“But you didn’t pay me for the last of my cut of the ‘business’ you were doing, in lieu of paying rent.”
Julip wanted to throw up. She’d been so careful about her past when settling into Clear Creek, and Meaner stepped off the train and blew it with one word to a townsperson.
She was still a half block from the café. Would Jasper be there yet? Where were Dan and her children?
“I bet your husband has a lot of money, looking at that fancy building with his name on the front window.”
“How did you know which building is his?” Her skin crawled thinking of him watching her as she worked on her loom.
“I can read. How’d you talk your new husband into marrying a hussy like yourself?” Meaner’s hand wrapped around her upper arm, squeezing it as tight as a vice. Julip cringed, knowing she’d have a bruise now.
“We were childhood friends,” Julip answered, ignoring his first remark.
“How sweet. Does he know what you were doing in my cabin?”
“Yes. He knew I was doing it to feed my children,” Julip answered, while looking around to see someone, anyone, she could alert on the boardwalk to help her.
“What did he think of you lying with other men?” Meaner asked as he leaned in, using the back of his other hand to rub against her cheek.
Should she scream at the top of her lungs? Yell fire?
“Let go of me or I’ll scream,” she threatened him.
“How about instead of making a scene, we go up to your apartment and find some money to cover your debt?”
“We don’t keep money there. That’s what the bank is for,” Julip answered, trying to think of any reason not to be alone with him upstairs.
“Then you can pay me with sweet kisses,” he sneered.
No! She was never going to do that again. She was only kissing one man now, her husband, the man she’d said her wedding vows to.
“No! No!” Julip screamed as she stomped on Meaner’s foot and tried to push him away. He kept a hold of her arm, dragging her around the barbershop to the back alley.
Mr. Tolbert came out of the barbershop, and Julip knew he saw her trying to pull away from Meaner.
Julip heard Mr. Tolbert call out, “what’s the problem?” but Meaner had his hand over Julip’s mouth so she couldn’t answer back.
“Just talking to my wife as we walk back to the train,” Meaner called back while keeping Julip from being seen. “Sorry to bother you.”
“Your wife? Well, I’ll be. Train leaves in about fifteen minutes, so you better get her on the train then,” Tolbert said before walking back to his shop.
What? Julip knew Tolbert saw her and his wife outside talking to Meaner and now in the alley, but he wasn’t going to help her? He was just as bad as his wife! Southerners who thought slaves should still be returned to their owners.
“Momma?” Tara’s one-word crushed Julip. Oh no. They must be on their way to the café. Why did the children have to see this?
“Do we have to go to the outhouse while you’re with Mr. Meaner?”
“No, you don’t, Tara,” Dan Clancy answered with anger when he realized Mr. Meaner was menacingly holding Julip. “Run to the café and get Nolan, Marshal Wilerson, or whoever you trust to come back here and help your ma. Run! Now!!”
“Stay out of this, old man. This soiled dove owes me money, and she’s going to pay me.”
“Julip’s a good person, but bad men like you took advantage of her!” Edna yelled as she struggled to get her hand in her reticule.
Julip would have crumpled into a sobbing mess if Meaner hadn’t been holding her against his side. Now the Clancy’s knew about her past too.
“Lady, put your peashooter away before you hurt yourself.”
Julip looked up as Edna wobbled toward them, a tiny gun in her hand.
“Edna, Dan, please leave. I don’t want you hurt,” Julip pleaded.
“Nope, we’re going to stay here until help arrives!” Dan shouted.
Meaner reached into his coat and pulled out a small revolver.
“Back off and let us leave, old man. You’re the one making this situation worse than it needs to be. She owes me money and needs to pay it. Simple as that.”
“How much does my wife owe you?” Jasper growled behind them. “Show me the bills. I need to know down to the penny.”
Julip turned to see Jasper behind them, with Mack and Sheriff Wilerson standing on either side of him. Could Julip’s humiliation get any worse?
Yes, because now Mr. and Mrs. Tolbert, besides other townspeople were standing around gawking at her.
Meaner looked at the crowd around them, visibly shaken by how out of hand his confronting her had become.
“Uh, I don’t have the bills with me. When I get back from my trip, I’ll send you a letter,” Meaner said as he looked around for a way to dodge through the crowd.
“Arrest him for trying to kidnap Julip, Marshal Wilerson. We are witnesses to his crime,” Dan shouted.
“Now wait a minute,” Meaner indignantly said. “Julip and I had a deal on how she paid her rent. She agreed to give me a percentage of the cut for the men she entertained.”
Jasper lunged at Meaner, but Mack pulled him back saying, “let the marshal take care of this.”
Murmurs went through the crowd. Julip barely remembered being sold at the slave market, but her humiliation here was even worse.
“Mister, if you have a bill on you that states Mrs. Kerns owes you money, it will be paid. Let go of Mrs. Kerns arm,” Marshal Wilerson said.
Julip ran to Jasper’s arms as soon as she was free.
“Now I am arresting you for assaulting a woman, and you’re going to jail right now. Go peacefully, or I’ll use force,” Marshal Wilerson continued.
“You can’t do that! I need to get back on the train! My bags are still on it!”
“Too bad. Makes you feel a little desperate, doesn’t it,” the marshal replied as he grabbed Meaner’s arm.
“Before you go, Marshal, I want to make two citizen arrests and send them to jail with you,” Edna Clancy piped up.
The marshal sighed but turned to Edna. “Who do you want to arrest, Edna?”
“The Tolberts. Both saw Julip being harassed by the man, but they didn’t lift a finger to help.
“Lock them in a cell without food for a few weeks and see what’d they do to feed themselves and their delinquent son, who should have been in jail anyway for trying to burn Main Street down earlier in the year.”
Mack stepped up. “Edna has a good point, Marshal. And if you don’t want to put them in jail, I’d be happy to drive them to live in one of the hill’s caves for a while. With no food, money, knife or gun, it might be interesting to see how long they last before they get desperate.”
“You can’t do that! We didn’t break the law!” cried Mrs. Tolbert.
“You broke the ninth commandment though. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. You preferred to hurt Julip instead of helping her,” Mack continued. “When your son tried to burn down your barbershop—and the whole block—people rushed to put out the fire, and get your building repaired so you could open up for business again. And we didn’t charge you for our time and materials either.”
Julip hid her face against Jasper’s shoulder, embarrassed this outburst happened because of her past.
“I suggest we boycott the barbershop. Grow long hair and beards or go to another town for our barbering. Let’s see a show of hands who will do it!” Dan yelled and held up his hand.
Julip looked up, amazed every man, and woman, in the group had raised their hands high in the air.
“You can’t do that! Then we won’t have any income!” Mrs. Tolbert cried.
Edna walked up to Mrs. Tolbert. “That’s true. Then you lose your house and can’t afford food. Then what?”
Edna pointed an arthritic finger close to Mrs. Tolbert’s nose.
“When you get desperate to feed your family, and yo
u do what you have to do. I suggest you sincerely apologize to Mrs. Kerns or you may as well move out of town,” Edna quietly suggested before lowering her finger.
Mrs. Tolbert stared at Edna, and then Julip, but pushed her way through the crowd without saying anything else.
Edna hobbled over to Julip and enveloped her in a hug. “You hold your head up, Julip. You’re ten times a better woman than that hussy. You protected your children by sacrificing your health.”
As soon as Edna let go of Julip, other women came forward to hug and console her, easing the pain and shame that had held her heart prisoner for months.
Julip felt Jasper’s arms around her shoulders and looked over to see Jasper holding Tyrell on his hip with his other arm. Tara was holding onto Jasper’s leg, looking around it to stare at Mr. Meaner, who was walking away with the marshal.
“Tara and Tyrell,” Jasper waited until they looked up to him, “you and your momma are always safe here, but if you see any kind of trouble—be it a bad person or a fire—go tell an adult immediately to get help right away.”
“Like I did when Grandpa Dan told me to get you?” Tara asked.
“Exactly. You did the right thing, sweetheart,” Jasper told Tara.
“You doing okay, Julip? I want you to take Edna’s advice. You’re a good woman who saved our children.”
“It’ll take me a while, but I’ll get there,” Julip said as Jasper leaned over and kissed her temple.
“You ready to say our family vows in church? I’m ready to show the town I love you and the kids,” Jasper whispered in her ear.
Was she ready? It had been embarrassing for people to find out about her past, but she was relieved at the same time. Julip did what she had to do for Tara and Tyrell, and she’d do it again if she ever had to. But thanks to Jasper and Clear Creek, she knew she’d never have to.
Chapter 10
“Dearly beloved,” Pastor Reagan started the ceremony as he smiled at Julip and then Jasper, “we have come together in the presence of God to renew and bless the joining together of Jasper and Julip Kerns—and their children, Tara and Tyrell—in Holy Matrimony.”
“Jasper please take Julip’s hands and repeat after me,” Pastor Reagan instructed while giving each of them a serious look.
Julip was beaming at him with love. Her rust-colored gown, made by Mary Jenkins, accented Julip’s dark eyes and skin. Tara, in a matching dress to her mother’s, and Tyrell in his new brown suit, stood in front of Jasper and Julip.
“Jasper, will you have this woman to be your wife and Tara and Tyrell to be your children? Will you love them, comfort them, honor and keep them, in sickness and in health? Will you be faithful unto your wife as long as you both shall live?”
“I will,” Jasper stated with a clear, strong voice.
Jasper slid a thin gold band on her left ring finger and then squeezed her hand as he said, “Julip, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
***
Pastor Reagan nodded at Julip. “Julip, now it’s your turn to repeat the vows.”
Julip proudly stood with Jasper and her children in front of a full church to proclaim her vows to the man she loved with her whole heart. Fate had moved her several times over her lifetime, but she was finally home and happy with Jasper in Clear Creek.
“Julip, will you have this man to be your husband; to live together with him in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful unto him as long as you both shall live?”
Julip stood straight and proud as she stated to Jasper, “I will.”
Jasper had been Julip’s friend ever since that fateful day at the slave auction, and she was so lucky when he went looking for her years later. Life had given them many trials with love, pain, and loss, but God gave them another chance to be together… all because Jasper had a wish to become a groom of honor…
The End
~*~*~*~*~
What’s the next book to read in the Grooms with Honor series?
Cullen’s Love
A sweet historical romance set in 1887.
Although postmaster Cullen Reagan is a strict “go by the rules” man, he secretly wrote letters to a mail-order bride for an area rancher, because the man couldn’t read or write.
Rose Leander, one of the Flying Leanders, a famous circus tightrope act, is injured in a circus train accident. Wanting to start over in a quiet frontier town, Rose answers a mail-order bride advertisement.
Cullen is caught between a rock and hard spot when the rancher abandons his handicapped mail-order bride, and Cullen’s father, a pastor, insists Cullen help the woman he deceived—because Cullen wrote the letters.
Will the couple grow to love each other after they are thrown together by circumstances neither of them planned for?
Enjoy the beginning of Cullen’s Love now.
Prologue
Clear Creek, Kansas
February 1887
Postmaster Cullen Reagan carefully folded the letter to the matrimonial agency and slid it into the envelope. Was this the right thing to do for the lonely rancher? How about the unsuspecting women Cullen would be writing to once the matrimonial agency sent possible candidates to Richard to choose from?
“Thanks for doing this, Cullen,” Richard Kandt, said with a duck of his head. “I need a wife and I appreciate you reading the mail-order brides advertisements to me and writing a letter on my behalf.”
Cullen, the postmaster of Clear Creek, Kansas, felt obligated to help the man since Kandt point blank asked Cullen to help him, even though Cullen cringed thinking of a woman arriving to see Kandt's place. Cullen pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiped sweat and anxiety off his neck, even though it was still late winter.
Kandt's ranch homestead was nothing more than a tiny, roughly-built wooden shack, a lean-to animal shelter of sod blocks laid on top of tree branches and... Was there an outhouse? Cullen didn't remember one on the bachelor's place. Kandt had lived on the land for over five years and hadn't managed to improve the homestead yet. He brought several dozen calves to town to ship east each fall, but so far, he'd apparently put his money into building his herd, instead of his living conditions.
“How soon you hoping to find a wife? Don't you need time to uh...add on to your home first?”
“I need a helpmate to help me build a decent house for us. That will be the first project after we're married.”
Cullen couldn't fault the man's idea. Pioneer women came out to the prairie and started from scratch for years before his time. Most ranches in the area had been established for a couple of decades, so you didn't see dugouts and soddies doting the landscape anymore.
“Alright, but I'm not guaranteeing we'll have luck with the first advertisement. You might want to build an outhouse while we wait for a letter back from the agency. They might send more than one name for you to correspond with.”
“I want to thank you for reading and writing letters for me Cullen. Maybe my new wife can teach me to read,” Richard wishfully added.
The German immigrant had lived in America long enough to pick up the language but not to read or write it yet.
“It's lonely out there by myself, and I look forward to having a wife.”
“I'll bet it is,” Cullen agreed, but he never felt the urge to court anyone himself. Growing up in a brothel where Cullen's mother worked kept him from believing in having a “happily ever after” with a woman.
Richard carefully counted out the pennies he needed for the letter's postage on the window's edge and shoved the coins across the counter to Cullen.
“And now we wait,” Richard knocked the counter with his knuckles. “How soon do you think we'll hear something back from the agency?”
“Hard to say, Richard. After the letter reaches the Chicago agency, th
ey have to write back with possible bride matches. It could take months if you want to write back and forth with several women to find out who you like the best.”
“But I want a strong woman by this spring, so she can plant a garden. And we need to dig a cellar to put the harvested food in this fall—”
Cullen lifted his palm to stop Richard. “Don't get ahead of yourself. Finding your wife might take time if you don't want to court someone around here.”
“I've looked, but no one is strong enough to live out in the shack and build their own home.”
Cullen thought about suggesting Richard hire a builder, so his future wife had a decent home when she arrived, but Cullen knew Richard didn't have the money.
Would Richard take the charity of a community house-raising party if Richard had the building supplies in place? Richard only came into town when he had to for supplies. The man probably hadn't been to church more than a dozen times over the years.
Cullen chuckled. A wife just might change that because she’d need female companionship, and the church was one of the best places to connect with others.
“What's so funny, Cullen?” Richard's hands were on his hips in a defense mode.
“Do you realize how much a wife will change your life, Richard? I think you'll be in for a surprise.”
Chapter 1
Clear Creek, Kansas
July 1887
“No. No, no. No.” Cullen emphatically replied to Richard Kandt’s declaration after the rancher walked into the Clear Creek post office.
“You ordered that mail-order bride, and you’re responsible for her. You can’t decide you don’t want her and leave her at the depot,” Cullen continued to argue with the rancher.
“She’s crippled,” Richard pointed through the open door toward the depot, but Cullen couldn’t see from his station behind the postal window. Reluctantly, he walked through the door between his office and the lobby to look out the door.
A young woman was standing in a light blue dress in front of the depot, but Cullen was too far away to see her clearly.
Jasper's Wish (Grooms with Honor Book 10) Page 5
