Chapter Five
Since Natalie would be gone for a while, Mark decided to pay
his friend, Ben Martin, a visit. With Natalie upset and heading off
to Tony’s farm, there was no point in going to church. Everyone
knew he’d gotten married. If he showed up without her, who knew
what rumors would circulate through Omaha? He was much better off
heading out to his friend’s parsonage instead.
Thankfully, Ben’s church service was earlier
than the service Mark went to in downtown Omaha. Ben’s parish
presided over the rural community, and those people liked to get
the service done with plenty of time to do chores at their farms.
When Mark arrived at Ben’s small parsonage, he got out of the
buggy, secured the horse to the post, and opened the screen door.
“Knock, knock,” he called out.
From inside, there was a loud groan. “Why are
you here?”
Mark entered the house and shut the screen
door behind him. Ben wasn’t in the parlor as he expected.
“I have good news,” Mark called out as he
passed through the parlor. “Annabelle will be coming over to my
house for dinner on Thursday evening. Be there at six.”
“I’m not going,” Ben replied from the
kitchen.
Mark went to the kitchen and saw Ben slumped
in a chair, his head on the table. A couple of peppermints were
next to him. Mark’s eyes widened. Ben only sucked on peppermints
when his stomach was bothering him.
“Are you sick?” Mark asked.
He didn’t bother looking up at Mark. “Yes.
I’m sick with guilt. I never should have agreed to marry you and
your brother to those poor ladies without telling them what was
going on.”
“Not you, too.” Mark sat in the chair across
from him. “This is ridiculous. There was no way Velma was going to
marry Tony if she knew about it. She and Natalie would have been
fighting over me until we were all in our graves. I didn’t get to
where I am by sitting around and waiting for things to happen.”
Ben lifted his head. “I’m not blaming you for
any of it, Mark. I blame myself. I should have had the courage to
tell you no. I’ve let you talk me into a lot of things over the
years, but never once did you ask me to do something this serious.”
He picked up another piece of peppermint and stuck it in his mouth.
“I couldn’t sleep at all last night, and I could barely eat
breakfast.” He rubbed his stomach. “I feel awful. I hate lying. Do
you have any idea how hard it is to give a sermon in front of a
bunch of people knowing full well I participated in sinning?”
“No,” Mark admitted. “I don’t. But why should
I be stuck with Velma just because she wanted it? Why should
Natalie be forced to marry Tony—who didn’t even want her—because
Velma wanted it? Since when does Velma get to make all of the
decisions for everyone?”
“I understand why you did what you did, but
it doesn’t excuse my part in the whole thing. You’re not a
preacher. You’re not held to the same standard that I am.” He let
out a long sigh. “Tony and Velma didn’t even come to church today.
Tony never misses a Sunday. Even when he has to stay up through the
night to take care of an animal, he comes to the Sunday service. He
hates me. Because of me, he might even hate God.”
“Tony’s not going to hate God because of
it.”
“How can you be sure? A preacher’s conduct
can have an impact on what people think of God.”
Mark considered Ben’s words. He supposed his
friend had a point. How often did he watch what he said and did
around his clients so that they would be happy with the
construction project? Happy clients meant business, and business
meant money. Ben’s business just happened to be spiritual in
nature.
“I didn’t think of things that way,” Mark
admitted. “I was wrong to involve you in my scheme. Looking back, I
should have just told Velma I was marrying Natalie and let her tell
Tony she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. I honestly
did think I was doing the right thing by lying to everyone. I
thought once Velma got alone with Tony, she would realize how much
he loves her and that money isn’t the most important thing in the
world. But I can see I was wrong. Tony’s not happy, so obviously,
Velma didn’t figure that out yet.”
“Lying never accomplishes anything good.” Ben
rubbed his stomach. “I’m done with it, Mark. I don’t care what you
come up with next time. I’m going to be honest about
everything.”
Mark studied his friend as he put another
peppermint into his mouth. He didn’t realize how much this kind of
thing bothered his friend. He supposed he’d gotten so used to lying
to clients in order to make them feel good that lies didn’t bother
him as much as they bothered other people. If Mark had told half
the clients the truth, they wouldn’t ever do business with him
again.
Telling a man that he told boring stories or
a woman that she had no fashion sense when they insisted on asking
him for his opinion wouldn’t work. They’d take offense to the truth
and find business elsewhere with someone who was willing to tell
them what they wanted to hear. Despite what Ben thought—despite
what Natalie and Tony thought—this wasn’t a black or white issue.
There were shades of gray to consider.
But Mark liked Ben. Ben was one of the few
people who’d been with him through everything, and because of that,
Mark decided he wasn’t going to involve him in anything that
involved lying again.
“I won’t ask you to lie for me ever again,”
Mark promised his friend.
Ben glanced at him, as if not believing it.
“Really?”
“Really.” When Ben relaxed, Mark added, “I’m
sorry, Ben. I didn’t realize it would affect you this way.”
“Thanks, Mark.”
“Do you feel better?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Good because you’re down to your last
peppermint.” He glanced around the small kitchen. “Unless you have
more hidden somewhere.”
“No. This was it. I went through the entire
jar between yesterday and now.”
Mark shook his head. “You’re going to smell
like mint for a week.”
Ben chuckled, and Mark was glad his friend
was finally at ease. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the
dinner on Thursday? It would be a good chance for you to speak to
my sister.”
“No. I can’t spend an evening with her under
these circumstances.”
With a shrug, Mark stood up. “Alright. You
can’t blame me for trying to talk sense into you. If you don’t act
fast, someone else will swoop in and sweep her off her feet.”
Though Ben didn’t seem all that pleased with
the possibility of such a thing happening, he stood by his
decision, so Mark accepted it. He just hoped Ben wasn’t making the
wrong decision in not taking the opportunity to be with
Annabelle.
***
Natalie wiped the tears from her eyes, but it
was no use. No matter how much she tried not to cry, the tears kept
coming. Her visit with Velma hadn’t turned out well at all. She had
apologized to Velma. She had even told her that she hadn’t known
what Mark had done until this morning. But Velma hadn’t wanted to
hear any of it. She’d ordered Natalie off of her property and went
back into the sod house, slamming the door behind her as she did
so.
Natalie should have known Velma wasn’t going
to believe her. From the moment they met, Velma had been skeptical
of almost everything. She hadn’t believed she could cook. She
hadn’t believed she could sew. The only thing she felt she could do
with any kind of talent was cleaning, and even then she had
wondered if she could do as good a job as her maids had. It’d taken
Natalie considerable time to assure her that she’d done just fine.
Velma seemed to think the only thing she was good at was
entertaining wealthy people. But that was absurd. Natalie knew she
could do other things. Velma just chose not to do them because she
was afraid she’d fail.
If only Velma had let Natalie or Jenny teach
her how to cook and sew, she probably wouldn’t have resisted
marriage to Tony so much. Looking back, Natalie wished she had been
more persistent in teaching Velma what to do. Then, maybe then,
they’d be on speaking terms right now.
By the time she returned home, she had
managed to calm down enough so that she wasn’t sobbing
uncontrollably. She was, however, still in tears. The coachman gave
her a sympathetic look as he helped her out of the carriage.
As much as she appreciated it, it only
brought more tears to her eyes. She went up the steps of the large
house, and when she reached the front door, the butler opened it
before she could turn the doorknob. She forgot the butler opened
the front door. She mumbled an apology and made a beeline for the
stairs that would take her to her bedroom.
“Natalie?”
She paused as soon as she recognized Mark’s
voice coming from the formal parlor. She didn’t know if she wanted
to see him yet or not. She was torn. While she was still mad at
him, another part of her wanted to be with him. She’d never been in
love with anyone, so the contradiction confused her.
Mark hurried over to her. When he saw her
tears, he rubbed her back and said, “I take it things didn’t go
well with Velma.”
“How could they?” She wiped more tears away.
“She thinks I knew you lied to her.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and
led her to the formal parlor. Once there, he shut the doors then
encouraged her to sit next to him on the couch.
“Natalie, you’re such a sweet person. It’s
one of the things that made me fall in love with you.”
“Why did you make Velma think she was
marrying you? Why didn’t you just tell her you wanted to marry
me?”
“Because she wouldn’t have accepted it.”
“Yes, she would have. She and I agreed that
if you chose me, or if you chose her, then the other person would
marry Tony.”
Mark shook his head. “I know you would have
accepted it, but she wouldn’t have.” Before she could protest, he
took her hand in his and squeezed it. “I’ve been around a lot of
people, and I’ve picked up many things along the way. Velma was
determined to marry me. If I had let her know I was going to marry
you, she would have gone to my parents and tried to coax them into
talking me into marrying her instead of you.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, I’m not. Do you know where Velma stayed
on Friday?”
“She went to your parents’ house.”
“And do you know why she did that?”
“She had to mend her wedding dress.”
“No, that wasn’t why she did that.” He
brushed his thumb along her hand, an action which helped to sooth
her swirling emotions. “She was trying to convince my parents that
I was better off being married to her.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes, I do. Didn’t you pay attention to the
things she was telling my parents when we all had dinner
together?”
Not sure what he was getting at, she
hesitated to answer.
“She dropped all of those hints about how her
own family entertained a lot of clients,” he told her, his voice
soft. “She was trying to impress upon them how prudent it was that
I pick her.”
“But she said Tony worked hard and that he
contributed a lot, too.”
“She said that in order to get my parents to
think that you—a farmer’s daughter—would be a better match for him
than she would be.”
Natalie gasped. “No, that wasn’t why she said
that. She said that because she realized you’re not the only one
who works hard.”
“I know how to read people, and she was
hoping to get my parents to use their influence to get Tony to
marry you. Then she’d be free to marry me.”
No. He had to be wrong. Velma might have
wanted to marry Mark, but she wouldn’t have resorted to
manipulative tactics to get her way. She had agreed that she would
marry Tony if Mark only told her that he didn’t want to marry her.
It was as simple as that.
She studied Mark’s face and saw that he
believed everything he was saying. He was fully convinced that
Velma was trying to influence him and Tony through their
parents.
“If I had been upfront with Velma,” Mark
continued, “she would have found reasons to delay the wedding.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is, sweetheart.” She shook her head, but
he added, “I know you want to believe the best in everyone, but not
everyone has the best of intentions. You have to be careful.”
“Should I be careful with you since you lied
to everyone?”
“That’s different.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. I was doing what was
best for everyone. Velma will
be happy with Tony once she gives him a chance. I
saw the way she looked at him. Deep down, she wanted to marry him.
And there’s no doubt he wanted to marry her.”
She bit her lower lip. She thought she had
noticed the attraction Velma had had for Tony, but she had
convinced herself she’d been imagining things since Velma pushed so
hard to be with Mark.
“Velma didn’t want me. She wanted my money,”
Mark said. “I know I can’t prove any of this, but I’m asking you to
believe me. Please, Natalie, have faith in me. I realize the means
by which I made everything happen weren’t ideal, but it was the
only way we could be together.” He paused then added, “Tony’s a
good man. He’ll treat Velma right. He’s dependable, hardworking,
and, though he looks a little rough because of the stubble on his
face, he’s tender. She’ll be happy. I promise.”
Since he seemed so sure of things, she felt
herself relaxing. “I hope so. I want Tony and Velma to be happy
together.”
“They will be.” He squeezed her shoulders.
“And I promise I won’t lie to them ever again.”
“Or me?”
“I won’t lie to you, either.”
“Thank you.”
He kissed her. “Just so you know, there was
no client that I had to meet yesterday. I only said that to get us
out of the church before everyone started chasing me with
pitchforks and fire.”
She chuckled. “They wouldn’t have done
that.”
“You saw how upset Tony was. I’m sure he
would have rallied everyone against me in under five minutes. He’s
a force to be reckoned with when he’s angry. You might have ended
up a widow a lot sooner than you expected when you promised ‘till
death do us part’.”
“No one would have killed you, but I
understand why you hurried out of there as soon as the vows were
done.”
He rubbed her back. “So, you’re not mad at me
anymore?”
“No, I’m not.” She pulled him in for a hug.
“I just hope you’re right and that Tony and Velma will be
happy.”
“I don’t know if they’ll be as happy as us,
but I assure you they will be.”
He brought his lips to hers, and soon, she
forgot about everything but how wonderful it was to be in his
arms.