The Bridal Promise

by Virginia Dove

  After a time, Matt got back in his pickup and started for home. He knew the truth now and it made him sick. It was going to be all but impossible to offer up amends for something that had hurt them both to the bone. But he owed Perri that much, at least, for his behavior. Behavior based on the lies of the past.

  What other lies had his mother told him? he wondered. He would have to find out what other hurts he needed to mend. It was a painful task, but anything less wouldn’t do.

  Matt’s vehicle thundered over the railroad tracks, its driver unaware that for the first time he had thought of Gledhill as “home.” When he arrived, Perri was gone.

  For once, there was no evening wind. The chill and the silence made it feel like a different world. Perri opened the back door to the porch and froze. She hadn’t seen him through the windows. Matt sat in the gathering darkness with his feet propped on the rim of the hot tub and a bottle on the floor next to his chair.

  “Where have you been?” he inquired softly.

  “The same place you’ve been,” she countered. “Out.”

  He turned to look at her. Suddenly, she recalled a photo she’d seen in a New York paper. It was the cheekbones that had drawn her eye to the man’s face in the first place. With hawklike nose and brows, coupled with a quality of utter stillness, the young father in the photograph had reminded her of Matt.

  The picture had been taken during the aftermath of a sniper’s random violence. A man had been photographed sitting in a police car, having received the news that his wife and two little girls were dead from sniper fire.

  He wasn’t crying or grieving publicly in any way. Instead, it was as if his grief had frozen; as if the imploded emotion had shattered some internal structure. All that seemed to hold him upright was the block of ice that had formed where his feelings had once resided. Feelings now buried too deep to surface.

  She had seen the front-page photo at a newsstand on her way to the subway. It had mentally propelled her back home in an instant. Matt, she had thought, standing in front of the subway kiosk as the morning straphangers had swirled around her in the real world. He looked so much like that photo now.

  Perri watched him pull in the reins on his sorrow and decide to focus on what would matter.

  “We need to talk,” he announced as he lifted the bottle.

  “Okay,” she said, all business. “I’ll begin. Let me ask the obvious, Matt. Do you have any proof that I had an abortion?” she inquired solemnly. “And please explain this to me—How would Leila know that I was pregnant?”

  The words formed reluctantly. “She said you called her from Raleigh and asked her to pay for an abortion of my baby,” he answered.

  “And you believed her? Of course. What am I saying?” she muttered bitterly. “But why? Why would I call that woman for anything? You, of all people, knew I had money of my own.”

  She observed Matt suddenly remember. The only fights they’d ever had, had been over Perri’s insisting she could work instead of going on to college.

  “Remember, Matt? My dowry?” she smiled sadly as she thought back to another time. “I actually thought of the money I had saved as my dowry. I thought it was so romantic. How could I ever have been that young?” she asked, bewildered. “Lord, I was so proud. Having my own money made me feel so very grown-up, so in command of my future. After all, I knew how to make a living.”

  She looked at him for a long moment as the tears formed.

  “And that pride surely did precede my fall,” she said softly. “It meant so much to me that I had earned that money.” Perri’s sorrowful chuckle hung between them. “It meant so much to me that I had something solid to bring to our marriage, in case your parents cut you off. Something to help us get started.

  “I had more than enough money to pay for my own abortion,” she continued briskly, “if I were someone who would have considered such an alternative. If I had been pregnant

  “And the Matt I loved then knew me well enough to know I would never have taken that road,” she said with conviction. She moved to lean against the hot tub. “If you want to take it further, why would I go to Leila?” she asked. “I could have asked you, or just shown up pregnant at your wedding.”

  Perri turned to face him. “Do you really think that the one person on earth I would have asked would have been your mother? Especially after she blackmailed me out of town?”

  “After she what?” he demanded, pushing out of the chair. “What else do I need to know? Say it.” Matt stood his ground and waited to hear the worst.

  “Leila threatened to start a rumor to ruin my mother’s business,” Perri said as she turned in the darkness toward the west. There, threads of pink and coral still glowed on the darkening horizon. “She threatened to spread it around that Sam was having an affair with my mom if I didn’t leave for Raleigh right away. If I didn’t stay away from you.” Perri sighed. “Leila declaring publicly that Mom was Sam’s mistress was too awful for me to contemplate. When Mom moved to Oklahoma City, she did it because she wanted to expand her business, not because your mother ran her out of town. Leila made it clear to me she would have enjoyed ruining my mother’s reputation. I couldn’t let that happen, Matt,” Perri added.

  “But he was having an affair with Janie,” Matt responded.

  “No, he wasn’t, Matt,” Perri declared forcefully.

  He didn’t need light. He could feel her gaze pin him in the dark.

  “And how do you know that, anyway? Is that what your father said?” Perri paused long enough to give him an opportunity to speak. He didn’t. “You never asked Sam, did you? Have you ever asked him anything? Have you ever questioned any of it?” she demanded, her voice rising. “The truth has been right in your own home all the time, and you never asked your father to confirm or deny it, did you?”

  “Mom begged me not to ask him, not to hurt her pride,” Matt said, his heart sickening as he realized he had cut his father out of his life without ever giving the man a chance.

  “Well, of course she did,” Perri replied in weary exasperation. “Not that it’s any of my business, but why don’t you ask your father now, Matt?” she challenged. “Ask him if there’s any truth to the ugly, damaging rumor that my mother was his mistress. While you’re at it, ask Sam if he has any ideas as to how Leila could possibly have found out I was pregnant.

  “Your mother was here to see me at Gledhill that night, just before you came by to break my heart.” Matt flinched at her words, but said nothing. “Her threats to harm my mother’s reputation are what successfully ran a seventeen-year-old girl out of town. The choice came down to you or my mother.”

  Perri stopped. She was suddenly struck by the knowledge that the choice had been the same for both of them. They had both chosen in favor of family. “At this moment,” she said, “more than ever, I know I made the correct decision. Did you ever question your mother, Matt?”

  Her inquiry was answered by a long, painful silence. “Well,” Perri sighed, “perhaps we can put this situation into the proper perspective. If I can tough it out under the same roof with you, if I’m determined to keep this small corner of our mutual heritage intact, then surely you can make a similar effort. You’re going to be a father, Matt,” she added, “or at least you have fathered a baby.”

  “I was rough on you that night,” Matt stated simply. “Words are not enough. But I am sorry. I’m terribly sorry.”

  No, words were not enough. He didn’t love her, and she was having his child. Perri relived the triumph she’d seen in his eyes when he’d realized she was pregnant “It’s always going to be there between us, isn’t it, Matt? Well, just think of me as a broodmare of dubious bloodlines,” she said sadly.

  “Perri,” Matt began, “there’s something you need to know.

  The only reason I asked Cadie to many me, and went through with it so fast, is because I believed Leila.”

  Perri turned from him and headed into the kitchen without another word. There was nothing more
to be said.

  “You hurt her and I’ll make you pay for it, Ransom,” Perri’s father had warned over the phone, shortly before the wedding.

  “Understood, sir,” Matt had replied respectfully. It was best not to mess with Mike Stone. “Fair enough. As to that,” he’d continued, “I have a feeling my own father would probably beat you to it.”

  “Oh, no,” Mike had stated with quick conviction. “Tell Sam if anything happens to Perri, you’re mine.”

  Matt knew Mike would give him no second chance. He now knew he wouldn’t deserve it.

  He probably shouldn’t inflict himself on the three people now gathered in his father’s house. But welcome or merely tolerated, he wouldn’t let Perri face Sam and Janie without him. Matt pulled the car into the driveway next to Janie’s and got out. For a moment he paused to review the events of the morning. Events that had led Janie Stone’s car to now occupy Sam Ransom’s driveway.

  Matt had accompanied Perri to her doctor’s appointment, where Dr. Berkka had confirmed her pregnancy. He had made it through the consultation solely on stoic resolve. No one would have known that Matt Ransom had anything more on his mind than adjusting to the fact that he was soon to be a daddy.

  But Janie had met them at the doctor’s office and Perri had driven off with her mother. He had come home alone. And the silence of Gledhill had mocked him. Matt had had one task to complete before heading out to track them down. He’d known instinctively where to look. Matt had figured from her mood that his wife just might have some questions of her own about the past. It was easy to reason out where she might go for some answers. He headed for the front door.

  Well, let’s get it done, he thought grimly, entering the old Ransom place. He could only hope he would be welcome.

  Perri turned her head and regarded him as he appeared in the doorway of Sam’s office. “I didn’t say anything you don’t already know,” she declared. “Sam has kindly agreed to help clear the air.”

  The emerald silk suited her, Matt noticed. The simple style of the campshirt and matching pants looked easy, elegant and very right on her willowy frame. It certainly brought out the green in those oddly colored eyes.

  She’d done something different to her hair and to her face. Matt had never seen her look like this. It was certainly a more sophisticated, more formal Perri and it hadn’t even registered on him earlier in the day.

  Mine. The random, unwanted thought gave him pause. His gut tightened in a possessive moment. Perri looked like a woman who was prepared to assert herself if necessary. Prepared to take a stand. And then he caught the look on his father’s face.

  Sam Ransom had always appreciated a good-looking woman with long legs and a fluid, easy walk. Perri seemed as yet unaware that somewhere between the wedding and today, she had made a conquest.

  A look arced from father to son. Matt grinned at his dad.

  No comment passed between them, but Sam slowly smiled back. Something had been mended; they both felt it.

  Matt nodded to his father in silent and grateful understanding.

  Sam nodded in return from behind his desk as his oldest son entered. “Take a seat, since you’re here. I was just explaining to Perri that I used to worry so much about my mother trying to hurt Janie, I barely paid attention to the damage my wife could cause,” Sam said. He settled in to explain some things to Janie’s girl.

  “My mother was one hell of an adversary, Perri,” he said, “especially when she thought my father was unfaithful to her.” Sam stopped and smiled at Janie when she couldn’t hold back a sigh. “Mama didn’t have it in her to be forgiving. It’s something to have to live with, when your mother takes a shot at your father.

  “Luckily for Dad, he moved as she aimed,” Sam chuckled ruefully, “because my mother’s intention was to shatter his kneecap. He was only creased, but Dad got the point. He figured the scandal would be worse if he stayed.”

  “Can you explain something, Sam?” Perri asked. “He—Grandpa Larry—never pressed charges did he?”

  “Against his wife?” Sam asked. “Of course not!”

  The look on her face made it clear that further explanation was in order.

  “It was only a crease. And besides, your great-uncle Marlowe was the law, and old Doc Berkka was the doctor. Everybody agreed it was just a hunting accident,” he said calmly.

  Perri stared at him and huffed out a disgusted breath.

  “Well, it was a hunting accident,” Matt added patiently. “The accident was, that she only creased him. She had planned to do a lot more damage than that. Grandma was aiming to shatter his kneecap when he moved out of her line of fire.” And by his lights, that was that.

  “Now, Dad swore that he and your grandmother had never acted upon their mutual attraction,” Sam went on, “but still it hurt my mother’s pride. Her own actions drove Dad to protect and defend your grandmother.”

  This was the part that was so difficult to admit. “He took your grandmother away from here because he was afraid my mother might kill her. And,” Sam couldn’t keep the yearning out of his voice, “he took Anne away from Spirit because he loved her. Still does, I understand.”

  “Why wasn’t I told before now that Mrs. Ransom shot him, Mom?” Perri inquired in a tight little voice.

  Janie grimaced. “That was just bad timing, Perri. We didn’t know quite how to go about it. You were finally getting old enough to ask for the details when you fell in love with Matt,” she explained. “I got it into my head that Larry should be the one to tell you, but he was reluctant. He thought you were still too young. I thought he was wrong,” Janie added, “but I was dealing with other problems. It was so soon after my divorce.

  “I believe Larry was afraid you’d think less of him, or of your grandmother, and that he’d lose you,” she reflected. “Just as he’d lost Sam.”

  Perri looked owlishly at her mother. “Well, it was a little awkward,” Janie said defensively. “We sort of figured one day you’d ask Grandpa how he hurt his leg and we’d take it from there.”

  Matt was staring at Janie, finally looking beneath the surface of his own suppositions. “Grandma would have destroyed Anne Marlowe if given half a chance,” he said slowly as the realization took hold. It didn’t need saying what she would have done if Sam had married Janie, as intended at the time.

  Sam nodded in quick agreement and continued. “So, out of loyalty to my mother, I married Leila. And that was another set of worries. Mama never let Leila forget about Janie and me,” he said. “She saw to it that the wound never healed for either of us. Me, it just made my sense of duty to my family that much stronger. What else was there to do? This Ransom wasn’t going to get a divorce. But just as my own mother was one hell of an adversary,” he added, “so was Leila.”

  No one in the room argued the point.

  “I should have known when Leila started crying so hysterically that night, that she was planning to work Matt over,” Sam went on. “My wife so seldom cried. It was a terrifying sight whenever she did.”

  “I walked out on Matt,” Sam admitted, “when his mother started in on him. Even though I felt I should have advised him to end your relationship, Perri, I just couldn’t do it I’m sorry, Perri, Janie,” Sam said gazing at each of them in turn. “I wasn’t there for him when he needed me. I know now I should never have left it up to his mother.”

  Sam paused, taking a close and careful reading of whether or not now was the right time. “Now I hope y’all will stay for lunch,” he added graciously.

  The amused, knowing look in those black eyes made Perri smile at the polite offer. No wonder my mom was a goner over this one, she thought dryly. Perri realized she had fallen in love with Sam Ransom. “Thank you, Sam,” she said, meaning it.

  “It’s time we made things easy, honey,” Sam replied.

  It was Janie’s turn. “Thank you, Sam. that’s kind of you,” she said as she rose from the chair. “But I seem to have no appetite. I think I’ll just go on,” Janie
added as she headed for the door.

  She paused when she reached her son-in-law and watched while he rose respectfully to his feet. “Matt, for the record—I’ve never been your father’s mistress, nor has he ever asked me to consider such a thing.

  “Now,” she continued firmly. “You and I have to see each other, at least occasionally, because of Perri. You are, after all, the father of my grandbaby. I hope this matter is finally cleared up for you,” she declared. “I don’t want to have to deal with this sort of misunderstanding after today.”

  Misunderstanding, Matt thought. The woman had a way with understatements. “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to you and to Perri,” he said formally. “Janie, it’s clear to me I acted on incorrect information and behaved badly. I’m heartily sorry for the damage I’ve done.”

  Janie nodded her assent. It was a start and enough for now. The women departed, leaving the Ransom house missing something important. Something Matt had never before noticed it lacked.

  The men listened to the car pulling out of the drive. “Why didn’t you ask me, Matt? I would have told you the truth,” Sam said wearily. “I guess I’m grateful to now at least understand why you shut me out after that night.”

  “I couldn’t ask you for the truth, not at the time. Now I have amends to make,” Matt sighed, “I don’t deny it.”

  “Son,” Sam began, “last time I stayed out of it to my everlasting regret. But Perri doesn’t have a father here to speak to you. So I’m giving you warning that I’m taking on the job,” Sam declared. “If you are careless with her, if you hurt her, so help me I will hold you down myself until Mike Stone can get here from Raleigh and take his best shot.” Sam paused to let the words sink in. “Now go do right by your wife.”

  “We need to mend fences, Dad,” Matt answered. “But you’re right. I have to see to Perri first. She’s what’s most important now,” he added softly.