Colorado Dawn (58 page)

“You must’ve done something. Philip wouldn’t have given you so much as a nod otherwise. It’s just like you to try to steal him from me.”

“Steal him?” Willow turned on the bench. “I didn’t realize he belonged to you. I don’t want him. You can have him gift-wrapped for all I care, though you’d be foolish. He’s a cad and a rogue, and I can’t wait to be away from him.”

“You’re not fooling me. Playing one man against another. Did you feel triumphant when they fought over you?”

“I was appalled and grateful to Silas for coming to my aid. Philip deserved to be trounced, and he was. If you’d heard what he said to me, what he tried to do to me, you wouldn’t be so eager to defend him.”

“You’re being melodramatic, as usual. I’m sure the situation could’ve been resolved with a few words instead of fists. Philip will be furious. And he has every right to be. I’m so angry with you I could scream. You’re just being selfish not taking the job in New York. How can you be so stupid?”

“It’s not stupid to fall in love. I love Silas, he loves me, and we’re getting married.”

“But what about me? What about the company?”

“The company got along just fine before I came along, and it will do just fine without me. New York isn’t the only place Clement got offers from, and he’ll book you somewhere for the fall. I thought you’d be happy I was leaving. You’ve done nothing but gripe about me getting the lead in
Jane Eyre
. With me staying here, you’ll have top billing again.”

“Don’t do me any favors.” Francine tugged gloves over her greasy hands and slammed the pot of goose grease onto the bedside table. The crystals hanging from the lamp swayed as she swung her feet out of bed. “Clement will sign us up for some other mining town or cow camp, and I’ll never get to New York.”

“There’s no saying you have to stay with this company. You could try New York on your own.”

“A lot you know. If you’d take this offer, we’d all arrive there with jobs and lodgings and a bit of security. I can’t just pack a bag and head off not knowing what might happen. This company is all I have, all I’ve known, and I can’t leave it on the off chance I might find work somewhere else.” Desperation colored Francine’s voice, and guilt pinched Willow’s chest. “You’re ruining my dreams.” A sob caught in her throat.

Willow sent up a quick prayer for help but backed it up with a prayer for strength of purpose. “Francine, I’m sorry. I really am, but I have to follow my dreams. I can’t go against what I know is right for me, what I feel God calling me to do.”

Francine jerked and clutched the bedclothes on either side of her. “Don’t play that God card. You’re doing this because it’s what you want, not because of any God thing. You’d stay here just to spite me, whether Silas was a preacher or a street sweeper. But this isn’t over. The whole company will know by now you’ve turned down the role and denied them their chance to make it big.”

The thought of facing everyone tomorrow, knowing they’d be disappointed, made Willow quail, but she stiffened her resolve. She was doing the right thing. It wasn’t fair of the producers in New York to put such responsibility on her, and Clement should’ve come to her with the offer in private before he told everyone else. Though at the time, she supposed he never would’ve thought she’d say no. Still, she had to do what she thought was right.

Francine glared, sliding back under the covers, jerking the quilt around. She didn’t wait for Willow to get into bed before she turned out the light. “You’re going to be sorry.”

Willow barely caught her sister’s mutter, and a shiver went up her spine.

Silas, too keyed up to sleep after leaving Willow at the hotel, went to the church instead of the parsonage. He could always find something that needed doing there. His eye stung, and the lid was so swollen it obscured his vision, but he didn’t have a shred of regret he’d defended Willow’s honor with his fists.

Lighting the wall sconces, he circled the perimeter of the room, delighting in the comfortable, familiar feel of the sanctuary. A peace he could only find here invaded his soul.

Lord, thank You for bringing me to this place, for all the hurdles and mountains I had to climb over to get here. Thank You for the people of this church who challenge and enrich and encourage me. Help me to be the pastor You want me to be and the pastor they need me to be to help them grow and glorify You
.

The oft-repeated prayer ran through his head. The burden of being the spiritual leader to this diverse group of believers weighed on him, but it was a pleasant weight most of the time. He knew he wasn’t up to the task alone, but with God’s help, he would do the best he could. And not only God’s help, but soon Willow’s, too. No more coming home to an empty house, no more being unable to offer hospitality, no more discussing church issues with the cat.

He grabbed a dustcloth and began on the left side of the church wiping down the pews. His congregants were creatures of habit, and each family usually sat in the same place week after week. As he progressed down the row, he prayed for the members as he came to their customary seats.

When he got to the Drabble pew, right side, second row, he knelt and put his elbows on the seat. This prayer was going to take more time than could be accomplished in a quick wipe-down.

“Lord, thank You for bringing the Drabbles to this church. Thank You for the acts of service they perform that edify the church and help us share Your Gospel with this community.” He swallowed. Easy part done.

“Father, I ask You to help me to heal the rift between Mrs. Drabble and myself. These hard feelings have broken our fellowship and are detrimental to the church and Your name. Help me to forgive her, and humble me to ask her forgiveness. We need Your healing here to kill our pride and help us to submit and serve one another in love.”

The front door scraped on the floor, reminding him he needed to remove it from the hinges and plane the bottom. Breaking off his prayer with a hasty “Amen,” Silas lifted his head to look over the back of the pew.

“Pastor Hamilton? Are you in here?” Kenneth Hayes.

“Over here.” He stood, dusting his knees.

Kenneth let out a breath. “Oh, good. I sorta panicked when the parsonage was dark. What happened to your eye?”

Touching the swelling, Silas winced at the pain. “It’s nothing. A little difference of opinion.”

Kenneth stared as if fascinated. “What’s the other guy look like?”

Worse than me, I imagine
. “What can I do for you? I’ve missed you in church the past couple of weeks.” The less said about his altercation at the theater, the better. All sorts of rumors might start flying around, and he didn’t want things to get blown out of proportion.

Dusky red crept around Kenneth’s collar, and he ducked his head. “Well, I’m sorry, but I came here to do something about that.” He returned to the front door and held out his hand. “He’s here. C’mon in.”

He drew a woman into the room, and Silas’s eyes went wide. Alicia Drabble. A few puzzle pieces clicked together in his brain. Kenneth’s certainty his ladylove’s parents wouldn’t relent, and Alicia’s going toe-to-toe with her mother over dinner and being set down. Alicia kept her eyes lowered.

“It’s awfully late for you two to be out together, isn’t it?” Silas stepped into the aisle. Mrs. Drabble would have a conniption. “Alicia, your folks will be worried.”

Kenneth squared his shoulders. “They don’t need to worry about her any longer. Alicia and I are eloping, and we want you to perform the ceremony.”

“Eloping?” Silas dropped his dustcloth.

Kenneth wrapped his arm around Alicia and hugged her to his side. “Don’t try to stop us. If you won’t do the honors, we’ll ride over to the next town, and the next, and the next, until we find a preacher to marry us.”

“Let’s sit down and at least talk about this.”

“No, our minds are made up. It has to be tonight.” Kenneth’s jaw set, and his eyes narrowed a bit.

“Alicia?”

“Please, Silas.” She still didn’t look at him. “I’m not going back to my parents’ house without a wedding ring and marriage certificate. I can’t.” Desperation smothered her voice, and she turned her face into Kenneth’s shoulder.

“It’s really important we get married tonight. We
need
to get married.” Kenneth’s expression begged Silas to understand.

Alicia choked on a sob.

Silas’s mind circled the implications and ramifications as he motioned for them to sit in one of the pews. His heart sat like a cold rock in his chest. Marriage should be a joyous time of celebration with friends and family, not a covert, desperate matter conducted in the middle of the night.

When they were seated he took the pew in front of them, turning sideways and laying his arm across the back. “Now, explain to me so there are no misunderstandings just why you have to get married tonight without the blessing of Alicia’s parents.”

They both stared at the floor. Kenneth reached over and clasped Alicia’s clenched hands in her lap. “I did like you said and went to her folks again, but they refused to let me see Alicia. So we arranged to sneak out so we could be together.”

“I see.”

Alicia raised her chin. Her eyes swam with tears. “But you knew, didn’t you? Didn’t Willow tell you? She saw us together not long ago. I was sure she’d tell you all about it.”

“She didn’t say a word.” Silas rubbed his jaw.

“Don’t be mad at her. She said she wouldn’t lie to you, and that you would have to know, but she wanted us to be the ones to tell you. I’m sure she wasn’t going to keep it from you forever. Willow told us we’d get in trouble if we didn’t stop meeting like that.” Alicia blinked, sending the tears down her cheeks. “And she was right. We should’ve listened. She told us to come to you for help. And yesterday…”

Kenneth took a deep breath and looked Silas right in the eye. “Yesterday our feelings got the better of us. We stumbled. It was my fault. Please don’t blame Alicia. We’re both sorry, and we’re here to make it right. We need to get married as soon as possible.”

Silas grimaced and sent up a prayer for wisdom. “That certainly puts a new light on things. Would you be willing to wait until morning, and we could all three go to Alicia’s parents and talk this out?”

“No. They’ll contrive some way to keep us from getting married. They’ll send Alicia away.” Kenneth leaned forward, gripping the pew in front of him. “If you won’t do it, we’ll find someone else. She’s not going back. We’re both adults. We can make up our own minds. We’d like to have her parents’ blessing, but we don’t need their permission.”

Silas rubbed his forehead, forgetting his black eye until he touched it. Mrs. Drabble was going to explode. And yet, what Kenneth said was true. They were old enough to choose for themselves, and they had excellent and expedient reasons for marrying in haste. “If you’re sure about this, I would rather perform the ceremony myself than send you to someone else. But I have a few things to say first.”

Kenneth nodded. “We figured you would.”

“You both understand you’ve chosen a hard road. By giving in to temptation, you’re starting out your marriage under a cloud. And”—Silas swallowed and took a deep breath—“there could be other consequences.”

“We’ve talked about that. That’s one of the reasons we want to get married as soon as possible.”

“There’s also the matter of Alicia’s parents. You are both old enough to marry without their permission, but Alicia is their daughter, and you will need to do everything you can to make amends and restore fellowship there. Though you will be man and wife, living on your own, you are still tied to the Drabbles as their daughter and son-in-law, and eventually you’ll have children who will be their grandchildren. You’re burning a very big bridge here, and it will take time and effort to rebuild it.”

“We’ll deal with that later.”

“Then we’ll need a witness to make things legal. I’ll perform the ceremony, and I’ll mail the registration papers to the courthouse over at the county seat first thing Monday morning.” Silas pushed himself upright. “I’ll go knock on Ned Meeker’s door. He and his wife can stand up with you.”

Having one of the elders there might deflect some of the coming Drabble wrath. But then again, it might just draw Ned into her crosshairs. Still, Ned lived closest to the church. And he could be counted on not to run straight to the Drabble house and sound the alarm.

Ned and Trudy came, roused from their bed and hastily dressed. Ned glanced at Silas’s eye but asked no questions. After hearing why the pastor had knocked on their door so late, they agreed to serve as witnesses, though Trudy’s brow wrinkled, and she asked Alicia twice if this was what she really wanted.

The ceremony was simple, unadorned, and quick. His heart broke for the young couple. This couldn’t have been the wedding Alicia had envisioned. They would have some rough days ahead. The path was always more complicated and full of pitfalls when things weren’t done God’s way. They were so in love, so desperate to be together, they’d compromised what was best about love and marriage.

It was a sobering lesson not to sacrifice the future on the altar of the immediate.