Wildcat Bride

by Lauri Robinson

  She laughed then. “I always knew you were tougher than you let on.”

  Her recent bout of willpower made Eva glance around the room and let her eyes land on Jessie. “I’m sorry I didn’t consult you about the wedding.

  I…Well, I just felt it was time I stood on my own two feet and prove to Bug just how much he means to me.” Jessie’s smile was filled with understanding.

  “I’m not upset about it. None of us are. And you’ve always stood on your own two feet.”

  “No, I haven’t. Especially not where Bug is

  concerned. I’ve always been timid.”

  “What are you talking about?” Lila asked, rising from the bed. “You’ve lived out here alone for years. I could never have done that. And you traveled to New York, with a fourteen-year-old. That takes gumption.”

  “September’s a good girl,” Eva defended.

  “I know that, that’s not what I meant. It was just the two of you, two women alone. Anyone could have taken advantage of you,” Lila explained.

  Eva shook her head against the tiniest tingle. “I never thought about that.”

  “We did,” Jessie, Summer, and Randi agreed as one. Jessie continued to poke pins in Eva’s hair as she spoke. “Kid is ecstatic that you and Bug are finally getting married. You drove him crazy.”

  “I did?”

  “Yes, you did. He said it was because of Willamina. He said the way you two traveled around—out to the badlands and to Dodge—by yourselves was extremely dangerous, and made you believe you could do anything by yourself. I thought he was going to wring Ma’s neck the night she wouldn’t let you get married.” Jessie laid the brush on the dressing table.

  A wave of guilt bit at Eva’s nerve endings. “Is Ma upset with me about the wedding?”

  Summer lowered a pearl necklace over Eva’s head. “No, she’s not. She’s delighted. The only reason she stopped the wedding that night at the house was because she wanted you to stand up to Bug. She wanted him to know he was marrying a strong woman, not a shy little girl.”

  “She did?”

  “Yes, she did. She tangled with her actions that night the whole time you were sick.” Summer

  hooked the necklace and moved around to stand in

  front of Eva. “She told me she knows how much you loved Bug, and him you, and that she was sorry she stopped the wedding. But at the same time she said she promised Willamina, when it came to your wedding, you’d be in charge.”

  Eva tugged out the handkerchief she had tucked up her sleeve. It had been Willamina’s, and had tiny blue bells embroidered around the edges. “Willamina always said women are stronger than men. That our muscles aren’t as big or bulky, but that our inner strength, our willpower, can withstand much more than theirs.”

  The room, except for the sounds drifting in the windows, remained silent for a few minutes.

  “Well,” Lila said. “She’s right. And I believe everything happens for a reason. Exactly when and how it’s supposed to.” She turned and nodded toward the other women. “Right now, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful bride.”

  The women, all four of them standing in front of Eva, moved at the same time, revealing the mirror behind them. Eva’s lungs locked. The woman staring back at her in the mirror was stunning. It couldn’t possibly be her.

  She glanced down to decipher if the pale peach dress she wore was the same one in the mirror. Her gaze lifted. It was. Yellow and white daisies sat amongst the mass of curls flowing from her head to disappear behind her shoulders. The pearl necklace glimmered against her skin left open by the low neckline of the dress, but it was her eyes that made her gasp. They sparkled brighter than the stars at night. She’d never seen them light up her reflection like this before.

  “Oh, my.”

  “Jenny Staples is gonna eat her own heart out,”

  Lila whispered in Eva’s ear.

  She giggled, and the others joined in. Their laughter grew, and when Ma pulled the door open, all five of them were holding their stomachs and hooting like a room full of half drunken men.

  Ma crossed the room. “You look downright beautiful, Eva.”

  “Thank you, Ma. And thank you for the dress. I love it.” She and Ma shared a joyous hug. One that lifted her happy heart even higher.

  “I knew that color was perfect for you.” She patted Eva’s cheeks. “I sewed it three years ago, you know.”

  “You, did?”

  Ma nodded. “I did.”

  Eva hugged her again. “Thank you.”

  Ma wiped at her eyes. “Come on, Eva girl, your groom is waiting.” As they walked across the room she added, “With about as much patience as a penned up bull.”

  The next few minutes were a blur. The women fussed around her as Eva made her way down the stairs and out the door, and the crowd filling her front lawn might as well have been weeds for all the notice Eva took of them. With crystal clear clarity, Bug entered her vision. Her heart stalled. He was several yards ahead of her, yet, she detected his love traveling though the open space and entering her being. It had always been this way, this connection the two of them had, and she’d always known it was love, but never before this exact moment had she realized just how deeply he affected her.

  His wide smile, and his hand lifting towards her, jolted her heart back into its racing mode, and she put one foot in front of the other. Without a stumble or wobble, she glided to his side.

  Silence settled like nightfall on a summer’s eve, without ado or bother, it simply established the start of the rest of her life.

  Reverend Kirkpatrick opened his book. “Dearly beloved, we are…”

  Holding Bug’s hand, absorbing the heat of his palm against hers, Eva listened to the Reverend’s smooth, practiced tone. She cherished every word, for they were what would bind her and Bug together forever. Tears pricked her eyes as Bug vowed his love to her, and the droplets slid down her cheeks as she repeated her vows to him. The ring he slipped on her finger became permanent; she knew she’d never take it off. When the service ended, Bug wiped away her tears with a gentle brushing of his finger before he lowered his head to capture her lips in an extraordinary and devoted kiss.

  The crowd exploded, and the noise brought her tumbling back to earth. She tightened her hold on his neck, and commanded a wild and passionate kiss that left them both breathless. Bubbling with happiness and laughing, she spun to the crowd and tossed her bouquet of garden flowers high in the air.

  Renewed shouts and clapping echoed over the land as the flowers glided high overhead. The wind plucked out a few daisy petals from the clump, and then as if it hit an invisible wall, the bouquet fell.

  Family and friends alike grew silent as the flowers gracefully drifted downward and bounced on the ground near Ma’s feet.

  Ma, eyes transfixed on the flowers, picked up the spray. When her face lifted, a smile grew on her lips. Ma glanced toward Red Elk standing beside her, and then turned and winked at Eva. Laughing out loud Ma held the bouquet over her head.

  The crowd cheered, and Eva turned to Bug, who kissed her quickly before he led her through the mass of people dowsing them with handfuls of wheat. They arrived on the porch, and while Bug brushed the seeds from her hair, she cleaned it away from his broad shoulders. The black suit coat fit him like a glove. Their eyes met, and he kissed her again, bringing more joyous sounds from the crowd.

  The next instant, he reached down and hoisted her up. With one arm under her knees and the other around her back, he turned and carried her into the house.

  “Bug!” she exclaimed, holding on as he kicked the door shut. “What are you doing? We can’t—well, we shouldn’t while everyone is…”

  “God, I love you, Eva girl,” he said and ran a trail of kisses down the side of her face.

  “I love you, too, but…” She couldn’t help but glance to the door again. The yard was full of people.

  It would be extremely rude t
o enclose themselves in the bedroom, especially at four in the afternoon.

  Yet...

  Bug set her down. “Don’t worry, we’ll wait until after the meal.”

  Relieved, yet disappointed, she swayed her torso against his. “Then why did you carry me inside?”

  “Because I want five minutes alone with you.”

  His lips covered hers again. When it came to his kisses, she had no willpower, except that which kept him kissing her until she was lightheaded from lack of oxygen.

  Snuggling deeper in his embrace, she asked, “What did you need?”

  “Need? I have what I need in my arms.”

  “Why are we here then, instead of out there?”

  She tipped her head toward the door.

  “I told you, I want five minutes alone with you.”

  “What for?”

  “For no other reason than to hold you. To know you are truly, finally, mine.”

  “Hmmm,” she mumbled against his chest.

  “Finally.”

  Bug held her for a bit longer and then stepped back. “I also wanted to give you this.” He spun around and pointed to a box sitting on the desk by the door.

  “What is it?” Her fingers trembled as she touched the wood. It was a wooden crate, with a hinged top, more than a foot square.

  His cheeks held a tinge of red. “I’ve been trying to come up with a wedding gift. Something I could give you that you don’t already have. There isn’t anything I can buy, anything I could make that you don’t already have.” He sighed heavily. “The lady I rented from in Pennsylvania sent the things I’d left there.” He nodded toward the box. “That’s pretty much it.”

  Eva lifted the lid. The box was crammed with paper. “Bug, these are letters.”

  “I know.”

  She pulled a few out. “There has to be hundreds of them.”

  “I’d guess close to a thousand. I wrote one almost every day I was gone.”

  The writing on the front of each envelope she picked up made her heart throb. “Are they all addressed to me?”

  “Yes. I wrote to you almost every night.” He stood behind her, talking softly next to her shoulder.

  “Some are about the oil fields, or the people I met.

  Others are about something I’d done or seen and how I wished you were with me to see it as well. But they all tell you how much I love you. How much I missed you. And that I was doing it all for us, so that when I returned I’d be able to financially support a wife and children.”

  She glanced at him, and blinked through the blur. “Why didn’t you ever mail them?”

  “It’s hard to explain. First it was because I was traveling, but then as time went on, it was because I was afraid.”

  “Afraid?”

  “Yes, by then I had already been gone for six months.” He shook his head. “And I got to thinking, what if you found someone else. If that was the case, to mail them wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

  “But, I wrote to you,” she whispered, “and you wrote back.” Once. In three years there had only been one letter from him. She gazed back down at the hundreds of letters. How different things may have been had he sent them.

  “It’s hard to explain, the fear I felt that is. I regret it now, but at the time, I couldn’t get past it.”

  He looped his arms around her waist, flattening his hands over her stomach. “You don’t have to read them. I just wanted you to know that I thought of you every day.”

  She straightened the letters, closed the lid, and then spun around in his arms. “I will read every one, and cherish them always.” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed his lips softly. “Thank you for giving them to me.” She settled a serious gaze on his face. “But everything I have is because of you.”

  He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. You’ve bought it or built it with money you earned from your paintings.”

  She shook her head. “In one way or another, you’ve given me everything I have.”

  He frowned. “How so?”

  “Most importantly, you gave me three children when I thought I’d never have any, but furthermore, when you left I was despondent. I painted a picture of you riding away, of how you’d looked back over your shoulder at me.” To this day the picture she spoke of was carved in her memory. “Willamina said you’d like to see that one. Her words struck me, and from that day on I started painting everything I saw—for you. I wanted to capture everything that happened so when you returned you could see it.

  Whether it was a glorious sunset, or a peddler who’d stopped by, I painted it for you.”

  “You did?”

  “When Jack arrived the barn loft was full.” She shrugged. “There are still several out there that I wouldn’t let him take. They are for you.” Looking around, she added, “Even when it came to building this house. I had it built so you would have a home ready and waiting. It’s not my house, Bug, it’s ours.

  They aren’t my paintings, they’re ours. Right down to the oil well. It’s not mine, it’s ours. That’s how I’ve always felt. I wasn’t doing any of it for me. I was doing it for us.” She cupped his cheeks. “The only reason I agreed to go to the art show in New York was because I thought I might see you.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded. “And when I did—”

  His lips stopped her from finishing. When the kiss ended, he said, “Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We have no regrets, just promises of a wonderful life together.”

  “You’re right,” she agreed. “A wonderful, wonderful life.” Once again, she kissed him, demonstrating just how much he meant to her.

  Unfortunately, their time alone was interrupted by the echoes of people going in and out the back door. “I guess we better join the party,” Bug said, drawing his mouth from hers.

  “Yes, we better,” she agreed and took his hand to be led into the kitchen.

  Randi was instructing a throng of people which container to carry and where to place it outdoors where Hog had been tending to a large side of beef over a smoldering pit since the wee hours of the morning.

  Bug paused in the doorway, holding Eva’s hand firmly in his. The turmoil filling his life the past month was over. “Need any help in here?” he asked.

  “Of course not, we have it all under control.”

  Randi waved a hand. “You two go enjoy your guests.”

  The party lasted for hours, and was great fun, but to Bug, the event should have ended ten minutes after it started. He and Eva shared their first married meal with all of the guests, they cut and fed each other wedding cake, per Lila’s instructions, and they partook in several dances when the music started. It was torture. Pure and simple.

  Before the sun started to set, people began to leave. Bug gladly hitched and harnessed horses by the dozens, and waved gaily as the crowd dispersed.

  It was mainly family clearing up the front yard of makeshift tables and benches when a wagon rolled down the road.

  “Who could that be?” Kid asked as he carried the other end of the stack of planks to the barn.

  “I don’t know,” Bug answered, “But they’re too late for the festivities, so they best just turn around.”

  Kid laughed. “A little anxious there, little brother?”

  “Yes,” Bug admitted without misgivings. He backed into the barn to unload the last of the boards on top of the large pile. “It’s about time the rest of you left, too.”

  Laughing, Kid slapped his back. “We’re going.

  But you know the women won’t leave until everything’s cleaned up.”

  “Yes, I know,” Bug said. “Why do you think I’m helping?” Shaking his head, he added, “You know, Kid, every one of you, you, Skeeter, Snake, and Hog, got married in the blink of an eye. I’ve been trying to get the deed done for three years.”

  Kid nodded and hooked an arm around Bug’s neck. “You got a point there, little
brother.”

  As they walked back out the barn door, Bug’s feet dug into the dirt. Kid stopped beside him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Bug couldn’t talk. His tongue was stuck on the roof of his mouth, and his heart thumped in his heels.

  “Mr. Quinter!” Mrs. King, looking as fierce as her fat lady companion from the train, stomped toward the barn.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “There are rules, Mr. Quinter, and laws. What you’ve done is illegal!” Mrs. King insisted. “It’s called kidnapping.”

  Bug glanced around the kitchen. Every female in his family had something to say about Mrs. King’s remark. The Aid Society worker ignored the voices and glared at him.

  “I didn’t kidnap anyone,” he offered, solemnly, for he knew he hadn’t followed any of the society’s rules when it came to how he’d obtained the children. But the way the society went about auctioning them off was a hell of a lot worse than what he’d done. Yet, he knew he couldn’t say that. It wouldn’t matter even if he did, since he’d already said as much while on the train, but he didn’t need to increase Mrs. King’s anger.

  Eva stood from where she sat on a chair in front of him. “Mrs. King,” Eva said kindly. “Perhaps you and Bug and I, as well as the Porters could discuss this more comfortably in the parlor.”

  Ma’s huff echoed in the room that had gone silent as soon as Eva stood up. The sound didn’t seem to affect his new wife. She smiled at Ma.

  “Perhaps you’d help the others watch the children for a few minutes. Mrs. King’s arrival has Tucker, Reed, and Heather extremely upset. They are outside with September.” She turned to Jack then.

  “Elliott was supposed to be at the wedding today. I didn’t see him. Could you ride to town and see what prevented his attendance?”

  Jack nodded and was out the door the next second. Eva turned to Randi then. “Is there any punch left? Perhaps Mrs. King would like a glass?”

  Bug’s head was swirling. Mrs. King wanted to take their kids away, and Eva was offering her punch? She twisted just then, and the serene smile on her face settled his nerves. She had a plan—knew what she was doing.