Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (24 page)

“Dearly beloved . . .” Cousin Farley’s voice boomed in the closed room as if they were all as deaf as he was.

“Danny, I’m sorry they’re making you do this.” Mercy blurted the words.

“Hush, honey. It’s all right.”

“We are gathered here today to unite this man—what’s yore name, mister?”

“Daniel Phelps.”

“Huh?”

“Daniel Phelps!”

“To unite this man, Randall Phelps, to this woman, Hester Baxter, in holy wedlock.”

“Daniel, Cousin Farley,” Bernie yelled.

“Daniel, ya say? To unite this man, Daniel Phelps, to this woman, Hester Baxter, in holy wedlock.”

Mercy’s eyes locked with Daniel’s. Tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks. Her heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a cold hand. What should be the happiest day of her life had become a nightmare. Daniel was being forced to take her as his wife. She never would have the chance to win his love now. He would resent her for the rest of his life.

“Daniel Phelps, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

Daniel saw the look of despair on Mercy’s face. For a moment he thought of refusing to answer. He glanced at Bernie, saw him move the stick a fraction closer to Mercy’s leg.
Sweetheart
!
Oh, my love.
His heart felt like a great, hard lump in his chest. He loved her so much, and he had failed her. He had waited, wanting her to be free to make a choice after they returned to Quill’s Station. He didn’t want her to love him out of obligation. He wanted her whole heart. In the space of a few minutes a decision that would affect them for the rest of their lives had been made for them.

“Air ya goin’ to answer or not?” Lenny said from behind him and pulled up on the noose.

“I will . . . do.” Daniel’s voice was a strangled sound.

“Speak up!” What’d ya say?” the preacher asked.

“I said, I will.”

“Huh?”

“He said yes,” Bernie shouted.

“I thought that’s what he said.” Cousin Farley snorted, then turned his sharp eyes on Mercy. “Do you, Hester Baxter, take this here man, Daniel Phelps, to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to love him, obey him, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

Mercy saw that Daniel’s eyes were filled with loving concern for her. Her mouth moved a fraction, and the words came from the center of her being.

“I do promise.”

“What’d ya say? Stop mumblin’. Do ya take him or not?”

“I said I’ll take him,” Mercy shouted angrily.

“You are man and wife.” Cousin Farley closed the book, picked up his hat, and shoved it down on his head. “The weddin’ paper’s made out. I’ll leave it on the wagon. Put your mark on it, mister, and don’t be thinkin’ you can crawl out of it. I got the preachin’ papers that says it’s lawful for me to wed ya. It’ll be marked down in the church at Coon Hollow.”

“Much obliged, Cousin. We knowed we could count on you,” Bernie said.

“What’d ya say?”

“Nothin’.”

“There ain’t no point in tellin’ the folks ’bout this,” Lenny said loudly.

“It’d grieve ’em to know it, is what it’d do,” the preacher agreed. He looked at Bernie. “Now get that goddamn snake out of here, Bernie. You never did have the brains of a flea. If you’da let that viper bite that gal, I’d have stomped your ass into the ground.” The shocking words coming from the preacher would have amused Mercy at any other time. But her mind was too numb with misery to grasp them.

“Yes, sir!” Bernie said meekly.

Cousin Farley left by the back door. Bernie inched the snake across the floor toward the open doorway. He put it out the door, stepped out, and slammed the door shut behind him. At the same time Lenny backed out the front and closed the door.

They were alone.

Mercy stood for only a second in the firelit room, then went quickly to where Lenny had tied the rope. She jerked on the end, pulling the slipknot free, and the noose loosened. Daniel lifted the loop over his head and threw it to the floor.

Suddenly it was too much to hold inside her. She went into Daniel’s arms, huge racking sobs coming from deep within her and disrupting the silence of the nearly dark room. Something deep and primitive screamed from the very center of her being that it wasn’t fair that this should happen to her. The tears came in a torrent from the depths of her misery. Her arms closed frantically around Daniel’s neck, and she clung to him as harsh sobs came from her throat. She could no more stop them than she could a runaway horse. She cried for herself, and she cried for Daniel. For the first time in her life she was totally beaten, totally humiliated.

“Ah, honey, don’t cry! Shh . . . hush, dear heart.” His voice against her ear was pleading, but she wouldn’t be comforted. The shame and humiliation she felt at having Daniel forced to wed her was like a knife in her breast. Soon the sobs ceased and were replaced with faint grieving moans.

He tried to pull away from her so he could see her face.

“Oh, please! Don’t . . . look at me. I’m so ashamed! I’m so sorry! I’ve ruined your life. You can’t . . . can’t—”

“Can’t what? I’m sorry I didn’t keep you safe like I promised. But . . . is it so bad being wed to me?” His voice quavered, and even more tears squeezed out from under her closed lids.

“You . . . don’t love me.” The agonized voice came from against his chest.

“Of course I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

His casual words were not comforting. Mercy wished with all her heart that he hadn’t said them. She knew he was fond of her, even loved her with that special, protective kind of love a man had for the women of his family. To hear him say it made her misery all the more acute.

“I’m going to break that bastard’s neck for scaring you with that snake.” Daniel’s voice lowered to a husky whisper.

“I hate them! I wish they hadn’t found me!”

“Things could be a lot worse.”

“I don’t see how!”

“Now that we’re wed, your duty is to me, not to them. After you see your mother, I’ll take you home and they can all go straight to hell as far as I’m concerned. Dry your eyes, honey. You’ve shed enough tears over them.”

“Danny! How can you be so calm? So reasonable? You may . . . want to marry someone else someday! Now you won’t be able to. I’ve ruined your life.”

“What about
your
life? Is there someone else you want to marry? Is it Mike? Are you in love with him?” he lifted her chin with his fingers and nudged it until she lifted her lashes to meet his eyes. This was something he had to know. While he waited for her answer he felt as if he were standing on the edge of a deep, dark pit and the next few seconds meant life or death for him.

“In love with Mike? Heavens, no! I love him, but like a Sister loves a brother. He’s in love with Tennessee and has been ever since Eleanor and Gavin brought her home with them from the Arkansas. Didn’t you know?”

“No, I didn’t know.” There was a long, breathless silence while they looked at each other.

“She loves him desperately but made me swear not to tell him. She thinks he won’t want to marry her because her mother is Shawnee.”

“How do you know that Mike’s in love with her, Miss Smarty?”

“Because of the way he looks at her. Oh, men! They are so dumb sometimes.”

Daniel suddenly began to smile, first at the corners of his eyes; then the slashes in his cheeks deepened as his lips spread. She leaned away from him, but her arms were still around his neck.

“How can you smile after what’s happened?”

“Because I just remembered something. You just promised to obey me.”

Confusion darkened her eyes for a moment, then her mind cleared. “Oh, that.” Her arms slid from around his neck, and her palms lay flat against his chest.

“The preacher forgot to tell me to kiss my bride.” His voice was thick. “Do you think I should?”

His words sent a thrill of excitement through her, but she made an attempt to assert control over her mind. She failed miserably, because she said the first thing that came into it.

“Kiss me? You don’t . . . have to.”

“What if I want to?” It was scarcely more than a whisper.

“Well . . .”

“Put your arms around my neck again.” He covered her hands with his and moved them upward.

Mercy drew the tip of her tongue across dry lips while her eyes focused on the sensual fullness of his mouth. Her brain commanded her to back away, but her legs refused to move.

“I . . . you don’t have to—”

“Shh. You promised to obey. Remember?”

Mercy closed her eyes at the first gentle touch of his lips against her cheek. They traveled upward to sip at the tears that hung on her lashes, then across the bridge of her nose and back down her cheek to her mouth. They pressed softly, nibbled, caressed and possessed. His lips were soft, his cheeks rough. She had been close to Daniel before, but not like this. His arms held her so tightly against him that she could feel the wild beating of his heart against her breasts. She was aware of the tangy smell of his skin; and his mouth, as it meshed with hers, tasted of the sweet they had shared that afternoon. Then the kiss changed and became more demanding. Her lips parted, but she wasn’t quite sure why. She was completely unaware that her arms had tightened about his neck, and she was pressing her lips tightly to his.

It was a strange, yet exciting, feeling. Her brain refused to acknowledge the fact that Daniel was trembling, or that his hand had moved down to her hips and was pressing her to him, or that his hold across her back had flattened her breast against his chest. His lips gentled as he tasted the sweetness of her mouth. The tip of his tongue was sending hot little sparks throughout her body. She sagged in his arms.

When he finally lifted his lips from hers, Mercy opened her eyes, now shining, but not from tears. Her lips were moist and parted, the pulse in her throat making her breathless. She didn’t know what to say or do. Her heart thudded under her ribs in a strange and urgent way. She stood locked in his embrace breathing deeply and erratically. Slowly he let his arms slide from around her, and she saw a look of deep frustration on his face. Daniel reached for her hands and drew her arms down from about his neck.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to do that.” His voice was uneven. A movement in his throat betrayed the fact that he was swallowing hard. “But . . . ah, hell!” He turned, angrily shoved a chair out of his way, and went to the door.

Mercy had been kissed a few times before, but she had been totally unprepared for the storm of emotions that swamped her when her lips and Daniel’s met, and she felt the hardness of his body pressing against her. Now he was angry. Why? Had he not wanted to kiss her? A feeling of mortification caused her cheeks to flame.
He had kissed her because he thought she had expected it
!

It was almost dark in the room, and hot.

“What the hell!” Daniel kicked the door savagely when it failed to open. He went to the back door. When it resisted the first attempt to open, he put his shoulder against it. The top leather hinge tore away, leaving an open wedge. He picked up the pistol he had been forced to toss aside and squeezed through the opening. A few minutes later he had kicked away the post wedged against the front door and opened it.

The cool night air fanned Mercy’s hot face. “Are they gone?” she asked as soon as she stepped outside.

“The mules are gone, but they’re somewhere close. You can bet on that,” he growled.

Daniel built up the fire in the hearth so they could see, then brought in the food box and her bedroll and placed it on the platform in the corner of the cabin. He went back to the wagon for their water jug and set it inside the door.

Mercy dampened a cloth by pouring water over it and washed her face and hands. She was drained and empty, choked with misery, and glad to be alone. Knowing that they had to eat, she put a couple of sweet potatoes in the coals to bake, filled the kettle from the water jug, and set it to heat for tea. When this was done, she went outside and leaned against the rough logs of the house.

The night seemed to be unusually quiet, the stars bright against the black void above. The moon had not yet appeared, and the cabin was surrounded by a velvety darkness. It seemed to Mercy that she could very well be alone in the world. Then a squeal came from Zelda behind the cabin. Daniel’s buckskin had come too close, and she was protesting.

Where was Daniel? When Mercy’s eyes became accustomed to the darkness, she saw him. He had put distance and darkness between them. He stood on a small rise, looking down the slope toward a creek they had crossed to get to this place. His arms were folded across his chest, his feet spread, his head tilted slightly to the side. He stood so still, looking so alone.

Wells of grief for what had happened to him because of her strained for release inside the tight walls of her chest. Unless they could get the governor of Kentucky to annul the marriage, Daniel would be tied to her until one of them died. She could see the years stretching ahead of them. Daniel, forced by circumstances to live with her, would come to resent her, maybe even to despise her. The thought was almost more than she could endure.