Chapter 28
“You’re sure pretty now that your belly isn’t big with Griff’s whelp.”
Cassie nearly jumped out of her skin at the familiar voice.
Wade’s voice slurred. “I should have had you when you were between men.” He staggered a little as he leaned over Cassie, the sharp, stale odor of whiskey on his breath.
She stepped away from him, but he snaked out his arm and pulled her hard against him.
“I’ve yet to have my turn with you, China Doll.
I reckon I’ll have at you before we’re finished. ”
Red was there before Cassie could even look around for help. He pulled Wade’s arm away from her and tucked her behind his back. “You’re drunk, Sawyer. And you’re insulting my wife. Go somewhere and sleep it off.”
Cassie peeked around Red’s stalwart body. Winter hadn’t been kind to Wade. Hers had been so splendid that she’d gone long stretches without even thinking of the horror of Wade’s visit to the ranch. Now it all came rushing back.
His eyes were streaked with veins and red-rimmed from too much drink.
A beard grizzled his sunken cheeks, and behind the beard, his teeth were yellowed and stained.
His soulless eyes reflected the knowledge a man gained from long nights spent in debauchery.
Cassie shuddered when she thought of what her life might have become if Red hadn’t claimed her that day.
She leaned fully against the strength of Red’s back and whispered so softly only he could hear her, “I love you.”
Red’s hand came around and rested on her waist for a brief moment, telling her he’d heard. Then his full attention was back on Wade.
“Wade, you’ve got to get yourself straightened out.
” Amazingly, kindness, not anger resonated in her husband’s voice.
“Talk to me. Let’s just sit and talk. You’re wasting your life.
You don’t really want Cassie. She’s my wife and we love each other.
No man wants a woman who doesn’t want him.
What you think is longing for her is just part of the emptiness that’s inside you.
God can fill that emptiness. Forget about Cassie and start worrying about your soul. ”
Wade stared at Red, seemingly struck silent.
Red took a step closer to him. “You’re still a young man.
You’ve got plenty of years to find a wife and have a family.
You’ve got a ranch. You need sons to pass that ranch on to.
You need daughters to soften your heart with their smiles.
Don’t throw your best years away on drink and the Golden Butte women and hate.
Please talk to me. I can tell you about how faith in Jesus can help you find your way down the right path. ”
Red laid his hand on Wade’s shoulder.
Wade’s eyes were riveted on Red’s, and in his expression, a longing ran so deep, it bordered on desperation.
For the first time, Cassie felt something other than fear and revulsion when she looked at Wade Sawyer.
She felt love. She understood what the Bible meant when it said, Love your enemies…
pray for them which…persecute you. She found the compassion to pray for Wade.
“Please,” Red said, “you’ve got intelligence and strength and a good life waiting for you.
And if that life isn’t on your father’s ranch, I’ll help you find a life somewhere else.
” His voice dropped so low, Cassie could barely hear it.
“I know how cruel your father is. You need to get away from him for good. Let’s just talk and decide where you can find a home.
I’ll do everything I can to help you find a new path. ”
Wade’s eyes shifted from Red to the floor and back to Red, and for a second, they reflected the willingness to search for a better life.
There were still people in the store. The worship had ended, but the fellowship had stretched into the early afternoon. No one had wanted it to end.
Wade took an uncertain step toward Red. Then suddenly, something cruel slammed down between Wade and all the people who stood before him. Cassie believed she’d seen with her own eyes a battle between the Lord and Satan fought within Wade’s soul.
He slapped Red’s hand aside. “Save your preachin’ for someone who wants it, Dawson. And enjoy your wife for as long as you can keep her. She’s a woman who needs pretty things around her. I can give ’em to her. She’s for sale, and I can outbid you any time I choose.”
Wade wheeled drunkenly away from them and left the store.
Cassie was so close behind Red, she heard him whisper, “He needs You so desperately, Lord. Help me to never give up on him.”
She wrapped her arms around Red’s back and hugged up close against him. “Amen.”
Red held her arms tight around his waist, and they stood silently as the tension eased from the room.
Finally, a squall from Susannah broke the silence. Red retrieved his baby from Leota Pickett.
As Red hoisted Susannah high in the air to make her squeal with pleasure, Maynard Pickett, Leota’s husband, said, “He’s dangerous, Red.
He was gone all winter. After you swore out that complaint against him, no one saw him again till just a few weeks ago.
Since he’s been back, he’s gone pure crazy.
He isn’t staying at the ranch, and I haven’t seen him sober.
You watch your back and keep close to Cassie. ”
Red nodded, and Cassie held his gaze to make sure he knew she had heard. She wanted his protection, but she didn’t want him to keep the truth from her.
Red sighed. Then Susannah distracted him by kicking him in the stomach a few times and yanking on his hair. Red settled her on his shoulder and came back across the room.
“I’m sorry you had to hear such vile talk from a man, Cassie. No lady should be subjected to that.”
“I’ll not accept your apology. Wade Sawyer is the only one who can apologize for the way he just acted.” Cassie laid her hand on Red’s arm. “I thought for just a moment that he was listening to you. I thought maybe you could reach him.”
“They had a girl?” Belle smiled at Muriel. She visited while Seth filled their order.
Belle shouldn’t have ridden to town. She was due to give birth any day. But that was also the reason she had to come in. The gap had just now melted open, and she needed her larders full before the baby came. Getting to town afterward was hard.
“The most beautiful little girl.” Muriel’s voice softened, and her expression made her look twenty years younger.
Why had Muriel and Seth never had children? It was too personal of a question to ask.
Seth came back into the store and hoisted another crate. “This is the last of your supplies, Belle.”
Normally, Belle would have worked alongside the storekeeper, but Seth had flatly refused to let Belle lift the heavy boxes. Truth be told, when Sarah was born, Belle wouldn’t have taken Seth’s orders. But she was older now, nearly thirty. Picking up those boxes would have been a strain.
She’d started leaving more and more for the girls too. It wasn’t fair to burden them. No more babies, ever. Never ever. Please, God, let this be a girl.
She thanked Muriel for the coffee, paid for her supplies, and went out after Seth. Seth took the two steps down from the board sidewalk that lined Divide’s Main Street. Belle stepped out and nearly fell when she saw Anthony…coming out of the Golden Butte.
He looked across the hundred or so feet separating them.
The woman on his arm giggled and dashed back inside.
Last fall, Anthony would have slunk away in sullen silence. Now, after a winter of Belle trying to be kinder to him and bringing him into the family, he tipped his hat with narrow, defiant eyes, then turned and followed the woman back inside.
“Belle, why don’t you just kick him out?” Seth set the last crate in her wagon bed and fastened the back end with the rattle of metal on wood.
Belle’s mind had been a thousand miles away—well, in all honestly, more like a hundred or so feet away—awash in fury and humiliation and contempt.
“I spent the winter trying to figure out how to be a better wife to him.” She’d never normally have discussed such a thing with anyone, let alone Seth Bates.
But what difference did it make? Anthony’s cheating was going on with no effort to hide it. “I’ve been nice to that polecat.”
“There’s divorce.” Seth’s grim voice with its shocking suggestion drew Belle’s gaze away from the still-swinging doorway to the Golden Butte. “You don’t have to let him live on your ranch. You don’t have to put up with his low-down ways.”
“Divorce? How am I supposed to manage that?” She’d spoken to a lawyer before she married Anthony.
It had required a grueling trip to Helena because no lawyers were closer.
A will had been a strange thing to arrange, but a few run-ins with Gerald had scared her enough that she’d decided she needed to protect her children in the event of her death.
The document gave ownership of her ranch to her pa if she died, and her pa had promised to leave it as an inheritance to her daughters.
The lawyer had written up the will, and she’d forced Anthony to sign before she’d agreed to marry him.
“I don’t know how it works. But I’ve heard of such a thing.”
Such things as divorce occurred, but it was a disgrace. Vows were taken before God, and to break those vows was a terrible sin. Plus, Anthony would have to cooperate, and he’d never give up his two dollars a week. No, divorce wasn’t possible.
Her face burning with anger and embarrassment, she swung up onto the buckboard, her stomach making her awkward, and slapped the reins against her horses’ backs.
She left town far behind before she let herself cry.
She could hate Anthony. She could hate Seth even for daring to comment on this shame in front of her.
But that was all a waste of time when the real reason she’d ended up like this was because she was a fool.
God, what’s missing in me that I keep marrying weaklings? Am I so awful no man with a backbone will have me?