Compromised Hearts (24 page)

As they drew near the town, she pulled her cloak tighter and shivered, but not from the cold. There was every chance of a confrontation either with Harper or Dorothy or Chilton or any combination of the three. Emily even felt that Cloud was hoping for one.

He certainly made no secret of their entrance into town or their destination. Several times he was greeted and asked what he was doing, and he replied truthfully and loudly. She could see how fast the news was spreading as each one was told, then raced to tell others. It would be a miracle if the three people that she would rather not see remained ignorant, at least until she was out of town.

She doubted miracles would be performed in Lockridge that day. Emily greatly feared that the news that Cloud Ryder was riding to the church with Miss Emily Brockinger and planning to wed her was spreading like wildfire. Even before their carriage arrived at the church, she felt it was news on the lips of almost everyone in the growing town.

Thomas Chilton glared at the man who had wasted no time in bringing him the news.

“Are you sure about this, Jack? Last I saw Emily she was at the Brockingers'.”

“Well, she ain’t there now. She’s sitting aside of Cloud Ryder looking right pretty and he’ll tell any folk what’ll listen or feel inclined to ask that he’s taking her to the preacher to get hitched.”

An oath escaped Thomas’s thin lips as he jumped up from his chair. “We’ll just see about that.”

Jack Filbert chuckled beneath his breath as he followed Chilton out of the bank. He worked for the man, but he did not like him. It would suit him fine to see Cloud Ryder snatch another woman out from under Chilton’s slender, snobby nose. He wondered whether anyone had told Harper Brockinger and his tight-faced wife.

Dorothy, having discovered Thornton’s and Emily’s absence, raced down the stairs to find Harper. She found her husband in the kitchen staring into a cooling cup of coffee and looking guilty. It was evident that he had returned a short while ago from arranging Emily’s marriage to Chilton.

“She’s gone,” shrilled Dorothy as she collapsed into a chair opposite Harper.

“What?” Harper noticed idly that Dorothy was looking unusually agitated.

“Your sister, you fool,” she hissed. “She’s gone. The boy’s gone as well.”

It was hard, but Harper restrained a laugh. Just as he had hoped, Emily had found a way
out of the mess he had put her in. He only hoped that she was safe wherever she was.

“Well?” Dorothy spoke from between tightly clenched teeth.

“Well what?”

“Go and find her. It shouldn’t be hard. You know as well as I do where she’s gone.”

“Do I?” He knew he was stalling for time but hoped that Dorothy would not guess that.

“To that damned half-breed’s, that’s where. Go and get her back.”

“You think she’s going to docilely return to a fate she fled in the dead of night?”

“Of course not, but you’re her brother. Assert your authority.”

He was tempted, but it was not Emily he pondered asserting himself with. Since Emily’s arrival, he had been seeing his marriage and his wife through clearer eyes. With each new revelation he grew a little sicker. He was beginning to feel that he was not so much married as enslaved. But before he could speak, they were interrupted by a neighbor who was so clearly full of news that she had forgotten the simple courtesy of knocking.

“Mary! Whatever has possessed you?” Dorothy was open-mouthed with shock over her friend’s abrupt entrance.

“Emily,” Mary gasped, one hand pressed to her too-full bosom. “It’s Emily.”

Harper tensed with worry. “Is she all right?”

“Fine. Just fine.” The plump woman
collapsed in a chair as she sought to catch her breath.

“You’ve seen her?” pressed Dorothy. “Will you settle down and tell us?”

“Trying,” the woman panted. “Saw her. In town. Just now.”

“In town?” Harper could not believe that Emily would stay so close to Chilton.

Having gained enough composure to speak coherently, if a little breathlessly, Mary continued, “Well, coming into town in a carriage. She was sitting next to that Ryder man. His brother, that friend of his, and the little boy were riding with them. They were all dressed fine. Emily looked real pretty,” she cooed, then frowned, for she could swear that the usually cool Dorothy was grinding her teeth. “They were headed for the church.”

“The church?” croaked Dorothy. “Are you certain?”

“Very sure. He was telling everyone who cared to ask that he was headed for the church and was going to have the preacher marry him and Miss Emily.”

“You’ve got to stop them,” Dorothy hissed as she clutched Harper’s arm.

Idly, Harper noticed how closely her clutching fingers resembled talons. “Not enough time.”

“You’ve got to try, damn it. You can’t let her marry that heathen. What about Chilton?”

Harper recalled his precarious position.

He hoped fervently that he would fail, but he knew he had to try to stop the wedding. As he started out of the house he found that the thought of losing everything did not frighten him as it had before. He did not run to the church despite Dorothy’s constant urgings to hurry.

Emily felt shy as they entered the small church. Suddenly the step she was about to take seemed enormous. The only things that kept her from bolting were her love, her baby, and the thought of marrying Thomas Chilton. Uncertainty faded before that horror.

She smiled shyly at the young preacher who moved to greet them, curiosity and nervousness easily read on his boyishly handsome face. He was probably afraid that the unprecedented entrance of the Ryder brothers would bring the walls of the church tumbling down, she thought. As he heard what Cloud wanted, all the preacher’s other emotions seemed to fade beneath a wave of confusion.

“You’re Mr. Harper Brockinger’s sister Emily?” he asked and she nodded. “Of course. You must be. There couldn’t be two Emily Brockingers in such a small town. But, this is all very unsettling. Mr. Brockinger left me not twenty minutes ago. He has just arranged for you to marry Thomas Chilton tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Emily spoke in a whisper,
shock robbing her voice of strength as she saw how narrow an escape she had had.

“Well, she isn’t marrying Chilton tomorrow. She’s marrying me—today,” Cloud said firmly. “Get your book open and let’s get on with it.” He was anxious to make it official, all too aware of how nearly Emily had become another man’s wife. “What are you waiting for?”

“This is all very irregular,” the preacher stuttered. “I think I really ought to talk to Mr. Brockinger first.”

The young preacher was afraid of offending such prominent citizens as the Brockingers and Chilton. Lockridge’s church was not impressive, but it was his first position. He did not want to risk it even though he found the strange-eyed man towering over him unnerving.

Cloud moved before Emily could stop him, and then she was shocked into momentary immobility when he grabbed the slender, smaller preacher by the front of his shirt, lifted him off of his feet, and brought the terrified man’s face close to his.

“I’ve come here to get married and you’ll damn well get on with it.”

She grabbed Cloud’s arm and hissed, “Put the man down! Are you mad? He’s a preacher.”

“Damn right and a preacher’s supposed to marry people.” He gave the man a little shake but then set him down. “Don’t think
you’d be thinking to ask Brockinger if it’d be all right to bury us.”

“Perhaps we ought to find another preacher,” Emily suggested.

“There isn’t one. Not for several days’ ride and I’m not risking you on such a journey, Em. Snow’s in the air.”

“Well, you can’t go threatening the poor man.”

“I’m not threatening him, just getting him to do his job!”

“He’s trying to. It’s only natural that he would wonder what is going on.”

“I’ll tell him then. If he doesn’t get busy reading, he’ll be eating his dog collar.”

“Cloud,” Emily groaned, “perhaps we ought to wait.”

“Wait? Damn it, Emily, the way our luck’s going lately, Chilton’ll be putting his name to my woman and my child,” he ground out in a low voice. “We’re not waiting.”

“Child?” the preacher croaked softly, his gaze going from Cloud to Emily and back again.

Glancing at the growing audience of townspeople gathering inside the church, Emily glared at Cloud. “Do you have to tell the whole world?”

“They’ll know soon anyways. They can count.” He softened when he saw her horrified face. “Em, honey, no one will care. We’re getting married.” He glared at the preacher. “Aren’t we?”

“There’s a child?” The preacher asked the question very softly and with a touch of embarrassment.

It was more than the mention of a child that was changing the preacher’s mind. There was something about this pair, despite their bickering. This was no mismatch forced by the coming of a child. He knew without question that, if he did not marry them, the girl would not go willingly back to her brother nor would the man let her. In fact, the preacher was suddenly certain that marrying them was the only way to stop blood being spilled.

“Yes, there’s a child. Coming in the spring.” Although he felt like shouting from the rooftops, Cloud spoke softly to spare Emily any further embarrassment.

“That changes everything.” The preacher picked up a book and opened it to the wedding vows. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

“If I’d known it’d make the difference, I would’ve told you sooner. See if you can do it quickly. We’ve taken longer than I’d planned. I’d like it all settled before some certain people arrive.”

“They wouldn’t be arriving if you hadn’t been so talkative all the way into town,” Emily complained. “You could’ve saved your voice and simply painted the news on the side of the wagon.”

“Some folk can’t read too well, Em,” Cloud drawled, his eyes revealing his usual amusement over Emily’s annoyance before he
turned back to the preacher. “Don’t forget that part about obedience.”

Emily gave into temptation and kicked him in the shins. Her wedding was turning into a farce. She feared it was a portent of the future. Her temper was eased very little by Cloud’s exaggerated grimace or the way he put his arm around her shoulders and held her close to his side. The man did not seem to be taking the business very seriously.

Cloud was deadly serious about the step he was about to take, but he also felt elated. In a few moments Emily would be his in a way no man could argue with. He glanced down at her, noticed fondly how dainty she was, and then turned his full attention to the preacher.

The young preacher saw the look Cloud bestowed upon Emily and began to read the service with more certainty. He had been right. The man with the strange eyes was not about to let any man have Miss Emily Brockinger but himself, and he would undoubtedly do anything to insure that. Marrying was a service he much preferred to burying.

As he read, Emily’s temper faded beneath a flood of other emotions. She could hardly believe that she was marrying Cloud. It was something she had only dreamed about. The only thing that kept her from a complete sense of unreality was the aching suspicion that Cloud did not love her.

“If any of those gathered know a reason
why these two should not be wed,” intoned the preacher, “speak now or forever hold your peace.”

“
W
ait! Wait! I have a reason.”

“Chilton,” Emily gasped as she tried to make herself invisible by pressing into Cloud.

“You should have skipped that part, Preacher,” murmured Cloud as he watched Thomas Chilton elbow his way through the crowd until he stood before them.

“This woman is engaged to marry me,” Chilton snapped.

“I am not!” Emily cried, forgetting about hiding from the man.

“Well, miss, your brother had arranged a marriage between the two of you for tomorrow,” the preacher said gently, wanting to keep things perfectly honest.

“No one asked me,” she said indignantly.

“Ask you?” squeaked Chilton. “You are your brother’s charge. He was arranging what he felt was a suitable match for you.” His look at Cloud indicated how unsuitable he felt that man was.

Emily bristled over this unspoken but very evident slur on the man she loved. Cloud hid a grin as she pulled herself up to her full unimpressive height, her eyes sparkling and her hands clenched into small fists. Chilton’s eyes widened and Cloud knew the man was surprised by this Emily.

“I suppose you think your bank and all those foreclosed mortgages makes you suitable?”

“A damn sight more suitable than a man who doesn’t even have a sod hut to house you in.”

“Even if you had a castle, I wouldn’t marry you.”

“I’ll ignore your childish response,” Chilton said coolly.

“How kind of you.” She looked at him with clearly revealed disgust. “Now, if you will please excuse me, I’m getting married.”

“No, you’re not. You’re in your brother’s care and are promised to me. Just because this rogue seduced you as he has so many others—”

Wolfe neatly stopped anything else Chilton had to say with one clean right to the man’s jaw. The preacher paled slightly and wondered if the colleagues he had left behind
in St. Louis would believe him when and if he told this tale. Emily just sighed and let Cloud turn her back towards the preacher.

“He’s holding his peace,” Cloud drawled. “Shall we continue?”

After nervously clearing his throat, the preacher continued. Emily panicked slightly when it came to the part about the rings, but was then given a surprise. Cloud produced his parents’ wedding bands. They were simple, but Emily thought them beautiful. A sudden urge to weep rose within her.

It was quickly stifled when the preacher told Cloud that he could kiss the bride. She was scooped up into his arms and made the recipient of a decidedly unchaste kiss. However, it was not until she realized their audience was hooting and offering unsolicited advice that she came to her senses enough to struggle. When Cloud finally released her, she was halted in her scolding of him even as she opened her mouth.

“Oh, no! We’re too late.”

Peering over Cloud’s broad shoulders, Emily gasped. “Oh, no! It’s Dorothy and Harper.”