Chapter 5 #2
“Call me Daniel,” he replied. “I’ve been working on a lumber crew over near Bannister.
The job contracted until October first, but if you stayed until Thanksgiving, the pay was doubled what I’d already earned.
For another six weeks, I couldn’t pass it up.
It was too far away to come home on weekends, and the more hours I put in, the more I made. ”
“They were really starting to worry, Daniel.” Mac didn’t have the right to chide his future father-in-law, but he wasn’t shy about voicing his opinions either.
Daniel nodded ruefully. “I figured they were, but I knew Whitney would take care of things here, so I stuck it out.”
By the state of Daniel's clothes, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he was away from civilization and cut off from phone service.
Besides, Whitney didn’t have a phone, so calling her wouldn’t have been an option anyway, even if he could afford a cell phone.
Still, he could have found a way to send word, but it wasn’t Mac’s place to judge him. He was glad the man was back.
“Well, sir, those plans fit in just fine with mine. I have no desire to wait until spring to get married, either. Now that you are here, we don’t have to. I just have to convince Whitney to say yes.”
“You got a lap, use it,” he replied with a broad grin.
Mac chuckled. “If only it were that easy.”
***
INSIDE THE HOUSE, WHITNEY was fuming as she paced the wooden flooring while waiting for her father and Mac to finish talking. She couldn’t believe her dad was threatening them with a shotgun wedding.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
She glanced at Luke and Amelia. They were busy at the table with the coloring books and pencils Mac had brought them. She knew they were taking in everything they heard, just keeping quiet as instructed. She’d been the same way when she was little.
She paused and listened with her ear to the door.
All she could hear was low tones, and now, laughter was coming through the wooden obstruction.
They were laughing at her? When she saw the door handle start to move, she backed up quickly, then stood there tapping her foot and glaring as they both walked inside.
“Are you two finished organizing my life?” she asked, folding her arms across her breasts.
Daniel set his rifle down near the coatrack and took off his outerwear, his blue eyes gleaming at her.
“Watch your tone, young lady,” he cautioned.
“Seems to me you’ve already organized your life.
You knew better than to have a man on the place with no chaperone.
You know how people talk. According to Mac, you had another option.
So, unless you’re willing to be the laughingstock of Bolton, where people are talking, I might add, and be ruined for any other Christian man, you had best be getting a dress ready for the preacher in the morning.
We’ll be going to church, and I’ll make sure you two get married right away.
No daughter of mine is going to be a dirty word on anyone’s lips,” he growled.
Whitney’s face fell as his comments sucker punched her in the stomach. When he put it like that, the gray area she’d been living in turned to stark black and white. Here in the hills with no one else around, their business was private. Now it wasn’t anymore.
She bit her lip and turned to stare at Mac. “Is...Is your family laughing at me? Making fun of me? Are you just using me?” she accused, the hurt cutting deep. “No one but your family knows you are here.”
Mac’s face looked like a thundercloud. “Of course, I’m not using you. We haven’t even done anything; how can I be using you?” he growled quietly, glancing at Luke and Amelia out of the corner of his eye. He shot her father a pained look.
“Was it necessary to speak to your daughter like that, Daniel?”
Daniel’s glance softened. “I’m sorry, Whitney, but you needed to know.
If you two have feelings for each other, then it’s better this way.
Folks might speculate about an early child, but when it doesn’t happen, then they’ll rethink the situation.
But you know how folks are. What they don’t know for sure, they make up. ”
“I told you nothing happened,” she insisted, not feeling very forgiving at the moment.
“If we had gone to Mac’s home, then our home would have been open to the theft of what little we have in supplies.
Those two men might have even moved in as squatters, making them hard to remove, not to mention using everything I had stored for the winter.
Staying here to protect our place was the only option if you wanted a home to come back to,” she pointed out.
“Mac didn’t want us to stay alone, and I concurred and allowed him to stay here for a few days. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
“And I believe you, honey,” he relented gently. “I know when you’re lying to me and when you aren’t, but others won’t. I don’t want that stigmatism for the two of you.”
Mac walked over to Whitney and took her hands in his.
“I’m telling you right now, Whitney, I don’t care what people say.
I will find out who’s been talking and straighten them out, but in the end, it doesn’t matter.
I only care for your sake. I want you to be my wife, and I’ll marry you right this minute if that's what it takes. I have no doubts.”
“I...I need to think. I’m going to the barn.
” Whitney pulled her hands from Mac’s and grabbed her jacket and hat, then let herself out into the cold November day.
The sun was shining with no wind at the moment, so it wasn’t bitterly cold.
Impulsively changing her mind about the barn, she pushed her hands deep in her pockets and took off walking across the clearing, headed for one of her favorite places to be alone.
The leaves rustled beneath her feet, and the serenity of the forest slowly began to seep into her soul.
The little glade wasn’t too far away. She’d discovered it on a hot day last summer when she’d been scouting for rabbits. Amazingly enough, it was on their property.
The waterfall was about eight feet across, and it rushed over the rocks and into a calmer pool in the sunny glade.
Surrounded by giant oaks and elms, the majestic trees provided shade on the outer edges of the glade where one could sit.
The hot sun warmed the pool as the run-off from the mountains splashed into it and swirled lazily around before finally spilling its overflow into a meandering downhill stream.
Whitney had brought Luke and Amelia here during the summer to swim and play in the waist-deep pool, and to occasionally bathe the dust and sweat off from working in the garden and fields.
The surrounding boulders also absorbed heat from the sun, even in the colder temperatures, and one flat rock in particular was her favorite place to sit.
Wrapping her jacket tight around her, she sat down on the rock and pulled her knees up to hug them to her chest for warmth. As usual, the rock had a warmth that felt good through her heavy jeans and long-johns.
Being a practical girl, Whitney knew what gossip could do.
Her older cousin Emmaline had a baby about nine months after she and the preacher’s son hastily married.
People had gossiped like crazy and continued to speculate.
In fact, Emmaline’s name was always speculated about, even after two kids later.
Her name would always be tied to that same speculation, written in infamy for the rest of her life.
Her mother had advised her never to get herself into that situation.
Lord help her.
She was pretty sure she wanted to marry Mac; she’d been considering it for the last three days, but figured it would be after her birthday.
That would give her time to know if he was really the one, and give him a chance to change his mind if he decided he didn’t want her after they got to know each other better.
Rushing into things wasn’t on her agenda.
Besides, being told she had to annoyed her.
She didn’t like to have surprises sprung on her, especially something like this.
Every girl has a dream wedding planned, and she was no exception.
She’d had a beautiful white wedding dress in mind and envisioned a handsome man with whom she hoped to marry and live happily ever after.
People’s big mouths were obliterating her lovely dream.
She picked up a smaller piece of shale from the rock she was sitting on and skipped it across the pool.
The sunlight caught the drops that splashed up in the rocks’ wake, sending prismatic light through them in sparkling colors.
Brooding, she watched the cheerful stream gurgling over the stones and wished she felt as happy as the water sounded.
She groaned at the thought of the embarrassment she would have to endure at the church tomorrow with everyone staring and whispering about her. And probably for the next nine months until no baby shows up. Then the trial period would be over, and her name would be safe—unlike poor Emmaline.
But what if a baby did come along?
She sat up straight at the thought, horror filling her.
She’d have to keep Mac out of her bed for the first month or two after they were married to prove to the wagging tongues that they hadn’t precipitated their wedding vows.
Sighing, her shoulders slumped. Why couldn’t people mind their own darned business?
“Well, well, what do we have here, Clem?”
Whitney sprang from her rock and whirled to face the voice, her heart racing.
Two men were smiling slyly at her from across the boulder—the men who had taken the cougar.
Shock riveted through her as she glanced around.
She couldn’t run; she was between the rocks and the pool, but at least the rock was between them and her, for the moment.