To Honor and Cherish

by Kari Trumbo

  “Well no, I mean yes, I suppose. I suppose you’d have to ask him.” She had difficulty admitting she didn’t know if he was available to any woman he might take an interest in or if the Mary from his dream had his heart. She’d also have to be more careful about how she spoke of Jax, it would be terrible for word like that to get around.

  “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t steal your foreman. When I find a suitor, it’ll be difficult for me. I don’t know how two married people act and I don’t have a dad. I doubt any decent man would want me, and if he did? Well, what if I do something wrong and I shame my new husband, too?” She looked at her hands.

  “Oh Margot.” Meg gave her a quick hug. “I’ll be here for you, no matter what happens, remember that. I’ll help you, and you aren’t a shame to anyone. I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “Thank you, Meg, I don’t know why you seem to care so much, but it’s so nice to have someone to talk to again.”

  ~~~

  Jax and his men made their way slowly home. After about a week of slogging around with his arm in a sling, he realized he had held the group up. It hadn’t been only the cows, he couldn’t physically ride long enough to make decent time. Gus tried on more than one occasion to get him to ride in the wagon. He flat out refused for the first six days. He just didn’t want to look like he couldn’t lead. After having to lay in the back of the wagon for a few days because of fatigue from not healing, he took what Gus said to heart.

  Now that he was riding in the wagon, they were making decent time again and even making up some because they could take an easier route, through towns and along rivers they’d had to avoid on the way there. It looked like they might get home sooner than they planned. Jax wanted nothing more than to get home and make sure Meg was all right. It seemed like an age since he’d seen her. His last sight of her, sleeping fitfully, had wrenched his gut for the whole long trip.

  “You got your mind on something, cowboy?” Gus looked at him like he’d read his thoughts, it was not a pleasant look.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Well, we’ve all the time in the world for you to talk about it, or you can keep stewing it over in your own head. Your choice.”

  “Well, sir, it really isn’t something I want to talk to you about. It’s just woman trouble.”

  “It might surprise you, son, but I’ve had my fair share of woman trouble.” Gus chuckled low in throat and looked at Jax through bushy white eyebrows.

  Jax smiled, but remained silent. You simply didn’t tell a man you had been daydreaming about burying your hands in his daughter’s hair and kissing her soundly to see if it makes the ache in your heart stop.

  “All due respect, Gus, but I think I’ll stew about this one on my own.” He laughed, a dry worn-out sound.

  “Suit yourself.” He shrugged and flicked the reins.

  ~~~

  The following week passed quickly. Margot learned how to care for the horses, collect the eggs, cook a few meals, sew, and even shoot. Margot flourished with Meg’s help. Margot had confided to Meg that it felt fantastic to learn the things she’d need to be a good wife someday. She worked hard with Meg and, for a while, Margot took the place of Rose with helping around the ranch.

  Three days before Thanksgiving, Meg had no work for Margot to do so she left her to read and explore the house. Meg went outside to ride her new horse, Delta Star. He didn’t take a saddle very well yet and Meg wanted to gently work on him.

  Margot walked past Meg’s door, uncomfortable at the thought of looking through her room, so she avoided it. There were books in the sitting room to look through. Once there, she realized there weren’t as many as she’d thought and nothing piqued her interest to read. She wandered to the few other rooms on the main floor of the house, but what made her really curious was the second level. Meg never went there. She’d never said it was forbidden, just never mentioned it at all. She looked longingly up the stairs, then behind her at the door to make sure Meg wasn’t coming.

  Margot made her way to the top of the stairs. She found a long open hallway with windows along the right side that overlooked the porch and the front of the house, and three doors along the left. At the boarding house, the hall had been in the middle of the building, but all the bedrooms were upstairs there, whereas here there seemed to be three upstairs, and three down.

  At the top of the stairs, Margot looked out the window and saw Meg in the front yard, petting the horse’s nose and leading it by the bridle. She carefully came around to the horse’s right side and put her foot in the stirrup. Margot gasped, shocked to see her swing her leg over the horse’s back like a man. Her dress had a short but effective inseam which allowed her to sit a horse, ride comfortably, and probably fall off without undue embarrassment.

  Margot tried the first door and found an exquisite bedroom with a sitting room. The furniture feminine, and delicate with a flower pattern embroidered into the lush fabric. Margot sat in a chair near a desk. It was a stool of sorts with a padded seat that was also covered in embroidery. She searched through the little desk drawer and found some pearl earrings and a small locket. The locket looked familiar for some reason.

  She carefully tried to close the drawer she had found the jewelry in, but it wouldn’t close. Something in the drawer caught and it wouldn’t budge. Margot gently navigated her small hand through the opening of the drawer to the back, to see what the obstruction could be. She found a thick piece of folded velum and tugged it out.

  The paper was a bit rumpled from having the drawer closed on it, but Margot flattened it out and looked at the page.

  My Dearest Charlotte, August 14, 1883

  I have tried for some time to win your forgiveness. You have been, and always will be, my wife. I was tempted and I failed. Please search your heart and find a way to forgive me. We must reconcile this for our daughters if not for ourselves.

  Sophie was a mistake, I own that. I cannot, however, leave her alone to care for the baby she is now carrying. She has begged me to take the child as our own and for the sake of that poor, helpless, little one, I do hope you will consider it. I won’t force you in this matter. If you don’t wish it, so be it. Only please understand that I cannot personally let a child of mine live in want. Sin has consequences and I’m sorry for putting you in this situation.

  I’ve understood your request to be separate and have had this room fashioned for you, I pray it is to your liking and that it’s temporary until we can build trust once again.

  Augustus

  Margot’s hands trembled as she folded the letter back up. Sin has consequences. She was that consequence. There were too many pieces of this puzzle that fit together for the remainder not to become clear. Meg was the daughter of Charlotte and Augustus, and Charlotte had kept Augustus from her mother, Sophie. Meg was the owner of the cattle ranch, Meg was waiting for her father to return, their father to return. Meg had kept who she really was a secret.

  Margot picked up the locket that looked so familiar and opened it. Inside it read, Merry Christmas. Margot’s breath came loud and fast. She tried not to sob. This had been Sophie’s locket. A locket she’d received at Christmas when Margot was six. Charlotte had come to their home and taken it back. She’d had the opportunity to make Margot’s life easier and refused. Margot looked around the opulent room and saw it in a whole new light. It now made her furious.

  Why did this always seem to come back to her? Why did people hold her birth against her? She had no choice. Why had Meg not told her? Did Charlotte know she was here, did Gus? Being thought of a consequence of sin made her livid. Maybe no one cared for her at all? Margot wanted to run away, but more than that, she wanted to confront Meg.

  Margot walked with purposeful strides down the stairs and out the door. Her face remained set and her eye focused. She walked right up to the corral where Meg rode the skittish horse. She climbed up the fence and yelled, “Meg!” The horse reared up on its hind legs and forced Meg to move forward in the saddle to remain seated
.

  The poor horse fought and danced. Terrified, it laid it ears against its head and charged the source of the noise. Margot froze in fear, she could only stare at the monster barreling toward her, the thundering hooves keeping time with her heartbeat.

  “Margot, move.” She heard Meg’s voice but her focus lodged on the huge hooves coming at her. She didn’t see Meg’s face at all. At the last moment, she dropped to the ground and covered her head as the terrified horse easily launched itself over the fence, taking Meg on a wild ride.

  ~~~

  Meg clutched the reins and squeezed her legs as the horse bucked and danced, trying to unseat her. She held on tight. If she could remain seated through this, the horse would learn that no matter what it did, it couldn’t rid itself of her weight. Her father had taught her from a young age and riding had always been one of her favorite parts of the ranch life.

  After some time, the horse calmed a bit, enough for Meg to risk loosening her grip. She gently rubbed the horse on its cheek and spoke softly to it. He stopped twitching and walked over to the water trough by the windmill. He needed a good long drink. Meg took the opportunity to dismount. She tied the reins to the windmill and brushed off her split skirt as she walked over to Margot, more than a little angry. She thought she’d taught Margot better than that.

  “What were you doing? Maybe you hadn’t noticed, but if I get hurt you have no way to get help except to walk.” She couldn’t keep the growl from her voice.

  “Gus is your father.” Margot pointed at her, the accusation meant to fuel an argument.

  “Yes, he is.” Meg wouldn’t lie when confronted with it.

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I gave you plenty of opportunity. I told you who I was.”

  “And if I’d told you who I was, would you have come out here? Would you have trusted me, let me be your friend? Or would you have made me jump through hoops to make up for what you didn’t have, instead of letting me give it to you without strings? I guess I prefer it like this, at least this way I had a horse to do the jumping for me.” Her battle to remain calm became more physical the longer she stood there.

  “It’s your fault. You have no idea how difficult it’s been for me. Of course you would choose the easier way for you.”

  “But don’t you see? It was the easier way for you, too. I was planning to tell you close to Christmas, before father got back. I wanted you to be able to welcome him back as a father, like me. I’ve thought of you like a sister since I learned of you. This may come as a surprise to you, but I only learned I had another sister a few days before finding you.”

  “I want to go back to town.” Margot crossed her arms over her small heaving chest, her lower lip trembling.

  “Where? Back to the boarding house? You don’t have the money to pay for a room.” Meg took a step toward her, the starch wore out of her argument. “Margot, I’m sorry I hurt you. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about my mother’s attitude. Life with her hasn’t been easy since this happened either. Come in, it’s getting cold out here. I’ll make some coffee and tell you what I know. Then, you can decide if you still want to go. If you do, I’ll pay for your stay at the boarding house.” Meg waited patiently for Margot to decide.

  “I guess that’s fair.” Margot remained in a defensive posture.

  Meg untied the horse and moved it to the huge pasture for all the horses, where they used to keep the cattle. It had access to the barn if they desired it, but it was open and free for them to run. The horse huffed a bit when he came to the gate, but allowed itself to be walked in. She then followed Margot into the kitchen.

  Margot put water in the pot to boil before adding the grounds for coffee. Meg thought Margot’s coffee tasted bitter, but she wasn’t about to argue that point right now. She got two cups from the shelf and set them on the table.

  “Margot, I realize you’ve had a tough time of it. You didn’t have a father, or at least you didn’t know you did. It sounds like father, Gus, tried hard to be there for you as much as he could. You lost your mother while you still needed her.”

  Margot sucked in her breath to interrupt.

  Meg held up her hand, “I’ve listened to your side of the story. Now I’d like you to hear mine. What father did was wrong, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the result has to be bad. Like Jesus can redeem people living in sin, I firmly believe He can redeem bad situations for good.

  “Our sister, Lizzy, has had a similar experience with our mother. She wouldn’t allow father to see or hold Lizzy. My mother wouldn’t let him anywhere near her. She was so angry with him, she took Lizzy to town with her every day leaving me with Rose. Making sure Lizzy hardly knew him. I didn’t know why, but he turned from a loving, generous, happy man to a gruff, angry, miserable one. It wasn’t fun to be with him anymore. His heart was elsewhere, apparently with you and your mother. So, while you’re angry about having less things, I would trade you in a heartbeat to have father’s heart back.” Meg drew circles on the table with the tip of her finger, she didn’t want to look up at Margot.

  Margot sat in her seat, looking down, silently sipping her bitter liquid. She sat there thinking for so long Meg was sure she wouldn’t respond at all.

  “Meg, I’m sorry I scared that horse. I was so angry I couldn’t even think straight. I thought you had perhaps kept who you were from me to purposely hurt me. You’re right. I am lucky. I had Gus the whole time and a mother who loved me.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away, I truly am. I thought you wouldn’t want to come with me, or know me at all, if you knew who I was.” Meg brushed the remaining dust off her skirt. “Then later, I was worried you’d get angry.”

  “I was angry, but I’m not anymore.” Margot exhaled all the air from her lungs and Meg laughed because it reminded her of Lizzy. “What’s so funny?” she scowled and Meg laughed even louder.

  “The longer you’re here, the more I see other family members in you. It makes me happy. I want you to be a part of this family. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

  “Do you want me to stay?”

  “That’s not the question. You are always welcome here. This is Whitte Ranch and you’re a Whitte. The question is, do you want to stay here?” Meg pointed out.

  Margot hesitated, but only a moment. “I’m not really a Whitte, I’m a Fleur, but yes. I do. I don’t want to ever leave. I want to be here when father comes back and surprise him. I want to finally have someone to call father.”

  “Perfect. Now that you’re staying, you can help me decide what to do about Thanksgiving. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to make a big meal for only the two of us. You haven’t met Rose yet, but if we invite her then there would be three of us.”

  “I think if we had a small chicken and some potatoes, maybe some squash…it wouldn’t have to be big. I’d like to meet Rose.”

  “Then it’s settled. I’ll go invite Rose and you can help me cook.”

  “I will help, but…can you make the coffee? This is horrible.” Margot frowned and looked down into her cup with grounds floating in it.

  “I can definitely make the coffee.” Meg laughed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Meg! Meg!” Rose followed Pete outside at the sound of Chase’s hoarse cries. Rose saw a single, dark mass in the sky. It was quite a long way off. She stared for a moment. The cloud was a greenish-black and the edge so flat and rigid it looked chiseled from stone, like a giant millstone on its side.

  Beyond the cloud, getting bigger by the minute, was the deep blue of rain. She couldn’t look away. The green of it probably meant hail. Right before her eyes, the dark cloud, growing more massive, sprouted, as an upended plant would, growing down, not up. The tendril of cloud was whitish as it reached down its terrible claw toward earth. It had almost reached fertile soil when it seemed to stop, then a great dust cloud formed at the bottom and the whole, whirling maelstrom turned the darkest black. A twister had formed behind Chase. He was running for the house, trip
ping and recovering the whole way.

  Without a word, Pete grabbed her arm and they ran for his horse. He mounted his paint pony first, then offered her his hand to climb up behind him. The look on his face and the urgency of his eyes gave her pause, but she couldn’t stop. She grasped his arm above the wrist and he held hers in the same way. Pulling his foot out of the stirrup, he allowed her a place for her foot. She pulled heavily on his arm and swung her heavy skirts over the back of the horse.

  The wind around them started sucking toward the storm. The horse shied and Rose had to hurry to get in position. She held onto Pete’s waist and moved her foot for Pete’s in the stirrup. He kicked his heels into the horse’s side. It was happy to oblige.

  The ride flew by quicker and quicker to their little home. It was silly to think so, but she felt her home was somehow safer now that she and Pete were there.

  Pete ran for the root cellar, but Rose stood transfixed looking at the storm. It was headed right for the ranch house but she knew it was the barn it would hit. The tornado was not wide, but had turned dark gray, especially near the ground. A grey cloud surrounded the bottom of the storm where it touched the earth.

  Hail rained down around Rose and stung as the tiny pebbles hit her face, but she couldn’t move from the spot. She desperately wanted to go be with Pete, but she could not make her feet move. The roar grew louder and her skirt thrashed around her feet. She put up her hand to protect her face from the hail.

  There came a distant crash and cracking noise. Then, an instant after hearing it, debris that was a building of some type was lifted into the storm. It flew up the side of the swirling twister, crumpled in on itself, rolled, and fell to earth.

  Pete appeared at her back and she thought she felt him touch her shoulder. “It isn’t safe here.” He waited for her to respond.

  “It’s past now. Wait a moment and it will disappear.” Rose’s voice sounded weary to her ears. The twister got thinner, then looked like a light gray ribbon, finally disappearing altogether.