Chapter Nineteen
By
the time Natalie, Mark, and Ben made it to Mark’s parents’ house,
Mark’s mother and father were studying the marriage license on the
table in front of them while Annabelle was in her
bedroom.
“Maybe you should ask Rick if this is legally
binding,” Mark’s mother told his father.
Mark leaned into Natalie and whispered, “Rick
is a judge who happens to be my uncle.”
Natalie glanced over at Ben who was huddled
in the corner of the parlor as if he was trying to become
invisible. Mark gestured for him to join them, but Ben shook his
head. Natalie put her hand on Mark’s and shook her head. Ben had
been through enough, and it was obvious he was scared that Mark’s
parents were going to yell at him. They were his in-laws now. He
was in a sensitive position.
“Preacher Nelson married them,” Mark’s father
said. “I’ve talked to him a couple of times. He’s strict and
thorough in everything he does. He wouldn’t make a mistake. This is
permanent.”
“But Annabelle said no,” Mark’s mother
argued. “If she said no, it can’t stand under the scrutiny of the
law.”
“It can if she signed it.” He pointed to one
of the names. “That’s her signature. I’d recognize it anywhere. By
signing it, she agreed to it. Rick will take one look at that and
say the marriage stands.”
“She probably had no option but to sign it.”
She glanced over at Ben. “How did the preacher get her to sign
this?”
Ben’s face went pale, and Natalie thought he
was going to faint. After a moment, he cleared his throat. “The
outlaws were pointing guns at her. They didn’t give her a
choice.”
“It doesn’t look like they gave Ben a choice,
either,” Mark’s father said, turning his gaze back to his wife.
“It’s obvious he wasn’t trying to trick her into doing it.”
“I didn’t say he tricked her,” Mark’s mother
replied. “Ben isn’t the type. I know he was doing what he thought
was best.”
Natalie glanced over at Ben. Did it bother
him that Mark’s parents were talking about him as if he wasn’t in
the room?
“What do we do now?” Mark’s mother asked. “If
this is a valid marriage license, we can’t very well get her out of
the marriage, no matter how much she wants it.”
“Why look for an angle to get her out of it?”
Mark spoke up. When they turned their attention to him, he
continued, “Ben’s a good person. We’ve known him since he was six.
He’s practically a part of this family. Why not welcome him as a
son-in-law? At least with him, you know what you’re getting. You
don’t really know anything about Kenneth Gordon.”
“Annabelle isn’t going to marry Kenneth,”
Mark’s mother said.
“Because of what’s happened with Ben,” Mark
agreed. “That’s to be expected.”
“No, Mark,” his mother clarified. “She made
that decision yesterday. That was before this whole thing with the
outlaws happened.”
Natalie’s eyes widened in surprise, and when
Mark glanced at her, she shrugged. Who could have guessed this was
going to happen? It was as much of a shock as finding out Ben had
married her to save her from three outlaws.
Mark turned back to his parents. “Do we even
know what the outlaws wanted with Annabelle?”
His parents looked over at Ben. Mark and
Natalie followed suit.
Ben shook his head. “I don’t know for sure.
All they said was that she was supposed to marry someone.”
“Maybe they were taking her to marry that
person,” Mark’s mother said. “We should bring her down and find out
for sure.”
“Do I have to be in the room when she comes
down here?” Ben asked, his eyes wide in panic.
“You can’t hide from her forever,” Mark said.
“She’s your wife.”
Mark’s father patted Mark on the shoulder. “I
think poor Ben’s been through enough already. Annabelle needs a day
or two to get used to the marriage.” He went over to Ben and urged
him to step away from the wall. “It’s alright. Her mother and I
realize this isn’t going to be an easy transition, but it’ll work
out. Annabelle’s not unreasonable. She’ll come around.”
A loud sound came from upstairs, followed by
Annabelle crying out, “I should have taken care of him sooner!”
Ben collapsed to the floor in an unconscious
heap.
“Maybe now isn’t a good time for the bride
and groom to talk,” Mark’s mother said as she knelt down and tapped
Ben’s face.
“Mark,” his father began, “let’s carry Ben
over to the couch.”
“That’s a good idea,” Mark’s mother said.
“I’ll make sure he has some water to drink when he wakes up.” She
turned to Natalie. “Perhaps you should talk to Annabelle. Sometimes
what a young woman really needs in times like this is a friend.
Annabelle’s room is the second one on the left.”
Natalie wasn’t sure if Annabelle would be
happy to see her, but since the others were busy, she nodded and
went up the stairs. When she made it to Annabelle’s door, she
knocked on it. “Annabelle?” She cleared her throat. “It’s Natalie.
I just found out what happened and wondered if you’d like to talk
to someone.”
A couple of seconds later, the door opened,
and Annabelle, who looked as if she’d been through a war with her
messed up hair, dirty face, and torn dress, gestured for her to
come in. Natalie took a step into the room. It was just as spacious
as the one she had, except on the floor was a punching bag.
“That fell just a moment ago,” Annabelle said
as she shut the door. “I was using it to vent my frustrations.”
Natalie glanced up at the ceiling and saw the
broken hook that had been supporting it.
Annabelle sat on her bed then fell onto her
back. “This day has been one big disaster after another. I’ve had
bad days in my life, but this has been the absolute worst. And it’s
not even dinner time yet.” She threw her arm over her eyes and let
out an aggravated groan. “I don’t know what else can happen, but
I’m afraid to find out.”
Natalie sat next to her. “I know you had your
heart set on marrying Kenneth.”
Annabelle bolted up. “You didn’t hear about
that?”
“About what?”
“I told Kenneth I couldn’t let him court me
anymore. I did that this morning. I thought over what you and Mark
had said, and since Velma came by yesterday to warn me about him, I
realized I should listen to what you’ve all been telling me. After
my parents found out what Velma said, they expressed their
apprehension, too. If one or two people object to something, it
doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but when everyone I know and
trust says the same thing, I figured I’d better pay attention.”
Natalie breathed a sigh of relief. Well, that
was good. It was nice to know Annabelle used good, old fashioned
common sense. So now Mark’s plan to get her parents and Velma
involved wasn’t necessary. They’d already intervened.
“It turned out you were all right about him
anyway,” Annabelle continued. “He hired those men to kidnap
me.”
Natalie’s jaw dropped, and it took her a
moment to compose herself. “Are you sure?”
“They mentioned him by name and said I better
be worth as much as he claimed. It turns out he really did only
want to marry me for my money. He had no actual interest in me at
all.”
“Did you tell your parents
this?”
“I told them, and I told Uncle Owen since
he’s the sheriff. Uncle Owen is looking for Kenneth right now.”
“Then it’s a good thing Ben stepped in when
he did.”
Annabelle grimaced. “He didn’t need to step
in at all.” After a moment, she released her breath. “I’ll start
from the beginning so you can see how ridiculous it was that he
intervened.”
Natalie was curious to hear Annabelle’s side
of the story, so she encouraged her to tell it.
“I went for a walk after talking to Kenneth,”
Annabelle began. “Walking helps me deal with my emotions. Halfway
into the walk, a man approached me and started telling me about the
dog on his leash. That was when someone grabbed me from
behind.”
Though Natalie knew Annabelle had been with
outlaws, she still gasped in surprise. “Were you scared?”
“For a moment, but then I managed to elbow
him in the stomach. Unfortunately, another man caught me and stuck
something over my mouth and nose. The last thing I saw before I
lost consciousness was that another man had his gun out so no one
ran to my rescue. I can’t prove the man with the dog was in on the
whole thing. He held his hands up in the air, along with everyone
else. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sent to distract me so
the three men could abduct me. Anyway, the next thing I know, I’m
on horseback with one of the men, and we’re outside of town. When I
got my wits about me, I struck the man I was riding with in the
nose. He let go of me, and I gave him another swift punch in the
eye. Then I jumped off the horse.”
“You jumped off the horse?”
“I know how to land so I don’t hurt myself.
Anyway, that was when I realized there were three men with me, and
they were all wearing bandanas.”
“Ben mentioned that.”
“Did Ben also mention that I had everything
under control? I’ve been trained since I was a little girl to
defend myself. My mother and I have been taking these lessons since
I was five.”
“How could you have had things under control
when they had guns?”
“They had no intention of shooting me. Sure,
they waved their guns around as if they thought I was going to get
scared, but if the whole purpose of them kidnapping me was so I’d
marry Kenneth, they couldn’t actually shoot me. I could only marry
Kenneth if I was alive.”
“How did you find out Kenneth set them up to
kidnap you?”
“One of the men mentioned Kenneth owing
someone in Chicago money. I didn’t get the man’s name, but he
sounds dangerous. The leader of the three men said they would be
getting paid once I married Kenneth. I didn’t let them get further
than that because I decided to let the men know they weren’t taking
me anywhere.”
“And that’s when Ben found you?”
She nodded. “I had already defeated one of
the outlaws and was ready to take out the other two when he rode up
on his horse. He had no idea what was going on. He just shouted for