Chapter Five
Maeve tugged on the hem of the blueish-green calico dress, her mixed-up emotions sharpening to startled panic as Sadie’s hand slapped hers. “Ow! Sadie, what was that for?”
Sadie’s head appeared from behind Maeve, and she spoke with a pair of threaded sewing needles between her teeth. “I told you not to play with it while I’m adjusting the waist. Or do you want me to poke you full of holes?”
Maeve grumbled something incoherent under her breath, though she lowered her arms stiffly to her sides.
Her eyes drifted down the gown, borrowed from Sadie’s closet at her friend’s stubborn insistence.
The collar was far higher than Maeve was used to, with long, tight sleeves that made it difficult to bend her arms. But the skirt was the strangest part, being both full and far heavier than the cotton gowns Maeve had been raised in.
‘Suppose townie clothing's gotta look a bit nicer,’ she reasoned to herself.
Maeve glanced listlessly around Samuel’s bedroom, the sparse interior giving her little to fix her attention on as her anxieties grew. “How much longer you need?”
“As long as it takes,” Sadie replied matter-of-factly. “A bride should look her best on her wedding day, don’t you think?”
Her wedding day. It had been decided that the marriage should happen sooner rather than later, and Samuel had wasted no time in fetching his brother from town to officiate.
Everything was moving so fast around Maeve; she’d expected a little more time to settle into the idea of marriage, of becoming a stranger’s wife.
It hadn’t been that long since her ad for a groom was even sent out.
Maeve had hoped it would take its time cycling through the papers.
If anything, she had expected it to take those interested quite a bit longer to travel to Bighorn.
She’d needed that time. She’d needed the chance to wrap her head around sharing her space with someone else, to loosen hold of the idea that she could run her father’s business alone.
She instead had Jed Mercer fall headfirst into her life.
Maeve’s thoughts drifted back to the night before, to Lila crying in his arms and falling asleep in her father’s armchair. An unexpected shudder ran down Maeve’s back, catching Sadie’s attention as her friend let out a gasp.
“Ooh, sorry! Did I prick you?” Sadie asked.
Maeve shook her head, taken aback at the lack of hair bouncing against her back. Sadie had long since done up her wild curls, braiding them and tying everything together so it sat heavily against the top of her head.
“Well then what was that shudder for?”
“Oh. Uh…I was just thinking.”
Sadie stared at her intently. She clearly wasn’t going to let the explanation end there.
Maeve sighed lightly. “I was thinking about everything that’s happened. Ain’t even been a full day, and somehow I have both a husband and a kid.”
“Lila’s not going to be here forever, though.” Sadie sounded somewhat disappointed to admit that, but her expression shifted to a genuine smile. “And the plan was always to get you a husband, right?”
Maeve’s mind and face went completely blank.
Sadie tilted her head slightly. Concern visibly knitted her brow, and she moved to pull the pins out of the borrowed dress. “Hey, Maeve? You know I’m not going anywhere, right? You having a husband doesn’t change anything about our friendship.”
Rough laughter escaped from Maeve. “You sound awful confident ‘bout that.”
“That’s because I’m absolutely certain of it!
” Sadie picked herself up off the ground, dusting her olive gingham dress off before settling her hands firmly against her hips.
“Maeve, you and I aren’t simply acquaintances for the sake of it.
We are sisters born of different blood. There isn’t a force in this wide world of ours that could ever hope to change that. ”
A slight smirk tried to work its way across Maeve’s crestfallen face. “Not the wildest of twisters?”
“Not the coldest of rain,” Sadie emphasized.
“Not any big horned beast-”
“Nor snaggle-toothed bully-”
“Nothing will break these chosen sisters apart.” Maeve chuckled, their old childhood promise soothing her jittery nerves. “How’d you still ‘member that after all this time?”
Sadie gasped dramatically, covering her mouth with her hand. “Are you saying you’ve forgotten our Sisterhood Pledge? Maeve Bennet, you know that’s punishable by a push in old Mackler's Pond!”
Her laughter came more naturally now, to the point that Maeve was having difficulty breathing. Sadie joined her with her own girlish giggles, and the two soon collapsed into each other in a fit of mirth.
Sadie managed to sit upright first, taking down her loose bun to fix its messy appearance. “Now that you recall our eternal bond, will you tell me what’s truly on your mind?”
Maeve remained laid out on the floor, slowly reclaiming her breath. Her hands settled against her stomach and she stared up at the bedroom ceiling, her eyes tracing the grooves in the wooden planks.
“It…just feels like I ain’t solved anything. Feels like I only added more onto my plate, actually. And— And I know Lila ain’t here to stay, but…”
Maeve paused, blinking furiously.
“I dunno. I feel…a kinship with her. She ain’t got her Ma an’ Pa no more either. Her parents ain’t gonna be here to help her with all the questions she’s gonna have about life. I…I feel awful about that.”
More than that, Maeve was familiar with the feeling. There were so many things she wanted to ask her father; things she was certain life would present to her that she didn’t have the answer for. It terrified her, no longer having him here to ask.
Sadie offered her hand to her, helping Maeve sit up beside her. “I feel that way sometimes too. Even with my parents still being alive, it feels like there are some things they just don’t have the answer to. But you and I, we can figure that out together. Just like we always have.”
Maeve nodded, wiping her face with the back of her hand.
“Just like we always have,” she repeated softly.
Through everything, she and Sadie had made it to this point in their lives.
This would be no different. Just like before, Maeve and her chosen sister would find a way through this new chapter in life.
As a wife. As a partner. And, at least temporarily, as a mother to a spirit like her own.
***
Maeve poked her head out of Samuel's back door, curious as to how much Sadie had managed to put together.
All the dining room chairs had been lined up beneath the shade of a massive old cottonwood, its pods split and bursting with fluffy white cotton.
The tree looked as if it were still trapped in wintertime, with fat, puffy ‘flakes’ fluttering down from the topmost branches.
The freed cotton created a quasi-pathway for Maeve to follow, though she suspected Sadie may have a hand in bringing it together in such a suspiciously perfect manner.
Samuel played a plucky tune on his fiddle with little Lila slung over his back in a makeshift carrier.
The early morning, combined with all the wedding preparations, had completely worn her out.
A thick strand of drool stained Samuel’s shoulder as her head slumped against it, and Maeve couldn’t hold back a slight grin at the sight.
Her attention then shifted farther forward, catching Joshua and her soon-to-be husband standing at the base of the tree’s trunk. The older of the Wright brothers had come dressed smartly in uniform, a small Bible cradled in his hand in preparation for the ceremony.
Then there was Jed, her stranger in the night.
He looked to have borrowed clothing as well, wearing a dark fustian jacket whose sleeves looked a touch too short for his arms. The vest and shirt looked to be his own, albeit washed and carefully smoothed out to avoid wrinkles while drying.
Maeve noted, however, that the ends of his slacks and the entirety of his boots were still caked in mud.
‘Guess this were a last-minute affair,” Maeve reasoned.
All in all, Jed had managed to clean himself up quite well. She’d never admit it aloud, but Maeve didn’t exactly hate what she saw.
Something gently tapped against her shoulder, and Maeve turned to find her friend holding a bouquet of wildflowers tied together with a bright satin ribbon. She couldn't help but smile anxiously, pressing the flowers tightly against her chest. “Sisters forever?” Maeve asked.
Sadie nodded eagerly. “Not even the wildest of twisters could keep me away.”
The pair shared a lingering hug, with Maeve being the one to break away first. She inhaled deeply, situating the bouquet neatly before taking her first step outside.
Winter had fully given way to springtime, the air warmed considerably from the sun hanging above in the clear blue sky.
Her steps practically bounced against the cotton-covered grass, and as she reached the end of the aisle, Samuel offered a hand to take the flowers from her.
She obliged, holding back a snort as he immediately tucked the bouquet next to the still-sleeping Lila.
The girl shuddered slightly, tiny hands swiping at her face before curling around the wildflowers.
“Already settling into her namesake, ain’t she?” Jed whispered.
Maeve managed to hold fast to a small part of her smile.
This situation was so strange to her, but it must’ve been equally strange for Jed.
He hadn’t exactly had the time to tell her his life story yet, and Maeve briefly wondered who he’d been before coming to Bighorn Basin.
Some part of him must be a good man, given how kindly he acted with Lila.
“You look nice, Maeve.”