Chapter 35
After the outlaws were locked up, a few Linscott hands who happened to be in town rode out to pass on the news of the impending wedding to their boss. Wade couldn’t decide whether it was best to rush the wedding before Tom could stop it or take plenty of time and make Tom sit through the nuptials.
Hands from the Sawyer place had ridden out too.
Between locking up the bad guys and the sheriff questioning Wade and Abby, as well as Red and Cassie, the day was nearly wound down when Pa came tearing in, riding in his specially built buckboard, driving it himself.
Wade braced for his father to go on a rampage. Instead, Pa was subdued. They were standing in the middle of Divide’s Main Street, Pa on the high buckboard seat, Wade and Abby on the ground.
“I’d like for you to come out to the ranch and have the wedding out there, Wade,” Pa said real polite-like.
Just what the old codger was up to? “Ask her.” Wade jabbed a thumb at Abby.
“Will you, Abby? And not just for the wedding, but to stay. I know I can get in an evil mood, but we want you and Wade at the M Bar S.”
“No mood excuses the things you say and do.” Abby scowled.
Wade studied her and realized he was trying to twist his own face into that same scowl. He envied her fierceness. Once he realized what he was doing, he quit mimicking her and looked around, afraid someone had noticed.
Wade was looking up to his Pa, and that also didn’t sit right.
But it wasn’t exactly easy for the tyrant to get down.
How long would it take Pa to realize just how well sitting high above everyone else suited him?
“I’m not promising it’ll never happen again.
I’d be a liar if I did because I know my temper too well.
But just for today, would you…please”—the old man sounded as though he was choking on the word please—“come out and be married at the ranch? I’d be honored if you’d let me give you my… blessing.”
Another word that nearly did Pa in. Did the grouch even know what the word blessing meant?
Wade prayed silently for his father. If only he could love him in any way except as ordered by God.
Highly unlikely. But Wade was honest enough to know how far he’d come since he’d made his peace with God.
If Wade could change, then anyone could. Including Pa.
“We need to send for Belle and Silas.” Cassie had dismounted and stood on the street holding Susannah. “They’ll want to come to your wedding.”
“Uh, honey,” Red said, bouncing his redheaded son on his hip. “Belle’s no big fan of weddings.”
“She’d probably try to stop it if she showed up,” Wade told Cassie. “You know how she is. She’d think Abby needed saving.”
Everyone did know.
“If I need saving, I’ll save myself.” Abby rolled her eyes.
“Will you come, Abby?” Pa sounded sincere. He didn’t look as though he was dying from speaking kindly. Surprising. Wade would have sworn it would kill the man to be polite.
Wade looked at Abby. “You get to decide.” He had a feeling those words were going to be repeated a million times in the sixty years he planned to be married to her. He smiled in anticipation.
A horse walked by in the dirt. A door slammed somewhere. A coyote howled in the forest near Divide, all while Abby stared at Pa.
“We’ll come out and be married there.” Abby somehow made that sound like a threat.
“And will you stay?” Pa didn’t even ask Wade. The man had obviously figured out who was going to be in charge of this marriage.
Abby grabbed hold of the buckboard and vaulted up beside Pa. Apparently, she didn’t like his looking down on her.
“We will stay if Wade wishes it.” Abby leaned down until her nose almost touched Pa’s. “But he will go the moment I say I can’t bear it. And I will go the moment he says he can’t bear it. We’ll take it one day at a time.”
Pa’s face turned an alarming shade of red, but he kept his mouth shut for once in his stubborn, tyrannical life and just nodded. He managed to squeak the words, “I understand,” through his clenched jaw.
Doubtful that Pa’s restraint would last long, but maybe, with enough prayer and an almighty, powerful God, things would change.
Red came out of the sheriff’s office in time to hear the last. “It’ll be full dark by the time we ride out to your place, Wade. Cassie is tired. The children have had a long, hard day. Can we put it off until tomorrow?”
The delay chafed at Wade. He’d have preferred to stay out at that house where they’d taken Sid Garver prisoner and let Red speak the vows. Wade would be well into married life by now if they had. A honeymoon would have commenced. That made him a bit dizzy and apt to fall off his horse.
But Abby had been kidnapped today, and all of them could use clean clothes, a hot meal, and a bath. Considering he planned to live a long time as a married man, another day wouldn’t hurt. Wade looked at Abby.
She nodded.
“Tomorrow, then.” Wade turned to Red. “We’ll go on out to the ranch and see you in the morning.
” Wade reached his arms up, and Abby let him catch her around the waist and lower her to the ground.
She smiled at him, letting him know she’d taken his help not because she needed it but because she liked it. Liked him. Loved him.
They saddled up and were almost ready to head out when Tom Linscott came galloping into town on that brute of a stallion. He pulled the horse to a stop a few feet away from everyone. “You’re marrying Wade Sawyer, then?” Tom’s question was for Abby, but he glared at Wade and Pa in equal parts.
“I am. We’re having the wedding tomorrow at the M Bar S. Wade and I are planning to stay there until I can no longer tolerate it. Then we’ll wander.”
Tom swung down off his horse and came to Abby, taking both her hands. “You’ve always got a home with me, Abby girl. You know that, right? I love you. And if Sawyer ever treats you bad, I’ll beat him into the dirt for you.”
Abby gave Tom a hug, and for the first time, Wade wondered if living with the Flatheads had really changed Abby all that much. She seemed to be a lot like her brother.
“Come out to the wedding, Linscott.” Wade couldn’t fight the sense of pure satisfaction that he got from marrying Linscott’s sister. It felt as though he was getting the better of the man for some reason. Of course, that wasn’t the reason Wade wanted to marry Abby, but it was a nice little extra.
“Try and stop me.” Tom mounted up and turned tail for his ranch.
The next morning, dawned clear and warm after the storm of yesterday. When he awoke rested, with the ugliness of yesterday separated from his wedding day, Wade was glad they’d delayed the ceremony. Almost.
He came down to the kitchen to find Gertie humming as she frosted a cake. The woman had obviously been hard at work for hours.
“What’s all this, Gertie?” Wade came up behind the housekeeper and kissed her on her round cheek.
Gertie smiled over her shoulder and waved her frosting-coated knife at Wade. “You two are having a nice wedding dinner whether you want one or not.”
Wade shrugged. “I reckon we have to eat.”
He dipped a finger in Gertie’s frosting bowl, and she slapped his fingers, but he dodged and got away with the sweet treat.
“Breakfast’s warming in the oven, Wade. Fetch it yourself.” Gertie turned back to her cake while Wade slipped a plate of hotcakes out.
“Wade…” Gertie didn’t sound playful.
“What?” Wade braced himself for Gertie’s misgivings about Abby. His stomach twisted. How long would he be able to stay on the ranch? Not that he minded leaving. He only wished there could be peace here.
“I just want you to know…I’m sorry.”
Wade had done his best not to think about the things that had been said that had driven Abby, and him, away from the ranch. Somehow, he’d never blamed Gertie for any part of the abuse he’d suffered. But when Gertie said she was sorry, he knew he had to think of it.
Wade opened his mouth to say it didn’t matter since he had finally taken control of his own life, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Why didn’t you stop him, Gertie? I remember all the times you’d wait for him to work out his temper.
Then you’d come to me and tend me. I thought it was love, but you were part of it. I can see that now.”
“I thought of taking you and running a thousand times. But I’d imagine him stopping me, throwing me out. You’d have been left here at his mercy.” Gertie turned to Wade. “But there is no excuse good enough for my cowardice.”
“I suppose, but there was more than that somehow. You weren’t just afraid.
You were part of it. Your care of me…made you—” Wade couldn’t quite put it into words.
“It was its own kind of power. You controlled me by being the nice one. You abused me right along with Pa by letting it happen and picking up the pieces afterward.”
Gertie was silent, her lips pursed. “We weren’t what a child hoped for in a family, were we?”
Wade shook his head. “Not even close.”
“I can’t go back. I can’t do it differently, but please believe me, however badly I showed it, I did love you, Wade.
I still do. As for your father, I’ve seen some softening in him.
I think God needed to bring your pa low, break him, to have even a chance of reaching him.
But watching your strength in handling your pa has reached me.
I’m not staying home from church anymore in some worthless show of respect for Mort’s feelings.
I’ve asked God to forgive me for my mistakes, and I’m hoping someday you will too. ”
Wade nodded, touched and deeply glad for Gertie that she’d found her way to God and that somehow, he had a part in her finding that path. “I forgive you, Gertie. You know the sin in my past. What kind of Christian would I be if I was forgiven so much and then wouldn’t forgive you?”
“Thank you, Wade. I’m sorry I was always so weak. And I’m so glad you’ve found a woman who will be kind and gentle with you.”