by Sharon Ihle
Over her shoulder she whispered to the Gantry boys, “It’s all right. It’s just Gant. Give us about a minute’s head start, and then follow us to the south.”
“Got it,” J.R. said.
Tugging Sweetpea’s leash up tight, Rayna said to the pig, “Be good now and be quiet.”
Then she walked through the doorway and down the steps.
Gant, who was standing there wiping the blood from his nose with the back of one hand, pointed to Sweetpea with the other and said, “Take that pig out back and tie it up. If you don’t get that animal out of here now, lady, I swear, I’ll shoot it.”
“You won’t do anything of the kind,” Rayna said in her natural voice. “Walk me back to the ship, Gaje, and I’ll explain everything there.”
“Huh?”
Gant wiped the last trickle of blood off of his nose, and then narrowed his gaze and stared into the emerald green eyes of what had to be the ugliest woman he’d ever seen.
Unable to reconcile what he saw with what he’d heard, he said, “Rayna? Is that you?”
“Me and Sweetpea,” she said, starting for the ship. “Don’t ask anymore questions right now. Just keep walking along ahead of me toward the steamship and act as if we’ve never met before. Oh, and by the way, my name is Ma Gantry.”
*
Later aboard the steamship, everyone was in a rush to get ready for the second show. Everyone that is, except for Lou, who would remain cloistered in Gant’s cabin until after the circus left Natchez and probably beyond.
Down on the main floor in the stables, Rayna and J.R. surrounded Sweetpea, who was sitting in a tub of water enduring their frantic brush strokes as they scrubbed the kohl off of his body. Both Rayna and J.R. had already stripped out of their disguises and changed into their opening act costumes as the Great Gantini and the fortune-teller.
Close by Gant leaned against Sweetpea’s pen, complaining to anyone who would listen. “You can defend yourselves all you want, but I still say it was a damn fool thing to do. I cannot believe that Mollie had a hand in this. She promised me that she wouldn’t tell you about the jailbreak, and not only did she tell you, but she helped you almost get yourself killed.”
Rayna glanced over and gave Gant an indulgent grin. “Mollie tried to keep her word, honest she did, but then she realized how really involved I am. Don’t blame her.”
Still grumbling to himself, Gant snapped, “That doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense.”
“No,” she whispered back. “I don’t suppose that it does.”
Taking a closer look at Sweetpea, Rayna said to J.R., “I think that’s good enough for now. I’ll dust him down with some rice powder later and nobody will ever guess he’s the same pig from the jail, assuming anyone would even try to connect the two. Will you put him in his pen for me now?”
“Sure, if you don’t mind me holding my nose,” J.R. said, climbing to his feet. “That pig stinks.”
Allowing this little criticism of her pet, Rayna added, “When you’re done with Sweetpea, would you mind leaving Gant and me alone for a few minutes?”
“Course not.” J.R. lifted Sweetpea from the tub and took him back to his pen. Then he headed for the arena to help set up his steel lion cage.
When she was sure they couldn’t be overheard, Rayna crossed over to where Gant stood and slipped her arms around his waist. “Try not to be so upset,” she lightly scolded. “Everything turned out all right, and no one got hurt. You should be rejoicing, not complaining.”
Still nursing his wounds, physical as well as mental, Gant vented the remnants of his anger. “You’re all safe by sheer stupid luck. What were you thinking risking your neck like that? You and my brothers could easily have been killed.”
“I only did what I had to, Gant.” Rayna leaned up on tiptoe, helping herself to a taste of his lips. “I couldn’t let you spend the rest of your life on the run, could I? We need you. We need you desperately.”
“That’s no excuse. I had things worked out on my own. I was going to take Lou to California with me, and then---“
Gant’s breath chugged to a halt right along with the words. It wasn’t so much what Rayna had said, but the way she’d said it. He studied her, noticing the twinkle in her green eye.
“What is it? Did I miss something?”
As she smiled at him a fresh sprinkling of those ever-present tears misted Rayna’s eyes. “Actually, I missed something. I’m going to have our baby.”
His mouth fell opened, and Gant staggered backwards. He was shocked to say the least, surprised, and for a fleeting moment, gripped with an intense pleasure. A baby? A child had been conceived from their love? At first Gant didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, to shout for joy or get down on his knees and give thanks. Then the reality struck him, and hard.
“A baby? Are you sure?”
“As sure as I can be.”
“But how could this happen? You told me you were barren.”
Not entirely thrilled by his reaction, Rayna defensively said, “I thought I couldn’t have a child because of the curse. I was wrong. It’s not like I set out to trap you or anything. It just happened.”
A whole new set of emotions began to fill up the pockets of yet another inner lining, confusing Gant so he had to turn away from Rayna to sort them. He strode over near Pierre’s stall, away from her scent and the irresistible urge to take her into his arms.
At length he quietly said, “I don’t mean to blame you for anything. To tell you the truth, I don’t know exactly how I feel about this. All I do know is that I never wanted to bring any more Gantry’s into this world. You’ve met my family. Surely you can understand that.”
Understanding, but not to be dismissed so easily, Rayna said, “I see your point about the family, but it’s a rather moot point at this stage. Like it or not, I am in a family way and you have an obligation. Not just one obligation, if Mollie’s prediction is correct, but possibly two.”
Glancing over his shoulder, Gant said, “What does that mean?”
“Mollie thinks it might be twins.”
Thinking of his oldest brothers, and then of what J.R. had told him about their father’s newest conquest, Guadalupe and her enormous belly, Gant groaned.
Facing Rayna again, he said, “Twins seem to run in the family.”
“So it would seem.”
He blew out a sigh. “Now what?”
She gave him a smile and a shrug. “You’re going to have to marry me.”
“Marry you?” Gant rolled his yes. “How can I?”
“How can you not?” she countered.
“Do you think for one minute that I’d bestow the name Gantry on you?” His temper creeping up on him, Gant raised his voice. “Or have you forgotten that I love you?”
Undaunted, her own temper rising, Rayna stalked him. “That’s a lousy excuse, Gaje. I absolutely refuse to raise even one, much less two bastards. I’ve been a bastard, and believe me, it’s not much fun.”
“Better a bastard than a Gantry.”
Sweetpea, who’d grown increasingly agitated by the heated exchange, sensed that his mistress was in danger. He charged, breaking through the thin slats of his pen, and headed straight for Gant.
He saw the pig coming from out of the corner of his eye. Leaping up out of Sweetpea’s reach just as a tusk slashed the air beneath his foot, Gant clung to the side of Pierre’s stall.
“Get that slab of bacon on legs locked up, will you?” he demanded. “Don’t make me shoot him.”
Rayna had already started for Sweetpea, intending to do just that. Speaking in soothing tones for the pig’s benefit, she said to Gant, “How can you even suggest such a thing when this marvelous animal was so much help in saving you and your brothers?”
“Easy,” he muttered, watching as Rayna walked the pig to his pen and securely tied him there.
“If Sweetpea hadn’t charged you in town,” she reminded him, “the jailer would have seen you and known that you were part
of the breakout. You’d be on the run now if not for my pig. You owe him.”
As Gant climbed down from the stall, he had to admit, “All right. I guess maybe I do owe him a little debt of gratitude.”
She smiled. “Those are exactly the two words I’ve been waiting to hear from you. I do. When do you think we can arrange the wedding?”
Crossing to where she stood, Gant swept Rayna into his arms and whispered against her hair. “Don’t you know that I’d give anything to have you for my wife, anything if it were possible?”
“You once told me that anything is possible.”
“I was wrong.” Squeezing his eyes shut, hugging her tight against his chest, Gant said, “I’ve never even allowed myself to dream of having you forever, much less thought about starting a family with you. It’s just not possible.”
“Oh, you silly man,” she said, stealing a quick kiss. “Why don’t you let me decide what’s possible and what isn’t? After all, I’m the one with the biggest problem. I’m sure I can come up with a plan.”
“And if I refuse to go along with it?”
“That would be a very big mistake.”
Rayna slipped her dagger out of its sheath and laid it flat against Gant’s chest. Lining the tip up with the sweet part of his throat, she said, “One way or another, you will marry me.”
Twenty-Two
New Orleans, Louisiana—Vieux Carre
“And therefore,” the Justice of the Peace said in a pronounced drawl. “Do you Rayna take this man as your lawfully wedded husband?”
She glanced up at Gant, her heart filled to overflowing, and softly whispered, “I do.”
“And do you Gant,” the Justice proceeded. “Take Rayna as your lawfully wedded wife?”
Prolonging the ceremony just a bit, Gant lavished his gaze with a long look at his bride. She was dressed in Gypsy garb, but without the eye-catching frills and gold coins, choosing instead a more demure look. Her crisp white blouse was free of adornment, her bright red and black skirt missing the usual apron. She’d left her hair to tumble wild and free down her back the way he liked it best. The only Gypsy concession there was a small band of white fringe tied around her forehead. For luck, he recalled, smiling to himself.
Still staring at her, marveling over her breathtaking beauty, Gant realized that Rayna was almost his forever. Even more surprising was the fact that he thought this damn fool idea of hers might actually work. Giving her a lazy grin, Gant caught the mist drifting across her incredible green eyes. If he hadn’t known before, he knew then that he’d have pledged his troth to the devil just on the mere chance of keeping Rayna at his side for the rest of his life.
The Justice cleared his throat. “Do you or don’t you, suh?”
With a wink for his intended, Gant turned to the man and said, “I sure as hell do.”
“In that case, suh, I now pronounce you man and wife. Kiss the bride and give her a ring, if you’ve got one.”
Gant swept Rayna into his arms then, claiming ever so much more than just her mouth, and then released her and turned to his best man.
“You’ve still got the ring, don’t you, J.R.?”
His buck-toothed grin in place, J.R. slid the plain gold band across his brother’s palm. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
Gant turned back to Rayna quickly, working to untangle a sudden storm of emotions, and found his bride in Mollie’s embrace. Both women were sniffing back their tears.
From behind the wedding party, both Gus and Lou called out, “Congratulations, you two!”
After acknowledging them, Rayna returned to Gant’s side and he slipped the ring on her finger. He was bestowing yet another kiss on his bride when the Justice interrupted.
“If you two will join me at the desk,” he said. “We’ll get the papers out of the way.”
Rayna and Gant followed the Justice and stood across the desk from him as he took his chair. Looking at Gant, he said, “Are you absolutely certain this is the way you want your name to read, suh?”
Gant studied the papers. “It most certainly is.”
"Most unusual. Most unusual." Shaking his head, the Justice signed the papers and then pushed them across the desk, muttering, “That makes it official then. I have noted that you, suh, have taken the name of your wife, so I guess I ought to pronounce you as Mister and Misses Gant Sebastiani.”
A roar came up from the small crowd behind them.
Waiting for the cheers to die down, the Justice then said, “Now that we got that strange little business out of the way, shall we proceed with the adoption?”
Gant and Rayna exchanged glances, grinned, and then nodded in unison.
The Justice held up a packet of papers, and then placed them on the desk. “I’ve drawn up the necessary papers. You both need to sign them here,” he pointed at two large X’s, “and here.”
After they’d finished affixing their signatures, both as Sebastiani’s now, the Justice glanced around the courtroom. “If the child is nearby and old enough, it’d be best if he signs the papers, too.”
Gant grinned as he said, “No problem. Lou? Get on over here.”
The younger Gantry brother, his blonde hair dyed to a rich sable, made his way to the desk.
When the Justice saw him, he sputtered, “But I thought your little brother was, that is, I expected him to be a child.”
“Lou is kind of big for his age,” Gant explained.
The Justice raised his hands in submission. “I don’t want to know any more. Just sign there.” He pointed at another X, and after the required signature, reached over and shook Lou’s hand. “I guess I don’t really have to inform you of this, but your new legal name is Lou Sebastiani.”
Lou was beaming as he said, “Thank you very much, sir.”
Gant slipped the Justice a few bills, and then the entire wedding party turned and headed toward the exit. Just before they got to the door, Gus blocked Gant’s path.
“Would you two wait here for just a minute?” he asked. “Oh, and let me borrow your gun.”
After a curious glance at Rayna, Gant shrugged and handed his pistol over.
“Be right back,” Gus promised.
After he disappeared out the door, three quick shots were fired into the air. Then Gus returned to the small group and returned Gant’s gun.
“Shall we proceed?” he said, directing the newlyweds out the door.
Once they were all outside, Mollie asked Gant, “Mind if Gus and I walk you to the steamer and see you all off to California?”
“Not at all, Ma’am.” He slipped his arm around Rayna’s thickening waist and tugged her close to his hip. “My wife and I would be happy to have your escort.”
Then, with Lou one step behind them, the Sebastiani family headed on down the street and toward a new life. In the distance the ear-splitting shriek of a calliope resounded, its high-pitched tones gradually working into something that almost resembled a wedding march.
As they neared Canal Street, Mollie tapped Rayna’s shoulder, whispering louder than she intended, “I had the boys deliver that, ah, crate to the steamer. It’s all taken care of.”
Rayna nodded. “Thanks, Mollie.”
“What crate?” Gant wanted to know.
“It’s nothing, darling,” she assured, pulling away from him and increasing her stride.
Gus, oblivious to the women’s plans, had noticed his men working on the delivery early that morning. He informed Gant, “I think it’s probably the crate that was marked livestock.”
“Livestock?” Gant shot a hot glance at his wife’s back, which was several paces ahead of him. “Livestock, Rayna? What in the hell did you pack in that crate?”
Putting even more distance between herself and her husband, Rayna hurried her pace and pretended that she hadn’t heard him.
“Rayna?” Gant called, louder than before. “I swear if that crate contains Sweetpea, it’s ham hocks and beans the minute we step foot on California
soil.”
Still no response.
“Rayna? Are you listening to me? Rayna ...”
*
Dear Reader;
I’ve always loved the circus; the daring men on the flying trapeze, the graceful ballets performed on ropes hanging from the rafters, gorgeous horses prancing around the ring, and of course, the hilarious clowns. While researching another book, I came across the name Mollie Bailey (no relation to James A. Bailey of Barnum and Bailey fame) and discovered she was affectionately known as the Circus Queen of the Southwest, or everybody’s Aunt Mollie. An actual character, she was the only woman in circus history to own and operate her own circus show. When I discovered her circus was held on a riverboat navigating the waters of the Mississippi River, I couldn’t believe my eyes. How was this possible? I just had to write a story describing the trials and tribulations of such an enterprise!
