Sorcha looked at the old sheriff, expecting to see censure and judgment in his gaze. Instead, she saw understanding and concern. The unexpected emotions caused the tears that had been threatening since Patty's revelations to fall.
"Come on now, Mrs. Petersen. You know I can't abide emotional women. You get yourself home to your lovely family. Leave the trouble this one brings where it belongs. In the past."
Sorcha couldn’t answer. Her emotions were all jumbled. All her life, all she wanted was to see her mother and have a real family. She had a fantastic sister. Although they hadn’t got off to the best of starts, now she and Emer were as close as any family could be. After meeting Emer and hearing her story, she had grown to hate this woman. After hearing Patty's version of the story, she didn’t hate her so much. She felt sorry for her.
She had to find Emer. Surely, once her sister knew the truth, she would forgive Patty, too. Maybe they could find time to become the family she had dreamed of.
She found Emer talking to Reverend Timmons about her wedding. "Sorcha, where were you? Reverend Timmons has agreed to marry us next Saturday. Lawrence has gone to send a telegram to his parents. I think he's wasting his money."
"That's wonderful, Emer. I'm so happy for you." Sorcha gave Emer a big hug. "Maybe Ma will be well enough to come, too."
Emer stiffened and withdrew from Sorcha's embrace, staring at her as if she had lost all sense of reason.
"That woman is not coming anywhere near my wedding."
"Emer, you can't mean that. She saved your life."
"She didn’t do that for me. She had a grudge against Cheever for killing her boyfriend. That's why she wanted him convicted."
"I know she hurt you but she's changed, Emer. It wasn’t her choice to leave me with Granny. She said Granny made her go."
"She would say that. How are you going to check? Hold a séance and speak to Granny." Emer's eyes glittered with anger. Her tone was disbelieving. "After everything I told you about her and you still swallow her lies."
"Emer, she's our ma. She deserves a chance."
"She doesn’t deserve anything. Excuse me. I have a wedding to plan. If you want to spend time with Patty, then you go see her." Emer marched off but then came back to where Sorcha was standing. "Don’t get any ideas. If you try to bring her to the ceremony, I will pay someone to throw her out."
"Miss Matthews, that's no way to speak…"
"Reverend, I don’t mean to be rude but stay out of this. It's got nothing to do with you if my sister is determined to get herself hurt." Emer whirled around to face Sorcha once more. "That woman you want so badly for your ma is evil. "
Sorcha stood staring after Emer as she marched down the street. Reverend Timmons coughed as if he was about to say something but she didn’t wait to find out. Lifting her skirts she ran toward the store where Brian had said he'd wait.
Emer marched so hard she had to stop to take a breath. Of all the things Sorcha could ask, she had to go and ruin her day by telling her to go visit Patty. As far as she was concerned, if she never saw her ma again it would be too soon.
She did come back and her testimony saved you and put her in jail. Emer didn’t want to admit the truth. She kept walking until she walked right into Lawrence.
"What's got you all riled up?" Lawrence asked, taking her hand.
"Sorcha. She wants … you won’t believe what she wants."
"Why don’t you take a deep breath and tell me?" He pulled her close and planted a chaste kiss on her forehead before taking her arm. They walked in the direction of the store.
"Sorcha thinks I should visit Patty. Doc doesn't give her long."
"What do you think? "
"I think if I never saw her again, it would be too soon."
"If she dies, will you regret not seeing her if only to ask if she's sorry?"
"For what? Having me or trying to sell me?"
Lawrence stopped walking. He drew Emer closer and put his hands either side of her head. "Darling, if it wasn’t for Patty, we wouldn’t be getting married."
Emer bit her cheek. That was true. She hadn’t thought about her and Lawrence.
"The woman made mistakes, no doubt about that. " He wrapped his arms around her.
"Lawrence, we are standing in the middle of the street."
"Who cares?" He brushed his lips against hers. "Emer, I love you and will support you, now and forever. But, you wouldn’t be the woman you are if it wasn’t for what Patty did. She was wrong. But you survived. You did more than that. You thrived. You are the most passionate, bravest woman I have ever known. Don’t let anything change that. If you go and see her now, you wont ever have any regrets when she's not here anymore.”
"That’s the longest speech you have ever made." Emer teased him, allowing herself some time to master her emotions.
"Think about it, all right? And for goodness sake, don’t let this come between you and Sorcha. It took you long enough to find each other."
Chapter 49
The next day, Sorcha headed back to the jail cell. She had a basket of treats for her mother. Pushing the door open, she saw Patty was sitting up, alone in her cell. The sheriff accepted the apple pie Sorcha had made for him with a smile. He opened the cell and ushered her inside. Sorcha gave Patty the basket, noting what looked like tears in the older woman's eyes
"You came back." Her voice was weaker than yesterday.
"You were in the middle of telling me our history. Then you fell asleep. I want to know more. “
"Do you believe me?"
Sorcha wasn’t sure how to answer that. She had believed her but then the talk with Emer had cast doubts in her mind.
"I can see you are struggling with it. That's understandable, I guess. You don’t know me and I don’t think your sister would have much good to say about me. Don’t argue. I deserve it. I was wrong to keep Emer. I should have left her at the orphanage, too, especially as I hated her from the start.
Sorcha stopped breathing, or at least it felt like that.
"I know how that sounds but I never wanted her. She wasn't you. You were my baby. Born of real love."
"But you said our pa was the same."
"He was."
"So how can you say you hated Emer but wanted me?"
"I loved your pa and would have done anything for him when I got pregnant with you. I believed his lies. I thought we would run away and get married. Even after he dumped me when I was carrying you, I convinced myself he was weak. It was only because of his family. I was wrong. "
Sorcha stayed silent. She didn’t know what to say.
"I went to your pa for help. I told you I didn’t want to leave you with my ma. I wanted to go away with you but to do that I needed money. Your pa had married someone else by then. I thought he'd done it to get back on his father's good side."
An ugly sounding laugh turned into a hacking cough. Sorcha went over to her mother and held her as the cough shook her body. Once she'd recovered, Patty didn’t let go of Sorcha's hand.
"I swear I'm telling ya the truth. I wanted you. You were my little angel."
Feeling more than a little scared, Sorcha tried to pull away. Her mother's face had changed and a demented expression was in her eyes.
"It was raining that night. I called to his house and the housekeeper told me to wait in the sitting room. He wasn't happy to see me but I didn’t care. I threw myself at him, reminding him of the happy times we shared. I told him about you, about our angel. I asked him to give me the money to get away."
"Did he help?'
"He refused. At first. But I kept begging him. He gave it to me in the end."
"That was nice of him. But how did you get pregnant with Emer if he gave you the money to leave?"
"He was my first paying customer."
Sorcha would have fallen over if she wasn’t sitting down. Horrified, she could only stare at her mother.
"Your darling pa wasn’t the gentleman I thought he was. Seems he missed his little
piece of Ireland. So he took what he wanted. After he was finished, he threw me out on the street. He threw some coins out with me." Patty shuddered, her eyes closed, the terror of her ordeal evident on her face. "I never told anyone what happened. I thought I could forget. But I couldn’t. I had Emer to remind me. Every time I looked at that girl, I saw him. How he was that last night."
Patty threw herself into Sorcha's arms, the shuddering sobs threatening to tear her fragile body apart. Sorcha couldn’t move. She held her mother until the storm of weeping passed.
"I never told anyone that before," Patty repeated. "Must be down to my time coming, I felt the need to get it off my chest."
"Didn’t you tell Granny? Surely, she would have helped you?"
Patty sat in silence for a few minutes. "Sorcha, your granny was a good woman. She did the best she could for you. Father Molloy told me that. But she wasn’t the type of woman who could see past her hate. I couldn’t tell her I had gone to see William. She wouldn’t believe he'd raped me. Nobody would. I had no choice but to leave. Having one child out of wedlock was one thing. To have another…"
The words echoed those Emer had said the day they discussed their mother. They knew their start in life had been hard but nothing would have prepared them for the truth. Thank you, God, for making Emer so angry she didn’t come to hear this.
"So why did you come back when you heard Emer was in trouble? It must be because you love her?"
"I guess it took me a long time to realize what happened wasn’t her fault. She was innocent and didn’t deserve the treatment I gave her. I don’t blame her for hating me. I treated her so bad."
Patty started crying again. Sorcha drew her closer, stroking her hair just like she did for Meggie when the little girl was upset.
Patty fell asleep in Sorcha's arms. Gently laying her mother down on the cot, she prayed for Patty to find a way to forgive herself. This poor creature had once been a young girl just like her. All she'd done was fall in love with the wrong man. Everything that followed was a result of that one mistake.
With a heavy heart, Sorcha left the jail house and headed toward home. Come what may, she would never tell Emer the truth of her conception. Her little sister deserved to be protected.
Emer watched from a distance as Sorcha left the jailhouse. Her sister looked like the world was on her shoulders. She hated seeing her so upset.
"Sorcha, wait for me. Please."
Emer knew Sorcha had heard her as she stopped walking. Picking up her skirt, she ran down the street and grabbed Sorcha into a big hug. "I'm sorry we fought. I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Can I walk with you? Lawrence and Brian are waiting at the Sullivans’."
The sisters walked to the store in silence, both occupied with their thoughts.
"Doc told me he called to see Patty again."
"She's dying, Emer. She doesn’t have long."
"Did she tell you about our fathers?"
"Father. We have the same one."
"Have? So he's alive."
"I don’t know, Emer, and I don’t care. You were right. We don't need anyone else. You have Lawrence, I have Brian and we have each other. "
Although she was surprised at Sorcha's reaction she was also happy. She wasn’t going to visit Patty. She wanted to leave her old life in the past where it belonged. Next week, she would marry the man of her dreams and together they would face whatever challenges life would bring. With Mrs. Shipley as a mother-in-law, there was bound to be lots.
Epilogue
Six months later
Emer rolled the bandage around the child’s arm. “That will teach you, Meggie. Climbing trees isn’t a game for young ladies.”|
“But Aunt Emer, you said you did everything a boy could do, only better."
“She has a point. You did say that.”
Emer glared at her husband. “You aren’t helping, you know.”
“Sure, I am. You better be careful what you say. I don’t want our daughter turning into a sharp shooter.”
Emer caught his hand as he reached out to touch her belly. “How do you know the baby isn’t a boy?”
He leaned in for a kiss, causing Meggie to erupt in giggles. “Ma, come out here quick. Uncle Larry is kissing Aunt Emer. Again.”
Sorcha walked out of the house, her obvious pregnancy mirroring that of her sister. Lawrence moved to take the plate from her hands. "Wouldn't want you dropping any more pies."
They all laughed as Sorcha's face flushed. Emer couldn’t resist teasing her sister. "You were fairly desperate, trying to steal the attention on my wedding day."
"I didn't see Brian's foot. I swear." Sorcha tried to defend herself but they all just laughed.
"I thought you dropped the pies due to the shock of finding out my parents weren’t coming," Lawrence said putting the pie down on the picnic rug.
"Lawrence, much as I love the fact you married my sister, I do not want to spend a minute in your parents’ company. Meeting Mitchell was enough, thank you."
"Don't talk about him. I can't believe he got away without a prison sentence. It must have cost your father a fortune to make the fraud charges disappear," Emer said crossly.
"It probably did but in the long run, it would have saved Father money. He couldn’t risk having the Shipley name embroiled in charges of financial wrongdoing. I just wish he had decided to take the whole family to live in England rather than just send Mitchell. "
"Well, at least London is far away. He's not likely to turn up in Clover Springs again," Sorcha said, her face frowning with distaste.
"Sorcha, I don’t believe any of my family will turn up here again."
Emer gave Lawrence a quick hug. She knew his parents’ refusal to acknowledge her as his wife had hurt. She didn’t care. Mrs. Shipley would miss out on knowing her grandchildren.
"Our children won't have a grandparent between them. Brian's parents died a long time ago." Sorcha took her husband's hand.
Emer looked at her sister closely. Patty's death had affected Sorcha badly. Their mother had died days before the wedding, thankfully ending the argument over whether she was attending or not. Emer let Sorcha believe she would have invited Patty to the church. As Lawrence said, it wasn’t worth falling out with her sister. As it was, Emer couldn’t help but think Sorcha was hiding something from her. She didn’t say much about their pa but got a funny look on her face every time the subject came up. She wondered what story Patty had fed her. No doubt it was a fairytale that made Patty look innocent and the rest of the world guilty.
Her feelings toward Patty had mellowed slightly. She acknowledged the truth of Lawrence's words. If it wasn’t for her mother and her past, she wouldn’t have met the man she loved and have such a happy future to look forward to.
So many good things had happened in the last six months. In addition to getting married, she was carrying Lawrence's baby. Emer cradled her swelling stomach.
"Here come the Sullivans."
Emer looked up as the wagon drove in. The Sullivan men jumped down before helping their respective wives. Mary walked over to the blanket, baby Cathy asleep in her arms. Sorcha had told Emer about the baby’s namesake, Mary’s sister Cathy. She’d been adopted shortly before Mary came to Clover Springs. Mary still grieved for her loss.
Katie held Ella's hand. The little girl was pulling at her mother's arm.
"Let her go play with the others." Sorcha smiled at Ella. "Brian will watch out for her."
"I'll take her. Come on, brother dearest. Let's go show them how the Sullivans play ball." Daniel took his daughter's hand and walked over to where the others were playing.
Katie and Mary joined the two sisters on the blanket, Sorcha taking baby Cathy for a cuddle.
"Who'd have guessed we would all end up this happy?" Emer said to the ladies who had taken such good care of her from the first day she'd arrived in Clover Springs.
"Not Laura, anyway," Mary said, laughing.
"Who
is Laura? Why wouldn’t she want you to be happy?"
"Laura shared a room in the orphanage with Sorcha and I. She thought we were mad to consider becoming mail order brides. Do you remember, Sorcha? When I got that first letter from Davy. I think her exact words were he’ll be ugly, smell bad and want a slave, not a wife."
"Well, she got that wrong, didn’t she?" Emer said as they all looked over to their husbands. "I'm glad you didn’t encourage her to come here. She doesn’t sound very nice."
"Laura was sweet and kind in her own way. She didn’t mean any harm in what she said. Laura was always too reserved to throw caution to the wind and come west. It was too big a risk for her to marry a man she had never met."
"Did she stay in Boston?" Emer asked.
"I guess so, although I don’t know." Mary looked a little sad. "I lost contact with her after she left the orphanage. Wherever she is, I hope she is as happy as we all are."
Thank you so much for reading! If you’d like to receive an email alert when I have a new release, please sign up for my list. You’ll be eligible to get my books at the best possible price. I do this as a thank you for my loyal readers.
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Also by Rachel Wesson
Clover Springs Mail Order Brides
Katie (Book 1)
Mary (Book 2)
Sorcha (Book 3)
Writing as Ellie Keaton
Women & War (World War II fiction)
Gracie
Penny
Molly
Acknowledgments
This book wouldn’t have been possible without the help of so many people. In particular, I would like to thank authors Cindy Caldwell, Ashley Merrick and Leighann Dobbs for encouraging a girl from Dublin to fulfill her dream of writing about the old West.
Thanks to Erin Dameron-Hill for my fantastic covers. Erin is a gifted artist who makes my characters come to life. Also, thanks to my incredible editor, Cissie Patterson, without whom this book wouldn’t shine.
Emer: Clover Springs Mail Order Brides Page 17
