The Rancher's Bride (9 page)

But these folks should’ve been at least a little happy to see their daughter, the one they had to leave behind to fend, not only for herself, but for two young boys. They should be happy to see that she managed to make do for herself and Jack and Henry. Also that she’d married. That was at least cause for some sort of a celebratory mood.

But the atmosphere in Frank’s kitchen was just the opposite, it seemed. Somber. And he could tell right away that Marie was very much confused by her parents’ attitude.

Frank stuck his hand right out under Marie’s pa’s nose, since it seemed like he wasn’t even going to stand up and greet Frank properly.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, sir,” Frank started. He noticed Marie’s pa took a moment before he finally put his hand out and shook Frank’s. “I’m Frank Carter.”

Marie’s pa eyed him suspiciously after dropping his hand after only a second. “I know that already, young man. What I don’t know is why you two young folks were in such an all-fired hurry to up and marry.”

Frank watched as Chester McConnell paused and passed a disgusted look over his daughter, then turned his attention back to Frank.

“She ain’t in a family way, is she?”

Frank couldn’t believe what he was hearing—and from her own kin to boot! He looked over at Marie to see how she was handling all of this and it was as he expected. She looked hurt and confused. He felt the overwhelming urge to throw them both right out the front door. He wouldn’t for Marie’s sake; he was sure that would only make it worse for her.

“Mr. McConnell, sir, I married your daughter because I fell in love with her. And I can promise you that I did not take any liberties with her before our wedding day.”

“Well, seeing as how I have no other choice, I guess I’ll just have to accept your word on the matter.” He glanced at his own wife. “Still seems a mite suspicious though, if’n you ask me.” He sniffed, then turned to Frank. “Don’t suppose you’d have a bottle about the place to crack open and I could toast the new couple?” He smiled a crooked smile.

And there it is, Frank thought. What little shred of respect Frank had been desperately holding onto for the man went right out the kitchen window with that final comment. Now at least Frank knew exactly what kind of man he was dealing with, and it wasn’t the kind that he wanted staying too long in his kitchen.

“I’ll see what I can find,” he answered, then turned to Marie. “I trust you’ve invited your folks to stay for supper.” He smiled at her to try to make her feel a little better about things. “I’ve still got work to do but I’ll be back in for supper so’s I can have a nice long visit with your folks.” He leaned down to kiss his wife before heading back out. “Where you folks staying while you’re in town?” Frank didn’t wait for an answer to that question, hoping that he had made his point. “There’s a fine inn out on County Road 83, that’d be your best bet.”

The mudroom door slammed behind Frank and he didn’t get to see how Marie’s mama’s mouth had fallen open, catchin’ flies at the implication that they were not welcome to stay overnight.

* * *

Marie spent much of the remainder of the afternoon in the kitchen, fixin’ the finest meal she could for her ma and pa while her ma caught her up on all the goings on in the family and with all their neighbors and such.

Since all her brothers and her sister were with her aunt and uncle, her mama had a lot of ground to cover, so to speak. Marie was enjoying herself. It was kind of nice to be in the kitchen with her mama again, just cookin’ and talkin’. Felt like old times. Frank probably wouldn’t understand all that well, but Marie’s mama had never been the cheery type. She was pleasant in her own way, of course; it just wasn’t the way most folks were accustomed to. Marie only had the one mama and only knew the one way.

Meanwhile, the children played around and under them, making their presence known as much as they could without actually getting themselves into trouble for doing so. It hadn’t taken long for Marie’s pa to take himself elsewhere. He never did have any patience for young’uns playing and just havin’ fun in general. He set out back through the mudroom door to have a look around, so he said.

Frank poked his head into the kitchen not long after Pa had ventured out, looking for a cold glass of tea.

Marie fetched it for him so he didn’t need to take off his boots.

When she brought him the glass, he pulled her out onto the back stoop. “I want you to stay in this house until I come back in for supper.” Frank spoke in a hushed tone. “Am I making myself clear, Marie?”

“Yes, Frank, of course.” Marie nodded. “Is everything alright?”

“Nothing for you to worry about.” He smiled reassuringly. “And that supper smells awful good.” With that, Frank drained the glass and handed it back to Marie with a peck on the cheek.

She watched him head for the barn, then went back in the kitchen. It wasn’t much longer before supper was almost ready.

“I’ll go fetch the menfolk, Marie,” her mama offered. “I need to ferret out your pa.”

“Thank you, Mama,” Marie smiled at her mama as she leaned down to pick up Emmeline, who was overdue for her nap and nodding off in her high chair. “I’ll just go lay the baby down for a bit.” Marie returned to the kitchen to find her mama helping the boys to lay the silverware for the meal, and no sign of Frank or her pa.

Her mama didn’t look up as she spoke. “I couldn’t find your pa, and one of the hands wants to see you out in the barn for something or other.”

Marie’s brow furrowed. “Now where do you suppose pa coulda gotten off to?”

Her mama shrugged. “Can’t say. I don’t pretend to understand that man to this day.” Marie’s mama busied herself with the napkins.

There was something odd that Marie couldn’t put her finger on. But for sure, she’d have thought that Pa would be the first one at the table, between the guarantee of a free hot meal and the possibility of a liquor bottle. She headed for the back door. “Mama, please watch that roast. I don’t want it to dry out before we all sit down.”

* * *

As Marie walked toward the barn, she couldn’t shake that funny feeling, the feeling that something wasn’t right. Mama had said she was needed in the barn, but the barn doors were shut tight. Whenever someone was in the barn, anyone, the doors sat open.

She also had a moment’s hesitation over going out to the barn at all. Frank had told her to stay in the house until he came in. She certainly didn’t want to disobey Frank, but what if one of the animals was sick? What if one of the men had gotten hurt and needed tending?

Marie stepped into the barn and was greeted by silence, save for the sounds of the animals. It was dark and she blinked her eyes to try as quickly as possible to adjust from the bright sunlight of just outside the barn door.

“Hello?” Marie called tentatively. “Anyone here?” Nothing. No answer. Marie didn’t want to shout because that might frighten the animals. Frank had told her once not to raise her voice in the barn and she had taken that advice to heart. Then she thought she heard a slight rustling just behind her.

What happened next took place so suddenly that it took Marie a while afterward to piece it all together in her mind and make sense of it.

Someone grabbed her upper arm roughly from behind and jerked her backward and there was a funny smell all of a sudden. She couldn’t place that smell. A hand had come in front of her face holding a rag or some bit of cloth and it seemed that the funny smell was coming from that.

But just as quickly as she was grabbed and that cloth was in front of her face, was the person holding her arm and the cloth pulled away, and letting go of her. The funny smelled moved away. She heard Frank’s voice behind her before she had even had a chance to turn around and see that it was he who had pulled the person holding her arm away from her.

“Get your hands off her, you no-good son of a bitch!”

Marie had never heard Frank cuss before. He sounded so angry.

“Git your damn hands off’n me!”

“Pa?” Marie’s eyes had adjusted a little to the darkness in the barn and she could make out her Pa, cowering in front of Frank, who looked ready to throttle him. Roy, one of the hands, stood behind her pa, holding his arms. Then she saw the cloth in Pa’s hand.

“Pa. What were you doing?” Marie didn’t understand what was happening. She looked from her pa’s face to the cloth in his hand and then back to his face again. “What were you trying to do to me?”

“It’s chloroform, Marie,” Frank explained. “I keep some in the barn to use on the animals. Your pa was trying to put you out for a while so’s he and your mama could take you back home with them. Roy overheard he and your mama talking earlier, planning it.”

“What?” Marie really didn’t understand what was going on here. Why would they do that? “Why?” She looked at her pa, but just then another voice chimed in from the open barn doors at her back.

“Marie.”

It was Mama. Marie turned to face her. “Mama?” It was one word full of questioning and hurt. “Why, Mama? Why aren’t you happy for me? Why would you and Pa want to take me away from the happiest life I’ve ever known?”

Marie’s mama looked at the ground in front of her for a moment.

Marie knew then that she wasn’t going to like the answer to her question.

“Chester ain’t your Pa, honey.” Marie’s mama started her explanation with the truth.

Chester snorted derisively and Marie and her mama turned to look at him.

Frank grimaced. “I think Chester and I will just step outside and have us a little chat.” Frank grabbed the back of Marie’s pa’s shirt and ushered him none-too-gently out the barn doors. Roy followed close behind them. Marie turned back to her mama, her eyes full of questioning and hurt.

“Marie,” her mama began tentatively, “didn’t ya ever wonder why you don’t look nothin’ like me or your Pa?”

Marie nodded. “You told me once a long time ago that I favored your mama’s family, that I was the mirror image of your mama’s mama.”

Stella shook her head as Marie spoke.

“But that’s what you told me, Mama.”

“I’m sorry, honey, but that was a lie. You look just like your real pa.”

“But,” Marie began, not understanding at all what was happening. When you know something to be true your whole life, it takes more than just an instant to believe that it’s not.

Her mama continued. “Your real father’s name was Calvin Meeks.” Her mama paused. “We were sweethearts. I loved him so. He just passed on, honey.” She looked at Marie sadly. “I’m sorry I never told you before this and I’m sorry that you never got to meet him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me all this before now, Mama?” Marie was confused and a bit overwhelmed by this information.

“Calvin’s family never truly believed that you were his child. They wouldn’t allow us to marry and they spirited him away to the east coast to live with relations and keep us apart. We tried to stay in touch, but they confiscated my letters and he thought I had given up on him—and us.” She paused, with tears in her eyes. “I just found all this out myself, after all these years.”

“My parents arranged the marriage to Chester when it became apparent that Calvin wouldn’t be coming back for me. They thought I should be married when I had you. I didn’t want to marry him, but they insisted and I was in no position to argue. They were going to put me out on the street otherwise.”

“I’m so sorry, Mama.” Marie felt bad for her mama and almost responsible, as if her mother’s heartache had been her fault for having had the misfortune to be conceived out of wedlock.

“It ain’t your fault, honey.” Her mama looked at her in a way she never had before. “If anyone should be apologizing to anyone else, it’s me to you. I think that I’ve blamed you your whole life, without really meaning to, for losing Calvin. It weren’t your fault, Marie. And I do love you, honey, in my own way. I know it’s not how most people show their love, but it’s the best I can do.”

“I know you love me, Mama. I’ve always felt it, and I love you too.” Marie was crying now, the tears running silently down her face.

“It didn’t help none that you are the spitting image of your pa. It was a constant reminder of the love that I lost.” Her mama looked at the ground, then back up at Marie. Then she smiled, “He was a looker that one, and so are you, honey, so are you.”

Marie hugged her mama. “Thank you, Mama.” Then she pulled away. “But that don’t explain what Pa was trying to do to me before. Why did you both want to take me back home?”

Her mama looked truly ashamed now. “First, let me say that that was all Chester’s idea and I wanted nothin’ to do with it, but that man has a way of making me do things that are against my better judgment.” A wry grin formed on Stella’s lips. “That’s why you have six brothers.” She continued. “Calvin’s family contacted me recently shortly after his passing. They wanted to atone. They felt guilty and told me that right before he died, your papa made them promise that they would seek us both out. He insisted that they make amends to his only child. He never did marry and never had any other children. They said that he never changed his story that he loved me and that you were his child.”

“His family claimed that he never looked for us himself because they had led him to believe that I had found someone else and was happy. He didn’t want to ruin my life or disrupt both of our lives in any way.”

“Calvin’s family had some money and the share that was Calvin’s he left entirely to you, Marie. It’s a tidy sum. Now that you’re married it belongs to you and Frank. Of course if you weren’t it would belong to you alone and you might share some of it with us—at least that’s what Chester was planning. The marriage to Frank did not please him at all, no not at all.”

“That’s why we come to look for you. I know that alone surprised you and I’m sorry if you thought I didn’t care. There was just nothing to be had at home and I couldn’t do any more for you. I figured you’d be no worse off on your own.”

Marie was in shock over all this information. She really had never suspected a thing, although it did explain how Marie had sometimes felt like an outsider in her own family. She didn’t look like anyone else, and she didn’t behave like anyone else either. And she had never felt any connection to Chester at all.