Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
C harlotte looked up from reading her book when her mother entered the room. “Yes, Ma?”
Ms. Penny closed the door and approached her daughter who was sitting on the bed. “I think we need to talk, Queenie.”
Charlotte nervously placed her book aside. “About what, Ma?”
“Why, you’ve only received one visitor since we returned from Denver. There should have been two more by now. What’s wrong with you, girl?”
Charlotte’s breath came out in a whoosh. Her mother had always kept up with her monthly like clockwork, so she shouldn’t be surprised that she would notice she’d missed the last two.
“Charlotte, I am waiting for an answer.”
Air practically stalled in her lungs. It had been a long time since her mother had called her Charlotte. It was always Queen Charlotte or Queenie unless she was in trouble. Considering her condition, she was definitely in trouble. There was nothing she could do now but give her mother an answer.
“I’m with child, Ma.”
“With child!” Penny Satterfield’s words echoed through the room like a sonic boom. The look on her face was even worse.
“Yes.”
Her mother stood there for a full minute and stared at her in disgust before she backed up as if Charlotte’s presence sickened her. At that moment, Charlotte’s heart slammed against her breastbone. “I’m sorry, Ma.”
“Too late to be sorry now. I have to tell your father.”
Now she felt her heart missing a few beats. If her aunt Jessie were still alive, she would have asked her mother to send her to Denver before her mother could have detected anything. Her aunt would have known what to do. It was the same thing she had done two years before. But now Aunt Jessie was gone.
“No, Mama, please don’t tell Pa. Can’t you take me to someone who will know what to do?”
“Know what to do?” her mother asked sharply, thoroughly appalled. “How do you know about such matters?”
“I don’t,” she said quickly.
“Then why would you mention anything like that? Is there something you’re not telling me, Charlotte?”
“No.” There was no way she would tell her mother what Aunt Jessie had done two years ago when she’d gone to spend that summer in Denver and met that boy.
Her mother stared at her for another long minute, and Charlotte hoped she hadn’t given her mother any ideas about anything. Her mother had adored her younger sister and must never know what secrets Charlotte and Aunt Jessie had shared. “I just heard girls at school talk, Ma. That’s all.”
“Well, that’s nothing decent girls would discuss. Not good Christian girls anyway.”
Late afternoon sunshine was coming through the bedroom window, but it could have been storming outside for all the gloom Charlotte felt in the room. “Your father and brother should be coming in for supper soon. I’m going to tell them. I suggest you have the baby’s father’s name ready to give because there will be a wedding tonight.”
Shock covered Charlotte’s face. “A wedding?”
“Yes. A wedding. There’s no way your father is going to let the man who did this to you turn his back on you. You will be forced into a marriage just because you can’t keep your legs closed. I thought we raised you better than this. You have greatly disappointed me, Charlotte. Be prepared for your father’s anger.”
With those final words, Penny Satterfield walked out of the room.
***
A full hour later, Charlotte sensed the heavy footsteps of her father and brother, denoting their return home. All this time, she’d been in her bedroom, her thoughts consumed by her mother’s words. There would be a wedding. The unexpected news had left her reeling, but she couldn’t deny the flicker of hope that her pregnancy brought. She had come up with a plan. Ultimately, she would get the man she desired and was destined to be with.
There would be no way Milton could get out of marrying her. Her father and his pa would see to it just on her word, even if he denied it. It would be the honorable thing to do, and those Madarises were all about honor and maintaining a blemish-free family name. Besides, there was no reason they wouldn’t believe her over him. Why would they?
Her father and brother had barely been home for twenty minutes when the tranquility of Charlotte’s room was shattered. The door was flung open with such force that it was wrenched off its hinges. Kurt Satterfield, his face contorted with fury, stood in the doorway, his twelve-gauge shotgun clenched in his hand. The sight of it sent Charlotte scrambling back against the wall, her heart pounding.
“Who did this to you?” he all but snarled in a voice that sent chills all through her. Over her father’s shoulder, she saw Waylon, who looked just as outraged.
Meeting her father’s gaze, she lifted her chin. “He didn’t mean for it to happen,” she said as if intentionally protecting the person’s identity.
“Tell me who did this to you!”
“He didn’t mean for it to happen, Pa,” she said again, trying to sound even more convincing.
“Tell me, Charlotte!”
She jumped. Her father had never raised his voice to that degree with her. She paused a moment and then: “Milton. Milton Madaris got me this way.”
***
“You’re lying. There’s no way Milt got you that way,” Waylon said, storming from behind his father to face her.
“He did. Why should I lie?” Charlotte asked heatedly.
“That’s a good question, so how about giving us an answer,” he said, glaring hard at her before turning to his father. “There’s no way Milt got Charlotte with child, Pa. You know Milt as well as I do. I don’t know who Charlotte is trying to protect by pinning such a thing on Milt, but what she’s doing is unforgivable.”
His father frowned. “You would place Milton Madaris’s character above that of your sister’s?”
Instead of answering his father, Waylon stared at Charlotte and said, “You’ve had a crush on Milt forever. You don’t think I know that? Milt is engaged to get married in a few months. Why are you doing this to him?”
“Because he did this to me!” she nearly screamed, knowing they thought she meant he’d gotten her pregnant instead of what she truly meant. Milton had broken her heart by planning to marry someone else. “He told me he would call off his engagement if I was with child. Well, I am with a child. You don’t want to admit what he’s done to me for fear it will jeopardize your engagement to Victoria. Well, what about me? I am your sister, Waylon. I can’t believe you would choose him over me. Blood is thicker than water.” Charlotte then turned to her father. “You asked me, and I am telling you, Pa. Milton Madaris fathered my child.”
Her father stared at her for a long moment and then asked, “I’m going to ask this once, Charlotte, and you better tell me the truth. Is Milton Madaris the father of the child you carry?”
“Yes, Pa. Milton fathered my child. I would never lie to you or Ma.”
Kurt Satterfield then turned to Waylon. “Go get the preacher and bring him here. Then we’ll all go to Whispering Pines.”
“Pa, I don’t believe Milt—”
Kurt Satterfield threw up his hand to stop Waylon from saying anything more. “I don’t care what you believe, Waylon,” he interrupted to say. “I think it’s a disgrace that you don’t believe your sister. She would never lie to me or her ma about this.” He drew a deep breath as if trying to control his anger before saying, “How dare Milton do this to my daughter while planning to marry someone else? Well, I have news for him. The only wedding that will be taking place is the one we’re having tonight. Now, do what I say and fetch the preacher. And don’t ever take the side of an outsider against this family again.”
“Outsider?” Waylon asked, not believing what he was hearing. “Pa, the Madarises have been our neighbors and good friends for years. Milt is my best friend and the brother of my future wife.”
“And Charlotte is your sister. If you don’t stand with her, you stand against her, and I won’t have it. The Satterfields are a family united. Now go get Reverend Potts like I told you to do.”
***
The Madarises were sitting at the table just finishing supper while Victoria told them how happy she was that she had graduated and would be moving to Savannah to attend nursing school in September, after Milton and Felicia’s wedding. Earlier that month, the entire Madaris family and Waylon had traveled by train to Atlanta for Felicia Laverne’s graduation. Both Victoria and Fee graduated at the top of their class, and Milton was proud of them.
He was counting the days until he and Felicia Laverne would marry. It would be the weekend before Labor Day, and he couldn’t wait. Already, he had begun constructing the house that would be theirs. Waylon had completed the one where he and Victoria would live one day. Since it had been finished ahead of schedule, whenever Waylon had any free time, he would come to help Milton. There were days when Milton had to pinch himself at how well life was going.
The only sad moment was when his pa’s younger brother, Quantum Travis Madaris, visited a couple of months ago. He had told everyone that he’d decided to leave the United States to live in Paris. Uncle QT, as they’d fondly called him, was their father’s only sibling and Milton and Victoria’s favorite uncle. They always enjoyed his visits, and he had taught Milton to play the trumpet over the years.
Quantum was a fun-loving, easygoing uncle who hadn’t been cut out for ranching. Instead, he’d chosen the life of his first love, that of a musician. For years, he’d played in Cab Calloway’s band. He thought it was time for him to go solo and felt Paris was the place to expand his musical talents. Years ago, he’d been married to a woman named Adaline. From what Milton had heard, she’d been bad news. Thinking she could be trusted, Uncle QT had shared the secret Madaris tea recipe with her. That hadn’t turned out well when Adaline schemed to sell the recipe to a major tea company and run off with one of the ranch hands with the proceeds. Luckily, Quantum found out about the plan before she could proceed with it. He hadn’t wasted time divorcing Adaline and had been single ever since, swearing never to remarry.
Milton was happy that his uncle was going after his dream but was saddened that he and Victoria wouldn’t see him as often. Before leaving for Paris, he had turned his half of Whispering Pines over to his brother Jantzen, saying there was no reason for him to hold on to it when he had no desire ever to be a rancher.
“I hear someone pulling up,” Jantz said, interrupting Milton’s thoughts. “I wonder who’s visiting during our supper time.” He then stood when there was a loud knock on the door. “I better see who that is.”
Milton stood and followed his father out of the dining room. When his father opened the door, he saw Mr. Kurt with a shotgun.
“Kurt, what’s wrong?” Jantz asked in concern, stepping aside. When he did, Kurt entered, followed by Ms. Penny, Charlotte, Reverend Potts, and Waylon.
Milton met Waylon’s gaze. Over the years, he and Waylon had mastered the ability to silently communicate with each other, especially when some crazy bullshit was about to go down. The look in his best friend’s eyes warned him this would be one of those times.
When everyone was inside, Jantz closed the door. By then, Milton’s mother and sister had come out of the dining room. Victoria stood beside Milton, but Etta Madaris went to stand next to her husband when it was apparent the Satterfields were upset about something.
Reverend Potts looked like he’d hastily gotten dressed and preferred being anyplace than here, and probably didn’t like the fact he was missing his supper.
“Kurt, I’m going to ask you again, what’s wrong? What’s this about?” Jantzen asked.
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong and what this is about,” Kurt said in a loud, booming voice that almost shook the rafters. “Your son,” he said, pointing at Milton. “Got my daughter in a family way, and there’s going to be a wedding tonight or a funeral.”