Jenny knew she should stop, but she didn’t want to lose the warm sensation in her veins again so quickly. There were still a couple of hours before the men would come in from the fields for something to eat, so there was no rush for her to leave the stable. She sat on the box and tilted her head back against the wall as she let the whisky slide down her throat and the heady buzz of drinking just a bit more than she was used to made her close her eyes.
The smile spread across her face as she waited for it to pass, but the sound of the stable door opening came to her before that happened. The next few seconds played out in slow motion as she opened her eyes to the sight of James walking in the small building. The frown creased his brow when he saw her sitting there and confusion clouded his face as he looked down to the bottle in her hand then raised his gaze back up. The scene suddenly seemed comical to Jenny and she let out a short guffaw without even thinking. She slapped a hand over her mouth to stop the noise as they stared at each other.
“What the hell,” James eventually let out as his apparent shock faded. “Are you drinking?”
Jenny looked down at the bottle in her hand and knew there was no point in denying it.
“Yes,” she said in a slightly slurred voice. “Yes I’m drinking.”
“Are you crazy?” James challenged her in a raised voice. “Why…”
The alcohol in her system emboldened Jenny and for once she put herself on the front foot and interrupted her husband.
“No, I’m not crazy…, well, not yet anyway.”
Her comment seemed to take him aback and he stared at her silently for a moment before responding.
“What are you talking about, not yet?”
Jenny’s frustrations welled up to the point that she couldn’t hold them in any more. The red mist descended and there was no way she could stop what was on her mind pouring out.
“What I mean is that if you make it any more miserable to live in this place I might very well go crazy,” she told him then looked down at the whisky in her hand again. She lifted the bottle to brandish it at James. “Either that or you’ll need to buy me one of these every day to get me through it.”
The surprise at her outburst showed even more on his face and he spluttered as he talked.
“What…, I…, no one here is miserable,” he let out.
“Oh is that right,” Jenny snapped back at him. “And how the hell would you know how anyone is feeling? All you care about is your precious land. You should have married that. Do you think I would be sitting alone in the stable drinking this if I was happy?”
“Well, I…” James tried to say, but his voice was drowned out by Jenny’s.
“You can’t see what’s going on under your nose, because all you are interested in is work, work, work on the farm.”
“It’s important,” he let out in a defensive tone.
“I know,” Jenny shouted. “But so is your family.”
“I love you and Tom,” James said.
Jenny let out a derisive snort before going on.
“You love your son so much you stopped him from meeting the girl that traveled how many hundreds of miles to come and be with him. Well that worked out well.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Oh for crying out loud,” Jenny yelled. “Tom has been sneaking off the farm for weeks to go and see her. He understands where his priorities are and is not going to just concentrate all his energies on the farm and ignore the woman in his life. Did you really think you could keep him from her?”
James looked dumbfounded at the news and spluttered again without saying anything coherent.
“Mary should have been here at the farm weeks ago and the pair of them married to make what is happening respectable,” Jenny said and shook her head. She was in her stride now and her voice was derisive when she went on. “But according to you the farm is more important.” She threw up her arms and saw whisky fly out the bottle in her hand.
“But..., but…., we need to do something then,” James said.
“Well hallelujah,” Jenny said sarcastically. “That’s the first sensible thing you’ve come out with in a long while.” The effects of the alcohol were wearing off a bit and she lowered her voice as she went on. “Here’s what we do. You stop talking about selling some of the crops and actually do it. Then we tell Tom that we are arranging for the marriage as soon as possible. We need to get it done within the next week. I’m telling you now that we’re not going to keep those two apart, so don’t even bother trying. Get the wedding sorted out and make things right between them before anyone in town discovers what’s going on with the new school teacher.”
James stood silently as he stared across the stable at his wife.
“Do you understand me?” Jenny asked.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I’ll go and get the horses to hitch up the wagon. You start sorting out some of our crops that we can sell.”
He turned to walk out the stable and Jenny let out a sigh that almost turned to another guffaw of laughter. Her outburst of anger and frustration felt good, but it was over and she now needed to concern herself with the work that was required. She became aware of the bottle she was still clutching in her hand. Putting the cork back in it, she hid it back behind the box and put the cloth on top of it. Whether she would come back and finish it she wasn’t sure, but she left it just in case she ever felt the need for a drink. Walking out of the stable, she returned to the outhouse and began the task of separating what was needed and what could be sold.
Tom saw his parents working together when he returned to the house to get something to eat. They were loading up produce in the back of the wagon and he walked up to them.
“Umm…, do you need any help?” he asked.
“No, we are nearly finished,” his mother said. “I’ll go in and make you something to eat in a minute.”
His eyes narrowed at the comment.
“Just me?” he asked.
“Your father has work to get done,” she told him. “We want to get this sold as quickly as possible to get the money.”
“Are you in a hurry to buy something?” Tom asked.
“A wedding,” Jenny replied with a smile. “It’s time for you and your pretty school teacher to get married.”
It was Tom that wore a dumbfounded expression on his face now and he was lost for words for a second. He looked at his father.
“But I…” he started.
“Your mother explained to me in no uncertain terms that we need to get you and Mary married,” James said.
“Can I tell her,” Tom exclaimed.
“I think that would be a good idea,” Jenny said and laughed. “I expect she’ll want to come to her own wedding.”
Chapter 14
“Thanks for doing this Walter,” Mary said and stood on her tiptoes to kiss Annie’s husband on the cheek.
“It’s my honor to give you away,” he replied and winked at her as he raised his voice. “It will be a pleasure to have such a beautiful, refined young lady on my arm.”
“I heard that Walter Townsend,” Annie said and laughed.
“Oh you know you’re the only girl I think of,” he teased his wife then turned his attention back to Mary. “I’ll see you outside.”
“Sure,” she said and smiled.
She walked across to where her friend was sitting on the chair in front of the dresser.
“How’s the little student doing,” she asked.
Annie looked down at her huge pregnancy bump. She was close to giving birth and it showed.
“Doing just fine,” she replied.
“The little brat is not planning on making an appearance today I hope?” Mary said and laughed.
The twinkle shone in Annie’s eyes as their gazes met in the mirror.
“Now there’s a thought,” she said and laughed. “I always did like being the center of attention and now you’ve given me an idea to make the day mine.”
“Don’t you dare
,” Mary said.
“Hey, I’m not in charge of the decision,” Annie went on. “If the little brat, as you call him or her, wants to steal the show at your wedding I can’t stop it happening.” She got to her feet and grabbed Mary’s wrist to make her sit down on the chair. “I haven’t given you your gift yet.”
She moved across to the bed and reached in her bag to bring something out. Mary couldn’t see what it was until her friend got to her and started brushing her hair.
“Walter made it especially for you to my directions,” Annie said. “The bristles are nice and soft, so that brushing your hair will always be easy and painless.” She stopped what she was doing and held the brush up. “The flat side is nice and wide, as well as having ridges on it to make sure that there will always be pleasurable pain…, if you know what I mean.”
“Stop it,” Mary said. “I don’t want to walk towards my husband-to-be with my cheeks bright red.”
Annie couldn’t hold in the throaty laugh.
“From what you told me about Tom,” she said. “Your cheeks will be red and glowing when he gets his hands on this…, and I’m not talking about the ones on your face.”
Mary grabbed for the brush and rubbed her fingertips across the ridged surface.
“Are you sure this is a gift for me…, or for Tom,” she said.
“Oh I get the impression that you will both enjoy it,” Annie said. “I got Walter to make one for me as well.”
Mary looked at her friend’s pregnant belly then up to her face.
“What?” Annie said in an innocent voice and laughed. “I haven’t used it yet.”
“Uh huh,” Mary replied. “If you say so. How is it that people around here think you are a sweet and traditional married woman.”
“I am…, on the surface and listen to who’s speaking,” Annie teased. “At least I am actually married and I didn’t let myself be seduced by a student.”
“He never was a student,” Mary responded.
She looked in the mirror and turned the brush around to run the bristles through her hair. The knock on the door made her tense and she caught her friend’s gaze in the mirror.
“Time to make you a sweet, traditional married woman too,” Annie said.
Mary was trembling when she got to her feet. She smoothed down her dress and turned to walk over to the door that Annie was now holding open.
“Ready,” Walter asked with a smile when he held out his arm.
“As I’ll ever be,” Mary said and grabbed hold.
The sound of the fiddle music came to them as they walked to the front of the farm house and out the door. Walter led Mary through the small archway erected for the day and along the narrow aisle created by the two areas of seats. She heard the murmur of the watching people sitting on the chairs as she was led towards Tom and the town minister.
Walter gave her hand to Tom when they reached him then backed off and went to sit beside Annie to watch the proceedings. The fiddle music ended and a hush fell over the watching crowd as the minister held up his hands.
“Dearly beloved,” he started. “We are gathered here on this fine day….”
The words faded for a second as Mary found herself staring in deep blue eyes. Tom’s handsome smile mesmerized her and she returned it as they gazed at each other. She turned her attention back to the minister as he went on and the brief ceremony seemed to flash past as they recited their vows to each other.
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife,” the minister said to end it. “You may kiss the bride.”
Mary closed her eyes as their lips met and it unleashed the usual shiver of anticipation. What it might lead to would need to wait until the wedding night and a smile lit up her face when it ended.
“I love you Mrs. Addison,” Tom said.
“I love you too,” Mary replied.
A cheer went up as the fiddle music came to life again and it didn’t take long before the chairs were cleared from the area in front of the house to get the real festivities started. Tom and Mary led the way with the dancing, but in a matter of seconds more married couples began to join them in the revelry. Other guests made their way to the tables at the side that were laden with food and drink.
It was around twenty minutes or so before Mary managed to extricate herself from Tom’s grasp and move away from the dancing area.
“Not dancing?” she teased Annie when she walked past her towards the house.
“I thought you said you didn’t want the little student making an appearance today,” her friend shot back.
Mary laughed as she made her way inside and returned to the bedroom she would now share with Tom. She went to the wooden dresser to open a drawer and took out the two wrapped gifts before making her way back to the front door. A quick glance around was all it needed to locate Mrs. Lester and she quickly made her way towards the elderly lady.
“Thanks for taking me in when I got here,” Mary said. “And for being a good friend to me.”
“Oh dear, you didn’t have to,” Mrs. Lester said, but the smile beamed on her face as she accepted the gift.
She carefully removed the paper and opened the box to see a coffee pot.
“I thought you might like a new one,” Mary said as they hugged.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Lester said.
Mary caught sight of the other person she wanted to give a gift to.
“I’ll come back for a chat later,” she told Mrs. Lester and moved off.
“It was a lovely ceremony,” Jenny said and hugged her now daughter in law.
“From what Tom tells me, I have you to thank for it,” Mary replied.
“Oh, it would have happened,” Jenny went on.
“Just not as quickly without your help,” Mary said and held out the gift.
“What’s this?” Jenny asked.
“Open it,” Mary told her.
Jenny laughed as she removed the paper from the long box and opened it. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the riding crop.
“Is this to help me when I’m riding the wagon,” she asked.
“You can do that,” Mary said and lowered her voice. “I was thinking more of you whipping another stud into shape. It’s perfect for keeping a husband in line and making them obey your orders. You’d be amazed at what you can get from a man with a few lashes of the crop.”
Jenny shook her head, but couldn’t help letting out a laugh.
“I might just give that a try,” she said. “Thanks.”
The two women hugged tightly.
“Thank you for what you did,” Mary said. “Do you want to get a drink?”
“I’ll pass,” Jenny said. “I’m trying to keep my head clear for now.”
Mary nodded and smiled before heading off to find Annie. They sat chatting for a while before Tom got her up dancing again. Late afternoon passed to evening and black began to tinge the sky. Those with their own wagons gradually began to drift off home until there were only a few friends from the town left.
“We’re going to give the stragglers a ride in to town, “Jenny told Tom. “We’ll see you when we get back.”
He just nodded his head and Mary saw the grin on his face when he looked at her. Jenny was making a discreet exit with James to give them some wedding night privacy and the look on Tom’s face was a sign that he was definitely going to try and take advantage of them being alone in the house. Not that she was planning to protest. She felt the tightening grip on her wrist as they watched the wagon with the last of the wedding guests slowly disappearing from view down the track towards town.
“Is this what happens when a girl gets married on a farm?” she said with a grin as she motioned down towards their hands. “Do you think I’m going to try and escape?”
“Well its better to be safe than sorry,” Tom teased her. “It’s a tradition around these parts that a girl’s virginity is her husbands to take on the wedding night.”
“Is that right?” Mary replied and playe
d along. “What makes you think I’m a virgin?”
Tom feigned a shocked expression.
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