by Sharon Sala
“That’s not necessary, Mrs. Dewar. I just happened to be there,” Dooley said, and carried Mary up the stairs, with both parents following closely behind.
Mary felt bereft when Dooley put her down, and realized how safe she’d felt in his arms. She watched him trying to get out of the way as her parents hovered around her and suddenly realized how big he really was. His shoulders were almost as wide as her door and he had to bend his head slightly so as not to bump the ceiling. Thanks to the persistence of the recently departed Joseph Carver, she knew what went on between a man and a woman and wondered what it would be like being married to this giant of a man. Would he hurt her? Would he demand things of her that she couldn’t fulfill? Then she caught him looking at her with those gentle blue eyes and knew he could do none of those things. In that moment, her heart felt full.
“Mother. Father. I have something to tell you.”
They stilled. Dooley looked nervous.
“Dooley Pilchard has asked for my hand in marriage and I have given him my consent.”
Elizabeth and Myron gasped in unison, then turned and stared at the hairy giant in their daughter’s room and instinctively moved until they were standing between him and Mary’s bed.
“No,” Myron said. “I’m sorry, but you must understand that is out of the question. You’re too young and he’s… he’s…”
Dooley had been expecting this. After all, it had to appear to Mary’s parents as if he and Mary had both lost their minds.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said. “We so appreciate what you did for our Mary, but under the circumstances, you must see that—”
Anger surged. They were dismissing Dooley as of consequence and solely because of his rough appearance.
“No, Mother! Father! It’s you who don’t understand.”
Dooley reached forward, intent on saving her from admitting her shame.
“Mary, you don’t have to.”
Mary winced as she got out of bed, but she was intent on standing her ground.
“Yes, Dooley, I do have to. I won’t have them saying anything against you when it’s I who have a reason for shame.”
Dooley sighed.
“Mary, what are you trying to say?” Myron asked.
Mary faced her parents. “I will marry Dooley. I will because I must. I am with child and the father is dead. Dooley has learned of my plight and offered to marry me… to care for me and my child.”
Elizabeth covered her face and turned away while Myron sat down on Mary’s bed with a thump.
“Dead? Who could it be?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mary said.
Myron’s face turned a dark angry red.
“It does to me. No one has died around here in months except—”
Mary flinched.
Myron stood. “No. Not him.”
Elizabeth turned. “What are you…” Then it hit her. “The cowboy?”
Mary slumped. Dooley put his arm around her.
“I can’t believe you have brought such shame upon us,” Myron muttered.
Dooley frowned. “Well sir, that’s just it. If you and your wife keep your mouth shut, no one has ever a need to know. And I won’t have Mary’s name bandied about. I care for her, sir, and in time, maybe she will come to care for me.”
Myron pointed at Dooley. “I say, Dooley. We’re her parents and you have no right to—”
Mary pushed his hand away. “No, Father, he has all the right he needs to speak for me. I have said I will marry him, and I do so with pride. It’s more than I deserve, but I will spend my life in thanksgiving for what he’s doing.”
Dooley pulled her close. “I don’t want your thanks, Mary girl.”
Elizabeth was in tears as she looked at her eldest child.
“What’s done is done,” she said. “But there’s no preacher to perform the ceremony.”
“Actually, one came in on the stage that nearly ran Mary down,” Dooley said.
Mary looked up at him.
“Will you speak to him… see if he can perform the ceremony tonight?”
Dooley’s heart surged all the way to his throat. Tonight he would sleep with Mary Farmer in his arms. It seemed too good to be true.
“Yes, Mary. I’ll speak to him.” Then he tipped his hat to Mary’s parents. “I’ll be back, but before I go, I must ask you not to berate your daughter any more. She’s already suffered far more than you can imagine and it’s only by the grace of God that you still have her with you. Be thankful for the arrival of your first grandchild instead of grieving for the loss of Mary’s innocence.”
He looked at Mary one last time. When she smiled at him, he nodded then left.
Mary’s heart surged as she watched him go and knew that she’d just been given a second chance. Then she turned to her mother.
“Mother, will you help me clean my wounds? I want to look as decent as possible for the ceremony tonight.”
Elizabeth sighed. “Yes, of course, Mary dear. Myron, go downstairs and bring up some of that witch hazel and some clean rags from the back room. I’m going to my room to get my wedding dress out of the trunk. I don’t have much time if it’s going to need any alterations.”
Mary sat down on the bed with a thump as her parents left in two different directions. The silence was startling, even lonely, but she knew that because of Dooley’s big heart, she would be able to keep her good name and after today, she would never be lonely again.
***
Letty was still wearing a smug expression as she settled into her hotel room. This business of doing God’s work seemed simple. All she had to do was to identify the problem and fix it. It didn’t occur to her that while she was meddling in other people’s business she was ignoring the mess in her own.
She had taken her good dress out of her carpet bag and was in the act of hanging it in the armoire when there was a knock at her door. Assuming it would be Eulis, she opened it wide.
It wasn’t Eulis, and it wasn’t good news. In fact, it was her worst fear that had come knocking.
The man had at least a four-day growth of beard and six months past needing a haircut. His hat was sweat-stained and crumpled—the kind that served as a shade or a bucket, whichever was necessary at the time. He was wearing a dusty shirt and even dustier pants. His boots were scuffed and run down at the heels, but the guns strapped to his hips hung loose and low and the smile on his face was a go-to-hell grin that she’d seen many times before. She wasn’t sure, but she thought his name was Willy or Billy or something like that.
“Letty… it is you!”
She frowned and pretended indignation, which was difficult because she distinctly remembered he had a mole on his dingus that he called Spot.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you have mistaken me for someone else.”
The smile slid sideways. “But you look just like—”
“I have that kind of face,” Letty said, and closed the door in his face.
“Oh lord,” Letty muttered, and sat down on her bed with a thump. What was she to do? They couldn’t leave every time they ran into someone from their past or they’d be running for life.
A knock sounded on the door again. She frowned.
“Who is it, please?”
“It me,” Eulis said.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
Letty opened the door, grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him inside before shutting the door behind him.
Eulis glared. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” Letty said, and then threw up her hands and started pacing the floor. “That’s not exactly true. Someone who knew me from Lizard Flats just knocked on my door.”
Eulis groaned. “We’re found out. It was bound to happen.”
“No, no, that’s not so,” Letty said. “I told him he was mistaken. I think he bought it. I mean… I don’t look exactly like I used to, you know.”
Eulis looked at her and squinted, as if trying to asse
ss her now against the way she’d been at the White Dove Saloon. She was minus the red feathers she used to wear in her hair, and her dress didn’t exactly bare all her charms. And her face was scrubbed clean as opposed to that lip rouge and black stuff she used to put on her eyes.
“Yeah, I reckon you’re right.”
Letty nodded. “Of course I’m right. I’m always right.”
Eulis frowned. “That ain’t exactly so. Remember the time you—”
Letty slapped him on the shoulder.
“I do not wish to be reminded of the dark deeds of my past. I have been saved, remember?”
Eulis thought of the baptism he’d performed on her in a moss-covered watering trough down at the Lizard Flats livery stable and sighed.
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Then what should we do about the cowboy?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“What do you want me to do?” Eulis asked. “And before you ask, I ain’t diggin’ you no grave to hide another body in.”
Letty grabbed Eulis by the collar and shoved him up against the wall.
“Didn’t we just agree not to discuss my past?”
Eulis batted at her hands, trying to dislodge them from around his throat.
“Dang it, Letty, you’re shuttin’ off the air to my gizzard. Let go. I say, let go.”
“Not ’til you promise you’ll never talk about Lizard Flats again.”
“I promise. I swear to God, I promise.”
Letty frowned. “You bein’ a preacher and all, I don’t think you oughta be swearin’ anything to God.”
“Oh yeah… right. I’m sorry. It was just a figure of speech, you know. I’ll watch it better from now on.”
“So, what did you want?” Letty asked.
Eulis frowned. “When?”
Letty rolled her eyes. “You knocked on my door. You had to have a reason.”
Eulis slapped himself up beside his head and then laughed.
“Oh yeah, right. I was comin’ to see if you wanted to go get some dinner downstairs in the dining room.”
Letty patted her hair and then pinched her cheeks.
“Well yes, that would be fine. Thank you for asking Brother Howe.”
Eulis sighed. So all of a sudden he was Brother Howe again. “Do you want me to wait outside for a bit or—”
“No, I’m ready,” Letty said. “And now that I think of it, I am hungry.”
“So, fine. Let’s go eat.”
Letty walked to the door and then stopped. Eulis was right behind her and had to do a fancy side-step to keep from running into her. When she didn’t move, he walked around in front of her and stared.
“What’s wrong?”
Letty arched her eyebrows so high they disappeared beneath the bangs she’d taken to wearing.
“Why, nothing is wrong, I’m sure, except that your manners are sadly lacking, Brother Howe.”
Eulis’s shoulders slumped. “Dang it, Letty…”
She frowned.
He stifled a curse. “Excuse me… dang it, Sister Leticia, how am I ever gonna learn the right way to do things if you keep making me guess what they are. Just spit it out. You’ll feel better to get it off your chest and I’ll do whatever it is you want me to do that much faster.”
Letty was debating with herself as to chastising him for mentioning her “chest” when Eulis got in her face.
“Sister Leticia, are we going to eat or not?”
Letty pointed to the door.
“A gentleman always opens a door for a lady.”
“Yeah, so?”
Letty grabbed the door and yanked it open, then let it go shut in Eulis’s face.
Eulis groaned. He’d done it again. Dang it, she was just going to have to give him a little more time to get used to their new identities. After all, she’d been a whore a whole lot longer than she’d been Sister Leticia.
He opened the door and hurried out, running to keep up with the pissed off woman stomping down the stairs.
***
It was nearing sundown when Mary Farmer walked out of the dry goods store and out onto the sidewalk. Since Plum Creek had no church, they’d decided to hold the wedding at the dog trot between the hotel and the telegraph office. There was a roof over the alley which would serve as a fine shelter in case of rain, and there was room out in the street where the ceremony could be viewed.
And viewed it was bound to be. The news of the burly blacksmith getting wed to the Farmers’ oldest daughter was something of a shock. No one had any notion that they’d been seeing each other, and gossip had been rampant until they’d learned of Dooley’s heroism earlier in the day.
By the time the traveling preacher arrived to perform the ceremony, the gossip had turned into fact and Mary Farmer had fallen immediately in love with the man who’d saved her life. Women thought it a fine and romantic reason for the wedding, while the men were somewhat doubtful that it had happened that way. However, it was hard to deny the lovesick look on Dooley’s face, or the smile on Mary Farmer’s as she and her family came hurrying down the sidewalk.
Her mother’s wedding dress was a tiny bit too long, but Mary held it up as she walked, and she had reason to want to hasten this wedding along. She wasn’t certain until she saw Dooley waiting beneath the dog trot that it was really going to happen. Then she saw Sister Leticia, and a man in a dark suit she took to be the preacher, and knew it was going to be all right.
Dooley didn’t know until he saw Mary’s face that he’d been holding his breath. He exhaled slowly and stepped forward, and tucked Mary’s hand in the crook of his elbow.
He wanted to tell her she was beautiful. He wanted to say how blessed a man he believed himself to be. But he couldn’t speak past the lump in his throat.
Mary’s eyes widened with appreciation. Well, well, Dooley Pilchard was a man who cleaned up just fine. His hair and beard had been trimmed neatly since she’d seen him last, and the new clothes he was wearing, while tight across his shoulders, fit the rest of him just fine. She decided he was a prime figure of a man.
Eulis patted his pocket to make sure he still had the ring Dooley had given him.
“Are we ready?” he asked.
Mary nodded.
Dooley looked at Mary. “Yes, preacher, we’re ready.”
Eulis gazed out at the large crowd assembled in the street behind the young couple, and was considering tossing in a little sermon for free when Letty started hissing. Knowing that always meant he was messing something up, he took out his book of sermons and turned to the page marked weddings.
“We are gathered here today to join these two people in holy bliss.”
More hissing meant he’d said something wrong.
“Uh… wedded matrimony.”
The hissing got louder. He turned abruptly and gave Letty a silencing stare that sucked the next hiss back down her throat. She hacked a bit and then delicately lifted a handkerchief to her lips and coughed once more before silencing.
Eulis turned back to the couple and took out a note on which he’d written their proper names and laid it between the open pages of his book.
“So… Mary Faith Farmer, do you take this man, whether he’s sick or well, to be your husband until you die?”
Mary’s heart fluttered once and then she remembered the man who’d been hanged and took a deep breath.
“I do.”
Eulis nodded with satisfaction. Halfway through the ceremony and he was still doing fine. He turned to Dooley.
“And do you, Dooley John Pilchard—”
Letty interrupted the recital with a hack that startled everyone. He turned, afraid she was choking only to hear her muttering something about a ring.
“Oh. Oh yes, I almost forgot.” He took the ring from his pocket and handed it to Dooley.
“Here you go, young man. Now put this on her finger and listen.”
Letty sighed. Eulis was never going to get this stuff right.
Dooley’s throat tightened with emotion as he felt his Mary’s fingers clutching at his hand. Poor little lamb. She was still afraid he’d change his mind and she’d be found out.
“I sure do,” Dooley said, and put the ring on her finger. It had been his mother’s, who’d been a sight bigger woman than Mary and it was a bit large on her finger, but Mary kept it in place, which seemed to him, a good sign.
Eulis knew the rest of this ceremony by heart.
“Then by my powers and God’s blessings, I announce you man and wife. Give her a kiss Dooley. She’s yours.”
It wasn’t exactly the words they’d expected, but the citizens of Plum Creek knew that it took when Dooley Pilchard lifted Mary into his arms and kissed her soundly.
“Well now,” Dooley said softly, as he put Mary back on her feet.
Mary’s lips were still tingling, partly from his dark wiry beard, and partly from shock. There was a lot more fire in this man than she’d expected.
“Thank you, husband,” she said softly.
He smiled and squeezed her fingers. “I’m the one who should be thankful.”
Then he turned to the crowd.
“Cake and punch in the hotel dining room.”
A cheer went up. It was done.
Letty was breathing a small sigh of relief as the crowd began to disperse. Most of them drifted toward the hotel, while a few moved to their buggies and buckboards to go home.
Eulis was shaking hands with people who’d made up the congregation while Letty began gathering up Eulis’s bible and book of sermons.
“Ma’am?”
She looked up and then stifled a groan. It was that damned cowboy Willy, or Billy, or whatever his name.
She clutched the books close to her breast and stepped backward as if his mere presence was a personal affront.
“Sir?”
He frowned and moved forward. “It’s sure something,” he muttered.
Letty frowned.
“You shore do look like this woman I knew.”
“Indeed?” Letty said.
He nodded and moved another step forward.
