The Right Wife

by Beverly Barton

  Even if he hadn’t proposed to the widow, it didn’t mean he was having second thoughts. By now, he probably assumed Maggie had made the decision to become Thayer’s mistress. The whole town believed she was. If she told him about the baby, would he know that it was his, or would he suspect Thayer of being the father?

  She was aware that there was a strain on Aaron and Thayer’s friendship, and that she was the cause. Thayer had actually put himself in the middle, actively fueling the fires of Aaron’s jealousy. Maggie had tried to make the younger man understand he was playing a dangerous game that could easily create more problems than it solved.

  “Phineas.” The word was a soft cry on Daisy’s lips as she struggled to open her eyes.

  Maggie clasped the other woman’s small hand in her own as she leaned over the bed. “He’s right outside. Do you want me to get him?”

  “Miss Maggie?” Daisy’s eyes flickered open and then closed.

  “Yes. It’s me.”

  “The baby . . .”

  “Hush now. You just rest. Everything is going to be fine.” Maggie dipped a cloth into the basin on the nearby table, squeezed out the excess moisture, and tenderly washed the young woman’s face.

  “The baby’s . . . gone . . .” Daisy’s voice was so weak that Maggie barely heard what she said.

  “Rest. Please, rest.”

  Maggie sat down when she realized that her friend had fallen back into a drugged sleep. Thoughts of Wesley Peterson filled her mind. She had never hated anyone before coming to Tuscumbia. Now she hated two people. The feeling was strange and almost frightening. If Daisy died, she’d want to kill Wesley. Right now she’d like to see him beaten within an inch of his life. What would Phineas do? If the black man were to even lay a finger on Wesley, they’d hang him.

  When Uncle Chester had finally come by two weeks ago to see Jude and her, and offer financial help, she had tried to talk to him about his stepson. But she had soon realized what a weak and battered soul her uncle really was. He was a gentle, tenderhearted man trapped in a marriage to a strong, domineering woman whose sharp tongue and hateful manner gave him no peace. How could Maggie inflict any more pain on the poor man by telling him about Wesley? Even if he knew the truth, what could he do?

  Maggie and Phineas had been taking turns sitting at Daisy’s bedside all day. Dr. Cooper had come and gone, saying pretty much what Auntie Gem had—that the girl’s body would heal itself or she’d die. Nature had a way of deciding these things.

  She was so absorbed in her private thoughts that she hadn’t heard the bedroom door open or the footsteps of the man who walked up to her chair, but she did feel the gentle hand on her shoulder. Hoping and half-expecting to see Aaron at her side, she turned slowly, looking up into Thayer Coleman’s handsome face.

  Maggie was sure she looked as rumpled and fatigued as she felt, but, knowing Thayer had come for her sake, she smiled and placed her hand on his where it rested on her shoulder.

  “Auntie Gem has some supper ready. Phineas has eaten and is ready to sit a while to relieve you.” Thayer helped her stand, holding her hand as he led her to the door.

  When they stepped into the kitchen, Phineas moved past them into his wife’s room, but hesitated briefly to look at Maggie, gratitude in his dark eyes. Aaron was seated at the table, a cup of coffee in his big hand. He glared at the couple as they came into the room. His jade eyes rested on their entwined hands. Maggie tensed and started to pull her hand free, but Thayer held tightly.

  “I need to talk to you, Thayer,” she whispered as she tried to avoid Aaron’s hostile scrutiny.

  “We can talk while you eat,” Thayer said. “I’ll sit with you. You need your rest, my sweet.”

  Aaron slammed the coffee cup onto the table. The dark liquid sloshed out on his hand. Maggie wanted to scream at Thayer to stop; that in trying to make Aaron jealous, he was making it harder for her to tell him the truth about the baby.

  “I can eat later. We need to talk now. Let’s go out on the porch.” She was sure Aaron had heard every word and was drawing his own erroneous conclusions.

  “Whatever you want, Maggie dear.” Thayer held her hand securely in his as he led her across the warm, savory-smelling kitchen, and opened the door to the porch.

  Outside the sun was setting in a clear, cloudless sky, crimson warmth spreading across the horizon. Softening and blending as they reached the earth, a dozen shades of red and pink streaked wildly into the heavens. The day had begun to cool slightly, the evening breeze rustling gently through the trees.

  “Thayer, this has to stop.” She faced him, her hands on her hips.

  “But it’s working, Maggie. Can’t you see? He would love to have hit me.”

  “Oh, Thayer. I know you’re trying to help, and I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I want you to stop making Aaron jealous.”

  “Why?” He shrugged, sitting down on the white, wooden banister surrounding the porch.

  Maggie hesitated before replying. “Because half the town thinks I’m your mistress. After all you’ve said and done, Aaron probably believes it too.”

  “We can tell him the truth when he proposes to you.”

  “He’s not going to propose to me.”

  “He loves you. We both know that.”

  “Would he love me if he thought I was carrying your child?”

  Thayer jumped up, his black eyes wild. “You . . . me . . . what?”

  “I’m going to have Aaron’s baby.” Maggie reached up to touch the overly excited man on his dark, lean cheek. “But if he thinks we’ve been lovers, he may wonder if the child is yours.”

  “My God!”

  “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Aaron’s child? My Lord, woman, you’ll have to tell him.”

  “I can’t. I’m afraid,” Maggie admitted.

  Thayer pulled her into his arms, and she clung to him. She tried to hold back the tears, but all the pain and fear she had been suffering came to the surface. She wept, her body quivering as the tall, dark man soothed her with his tender words and gentle touch.

  “Tell him, Maggie. Tell him about the baby. If he’s stupid enough to have any doubts, I’ll talk to him.”

  “He’s so determined to marry Eunice.” She brushed the back of her hand across her eyes, wiping the tears away. “Maybe he won’t be able to give up his dreams.”

  “If he’s that big a fool, you’re better off without him.”

  She stood there in his arms, her head resting against his hard chest, and cried until there were no more tears. Her head hurt, her eyes were swollen, and her nose was red, but she felt much better. Whatever decision she made, she knew she had a friend in this man.

  “Maggie.” He spoke softly as he tilted her head with his hand. “If things don’t work out, would you consider marrying me?”

  “What?” She wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly.

  “I said, if Aaron won’t marry you, I will.”

  “Oh, Thayer.” At this precise moment, she dearly loved him. What a kind and generous heart he must have to make such an offer.

  “No, Maggie, no!” Judith screamed as she bounded up the porch steps. “You can’t marry him! You can’t!”

  “Jude? Where have you been?” Maggie asked. “How much did you hear?”

  Judith ran to her sister, her tiny hands pulling, trying to prize Maggie out of Thayer’s arms. “I was sitting around by the side of the house playing with Phineas’s cat. And I heard everything.”

  “Judith, you’re a child. You don’t understand,” Thayer said.

  “You can’t marry Maggie. She loves Aaron. She’s going to have his baby,” the child cried.

  “Listen to me.” Thayer knelt down and took Jude’s tense little fists into his big, dark hand. “If Aaron won’t marry Maggie, she’s going to need a husband and a father for her baby. You and Maggie could come and live with me at Silver Hill. We’d be a family.”

  Jude jerked her ha
nds free, her tiny fists beating repeatedly against his chest. He allowed her to continue striking out at him while she cried and screamed. “No. You can’t marry Maggie. You’re going to wait for me to grow up and marry me. You’re mine and nobody else can have you!”

  “Jude.” Maggie pulled her little sister away from Thayer, took her by the shoulders, and shook her soundly. “Stop acting like this. Thayer is dear and sweet, and we both love him, but he doesn’t belong to either of us.”

  “He’s mine!”

  “Judith Campbell, go inside the house and stay there until I finish talking to Thayer.”

  Her aqua eyes gleamed with turbulence as she stared up at her sister. “I hate you!” Jude yelled, then turned and ran into the house.

  “Oh, Thayer, I’m so sorry,” Maggie said.

  “It’s all right. I know Jude fancies herself in love with me. Actually it’s rather flattering to have such a fiery little girl claim me as her possession.” He smiled and his handsome face became beautiful.

  Maggie laughed. Why couldn’t she be in love with Thayer Coleman and he with her? “She’ll be all right once she understands that I have no intention of marrying you.”

  “And why not?”

  “I love Aaron and probably always will. And someday you’ll fall in love. I care too much about you to marry you for all the wrong reasons.” Maggie took his hand in hers.

  “What about the baby?”

  “Do you think your mother’s invitation would still be open to me and Jude if she knew I was going to have a child?”

  “Mama? Of course, why didn’t I think about her? Your child will be her niece or nephew. I’ll write and tell her. If we can’t get that big, dumb uncle of mine to come to his senses, you and Jude can go to Franklin.”

  “Are you sure she’ll want us?” Maggie could feel his hand squeezing hers reassuringly.

  “I guarantee she will.”

  Maggie reached out to hug him, her heart filled with hope for the first time in weeks. “Thank you. Somewhere out there, there’s a very lucky lady waiting for you.”

  “I hope my lady love is half the woman you are, Maggie Campbell.”

  Aaron walked out onto the porch, stopping and tensing when he saw Maggie in his friend’s arms.

  “What the hell did you two do to Judith? She’s in there crying her head off. Auntie Gem can’t do anything with her!” the blond giant roared.

  “I’ll go in and see about her,” Thayer said, kissing Maggie sweetly on the lips before releasing her.

  Aaron refused to even look at his friend when the younger man paused briefly at his side as he entered the house. It had taken every ounce of self-control he possessed not to strike Thayer. The sight of his lips on Maggie’s, his arms holding her close, had torn at his insides like jagged glass. Were the rumors true? Eunice had been eager to relay every sordid tidbit of town gossip. Thayer visited Maggie at least twice a week and stayed for hours. Had she done as she had threatened and actually become Thayer’s mistress?

  “Aaron?” Maggie called from the porch.

  He wouldn’t look at her. He couldn’t. If he did he’d be lost. Lost in the depths of her pale, brandy eyes.

  “Aaron, we need to talk,” she said. When he made no reply, she moved toward him. “Please?”

  Before she reached him, he turned and walked off the porch into the yard, and went straight to where his horse was hitched. “We’ll talk in the morning. I’ll be back.”

  He couldn’t talk to her now. He was afraid of what he would say to her, of what he would do to her when she told him she was Thayer’s mistress. He knew what he had to do, and he knew he had to do it tonight. He had paid off his wager to Thayer Coleman. It was high time he proposed to Eunice.

  Maggie hadn’t been to bed because Daisy had taken a turn for the worse in the middle of the night. Around dawn a minor miracle had occurred, and Auntie Gem had pronounced the young wife on the road to recovery. After that, Maggie had persuaded Phineas to get some sleep since he hadn’t closed his eyes in nearly forty-eight hours. She sat alone by the bed, keeping a silent vigil and offering up personal thanks to a God who had been merciful. She had dozed off in the chair, awakening when Auntie Gem brought her a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Daisy had roused up enough for the old woman to feed her a few bites before she closed her eyes, drifting off into a normal, healthy sleep. It was then that Auntie Gem told Maggie that Aaron was waiting outside on the porch.

  She wanted desperately to see him. During the endless night hours when her friend had come so close to dying, she had done a lot of thinking, a lot of soul searching, and had decided to tell Aaron that she was carrying his child. She owed it to both of them and the baby to tell him the truth. She was beginning to realize that sometimes you had to give up your dreams. Life had a way of never quite working out as you had planned, and sometimes the only way to survive was to change. Four months ago, she had boarded a train in Chattanooga with a valise full of worn clothes, a rebellious young brother, a stubborn sister, a black servant girl, a heart full of dreams, and a head full of plans. One by one the dreams had died. One by one the plans had been altered. But new dreams had been born, dreams of spending her life with Aaron, of having his children. And new plans had formed, plans to send Jude away to school when she was older, far away from Tuscumbia and the scandal associated with her name.

  “I done laid out you a clean dress and fetched a bucket of water for you to wash,” Auntie Gem said. “I’ll stay here with Daisy while you clean up and talk to Mr. Aaron.”

  “Is Phineas still asleep?”

  “Yes’am. That man done wore himself out a-fretting over Daisy.”

  “We can thank God she’s going to be all right.” Maggie looked down at her sleeping friend, feelings of love and relief spreading through her.

  “Everything’s going to be fine for her. But you best get your life in order. You hurry up and get yourself fixed up to see Mr. Aaron. Since I come to White Orchard to work for him, done found out he ain’t got no patience. No sir, none at all.”

  Maggie embraced the old woman whose bony arms circled her with strength. “Thank you.”

  “Go on now,” Auntie Gem said, shooing the girl out of the bedroom.

  Maggie hurriedly washed, combed and rearranged her hair, and put on fresh clothes while she rehearsed what she planned to say to Aaron. She prayed that she would choose the right words.

  He was sitting on the porch steps, his long legs spanning their length, a cigar in his hand. Although his brown wool trousers and heavy linen shirt were lean, they were wrinkled, looking like he had slept in them. His golden hair appeared windblown and he needed a shave. The moment he heard Maggie’s footsteps behind him, he turned to face her, his green eyes heavy lidded and weary.

  “Aaron?” A sudden feeling of nausea overwhelmed her. She wasn’t sure whether the cause was the baby or her own nervousness.

  “Auntie Gem said Daisy’s going to be fine. I’m glad. I don’t think Phineas could live without her.”

  “I can understand how he feels.” She wanted to reach out and touch him, to go into his arms and never leave.

  “Can you?”

  “Aaron, I—”

  “Let’s take a walk, Maggie,” he said, putting the cigar in his mouth as he stood up. After taking several draws, he threw it to the ground, crushed it with his foot, and offered her his arm.

  He felt warm and alive and wonderful as she allowed him to take her arm and drape it over his. It had been such a long time since she had touched him. She wanted to go on touching him, loving him, belonging to him always.

  “I brought the carriage,” he told her as they began to walk away from the house. “But I think I’d rather walk if you don’t mind. It’s not far from here down to the river. Will you be warm enough without a wrap?”

  “I’ll be fine. It’s so much warmer than yesterday morning.”

  The sun was halfway up in the clear, azure sky, a few tiny, cotton clouds drifted across the vast blue
ness. The big golden man and the small copper-haired woman walked silently along the path behind Daisy and Phineas’s neat frame house. In three directions lay cotton fields, and ahead lay a thicket of trees and bushes through which they could see a glimpse of the Tennessee River.

  She wished he would say something, anything to break the unbearable silence between them. He had wanted to talk but he had said nothing.

  “How’ve you been, Maggie?” he asked, not looking down at her or slowing his stride as he led her along the path to the river.

  “I’ve been all right, but I’ve missed you terribly.” She could feel his whole body tense, but still he refused to look at her as they continued walking.

  “I wouldn’t think you’d have time to miss me with Thayer visiting so much.”

  “Thayer has been a good friend to me and Jude. He’s been there for me when I needed someone.”

  “Is he a better lover than I am?” Aaron stopped and grabbed her by the shoulders, his fierce green eyes boring into hers. “Are you enjoying being his mistress?”

  She trembled, fear and desire claiming her as she saw a fury in his face. “I’m not . . . there hasn’t been anyone . . . I still love you.”

  “Do you?” He gripped her chin in his hand as his mouth curled into a mocking smile. “Would you like to prove it here and now? Are you willing to let me lay you down here by the river and crawl between your legs?”

  “Aaron, please, listen to me.” She bit her lip trying to hold back the tears. “I love you and if you want me here and now, I’ll give myself to you. I have so much to give you, if only you’ll let me.”

  “What can you give me besides that beautiful body?” he sneered.

  “Oh, Aaron, don’t do this to us. I have something wonderful to tell you.” She had to make him listen. If she didn’t tell him about the baby soon, she’d lose her nerve. It was far too important to both their futures to keep the truth from him.