Marrying Stone (23 page)

"Won't he be confused anyway when people talk about us as though we're married and we're not… not living as married."

Meggie shook her head. "Jesse doesn't know anything about that," she said with calm assurance. "We just won't say anything at all to him and he'll just think that things are the way they are."

Roe had his doubts about that, but decided Meggie knew her brother much better than he did.

They sat silently together for a long moment. Roe's expression, at first joyous, became slowly more and more concerned.

"I'm not sure you should do this," he said finally.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. If we pretend we're married, what will that do to your future?"

"My future? I don't suspect it will do anything at all to it," she said.

"When the fall comes," Roe asked thoughtfully, "and I
have to leave, can you just say I was a no-account and ran off?"

Meggie thought about that for a long moment. 'That's no good," she said. "People are going to know you by then and it'll be hard to believe that a man like you would be so dishonorable."

Raising a surprised eyebrow, Roe gazed across the porch at Meggie. Honorable? Meggie Best thought him honorable.

"No," she continued. "You can't just run off and leave me. 'Cause then I'd still be married to you forever."

"You're right," Roe agreed. "Of course you'll want to
really
marry someday and have a family and all of that." Strangely Roe found the idea of that prospect not at all pleasing.

"I suspect so," Meggie answered. "Though, truth to tell, if things on the mountain stay the way they are, there is not a fellow here that I'd take to husband. Not a one of them interests me a bit."

"Well, maybe your
real
prince will come for you one of these days. I sure wouldn't want you to have to turn him down if he did."

Roe had meant the comment to be light and humorous, but he saw that he'd embarrassed Meggie.

"I guess there's no way you can forget my talking foolishness the other day," she said.

Roe hastily apologized for his teasing. "It's really not that foolish," he said. "I suspect that we all have ideas in our mind about the person we hope someday to marry."

Meggie shook her head. "I bet you don't sit around thinking about some princess dropping into your world from out of the blue."

Roe was thoughtful for a long moment. "No, I guess that I never thought of a princess specifically," he said. "But I have thought about the woman I would want someday to marry."

"Well, everyone gives it a thought, I reckon," Meggie said. "But most folks don't waste their time on spinning fancy dreams in their mind."

"Actually, I think, Meggie, that most people do. Over the years I've given the idea of marriage a good deal more thought than was strictly necessary," he admitted.

"I don't believe it."

"Well, it's true. I've spend many frivolous moments lolling over the question of what sort of woman I want to someday marry."

"And what kind of wife did you come up with?"

Roe chuckled. "Oh, the usual type, I suppose. I imagine her as being a bit pretty," he said. "No great beauty, mind you, I'm not greedy, but someone nice on the eye." He hesitated. "Bright, she'd have to be bright. Intelligence is very important; I want a marriage where the husband and wife converse easily together. She'd need to be socially skilled, because I'm not particularly. And I want her to have excellent family connections. That would be a boon to me in my work."

Roe glanced at Meggie to find her listening with surprising interest.

"Fortunately, she wouldn't need to have any great wealth or inheritance. My father's business ventures have left me with a comfortable legacy. But I would like her to be well read and interesting. A woman who could step easily into my world."

Meggie nodded gravely, taking his words into serious consideration.

"The future deserves important consideration, Meggie. I don't think you need to be ashamed of spending your leisure time pondering it."

Meggie smiled at him, clearly pleased that for once someone seemed to understand her dreaminess and not put it up to ridicule.

"And that future is just the reason why we can't just let
people think that we are married and expect no consequences from such a lie."

Meggie nodded. "I suppose you are right about that," she said. "It just won't do to leave things up in the air so."

"If there was some way to be married now and then not be married later, I would agree to the deception," Roe said. "But I don't see any way to manage that."

Meggie was thoughtful. "It's just that folks have got to see things work out one way or the other or they just can't never live in peace again."

"I don't think there is any way," Roe said, "to pretend we're married for just a little while and then to gracefully back out of it later with neither of us any worse for the experience."

"I think there is a way," she said.

"There is?" Roe asked, disbelieving.

Meggie sat staring thoughtfully into the nothingness beyond the woods for long moment, a tiny smile just curving at the corner of her mouth.

Roe watched her entranced. She had that expression he'd come to recognize as her dreaming look. Her eyes were glazed and her face serene, but her mind was clicking faster than the crank on his Ediphone. Her dreamer's fancy was scheming up a plan. With a surprisingly complete sense of confidence, Roe waited.

"There is only one answer," she said finally. "You are just going to have to die."

"What?"

"You have to die. Not now," she explained quickly. "At the end of the summer when your work's all done."

Roe stared at her dumbfounded. When she saw the look on his face, she laughed out loud.

"Dad-burn and blast, Farley," she said, elbowing him playfully in the ribs. "You look like you expect me to stick a knife to your gullet any second."

"What do you mean, I have to die?"

"Well, I don't mean that I'm going to plant you six feet under up in the churchyard," she answered.

"Then what exactly do you mean?"

"Well, now just think about it. When you get your work done in the fall, you'll have to take a trip back to the Bay State. Even if you planned on staying with me forever, you'd have to go to turn in those wax rollers of yours, wouldn't you?"

Roe glanced thoughtfully at the Ediphone and nodded. "Well, yes, I suppose so."

"And were you really my husband and had to go away, why I'd be sad and sorry to see you off. But I'd send you just the same."

"You wouldn't have much choice. It's my work and it's important."

Meggie nodded reasonably. "And you'd promise to come back as quick as you could. But sometimes heaven don't let us keep some of our promises."

Roe nodded gravely as he listened. "And?" he asked as the silence lengthened.

"After you're gone a couple of weeks, I'd say I got word that you was killed. In an accident on the Mississippi, maybe, or in New Orleans or something."

Roe raised an eyebrow.

"I'd be torn up and tragic something awful. You can believe that. And I'd wear black for you for a full year. But I'm young and strong and I'd make it through my grief somehow."

Meggie's expression had taken on an overly dreamy look as she dramatically clutched her hands to her chest.

"You see what I'm getting at, Farley?" she asked him. "I'll be a widow and you'll be free and none will be the wiser."

Roe's brow furrowed thoughtfully for a long moment. "Meggie," he said finally, "I think it just might work."

The first appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe Farley at church the next day was an event. After the protests of Friday night and the silly story of the skunk on the Marrying Stone, the community was glad to see the young couple owning up to the truth and generally they were being wished well.

They'd stepped into the churchyard clearing as the bell continued to toll. Most of the same crowd from the Friday Literary was in attendance, with the exception of a few of the wildest young men and some hard-grizzled older ones.

Meggie and Roe had spent much of the walk to the church together. Jesse had hurried ahead of them, nearly skipping with delight. Eager to tell anybody and everybody that his frien', Roe Farley, was now his brother, too.

Roe and Meggie had not spent the time whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears. They were carefully going over the details of their story. Determined to get the most from the situation with the least entanglement. If asked straight out if they were married, it was decided that they would simply answer, "We jumped the Stone." Beyond that, they decided it best to say as little as possible.

Roe stood tall and strong at Meggie's side and she felt somehow bolstered by his presence. Dressed in his patched city clothes, Roe looked very much like a handsome prince and Meggie, in her best homespun, felt dowdy beside him.

She was nervous and unsure. It was one thing to decide to pretend to being married. It was quite another to make the whole congregation believe that it was true.

They were walking together through the dewy grass when Meggie's girlfriends, all dressed in bright colors like a bouquet of wildflowers, hurried up to greet them. Giggly and excited, they obviously wanted to gather Meggie into a hug as they always had, but hesitated as if shy in front of her new husband.

"Meggie, we're so happy for you," tiny Polly Trace told her with a warm squeeze of her hand. "I think it's all so romantic."

Roe smiled broadly. A little too broadly, Meggie thought. He was so good-looking, she worried that he might turn one of the girls' heads. He'd certainly turned hers.

Mavis Phillips giggled as usual, her laughter tossing her bright red curls. "And that skunk story was the funniest reason given for jumping the Stone that I've ever heard."

Meggie, uneasy, cleared her throat intending to make some sort of reasonable explanation. But Alba Pease spoke up before she could.

"It is the newest way to get yourself married," the teasing young clown told them with a bright smile and a glint in her eye. "We simply need to remember to lure some likely fellow up to the Stone and have him look deep into our eyes. If we're as lucky as Meggie, he'll be seeing skunks for sure." She winked at Roe.

Feeling the blush of embarrassment stain her cheeks, Meggie saw no humor in Alba's joke. But beside her, Roe laughed out loud.

"I think you've got it wrong there, Miss Pease," he said. "When I look into my bride's eyes, the last thing I ever think about is skunks."

Polly sighed, and Mavis and Alba giggled. Eda stood slightly back, observing quietly. A moment later Roe was drawn away into the crowd of men by the jokes and Broody twins. Representatives of both the Piggott and McNees clans wanted to offer well wishes to the lucky groom.

Meggie was left with her friends. And without her husband's protection, Eda Piggott spoke her piece.

"I wish you the best of luck," she said stiffly.

"Thank you, Eda," Meggie said. "I… we… some things just happen."

"Oh, I know," Eda said. "Sometimes things do happen. But I believe you said it yourself the other day. The whole
mountain will be laughing when he leaves you before the first snow."

"Eda!" With a less than ladylike jerk, Alba pulled the jealous young woman away from the group and shot Meggie an apologetic glance.

Anger welled up in Meggie, but she held her head high. She knew she was being baited, and she wasn't about to give Eda the pleasure of seeing her react. However, she couldn't quite get past the truth that, everyone laughing or no, Roe Farley
would
be leaving before the first snow.

That was a long time off, of course. At least it had seemed so yesterday. Right now it appeared to be hurrying toward them.

Roe was laughing a little too loudly when he managed to draw away from the jabbing jokes of good humor offered by the menfolk. He took Meggie's arm at once and with as much haste as they could manage through the friendly, curious crowd, he led her to the church door.

Pastor Jay was waiting, as always, to greet his flock. "Good morning, Farley, Mrs. Weston," the old man said as they entered the doorway. "I had hoped your father would be with you this morning."

"Onery's already in his seat," Roe answered.

"No, not Onery, I meant
your
father. I do a goodly amount of praying for Gid Weston's soul," the preacher admitted.

"Pastor Jay," Meggie began once more, but with a gentle touch on her arm, Roe stilled her words.

"We appreciate that, Pastor Jay," he said simply and moved past the preacher.

"Pastor Jay is beyond our help," he told her as they walked down the smooth pine plank floor toward the front of the church. Only one large, glassless window lightened the building and it was at the far end of the church behind the pulpit. The benches were that, benches. Plain polished oak slats on short legs, no backs, no arms and certainly none of the padded prayer rails common to churches in Cambridge. If a man were to fall asleep during one of Pastor Jay's sermons, he'd likely fall flat on the floor.

As they took their places next to Jesse and Onery, Meggie's father looked over at her and shook his head with consternation. "You two are sure causing quite a commotion. I thought ye might."

Meggie looked around to see every eye in the church upon her. She knew that what her father said was true, but didn't know quite how to stop what was started.

Buell Phillips, dressed as finely as Roe, but not looking nearly so comfortable in his clothes, stopped by the pew and offered his hand.

"Welcome to the family, Farley," he said with a polite nod to Meggie. "Even though you are an outsider, son, I want you to feel as much a family member of the Piggotts as yer new wife."

"Thank you," Roe answered.

"We're a loyal and right-thinking clan and we stick together for everyone on everything." His manner was pompous and superior and Meggie wished she could just tell him to shut up and go sit down.

"Just 'cause you weren't born a Piggott, don't mean that you aren't as much one of us as if you were. Why ask Onery, he'll tell you that we always treat him like he's a part of us."