Tully's Faith (Grooms with Honor Book 11)

by Linda K. Hubalek

  “Something other than being a preacher?” Angus was still the mediator.

  “I thought that was your calling?” Fergus finally spoke, seriously worried now.

  “No, it was not my calling, but I had to follow in Da’s footsteps because the five of you didn’t,” Tully snipped. He’d never told his brothers the reason he went to seminary, but it came out now that they questioned him about it.

  The shocked look on his brothers’ faces was priceless. But Tully was worried he couldn’t handle the crushed look on his parents’ faces when they found out though. Da’s father and grandfather had both been preachers. Tully became the fourth generation of clergyman in the Reagan family because he felt he had no choice.

  “Tully, I’m sorry, truly I am. I just assumed you wanted to…” Angus said, then rubbed his face. Probably feeling the worst of the five because now he was thinking as the oldest, he should have been the preacher in the family.

  “We all chose jobs we liked and had talent at. You loved to sing and read the scriptures at church services, so we just thought you wanted to be a pastor like Da,” Mack tried to make sense of his choice of being a carpenter.

  “We all sang and read in church, cleaned the church, and dug graves. But that didn’t mean I wanted to do it for the rest of my life,” Tully argued.

  Violet leaned her shoulder into his. “It’s okay to tell them what you are going to do, Tully.”

  She was right. Tully needed to tell them, and then his parents.

  Soon…or never…

  “I didn’t want to use all of Isaac’s money if I didn’t have to, so I worked at the Chicago Tribune part-time. I was a reporter, writing articles for the newspaper.

  “They offered me a job as a travel writer, and I took it.”

  His brothers looked at him and each other as if they didn’t know what to think.

  “A travel writer does…what?” Mack asked.

  “Travels where the newspaper wants him to go. Writes stories describing the area or attraction, takes photos and mails it all back to the editor to publish.”

  “Ma said you were heading north, but she thought you meant a church somewhere in northern Kansas,” Angus prompted him to confess.

  “No, a little further north for my first assignment. I’m going to Wyoming to stay in and write about the new hotels in Yellowstone, the Lake Hotel and the Fountain Hotel.

  “After a stop at home, I’m going west to explore the new national parks which opened a few years ago in California, the California Sequoia National Park, the Kings Canyon, and the General Grant National Park.”

  “You’ll get to photograph the giant sequoias? I’ve love to do that!” Fergus exclaimed, and Tully grinned knowing Fergus was excited for him.

  Now for the rest of his family to accept his job.

  “I still plan to use my pastoral training as I travel. Preach in remote areas I come across that don’t have churches in town. Conduct weddings, baptisms, and funerals. I like the ceremonies, but I don’t want to be tied down to a congregation, at least not yet. I want to write, but not for a sermon every week.”

  “And I hear the passion in your voice and see it in your eyes for this career, that I’ve never seen for anything else,” Seth finally spoke. Seth would know because of all the talks they’d had when living together on the Straight Arrow Ranch training horses. Besides talking to Seth, Tully would confer with the horses he trained too, telling them what he disliked and liked about his life.

  Wanting to ride a horse to see what was out there beyond the next hill, the next county, the next state…maybe that had been where he started his dream to explore and write.

  But he’d relented to go to seminary. But if he hadn’t gone to school in Chicago, he wouldn’t have worked at the newspaper, which turned into his dream job now.

  “Thanks for filling us in on your job. Now tell us about your and Violet’s upcoming wedding on Saturday? Violet’s father got a telegraph about it yesterday, so the cat’s out of the bag.”

  Violet dropped her cup, and it rolled down her dress, sloshing coffee as it traveled down on the ground. Good thing her dress was black.

  “I…had not had a chance to tell Tully about the telegraph yet, Angus,” Violet confessed as she reached for her cup.

  “Telegraph from who? About what?” Tully asked while his heart thumped wildly.

  “A Horace Westin sent a telegraph that he’d be at your wedding on Saturday,” Angus gave Tully more information.

  “What? Why would he be coming to our wedding?” Tully asked

  “No. I thought Horace meant he was coming to marry me,” Violet interrupted Tully.

  “How can he marry you when you showed him our wedding certificate?”

  Angus coughed.

  Oh, Deuteronomy. Tully forgot he and Violet weren’t alone.

  Tully looked up to see his five brothers now lined up in front of him, arms crossed, feet spread wide. He better defuse the situation before it accelerated.

  “Okay, here’s what happened,” Tully started in a rush.

  “At the reception for our class graduation, someone had a marriage certificate there, just to show everyone what it looks like. Our friend, Rollie, performed the wedding ceremony as a joke, using Violet and me as the bride and groom. We said the vows, kissed, and signed the paper. End of story.” Tully threw up his palms in surrender.

  “Anyone else sign the paper?” Angus asked, knowing more people normally signed it.

  “Rollie, and two witnesses.”

  “And Rollie is a full-fledged minister now?”

  “Um…yes.”

  “Then you are married. And how does this Westin fit in the picture?” Mack asked.

  Violet took a deep breath and looked up at his brothers. “Mr. Westin is an older gentleman we know through church. He wrote to my father, asking permission to court me. We were just acquaintances at church, and I brushed him off. Westin continued to…pursue me, so I showed him our marriage certificate to prove I was not available,” Violet concluded, but she didn’t look up.

  “So, you think he’s coming here because…” Angus rolled his index finger, indicating to spill the rest of it.

  “When I got home, Papa said Mr. Westin had also written to him to ask for my hand in marriage, and my father wrote back giving his consent. Now, because of the telegraph, I assume Westin thought our wedding certificate was fake and plans to wed me when he arrives here on Saturday.”

  “Anybody else confused besides me?” Mack asked the group.

  “You know you could clear up one question by showing Da the certificate. If it’s signed by you two, a clergy and two witnesses, it’s probably legal, but he’d know for sure,” Angus continued, ignoring Mack.

  “But, do both of you want it to be a legal marriage? The wedding vows are sacred, and they last until one of you dies. Period,” Fergus added.

  “Have you consummated your marriage?” Seth asked.

  Oh, Geeze.

  “Uh…” Violet stuttered, turning beet red. “I might have told Mr. Westin I was with child as another reason he couldn’t marry me.”

  Tully stood up and stomped to the top of the stairs to get away from Violet and his brothers. He just as well climb up on the café roof and jump off now to save his brothers from killing him.

  Violet raised her hands as if to surrender. “But it’s not true! I swear!”

  “Okay, calm down. But, I’ll ask you again. Do you want it to be legal?” Fergus asked again to get them back on track.

  Tully slowly descended the steps, not wanting Violet to face his brothers on her own.

  “Well, if Tully would propose, I wouldn’t turn him down. I don’t want to marry Westin and live in Chicago, even though he is a banker and I’d be well taken care of.”

  “Are you sure about not wanting to live in Westin’s mansion? After all, I’m only a poor preacher,” Tully snapped back.

  “That’s a fine profession. But, you’re a travel writer too. And I’d
love to travel and explore with you, Tully. Hike and camp in the wilderness. Wear trousers or a split skirt instead of all these cumbersome layers!” Violet gestured at her upright frame, kept tight by her corset.

  Oh no… Now Tully was thinking about taking all those layers off his maybe wife…

  “Violet has a point, Tully. Growing up on the ranch like she did, she can ride, shoot, and camp,” Mack argued in Violet’s favor. Which made sense to Mack, because he had an unconventional marriage to a very independent woman doctor.

  They all turned when the café door opened and Lily, Seth’s wife, stepped out and asked. “Seth, are you ready to go home? I’d like to check on the mare that was about to foal.”

  “Yes, Lily. I’ll be back inside in a minute,” Seth said and turned back to nod to Angus, deferring to their oldest brother to wrap up this meeting.

  “Tully and Violet, you need to talk now and decide what you both want. Time is of the essence in your situation with Westin arriving in three days. If there’s enough time, it would be even better if you can send him a telegraph to not come, saving him the time and cost of traveling here.

  “Do you want to stay married, or be married if you aren’t already wed? Or go your separate ways?” Angus asked as he motioned his brothers to leave Tully and Violet to talk.

  Cullen hung back as the others left. “Just remember, Tully. Daisy. Iris. Lily. Pansy. Rose…”

  Violet…

  Yes, Tully had already thought of that. By some chance of fate, all of his brothers had married women named after flowers. But did Violet really want to traipse around in the wilderness with him?

  Chapter 6

  The men had gone back into the café, leaving the two of them in silence. What did Tully think after his brothers confronted them?

  “Well, Dan would have gotten a chuckle out of our predicament,” Violet said, trying to clear the mood.

  “And my brothers think I’ve screwed up, again.”

  “Tully! Stop putting yourself down! You’re a minister and a talented writer who was picked for an exciting assignment by the Chicago Tribune.”

  And I want to go travel with him.

  “Your brothers are right. We need to talk about this and decide what we want.”

  “And figure out why in the world Westin’s on his way here?”

  “I jumped to the conclusion that he was traveling here to marry me because he didn’t believe we were married. Angus thought the telegraph meant he was coming to witness our marriage.”

  What exactly did the telegraph say?”

  “To Rusty Tucker. Will arrive Saturday for a wedding. Horace Westin.”

  “That’s it? What did your parents say about all this?”

  “Papa is still adamant I’m to marry Horace. I said I will not, but I haven’t said why not, nor mentioned our marriage to them yet.”

  “Westin is a nice man, well respected at church and in the community. You’d never want for anything.”

  Except I wouldn’t be with you.

  “I wonder why he hasn’t married before at his age, and why he picked me to court and marry. I’m so opposite of what a banker’s wife should be and do. If he thinks I can manage a house and play hostess to his cohort’s parties—”

  “You caught his eye because you’re a beautiful woman, Violet. And you graduated from finishing school with ‘flying colors.’ Precisely what a prominent banker needs by his side.”

  Violet did her best in school because her father had paid hard-earned money for her education. And she wanted her parents to be proud of her.

  Although they never ever said anything, Violet always felt as if her parents felt a bit—awkward—for lack of a better word, living on the Cross C Ranch.

  As the foreman, Rusty worked right beside the owner, Isaac Connely when the two of them started the ranch in the beginning. Isaac’s family manufactured guns and profited from the Civil War. When the Illinois company was sold, Isaac’s share bought thousands of acres of prime Kansas grassland, the custom building of an enormous two-story house with a wrap-around porch, a stone barn, and other outbuildings.

  Isaac gifted the ranch house to Marcus Brenner when Marcus and Violet’s aunt Sarah married, and built another house for himself and Cate. The Brenner family would inherit the vast ranch when Isaac passed.

  Rusty had always lived in the foreman’s cabin situated just past the shadow of the owner’s house. When her parent’s wed, Isaac had built onto the cabin for them as a wedding gift, but it was still a small dwelling for the five of them to live in.

  But Violet and her brothers lived in the big ranch house as much as their parents’ cabin, so their tiny home never seemed cramped to her.

  And then there was Violet’s mother. Faye would always be grateful for the open arms of her half-sister’s family, giving her mother and herself, then a three-month-old baby, a home when they escaped the brothel.

  Almost twenty years later, her parents were still the foreman and the half-sister, living on someone else’s ranch.

  And their background and reasonings were why they wanted Violet to marry a banker.

  But Violet didn’t want that man and life. Surely her parents would understand that.

  Tully sighed, then picked up Violet’s hand, but then laid it back on her lap.

  “Let’s pretend we’re talking to a pastor for counseling about what do to. I have the training, so I just as well put it to use…rather than get Da involved yet.”

  “But Angus is right. We need to decide and tell our parents.”

  “Okay, ladies first,” Tully sat very upright as if he was acting. “Miss Tucker, why would you want to marry Tully Reagan?” Tully asked in a low formal voice.

  “No fair! Why do I have to go first?”

  “Because the pastor in this conversation, asked you to speak first.”

  “Fine,” Violet said in her best, “you’re in trouble” voice.

  What should she say? Just as well spill her heart because this might be her only chance to tell Tully what she really felt about him.

  “Pastor Reagan, Tully was always a show-off boy, full of mischief, and laughter. I admired him for his…what I’d call zest for life and wanting to experience anything and everything.”

  She glanced at Tully, but he still sat upright, trying to be the third person in this conversation.

  “Even though Tully attended school in town, and I in the country school, we spent time together in church, community events, and many get-togethers at the Cross C Ranch. The Reagan family are good friends with the Connely and Brenner families.

  “All the Reagan brothers worked for Mr. Connely on one of his ranches after they left grade school until they were ready to start their adult profession. Tully worked with Seth on the Straight Arrow Ranch until he left for seminary.”

  “I think you’re repeating a story I already know, Miss Tucker…”

  “Yes, well it is to tell you, Pastor Reagan, that I’ve known Tully all my life, first as a playmate growing up. Then when we spent time together as adults in Chicago, my feelings changed.”

  “How so, Miss Tucker?” Tully leaned forward, just inches from her face.

  “I…wanted to play with Tully differently. Instead of throwing dirt clods at him to stay away, I wanted to wrap my arms around his waist, pull him close and kiss him silly.”

  “I’d like a demonstration of that,” Tully said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

  “Throwing dirt clods?” Violet whispered between giving Tully’s mouth light feathery kisses.

  “No, the other,” Tully said before pulling Violet on his lap and deepening their kisses.

  This was what Violet wanted in her marriage, passion, banter, and understanding of the other person. Being free to say and do anything she wanted with her partner because she knew the person’s past, good and bad.

  Violet reluctantly pulled back. “Now it’s Tully’s turn, Pastor Reagan. What does he think of Miss Tucker?”

&n
bsp; Tully took a deep breath before looking directly in her eyes.

  “When I was growing up, Violet was one of the roughest kids of the Brenner and Tucker families. She was a tomboy who could rope a calf as quick as any Cross C ranch hand, beat her brothers in arm wrestling, but still play with dolls with her girl cousins.

  “But when I met Violet at the Chicago train depot when she arrived to attend school, I saw a woman I’d never met…but always knew. I was attracted to her and jealous of any other man giving her an admiring glance.”

  Violet moved off Tully’s lap to sit beside him again. She took his right hand in both of hers and gave his fingers a squeeze.

  “Tully, we need to be serious now and make a decision.”

  “You’re right. It was easy to be friends as we went to school. Now, we need to start our adult lives.”

  Tully cleared his throat and looked up at the sky. “Gosh, it’s hard to feel like an adult when I’ve always been the youngest preacher’s kid and brother.”

  But you’ve always been an equal part of your family, Tully. I think your parents are even ready for you to be an adult.”

  “Are you sure they won’t see my writing job as a folly? A way to get out of ‘work’?”

  “Not your parents. They will support you, no matter what.”

  Violet pushed the nagging worry of her parents to the back of her mind. Surely they’d agree with what Violet’s heart wanted.

  “Okay, this is it then.” Tully stood up and pulled Violet off the steps to stand beside him. Then she gasped as he went down on one knee in front of her, still holding on to her right hand.

  “Miss Violet Rose Tucker, I loved you over the years as a friend, but now I want to change my friendship to another role. I love you as a man should love a woman he wants to spend his life with. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  Violet reveled in his declaration and wanted to accept, but there was still one problem standing in their way to a real marriage. Her father had given permission for Horace to marry her, not Tully, who hadn’t asked Rusty for her hand in marriage.

  “Yes, but—” Violet hurried on to say when Tully stood up.