Chapter Eighteen
The next few days had passed in a whirlwind of preparations that Cody was largely unprepared for.
Despite his best efforts to keep it a quiet, hushed affair, there was the necessity of informing the parson, who had made a few decidedly unsubtle comments about being glad to see Cody within a church for once.
Cody also found it necessary to involve Arthur in the plot, since he already knew the whole situation, and Cody needed someone to stand up with him, regardless.
The downside to Arthur’s involvement was that he found the whole thing to be a great lark and took every opportunity to tease him.
“Are you sure that’s the one you’ve decided on?” Arthur asked, peering over Cody’s shoulder as he fiddled with his four-in-hand, unused to the constricting necktie.
Cody frowned in the mirror that hung over the mantle of the sitting room fireplace. He just couldn’t get the patterned silk to lie right, no matter what he did. “You think I should’ve chosen a different tie?”
“No,” Arthur said, shaking his head slowly from side to side. “I think you should choose a different face.”
Cody pursed his lips and gave Arthur a baleful look in the mirror. “Helpful,” he grunted, attempting to slide the knot so it sat more squarely under his well-starched stand-and-fall collar.
“I’m serious,” Arthur insisted. “You look like a man going to a funeral instead of a wedding. Surely you can’t be dreading it all that much.”
It was Cody’s turn to shake his head. “I’m not,” he answered quietly. “Truly. I… I actually feel lighter than I have in years. It’s nice to know I’m giving the children a sense of security. Should anything happen to me, they’ll have someone to look after them.”
“And that’s all?” Arthur asked. His face was unreadable, almost like he was vaguely disappointed in Cody. “Oh, for the love of—let me help, I beg of you,” he said, grasping Cody by the shoulder and turning him around.
Cody accepted the assistance without comment. Despite his cool exterior, the fact of the matter was that nerves had made his fingers stupid, and they refused to obey him properly. “What did you mean?”
“About what? That your face is as sour as a hen’s backside, or you’ve made a mess of this innocent piece of silk?” Arthur quipped. He had his head bent and his lips pursed as he undid Cody’s sloppy knot.
“About that being all, just the children’s security,” Cody said, ignoring Arthur’s jabs.
“Well, I should think that a man going to the altar would like more than a woman to look after his children,” Arthur said.
He pulled the piece out of Cody’s collar and, using his thigh, folded it more neatly with sharp edges.
“Miss Amelia, she seems a fine woman of good character. Good cook, strong enough to shoulder your nonsense. And she’s a beauty to boot,” Arthur added.
“You think?” Cody asked. He raised his chin when Arthur gestured.
“You don’t?” Arthur countered.
“I hadn’t really considered it,” Cody said. Arthur gave him a look from beneath his brows that suggested he didn’t believe a word of that but didn’t press him on the issue. “You think you’d ever get married?”
“What, and deprive the ladies of Gunnison of my company?” Arthur replied flippantly. He whipped the tie around into a knot handily.
“Would you?” Cody pressed.
“Absolutely,” Arthur answered without hesitation.
“If the right woman should be willing. There,” he pronounced, holding Cody back at arm’s length.
“If only you can manage to not look so surly, I declare you won’t be the ugliest bridegroom in history.
” Arthur grinned at Cody, who sighed but was secretly fighting a grin.
Ever since they were boys, Arthur was the only one who could tease him.
Cody clenched his fist reflexively. “Do you… do you think Anne would be… upset?” he asked quietly.
Arthur’s jolly expression instantly sobered. He took the time to think before answering, which Cody appreciated. “I think she’d be happy you’re living your life. Tell you the truth, I think she’d be great friends with Amelia.”
A silence fell over them, lost in their memories. The three of them had grown up together; sometimes it was hard for Cody to remember that he wasn’t the only one who had lost Anne.
“Here she comes!” Ruby called from up the stairs, breaking the spell. “Pa, shut your eyes!”
“No need for all that,” Amelia said. “No fussing, now. Get on, you two.”
Cody turned slowly toward the stairs, where Logan appeared first, awkward in a dark jacket that was a bit too big for him. His hair had been combed into obedience, revealing his brown eyes to the world fully.
Ruby followed after him, preening in a sage green dress.
It fell to midcalf with a square neck and sleeves that ended at her forearms. A large bow tied at the back matched one in her hair, which was tied half-back.
Cody couldn’t help but smile when he saw her.
She was poised on the edge of being a lady, but he was grateful for these moments when she was still his little girl.
The stairs creaked again, and Amelia descended. She’d been hesitant about the expense of a new dress, promising instead to make over one of hers. Though it was simple in design, Cody still couldn’t stop staring at her.
It was a dusky dove gray, the color of soft rainclouds in summer.
The neckline was square and sparsely trimmed, which showed her long neck to good advantage.
The bodice tapered to a sharp point, with the skirt draping lightly in the front.
The fullness was pulled to the back in small swags, which gave a passing nod to the fashion for bustles.
Her hair was fully pinned up, with small curls resting against her forehead. She’d declined any flowers or other such frippery. Instead, she sported a pair of pearl-tipped hairpins and a beautifully carved horn hairpin at the back.
Cody just stared at her for a moment. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was feeling, but it was definitely some flavor of overwhelmed.
Arthur’s comment about Amelia being a beauty rattled around in his head as he stared at her.
She had a strong face, as if it had been carved by nature.
Her eyes were large and hazel, dominating her face, but it was to her hair that Cody’s gaze kept returning.
He’d never realized that she had so much of it.
Why, if he were to just pull the large pin at the back, it would all come cascading down like—
“Ahem,” Arthur said loudly, making a show of clearing his throat. “We don’t want to keep the parson waiting.”
“Right. Yes. Logan, help your sister into the wagon,” Cody instructed gruffly.
Amelia gave Cody a sidelong glance as she passed him. Arthur made a grand show of sweeping his hat off and bowing grandly to her before offering her his elbow. “Might I escort you to the wagon, Miss, while I still have the chance to do so?”
Amelia laughed her husky laugh and put her arm through his. “Well, at least you’re in a good humor today.”
“I’m always in a good humor around beautiful ladies,” Arthur replied easily. He cast a smirk over his shoulder to Cody, who glowered and followed after them to the wagon.
***
“I’m glad you made it after all,” the parson, one Jebediah Hall, said, giving Cody a meaningful look. “I’d begun to have my doubts.”
“Yes, well—” Cody began, but the parson rolled right over him. He was a man of a loud, booming voice, used to filling the chapel of Gunnison regularly, so it was easily done.
“Glad I am, right glad,” he continued. “I’d heard rumors, of course, but I knew you were an honorable man, Walker, right honorable. I knew you’d do the right thing in the end.”
“Why, Parson,” Amelia cut in smoothly, her velvety voice all innocence. “Are you suggesting that we had been living together unmarried? Surely a man of your station wouldn’t believe such sordid gossip.”
“Well—” Parson Hall hedged. Amelia stared at him with her large hazel eyes. Cody stared at her. He could practically feel Arthur shaking from the effort to restrain his laughter.
“I know you wouldn’t want to damage a lady’s reputation so needlessly,” Amelia continued, batting her eyelashes at the helpless parson. “It would be positively unchristian of you, and I know you’re a better man than that.”
“I—well, then—” he sputtered. Sweat appeared on his bald, shining head.
“It’s as I said, Parson,” Cody said easily. “We were married out of state, but seeing as the paperwork hasn’t turned up, we figure better safe than sorry.”
“I—yes, too right, too right,” the parson said, clearly glad to have an exit from the conversation. “Ah, shall we begin then? Mr. Walker, if you’d stand just here, on my left. Miss—that is, Mrs. Walker, if you’d stand just there, yes. Right, right,” he said.
Everyone arranged themselves accordingly, with Amelia standing next to Cody and holding a simple bouquet of wildflowers that Miss Monroe had generously supplied to Amelia. She stood just to Amelia’s left and behind her, her face serene but her eyes twinkling with the mischief of it all.
Cody glanced to his right, where Arthur stood, ostensibly to hold the rings, but in reality, to make eyes at Miss Monroe, who dutifully ignored him but still managed to blush prettily.
Cody resisted the urge to roll his eyes, knowing that wouldn’t exactly make a good impression on the parson or on his bride.
My bride, Cody realized with a start. He’d been so focused on the practicalities of the day that the meaning of it hit him with all the surprising impact of a lightning strike out on the prairie.
A cold sweat broke out on the back of his neck.
He was going to be married; he’d have a wife again.
It didn’t matter about the nature of their arrangement—the undeniable fact was that he was going to be married.
He’d had great fortune the first time he married; he couldn’t believe it when Anne had accepted his proposal.
They’d known each other nearly their whole lives, attending school and church together.
They’d stolen a pie together once at a church picnic and eaten themselves sick.
They endured a good boxing around the ears for their trouble.
His marriage to Amelia was nothing like that.
He still didn’t know her, not really. He didn’t have the abiding love that he’d had for Anne; it was his children’s affection for her that had led them to this point.
A pang of guilt stabbed at him briefly—surely Amelia deserved the chance for love.
And yet, the thought of Amelia leaving had filled him with immediate dread. He couldn’t reconcile the two things.
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
Her face was untroubled, serene even. She wasn’t some giddy, blushing bride who had tripped lightly down the aisle to the altar.
She was steady. She was calm. She responded to the parson’s questions with the right answers easily, as if it were the simplest thing in the world to get married.
She must have felt him staring at her, for her head twitched slightly in his direction.
She caught Cody’s eye and gave him a silent questioning look.
Before he could even begin to consider a response, the clouds parted outside the church, and sunlight streamed in through the high glass windows.
A shaft of sunlight caught Amelia, making her hair shine and her skin glisten.
Cody inhaled sharply. There was a moment of silence, and Cody became aware that everyone was waiting for him.
“Yes,” he answered automatically, his throat dry as he stared at Amelia.
This was evidently the right answer, for the parson continued on.
They turned to face each other more fully and slid plain silver bands onto their fingers.
He was married. The realization was slow in coming, but when it did, it landed on him heavily.
“You may kiss your bride,” the parson said.
Amelia looked at Cody expectantly, her hazel eyes turned up ever so slightly at the corners as if daring him to do it.
Cody took a deep breath and quickly thrust his face toward hers, his lips colliding with hers with more force than he’d intended.
He could feel her surprise, and then just the barest hint of her smiling against his lips.
Cody pulled back and resisted the urge to lick his lips.
He wasn’t sure if it was to savor the feeling or to erase it as quickly as possible.
Whatever the case was, he was married now, well and truly.
The sensation was both strange and familiar all at once.
He glanced over at Amelia, who favored him with one of her cat-like glances.
Why do I get the feeling that I have a tiger by the tail? he wondered.