“No, no,” insisted Addie.
 
“We can ride together.
 
I like the
idea of staying the night in town.”

She cozied up to Galen, leaning against his mountain hard
form.

“No sense in you being burdened by my stupidity any
further,” said Addie.
 
“This is my
mess.
 
If I hadn’t been so dumb—“

She choked.

“You’re a woman,” said Emory.
 
“You should have had someone protecting you.”

He kicked the ground and stomped off.
 
The magistrate laughed.
 
He was reveling in the drama caused by trying
to avoid him all this time.

“Did I interrupt a love triangle?” he asked.

The preacher drew back his boot and kicked him hard.

“Ow!” complained the magistrate. “You call yourself a man of
God?”

“You call yourself a man of the law?” retorted the preacher.
“Let’s get while the getting is good.
 
We
ought to be there in time for you all to settle in nicely for the evening.”

They took two rigs into town.
 
Galen and Emory quick made sure that all the
animals were watered and fed even though they did so, on a daily basis. The
plan was to be back after breakfast in the morning.