Mary Connealy (115 page)

“I am. We’re having the wedding tomorrow at the M Bar S. Wade and I are planning to stay there until I can no longer tolerate it. Then we’ll wander.”

Tom swung down off his horse and came to Abby, taking both her hands. “You’ve always got a home with me, Abby girl. You know that, right? I love you. And if Sawyer ever treats you bad, I’ll beat him into the dirt for you.”

Abby gave Tom a hug, and for the first time Wade wondered if living with the Flatheads had really changed Abby all that much. She seemed to be a lot like her brother.

“Come out to the wedding, Linscott.” Wade couldn’t fight the sense of pure satisfaction that he got from marrying Linscott’s sister. It felt like he was getting the better of the man for some reason. Of course, that wasn’t the reason Wade wanted to marry Abby, but it was a nice little extra.

“Try and stop me.” Tom mounted up and turned tail for his ranch.

The next morning dawned clear and warm after the storm of yesterday. When he awoke rested, with the ugliness of yesterday separated from his wedding day, Wade was glad they’d delayed the ceremony. Almost.

He came down to the kitchen to find Gertie humming as she frosted a cake. The woman had obviously been hard at work for hours.

“What’s all this, Gertie?” Wade came up behind the housekeeper and kissed her on her round cheek.

Gertie smiled over her shoulder and waved her frosting-coated knife at Wade. “You two are having a nice wedding dinner whether you want one or not.”

Wade shrugged. “I reckon we have to eat.”

He dipped a finger in Gertie’s frosting bowl and she slapped his fingers, but he dodged and got away with the sweet treat.

“Breakfast’s warming in the oven, Wade. Fetch it yourself.” Gertie turned back to her cake while Wade slipped a plate of hotcakes out.

“Wade …” Gertie didn’t sound playful.

“What?” Wade braced himself to hear Gertie’s misgivings about Abby. His stomach twisted as he wondered how long he’d be able to stay on the ranch. Not that he minded leaving. He just wished there could be peace here.

“I just want you to know…I’m sorry.”

Wade had done his best not to think about the things that had been said that had driven Abby, and him, away from the ranch. Somehow, he’d never blamed Gertie for any part of the abuse he’d suffered. But when Gertie said she was sorry, he knew he had to think of it.

Wade opened his mouth to say it didn’t matter since he had finally taken control of his own life, but the words wouldn’t come. “Why didn’t you stop him, Gertie? I remember all the times you’d wait for him to work out his temper. Then you’d come to me and tend me. I thought it was love, but you were part of it. I can see that now.”

“I thought of just taking you and running a thousand times. But I’d imagine him stopping me, throwing me out. You’d have been left here at his mercy.” Gertie turned to Wade. “But there is no excuse good enough for my cowardice.”

“I suppose, but there was more than that somehow. You weren’t just afraid. You were part of it. Your care of me…made you—” Wade couldn’t quite put it into words. “It was its own kind of power. You controlled me by being the nice one. You abused me right along with Pa by letting it happen and picking up the pieces afterward.”

Gertie was silent, her lips pursed. “We weren’t what a child hoped for in a family, were we?”

Wade shook his head. “Not even close.”

“I can’t go back. I can’t do it differently, but please believe me, however badly I showed it, I did love you, Wade. I still do. As for your father, I’ve seen some softening in him. I think God needed to bring your pa low, break him, to have even a chance of reaching him. But watching your strength, in handling your pa, has reached me. I’m not staying home from church anymore in some worthless show of respect for Mort’s feelings. I’ve asked God to forgive me for my mistakes, and I’m hoping someday you will, too.”

Wade nodded, touched and deeply glad for Gertie that she’d found her way to God and that somehow he had a part in her finding that path. “I forgive you, Gertie. You know the sin in my past. What kind of Christian would I be if I was forgiven so much and then wouldn’t forgive you?”

“Thank you, Wade. I’m sorry I was always so weak. And I’m so glad you’ve found a woman who will be kind and gentle with you.”

Wade smiled to think of his sweet, beautiful Abby.

“I’m not wearing that fool dress you left in my room.” Abby chose that moment to stride into the kitchen wearing her doeskin dress and moccasins, carrying her knife.

Gertie looked at Abby. Then her gaze slid to Wade. The two of them broke out laughing.

Wade jumped to his feet and grabbed Abby in a hug that lifted her off her feet.

“Put me down!” She scowled, but he noticed she was careful not to stab him.

“Good morning.” Wade gave her a loud, smacking kiss.

“Let’s get on with this wedding.” She didn’t smile, made it sound like she was being harassed. But it sure sounded like she wanted to get married.

“Red’ll be here soon.” Wade glanced around and saw that Gertie had turned her back and was now fussing with her frosting again.

Wade took a second kiss, much quieter and deeper. And Abby cooperated something fierce.

“Then we will get on with this wedding.” He smiled and tricked a smile out of his woman, too.

Tom Linscott picked that moment to slam the kitchen door open. “Get your hands off her, Sawyer.” Tom pulled Wade’s arm away and shoved in between Wade and Abby. “You’re not married yet.”

“We’re going to fix that very soon. Have some breakfast.”

Red was none too swift getting to the ranch. Pa was behaving pretty well, but Wade was ready to strangle Tom by the time the parson showed up.

It was finally time for the wedding, and Wade practically ran to stand by Red’s side in front of the fireplace in Pa’s huge living room. Cassie sat in a rocking chair with both her children in her lap. Gertie sat on the sofa next to Pa in his wheelchair.

Linscott finally walked in escorting Abby, smiling down at her. “I’ll give the bride away.”

“That sounds good, Tom.” Red smiled. “This is my first wedding. You come up on Abby’s right, with Wade on her left.”

“Give me away?” Abby’s fingers twitched, and Wade braced himself for her to go for her knife. “As if I now belong to Tom and will soon belong to Wade?”

“You belong to yourself, Abby.” Tom took her by the arm and eased her over to Wade’s side. “No one here doubts that for a single minute.”

Wade watched closely. He didn’t mind Abby loving her brother, but there was no sense getting overly acquainted with the cranky, blond grizzly of a man.

He’d feel a lot better when the vows were said and they could get out of there. Wade had no intention of spending his wedding night under his father’s roof. Maybe they’d set up camp in the woods, where Abby was happiest. Wade liked that idea. In fact, he liked that idea so well he lost track of what Red was saying.

Red kicked him in the shin. “So do you, Wade?” Red glared.

Wade realized he was missing his own wedding. “I do. I surely do.” He hoped Red had asked the question Wade was guessing he’d asked and not something dumb like, “Do you want to go check the cattle before the ceremony?”

Red smiled.

Wade took Abby’s hand and she let him, so he must have had the right answer to the right question.

“And Abby, do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?”

Abby smiled those blazing blue eyes right at Wade and said, clear as day, loud enough for them to hear all the way back in the Flathead village, “I do.”

There was more talk, which Wade mostly missed because he was lost in Abby’s smiling eyes. He did catch Red saying, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

And right there in front of his nasty, cranky pa, Abby’s nasty, cranky brother, sweet Cassie Dawson, and the first-time marryin’ preacher, Red, Wade Sawyer wrapped his arms around his brand-new wife and kissed her until no one in the room could doubt that he was staking a claim. And since Abby was fully cooperative, Wade decided she was staking her claim right back.

When he pulled away, he said for all to hear, but looking at only Abby, “We’ll go wherever we need to go to be happy. If it’s not here, we’ll search until we find it.”

Abby ran one finger down his cheek and gave him the tiniest possible nod. “We’ll find home in each other.”

Wade knew it now as he never had before. “Wherever you are, that’s where my home will be.”

“And we’ll have children to fill that home, whether it’s a house or a tepee or we’re camped under the open stars.”

The thought of those children and what was involved in creating them caused Wade to remember very little of the feast Gertie had prepared. He was polite, he was sure of it. Or if he wasn’t, no one pointed it out forcefully enough to get his attention, and both Tom and Pa had a whole lot of forceful they could use on him.

The wedding wore itself out. Their guests all went home, and Wade told his pa and Gertie good-bye.

He and Abby slept under the stars in the woods near Pa’s house, but plenty far away. When the camp was set and a warm fire crackled in the Rocky Mountain twilight, Wade finally pulled his brand-spankin’-new wife into his arms. “Abby, this is a new beginning for us. A new life. We’ll roam the mountains if it’s what you wish.”

“I’d like to take a few days and be alone with you, Wade, if that’s all right.”

Wade felt a little dizzy at the very thought. “Nothing has ever sounded as right.” He pulled her close and kissed her.

“I think we will give your whining coyote of a father a chance, Wade. But I want to hunt a few deer, build a tepee out away from his home. Have a place to go when I have to either get away from him or slit his throat.”

“That seems reasonable to me.” Wade could not have been fonder of his wife. He wasn’t sure what that said about him, but the truth was the truth.

“Maybe we can even build a small cabin. That might be better in the winter.”

Wade really wasn’t that interested in planning their whole future right now. The way Abby was going on, he half expected her to start pacing off the land for the building site.

“And when the children come, we might be more comfortable with four strong walls and a stone hearth.”

“About those children …” Wade ran clean out of patience, and for a mild-mannered man who’d spent most of his life fighting fear, he suddenly was almost exploding with courage. But he wasn’t a foolish man. He didn’t tell her to quiet down. That was a good way to get her to draw her knife, which she most likely had with her, even on her wedding day.

He tricked her instead, distracted her, kept her mouth too busy to talk.

He made sure his feisty little wildflower bride didn’t say a single discouraging word.

It was a joyful beginning to a new life that rarely included Wade’s prayer of old,
“Whom shall I fear?”

Because his prayers were now of joy and praise and thanksgiving.

And besides, if he ever was afraid, he had Abby right there to protect him.