Angel In The Saloon (Brides of Glory Gulch)

by Jeanne Marie Leach

  She knew that voice. It sounded old and raspy, the voice of someone who may be ill, but there was the unmistakable distinction in it that was firmly ingrained in her mind. She didn’t know when or how, but she had always felt this day would come---ever since that night when she was thirteen. She had to be sure, but how?

  “Miss Jackson. I have not seen you since you were a very young child. I am so impressed with the beautiful, talented young lady you have become as I am also sure your father would be. I am also sure that you are curious as to why I have come here today. It is simply this, I knew your father well and on his deathbed, he gave me something and asked that I give it to you, his last request.”

  Amelia waited a moment as she felt Paul lean forward and then place something into her hand. She felt the round, cold, metal object and recognized it as a pocket watch. She opened the delicate cover and the music that stirred memories rang lightly through the silent room. Her breath caught in her throat.

  “That is the very watch your mother gave to your father on their wedding day. There is an inscription. To my precious Alister on our wedding day, with all my love, Grace.”

  Amelia touched and petted the watch. She said nothing and tried hard to not show signs of any emotion.

  “I am sorry I took so long in getting it to you,” Mr. Morrison continued. “But a man’s life takes many turns, and in the course of events, I simply went about the business of life and put it out of my mind. However, my dear Miss Jackson, I am not a well man. Without wishing to offend you, frankly, I am now dying myself. In fact, the doctors have said that I have robbed death by remaining alive this long. But I had a quest. I simply could not leave this world without fulfilling my dear friend’s last dying wishes.”

  Corrin sniffled from a chair near the fireplace. Paul squeezed her hand.

  Amelia’s jaw remained firm and unwavering, unfeeling, almost cold, but she squeezed Paul’s hand so tightly that her fingers hurt.

  “Mr. Morrison, do you remember what my father used to call me?” Amelia spoke for the first time, very softly, very wistfully.

  “Yes, Miss Jackson, I do.”

  “What was it, Mr. Morrison?”

  “He used to call you his Baby Girl.”

  Amelia squeezed Paul’s hand again. “Mr. Morrison, I do believe I remember you from my childhood years.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes. I do. I wish my father were here right now. There are so many things I would like to say to him.”

  “Sweetie,” Corrin spoke quietly. “If he were here, what would you say to him?”

  Amelia smiled. “I would tell him that I love him, Aunt Corrin. And that I missed growing up with him. I would tell him that I wished he didn’t have to go away. That I forgive him for going away.”

  The visitor cleared his throat and shifted his stance on the other side of the room while Amelia now remained the pinnacle of composure.

  “And there’s more, Mr. Morrison. If my father were here right now, I would also tell him that I forgave him a long time ago for the way he always shouted at my mother.”

  › › ›

  Corrin’s face became flushed. Her beloved Alister shouted at Grace? Why? Should she be glad that he hadn’t married her? Questions, questions.

  “And I would tell him that I also forgave him long ago,” Amelia continued with a slow, even voice, “for throwing the coal oil lamp that night.”

  Mr. Morrison’s face waxed pale; his mouth fell open as he gasped and glared at Amelia. Corrin thought he was going to go to his grave right then and there. She didn’t understand what Amelia’s last statement meant, but their visitor unmistakably did.

  “Why, you---you couldn’t possibly remember that! You were only three years old!” A tear fell down his sickly face.

  “True, Mr. Morrison, I was very young. But some events are imprinted so heavily in our minds that they remain there to remind how they altered our lives forever.”

  “How much . . . do you actually remember?” he asked incredulously.

  “I remember Mother and Father always arguing and shouting. I would hide in the farthest corner of the house, but their cruel words were loud, and I couldn’t shut them out.”

  Corrin noticed that Amelia was beginning to tremble, but she still held her jaw firm. Paul reached around her shoulder with his good arm and took her hand with his left. It must have hurt to be pulled across his body like that, but he only winced slightly.

  “Matters between Mother and Father worsened almost daily. Once, he even hit her. Something was very wrong.”

  Mr. Morrison’s breathing was now difficult and raspy, and he frequently brushed tears from his eyes, eyes that were forever shifting.

  Corrin’s heart was breaking and she began to weep.

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Corrin. I’m afraid I must have hurt you.” Amelia lowered her head to her chest, and Paul squeezed her shoulder and kissed her temple.

  “And what do you remember about that night---with the lamp?” Mr. Morrison asked her.

  “It was one of those nights when Father was angry.” Amelia lifted her head and drew herself as close to Paul as she could and rested her head on his good shoulder. “He was shouting at Mother and she was shouting back at him. He said mean, hateful words and became angrier and angrier and louder and louder.

  “He began throwing things that were on the table, a saucer and cup, a book. Then he grabbed the coal oil lamp. All I could think of was to run to my room and hide. He threw the lamp with a vengeance. Mother ducked out of the way, but it hit me squarely across my eyes and temples.”

  “Enough! Enough!” Mr. Morrison shouted as he wrung his hands.

  Amelia jumped at the man’s shout, but she took a deep breath and continued. “The lamp hit me so hard on the temple that it shattered and spilled the coal oil all over my face and in my eyes. It knocked me out. When I came to my senses, my eyesight was fading fast. The last thing I ever saw in this world was my Mother’s beautiful face hovering over me, and she was wearing a lovely, pink dress she’d made. And then my sight was gone forever.” She sat as quietly now as a nun in church.

  Mr. Morrison steadied himself with one arm on the mantle and rubbed his eyes with his other.

  “Amelia!” Corrin gasped. “Do you mean that you weren’t born blind?”

  “That’s right, Aunt Corrin.” Amelia was trembling, but her voice remained calm, and she was the only one who wasn’t crying now.

  “And Alister Jackson was the cause of your blindness?” Corrin jumped to her feet, wishing she wasn’t a lady. She wanted to kick or throw something. “I wish I had never met him! I wish I had never introduced him to my family! I hate him for what he’s done to you and for how he treated Grace! I’m just so angry!”

  “Oh, Aunt Corrin. No! Please don’t hate him.” Amelia went to her and hugged her. “Instead, you need to forgive him. God can use every bad situation for good, if you only let him. If you had never brought him home, he would never have met my mother and I would never have been born. I’m not bitter about my blindness. God has used it to touch the lives of others through me. And I have learned to reach beyond normal capabilities. If I set my mind to it, I can do almost anything.

  She squeezed Corrin’s shoulders. “And I have a wonderful aunt who loves me very much and provides a good home for me and looks after me. I have a strong, caring man who wants to marry me, Aunt Corrin. I only thought that was possible in my dreams.”

  “After what you told me about you and my father, I am positive that the only reason he married my mother was because he wanted children. That is sad for my mother. But my father did love me, Aunt Corrin. He loved me so much that the thought of his causing my blindness ate away at him like some disease. I think that as he watched me in my darkness, every day that passed pulled a piece of his own life out of him.” Amelia hugging her as if she planned to never let her go.

  “There’s something else you should know, Aunt Corrin” Amelia pulled out of the hug, but kept hold of
Corrin’s arm. “When I was thirteen, I woke up once in the middle of the night. My stomach was empty and I wanted to munch on something, so I crept into the kitchen and heard muffled voices coming from the back porch. Mother was talking to a nice man she had been seeing. He had evidently just asked her to marry him, but she was saying that she could not because she wasn’t who the man thought she was. She confessed to him that she was not a widow as she had been telling everyone for the past ten years, but that she and her husband got divorced after the war and that she did not believe in remarriage due to the circumstances surrounding the divorce. She told him that my father had become a drunk and that it was a mistake to have married him in the first place. She said that Alister Jackson never really loved her.”

  Corrin held her at arm’s length, unbelieving what she heard. She didn’t want it to be true.

  “I knew it would devastate my mother if she ever became aware that I knew her secret. So I just continued to live in the lie she had created to protect me. I know it is hard for you to understand, Aunt Corrin, but I still love my father and I forgive him to the depths of my soul for every wrong he committed in his lifetime. Just as God forgives me, I forgive my father. Mr. Morrison, are you still here?” she asked.

  “Yes.” The word was barely audible.

  “Why did you really come here?” She let go of Corrin and turned toward his sickly voice.

  Corrin watched him pull a thick, brown envelope out of his waistcoat pocket. He placed it in Amelia’s hand. “I am a dying man and I have come to bring you your inheritance.”

  “No. I will not take it. Not under the circumstances in which you’re giving it to me.” Amelia held it up for him to take back. “I’ll accept the watch, but not this.”

  Mr. Morrison stood still and Amelia stood firm with her hand outstretched, waiting for him to take the envelope. Neither of them moved for almost a minute.

  Finally, Amelia walked closer to him, feeling for his coat she stuck the envelope into his pocket. She then reached her hands up to his face and cupped his thin, sickly cheeks and said, “You can’t buy forgiveness, Mr. Morrison. It won’t help ease the sickness deep in your soul. Forgiveness is a gift, given freely to anyone if all they would do is ask.”

  The man fell down to his knees and sobbed, burying his head in Amelia’s hands and clutching her as if he was drowning and only she could save him. He wept bitterly and deeply and loudly. The sound of the agony this man released tore through Corrin as if she were being run through with a saber. But to Amelia remained calm and was actually smiling.

  “I can’t possibly ask forgiveness for what I’ve done! My burden is too great! It covers a lifetime of wrongs!”

  “Yes, you can. The Bible is filled with stories of how people sinned great sins, but when they asked for forgiveness, God was quick to turn his wrath from them, and he did mighty things through them. I know God will do the same for you.”

  Mr. Morrison stood and looked at her in amazement. Corrin noticed that his countenance changed. His face softened, his eyes changed from tauntingly cold to soft, loving, caring. He gazed deeply into Amelia’s eyes, knowing she couldn’t see him, yet knowing that she was staring right through to the deepest chambers of his heart.

  “I love you, Baby Girl. And I am so very sorry for what I have done to you and your Mother. Can you? Will you? Please forgive me?”

  “Yes! Yes, of course I forgive you, Father! And I love you too.” Amelia’s face glowed now. She buried her head in his chest and began to cry for the first time.

  “Alister?” Corrin’s mouth gaped open. She felt dizzy and toppled backward into the chair.

  › › ›

  Amelia persuaded her father to stay awhile in Glory Gulch so that he could walk her down the aisle at her upcoming wedding. She knew Aunt Corrin was confused by the depth of forgiveness and love Amelia displayed toward her derelict father and the vicarious role she herself played in the unusual situation. And having her first and only love so near again unnerved her. But Corrin guarded her heart fastidiously. She was not about to allow herself to be betrayed as she had when she was once young and trusting like her niece. Amelia prayed for her daily.

  Alister Jackson was completely overwhelmed by his daughter’s love for him. He had once made the terrible mistake of leaving her, but now it was the farthest thing from his mind, so Paul invited him to stay at his house. If his Angel and her father were willing to work out everything between them, he said he would support them. Amelia, Paul and Alister Jackson would sit in the parlor of Paul’s ample home and talk for hours about God’s love and forgiveness.

  › › ›

  Mr. Jackson even allowed them to pray for him, and one week after his arrival, he knelt beside the settee of Paul’s graciously decorated parlor, praying for forgiveness and asking Jesus to come into his heart and make him whole again. A lifetime of burdens and cares that he had heaped upon his own shoulders came tumbling down with each sobbing breath he drew. His travailing was arduous and deep. After all the dark secrets he had locked deep in the recesses of his heart had been confessed, he began to laugh. He had never known such a time in his life when he felt so clean and fresh and burden free. He grabbed up his daughter and twirled her around in delight. His newfound forgiveness and love had left him giddy. He now stood up straighter and there was a certain lilt in his voice.

  › › ›

  That night Paul lay in his bed remembering his own conversion to Christianity less than a year ago. He marveled at God’s wondrous plan he had for everyone’s life and thanked Him for bringing Amelia into his life. He thanked God for keeping Alister alive long enough to reclaim his daughter and give his heart to Christ. Then he prayed for the souls of his two dearest friends, Corrin and Jeremiah.

  When he was finished praying he tried to sleep, but all he could think of was Amelia and how this particular Angel had affected so many lives in just matter of a few months. He marveled at how she had been a part of a much larger plan, and he knew she was right where God wanted her to be. He thanked God for wanting her to be with him!

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Another week of recuperation and Paul headed back to work. He loved the mill and until Amelia came along, he had been consumed by it. He had seen her every day for nearly a month and would miss her terribly. Until their wedding, he would just have to resign himself to meeting her for an hour in the morning and later for supper.

  He planned to see Corrin and Amelia later that day before they headed to Glenwood Springs on the stage to shop for Amelia’s wedding dress. He wished they wouldn’t go. It was a cold November day. Would they be able to keep warm in that drafty stage? Was the driver experienced with driving a team through snow? Five days without seeing Amelia was just too long for him. But when Corrin gets something in her head, he knew it would take the U. S. Cavalry to change it. So Paul resigned himself to let them go.

  It seemed as though he barely made any progress in his paperwork, when it was already time to meet the ladies at the stage. He grabbed his coat and headed out the door.

  Harry had previously carried their satchels to Sarah Jane’s and the two ladies were sipping hot tea inside the restaurant. Paul pulled up a chair directly beside Amelia.

  “Hello, Angel. Have you changed your mind about going yet?”

  “No, Paul. We haven’t changed our minds.” Corrin snapped at him. “Why don’t you just let us have our fun? You’re stealing her away from me in two weeks, and I probably won’t get much more than a hello and good-by from her during that time.”

  “All right. I’m sorry,” Paul said. “Go, with my blessings. Have all the fun you want. Go ahead and shop until you’re broke. Does that make you happy?

  “Very.” Corrin winked at him.

  “And why are you so quiet today, my Angel?”

  “Because Aunt Corrin won’t let me have a pink wedding gown.” She pouted like a child, but then the two females burst into laughter.

  “You didn’t really want to wear a pink
wedding dress, did you?”

  At this, the ladies nearly became hysterical.

  “You’re so gullible, Paul. Can’t you tell when she’s teasing you? Nobody wears a pink wedding gown. Or do they?” More laughter erupted from the ladies.

  “Sweetheart, I’m only laughing to hide the tears inside because I won’t be seeing you for five whole days.” Amelia reached up and found Paul’s face with her fingers.

  “Now that’s what I wanted to hear.” He kissed the hand that had so gently touched his face.

  “Oh, there’s more,” Amelia said. “Remember the first night I was here and I told you that I like pink because it was so soft? And remember how I asked you to touch the ribbon?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t think I noticed that you brushed against my hair slightly, but I did, and I knew it was on purpose.” She smiled demurely at him.

  “No. I didn’t think you noticed.”

  “Well, I did. And I have to confess. My heart beat faster when you did.” Amelia reached to the back of her head and removed the ribbon she had secured there with a pin. “This is that same ribbon, and I want you to take good care of it until I see you again on Friday. That way, I will take comfort in knowing that whenever you look at it or touch it you will be thinking of me.” Amelia handed the ribbon to Paul and he took it and put it in his shirt pocket.

  “Now I definitely don’t want you to go.” He kissed tenderly her on the cheek.

  “Oh, brother!” Corrin said. “You two are acting like a couple of school children in puppy love.” She stood because the stage had arrived. “Paul, we’re going now. You’ll just have to accept that fact.” She put her nose high in the air, pulled Amelia from her chair and let him follow them with a grin on his face.

  Paul tossed their satchels up to the driver, helped Corrin into the coach, and then grabbed Amelia and held her close. He kissed her hair and then her mouth.