The Reluctant Bridegroom (30 page)

“All right.”

Two dogs roused up and raced across the snow to snap at the heels of the horses as they pulled the sleigh toward the house. The door opened and Rebekah came out, with Joe following. “Buck! Bob! Get away from those horses!” Joe shouted. The dogs retreated, showing their teeth, and Rebekah stood in the doorway with a glad smile as the sleigh stopped. “Edith! Sam! Get down and come in out of the cold.”

“Rebekah!” Edith let Sam help her out of the sleigh and the two women embraced. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Where’s Sky?” Sam asked, looking around.

“Gone to feed some yearlings he keeps in a pasture about a quarter of a mile back from the house.” Rebekah went to Sam and gave him a hug as well, which surprised him somewhat, for she had never been so demonstrative before. “Come on in,” she invited, pulling at them. “He’ll be back pretty soon.”

Edith entered the house and looked about her. It was larger than most log houses, with a huge fireplace dominating one end. She walked toward it and warmed her hands at the cheerful blaze, taking in the sturdy furniture that contrasted with the frilly curtains over the windows. Everything was neat and clean, and she exclaimed, “What a nice house, Rebekah!”

“Sure looks different from what it did before,” Sam remarked. “It always looked like a tornado had just gone through it. A woman’s touch sure does make a difference.”

“Oh, it’s not hard to keep a house clean,” Rebekah shrugged. Turning to Joe, she suggested, “Why don’t you go tell your father we have company?”

“All right.”

There was a surly look on Joe’s face that neither of the visitors missed. The table was covered with books and paper; Sam remembered how Joe had hated to study. Joe picked up a thick coat and opened the door, but Rebekah plucked a fur cap off a peg and pulled it over his ears, saying, “You’d better wear your cap, Son.”

Joe jerked the cap to a different position. “I’m not your son,” he scowled and went through the door, slamming it behind him.

Sam took his cue. “I’ll just go along. Need to stretch my legs a bit.” The scene had accentuated the fears he’d carried about the situation. He caught up with Joe as the boy rounded the house. “Wait up for an old man, Joe!” he said. Then trying to erase the frown from the Joe’s face, Sam began to talk about things in town as they made their way along the path
that had been beaten flat by footsteps. He had learned much about Joe during the long months Sky had been gone, and he was aware that the boy was highly sensitive. Carefully avoiding any reference to Rebekah, he kept talking until finally the boy was smiling again.

“When I get elected mayor, Joe, I’m going to need a bright young fellow to help me with all the bookwork. Think you might like to get in on some of that?”

“Aw, Sam, I’m not any good with books. You know that.”

“You’re smart enough, Joe.” Sam tossed out the next statement casually. “Now that you’ve got a good teacher, why, you’ll be as good at books as you are with that rifle of yours.”

Joe’s youthful face hardened, and he said in a tight voice, “I don’t like her, Sam.”

“Rebekah?” Sam allowed surprise to shade his tone. “Why not, Joe? I don’t know her well, but she always seemed real nice to me.”

Joe shook his head stubbornly and said nothing. It was a way he had learned from his father, Sam realized. He walked along and did not break his silence until Joe blurted out, “Why’d he have to marry her, Sam?”

Sam replied quietly, “Guess you asked the right man about that, Joe—I just got married to Miss Edith last week.” He smiled at the boy’s surprise, then said, “Man gets lonesome with nobody to talk to. Guess I didn’t know how lonesome I was until I got a wife to share things with. I’ve talked more in the week I been married to Miss Edith than I have in the last five years, I reckon.”

Joe kept his head down, thinking of Sam’s words. “Pa don’t talk to her. He don’t even sleep with her—him and me sleep in the loft and her and the kids sleep in the bedroom.”

“Well . . .” Sam was taken aback by Joe’s observations, but he said gently, “Takes a while for people to get used to each other, Joe. Some can do it quicker than others.”

“He shouldn’t have married her.” The silence ran on for ten steps or so, and Joe looked at Sam with resentment in his
eyes. “She ain’t a good woman, Sam. I know what they say about her in town. The men make jokes about her—having babies without no husband.” His lips grew tense. “I hate her, Sam. I wanna come and stay with you!”

Sam’s heart sank. He had known it would be hard on the boy, but this was far worse than he had imagined. “Joe,” he said, “I don’t know as I ever liked anything more than having you with me last year. Made me want a boy of my own worse than I ever wanted anything—someday I’d like to have one just like you. But Sky’s your pa, boy, and you’ve got to stay with him. He loves you better than anything else.”

“It’s her I hate—not him!” He turned to go, but Sam caught him and pulled him around.

“Joe, listen to me! Some things in this world are pretty hard—and you’ve had to grow up faster than most kids your age.” He hesitated, knowing the boy’s hurt was too deep to be healed by idle talk. He sighed heavily. “Joe, if your pa did wrong in marrying Rebekah, it was because he was thinking about what was best for
you.
And all I can say about Rebekah is, she’s had a harder time than you or me—harder than any man is likely to have, for that matter. Lots of women would have run off and left those babies, but she stuck with them.”

The boy did not respond, but at Sam’s words he stopped in his tracks, his lips pressed together and his eyes hard. “The pen’s just over that rise.”

Sky saw them coming and ran to meet them. “Sam—you old reprobate!” He grinned and slapped his friend on the shoulder. “You come all the way out here to get my vote?”

“Nope. Came out to tell you Edith and me got married last week.”

“You did!” A broad grin spread across Winslow’s face. “I knew you was a goner, Sam—but you sure did get a fine woman.”

“Guess we’re both pretty lucky, Sky,” Sam replied, then saw the smile fade from his friend’s eyes, so he said hurriedly, “Say, you got a quarter of beef I could take back with me?
Edith says that stuff we’ve been gettin’ from old man Taylor is made of shoe leather!”

“Just butchered a fine yearling day before yesterday. It’ll be your wedding present. Come on, Rebekah’s made some chili that’ll burn you down to your toes. Right, Joe?” He did not see the flash of resentment in the boy’s eyes, but moved back down the trail, saying, “Tell me how the election’s shaping up.”

Back at the cabin, Edith had taken the baby out of the crib and sat rocking her as Timmy investigated cautiously. “She’s grown, I do believe, Rebekah,” Edith marveled. She poked the baby’s fat cheeks and was rewarded by a loud burp. “She’s like a little doll!” she laughed. “I can’t wait to have a baby, Rebekah. All my life that’s what I’ve wanted. “

Rebekah had pulled a chair around and Timmy ran to her. Pulling him up onto her lap, she squeezed him affectionately. Timmy sat staring at the visitor with round, curious eyes. “You’ll be a wonderful mother, Edith. Now tell me about you and Sam. I wish I could have been there for the wedding.”

“Oh, it wasn’t anything grand. Sam just said one night after church, ‘What are we waiting for, Edith?’ And you know, neither of us could think of a single thing—so the next day, we did it. Lot Penny married us—he’s doing much better than the last time Sky saw him.” She paused and her cheeks colored slightly and she gave a half embarrassed giggle. “You know, I thought that Sam was a little slow—but when he goes after something—that man is downright determined!”

Edith saw that Rebekah was starved for such talk, and filled in the finer details of life in town as Rebekah hung on to every word. When Edith had finished, she asked, “Is Sam going to win the election, Edith?”

“I hope not!” Edith bit her lip and toyed with a curl that fell over Mary’s ear, then whispered confidentially, “It’s getting bad in town. Everyone knows that Poole is doing everything he can to win the election—and if he doesn’t win, Tom says that they’ll try to kill him and Sam.”

“We’ll have to pray for them,” Rebekah said. “I’ve been reading the Bible a lot lately, and over and over it says that we can’t get by without faith.”

Edith feared that the men would come back, so she asked abruptly, “How have things been, Rebekah—with you and Sky?”

A shadow came to Rebekah’s eyes. “All right,” she replied quietly.

“I don’t think so, Rebekah,” Edith returned boldly. “I don’t mean to be a busybody, but I care about you, Becky. You can tell me—it’s been hard, hasn’t it?”

Timmy squirmed, and Rebekah put him down. He crawled off into the bedroom, so Rebekah rose and went to look out the window. Her eyes fixed on the white landscape, she murmured, “I can’t complain. I have a home, a place for my children. Sky is good to Timmy and Mary, and he . . .” She faltered for just one moment, then turned to face Edith. “And he’s kept his part of the bargain with me.”

“Rebekah!” Edith protested. “You and Sky have forty or fifty years ahead of you! When you married him, surely you must have hoped for more than—than just being a housekeeper!”

“It’s what I agreed to, Edith.” The words were emotionless, and she added quietly, “Don’t worry about me, Edith. It’s not easy—especially with Joe. He resents me so, and I can’t blame him.”

“He’s jealous of his father, I suppose?”

“He’s never had to share him, so I guess that’s natural—but there’s something I’m afraid of, Edith.” Rebekah twisted her fingers together as the sound of voices outside came closer. “Sky can’t see it, but his resentment against his first wife has rubbed off on Joe.” The voices got still louder, and she rose, whispering hurriedly, “It’s going to destroy both of them—all of us—if he can’t resolve to forgive her!”

The door opened and Sky entered, coming at once to pull Edith to her feet. “Lord help you, Edith, having to put
up with Sam—but he’s so gone on you that maybe you can housebreak him!”

He reached down and kissed her on the cheek, then took the baby. “Now, how’s this for a pretty one?” he asked, and the affection in his face caused Edith to give Rebekah a strange glance. “How about some of that chili of yours, Rebekah?” he asked.

“I wish we could do better than that for our first guests,” Rebekah protested.

“Oh, we’ve got to get back,” Edith interrupted quickly. “We really only came out to be congratulated and to invite you to the camp meeting that’s going to start at the church.”

“Camp meeting?” Sky asked. “In the middle of winter?”

“Well, it’s an
indoor
camp meeting,” Sam shrugged. “Tom got Lot out of bed and able to function, and he’s determined to have a revival. I asked him how you ‘revive’ something that ain’t never been ’vived’ to begin with—but you know Lot!”

“It’ll start next Saturday,” Edith informed them firmly. “And nothing will do but that you all come.” She moved closer to Rebekah and smiled. “Sam’s rented me a house, and I need some help getting it fixed up, Sky. So you’ve just got to bring your family in for a few days.”

Sky looked at Rebekah and asked quietly, “You’d like to go, I reckon?”

“I’d like it a great deal,” Rebekah answered.

“All right,” Sky said. “I can’t promise I’ll be at the meetin’ myself—but guess a few days in town will be good for you and Joe.” He looked slyly at Joe. “You probably can use a break from the books, can’t you, Joe?” Once again he did not seem to notice the lack of response from the boy. “Well, let’s see to that quarter of beef while Rebekah fixes our meal.”

They enjoyed a good meal of rich, spicy chili, and shortly afterward Edith and Sam left for town. Neither of them spoke for a time. Finally Sam commented, “They’re in a bad way, Edith—worse than I thought.” He rehearsed the incident
with Joe, then added in a discouraged tone, “Can’t see how they can make it. What’d Rebekah have to say?”

“She won’t say much—but it’s killing her spirit, Sam.” The sleigh hissed through the snow as she wracked her brain for some way to help, but nothing would come, so she moved closer to Sam, depressed by the visit.

The visit had lifted Rebekah’s spirits briefly, but after the pair had gone, the house depressed her. Sky and Joe went hunting, leaving her alone with the children; and both of them had gone to sleep, so there was little for her to do. She had cleaned the cabin and taken care of the household work, but she needed something to occupy her mind. Pulling a chair in front of the fire, she took her Bible and began to read. After two hours her eyes grew tired and she tried to pray, but it was difficult. She remembered how easy it had been when she’d first been saved, when she’d had Mary to pray with and a church to attend.

She put her head back, thinking over the past two weeks, and a despair rose in her so sharp and painful that she could keep from weeping only by a force of will. For the hundredth time she asked herself if she had made a dreadful mistake by marrying Sky, the doubts gnawing at her mercilessly. Getting up, she paced the floor, remembering how Joe had rejected every attempt she had made to befriend him. She felt her failure keenly; and no matter how she looked at the matter, it grieved her to no end.

What she had expected from Sky, she could not say—but he had been different from anything she had seen before. On the wagon train, there had been moments when he had smiled at her, lifting her spirits. She thought often of the times they’d talked as he rode beside her on the wagon seat. She had felt his warmth then, but since that awful night he’d accused Tom of being with her, she had not seen that lighter side of him. Deep in her heart she wondered,
Does he really think I’m a loose woman—like his first wife?

Restlessly she moved around, her mind confused and weary
of the struggle.
He treats me like a servant,
she thought,
but that’s what I bargained for. It may be enough for him—but is it enough for me?

That was the question that was draining her deep down, for she knew she had expected more than that. He had made no promises, but she had hoped that eventually he would look at her as more than a woman to clean his house and help with his son. He had done nothing to encourage that idea, however. When they had arrived at the house for the first time, he told her, “You and the children will sleep in the bedroom. Joe and I will bunk in the loft.” It was as if he were warning her at once that their relationship would be on that plane—nothing warm or personal.