The Bridal Promise

by Virginia Dove

  “Get in,” he said.

  Lida Kell scrambled awkwardly onto the passenger seat of the pickup, her usual glamorous self a soggy mess. “Thanks, Matt,” she said breathlessly. “That was a scary one. I’m pretty sure it’s just the battery, but the hail cracked my windshield. I’m grateful to you for stopping.”

  The brutal hailstorm had forced images of Cadie once more onto his shoulders. Matt had felt the need to get out and drive once the hail had quit. Just as he had had to stop and offer assistance when he’d found her. A woman alone in a storm would always tear at him. Even if it is Lida Kell, he thought, as he grimly resumed the drive to his own residence on the Ransom place.

  Lida chattered nonstop about some property out by Spirit Lake. She had met a buyer out there, if he’d caught that part correctly. Anyway, he had come upon her car practically in the ditch. The wrong place at the wrong time, he mused.

  Matt now thoroughly regretted that he had gone out to the lake to think. He should have stayed home. But something was not quite right with Perri, and it was gnawing at him.

  Of course, a large part of it was that they hadn’t had sex since their wedding night. It was obviously the lack of sex after such a night that was getting to him. After all, he didn’t have any emotions, any finer feelings left in him. It certainly couldn’t be love for Perry; just a potent blend of lust and business.

  The storm-whipped water had been a sight. It had helped him immensely to witness the turmoil. The lake had looked the way he was feeling about the situation with his wife. It wasn’t serious, of course. It was just that Matt hadn’t touched her in too long.

  Here, he had gone out of his way for a whole month to be considerate and polite, and Perri still hadn’t come around. And now the local spider woman was going to destroy his reflective mood. He smiled briefly at Lida to convince her he was listening.

  Matt had noted long ago that Lida Kell was not an intelligent woman. She was however, bulldog tenacious. She had, at one time on her journey through life, come upon that famous quote about persistence paying and had taken it to heart. She had figured correctly that her looks, coupled with a will of iron, were her strongest approach.

  Now at the ripe old age of twenty-eight, she seemed to care about proving she could be something other that an intricately designed, prettily polished toy. And she was just stupid enough and brazen enough to be very dangerous.

  She’d gotten her real estate agent’s license shortly after her divorce. Matt shuddered at the thought. Lida seemed hell-bent to establish herself as a player responsible for turning Spirit Valley into even more of a bedroom community, further leeching vitality from the town. She probably already had planned which power suit she was going to wear to the closing if Gannie’s land got turned over to the developers. The woman tended to keep her eye on the essentials.

  If Matt couldn’t stop her, he imagined she’d see to it that the condo’s parking lot and dumpsite spilled over into his pasture. She had not been best pleased when he had declined her generous, sexual offer after Cadie’s death. Matt had politely explained that he didn’t mess with married women. Especially not women married to men he had known since kindergarten.

  Even if he hadn’t been dead set against it, it brought thoughts of his grandfather and the old scandal too much to mind. He had tactfully refrained from telling Lida it was also because she made him feel even more dead inside than he already did.

  He now made an effort to tune the woman in, as he realized she was chattering on about Gannie’s project. And about Perri. Matt was struck once again by the way she giggled. She sounded almost exactly like his late wife. He took a deep breath, convinced this short but wearying drive from the lake was carrying him closer to sainthood.

  I don’t suppose I could just shoot her, he thought ruefully. “Come on in, Lida,” Matt said, pulling up by his front porch, “and dry off. When the storm quits, we’ll see about your car.”

  Five

  “I guess you missed the hail. At least you’d better tell me you missed it,” Matt said evenly as he met Perri on his front porch. “It was heavy. I’d like to think you wouldn’t try to drive through something like that.”

  As she smiled and came forward to kiss him, Matt realized how much her pulling away had left him needing to see her here. To witness Perri willingly striding toward him on Ransom land. Her ability to retreat from him, to regain her distance, had left him feeling rather desperate. He braced himself and tried not to think of how desperate he was to get through the next five minutes.

  I hope I’m not intruding,” she said as she shivered in the chilly wind. “The weather was so weird, I kept driving in from Oklahoma City just to see what it would do. Mom sends her best, by the way. Anyway, when I got past Gledhill, I thought I’d stop by for a minute.” Perri halted abruptly. She was babbling. “I did miss the hail, Matt,” she added, smiling up at him. “But it’s been so long since I’ve driven through a bright, sunny rainstorm, I just had to be out in it. I’d forgotten how pretty it could be.

  “Look,” she continued, running her hand up to the collar of his shirt, “I don’t want to impose on your work. I just thought if you would like to invite your father over for dinner—”

  Perri’s voice tapered off as she heard Lida Kell struggle with a fit of the giggles through the open front door. Her gaze moved beyond Matt for a more thorough inspection. Perri’s mouth twitched once before she set her features into neutral. “Hello, Lida,” she said politely.

  Something in her tone, coupled with the knowing look in those pretty eyes, had his head whipping around. Matt’s features sharpened. He watched helplessly as Lida slowly made it to the screen door, clearly naked except for one of his shirts.

  “Oops,” Lida said with a smirk and another giggle, as Matt’s grip on his wife tightened.

  Fury pounded through him for an instant before it was replaced by patient weariness. “Your timing is perfect,” he sighed, returning his gaze to Perri. “If you’ll bring her out to the lake when she’s decent, by the time you get there, I should have her battery recharged. Don’t say it,” Matt ordered, squeezing her, as Perri bit back a retort about Lida ever being “decent” and “recharging batteries.”

  “And watch her while she dresses, will you? Check her purse, if you can,” he murmured. kissing her cheek. “Now don’t start!” he ordered when he felt her begin to break up.

  “Please don’t make me watch her dress,” Perri begged as she battled for composure. “Anything but that!”

  “She’s asked too many questions about the project,” Matt whispered. “I don’t want to find a disk missing on that survey work we just had done, okay?” He patted Perri’s bottom before heading for his pickup. “Oh, and darlin’,” he added casually as he rounded the cab. “Toss that shirt she’s wearing in the trash for me, will you?”

  It doesn’t matter, she told herself. All that matters is the baby and the land. Perri emphasized each thought with the slam of a pot or pan. She paused from stirring the chili con queso, made from scratch, and turned to take the chili cheese ball out of the fridge.

  Obviously she hadn’t been thinking to make them both. But, hey, she hadn’t killed Lida Kell either. Matt would just have to live on cheese for one night. She was in such a mood.

  What she had really not been in the mood for, of course, was the sight of Lida’s fabulously tanned, silky smooth body in one of Matt’s shirts. And now, she was really in no mood to discuss impending parenthood with the father-to-be.

  “It doesn’t matter what he wants or what he thinks, or how he feels about it,” she said out loud to the lonely kitchen. She slammed the chili cheese ball onto a platter. “It can’t matter. All that matters is the baby.”

  Pouring the con queso into an electric fondue pot, Perri practically threw the ancient pan into the sink. “I want it to matter,” she declared through tensely gritted teeth. “I want it to matter to him. I want it to matter that I’m his wife. That I’m the one having his child.

/>   “Don’t you dare make it easy, Perri Ransom,” she lectured herself. “You made it easy on Leila. That’s half of what’s got you steamed now, isn’t it? Too much the lady, the good daughter, to fight that witch full out. Well, now you’ve got something worth fighting for. You’ve got a marriage,” she scolded herself, “such as it is, and a baby coming.”

  Crossing to turn the steaks in their marinade, she absently checked the temperature gauge outside the kitchen window. It really had dropped twenty-five degrees in two hours. Welcome to Tornado Alley, she reflected. That’s when she saw him. Perri had to remind herself to breathe.

  Matt took a good, wary look at his wife before centering his attention upon the lethal-looking red football on the kitchen counter. “What is that thing?” he inquired, fascinated in spite of himself.

  “A chili cheese ball,” Perri enunciated as she practically threw a bag of tortilla chips at him.

  “Oh good Lord.”

  “So don’t eat it,” she replied curtly. “Instead, perhaps you could tell me if Lida was a strategy to get me off the dime. Because it more or less worked.”

  “Lida was dressed when she excused herself to use the facilities and I headed out onto the porch to greet you, Perri,” he replied. The truth was he wouldn’t touch Lida Kell with a pitchfork. “And besides, you didn’t seem too upset,” Matt pointed out as he grabbed a bowl and opened the chips.

  “As I recall, you were close to laughing the whole time I worked on her battery.” He couldn’t help but smile. “I must say, hon,” he added, “I admired the way you managed to annoy her while remaining so very ladylike about it. That was quite a sight.”

  “And you were expecting what, Matt?” she demanded. “A catfight at the OK Corral? Please. You would never shame me that way. Nor would you willingly bring someone like that onto your own place.”

  “Thank you,” he said, his attention focused solely on Perri. In the stillness she created he studied her, savoring a sense of relief. She understood about Lida. And that was the only thing that mattered.

  Suddenly he knew. He just knew, with absolute certainty why she had been hanging onto herself so hard. Matt’s nostrils flared like a stallion’s as his body went on the alert. He could almost scent the truth. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you, Perri?” he asked quietly, mirroring her repose.

  “Yes, Matt, I am,” she said, head high, eyes meeting his.

  He moved with deceptive speed. But even when he had her pinned to the door of the fridge, Perri never broke his gaze or registered any alarm. She silently gave in to his greater strength, absorbing it. Matt palmed her chin, pressing the back of her head into the shiny surface of the door. He saw Perri witness his momentary flash of triumph before he quickly damped it down.

  In the stillness, the truth in her was palpable. Matt didn’t want to injure that. He would have to be very careful with her and with his own rage, he reasoned, He held his emotions and body in check like a bronc ready to burst from the chute. “Why haven’t you told me?” His tone was low and savage.

  Matt watched as puzzlement drifted through the emerald shards in Perri’s eyes, just before she lost all patience with him.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Matt, you can count! How long do you think I’ve even suspected I should buy a home test? ‘Why haven’t you told me?’” she mimicked. “What do you think I was doing on your doorstep this afternoon? What else would be important enough for me to interrupt your work?” she demanded.

  She looked right at him and barreled on. “Would you have preferred I brought the matter up in front of Lida?” she demanded, her hands moving to his biceps. “Should I have waited until after I had her stuffed back into that ridiculous suit? Or would you have been overjoyed if I’d gone ahead and given you the news when she was standing just about naked at your front door? Are you questioning my—”

  “Okay!” Matt slapped both palms against the door on either side of her head. He caged her, breathing hard. “When do you see the doctor?” he demanded.

  “In two days,” she stated flatly.

  “You’re going tomorrow,” he volleyed back.

  “I’m going in two days,” she repeated, getting more annoyed. “By then my medical records should be here. It can wait two days to confirm the home test, Matt.”

  Matt stared deeply into her eyes. The woman didn’t seem to have enough sense to be afraid of him. “You are taking perfect care of this baby, understand?” It was an intimidation.

  “Well of course I am,” she said in exasperation. “Matt, it will be fine. Women have been having babies for some time now.”

  “And women have been having miscarriages. Just as women have been having abortions,” he answered, grabbing her shoulders. “And you’re not having one this time. Do you hear me? This time you are having my baby.” He couldn’t help but shake her, just once to make his point. “Don’t even think about taking that road again, Perri.”

  “What are you talking about?” she demanded, suddenly suspicious. She grabbed onto his shirt. It was clear now that more was driving him than she had realized or anticipated.

  “I’m not talking. I’m telling you. You aren’t having an abortion this time,” he stated in cold, clipped tones. “You’re having my baby. Don’t even think about an alternative.”

  “Of course I’m not having an abortion. I would never have an abortion, Matt,” her voice filled with hurt and bewilderment “You ought to know that. It’s taken me this long to get married and pregnant. You needn’t act as if you have to demand that I go through with this pregnancy. I’m having this baby, with or without you. Matt!” she yelped as this time his fingers dug into her jaw.

  Her response was shaking him. Matt could almost feel the floor turn to dust under his feet. The foundation on which he had built the last twelve years was finally called into question. “Perri, so help me. Don’t lie to me! Not now,” he ordered, his tone murderous. “I know you aborted my baby after you settled in Raleigh—”

  “What are you talking about?” She slapped his hands away as her fury took hold. “I would never abort a baby.”

  “I know how young you were and I can understand—”

  “There’s nothing for you to understand except that that is a lie!” she shouted. “You always took care of protection, Matt. You were very careful with me. Don’t you remember?” The truth in her words seemed to finally reach this stranger who still had her pinned. “Where did you get this ridiculous notion that I was ever pregnant at seventeen?”

  Her query froze him into an animal-like stillness. That she would get so exasperated led him to think. “My mother,” he answered hoarsely. His mother. He had never examined the source.

  Perri froze, as Matt’s statement clicked into place. “Of course,” she whispered as the realization hit home. It took her a moment to continue. She looked him right in the eye and willed the truth into her voice. “It never happened, Matt,” she declared solemnly. “I swear it.”

  And he believed her. “You’re telling me you didn’t abort our child twelve years ago?” he asked carefully, his voice dried out by shock. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what would haunt him more: If the woman caged in his arms was lying to him or telling him the truth. Either way, there was no turning back now.

  “I wasn’t pregnant twelve years ago,” she stated simply, fighting through her sorrow. “I’ve never been pregnant in my life.”

  The truth was too close to the surface for him not to see it. Matt released Perri and pushed off the refrigerator door. He had to get away from her, and from Gledhill, before his rage tore apart what was left between them.

  But first, he took the time to really look at her in the stillness. Then he grimly turned and headed for his pickup.

  Matt was pulling out before she could bring herself to breathe. Perri remained still and absorbed the soft, reassuring hum of the refrigerator against her back. It felt almost human. Certainly more human than the savage eyes that had pinned her to its door.

&nbs
p; Where could he go, he wondered. Where? For once in his life, Matt stopped at every stop sign and stoplight on his way through Spirit Valley. Each stop was punctuated with the same question: Where could he go? Where could he take the tempest within him to play it out with the least destruction?

  He was driving through the entrance to the cemetery and parking in front of a gray marble bench, before he knew what hit him. Matt figured it probably said something important that he found himself drawn to Gannie’s grave instead of one of his blood kin. But he just wasn’t the type of man to dwell upon whatever the significance might be.

  He bent down by the curb to uproot some weeds that the mower had missed. Matt reluctantly lifted his eyes for a moment and sighed before focusing back on the curb. Today was not the first time that the view from the center of the cemetery had left him feeling choked and suffocated.

  This part of Oklahoma was so flat. Usually the flatness caused a mirage, fooling the observer into thinking everything was a great distance away. But for the moment in the crisp, chilly air the town, the grain elevator and the Interstate all seemed to rise up and shadow the graves. The spirits of Spirit Valley seemed to call out: “This, then, is the result of your toil.”

  Cold summer wind marked this day as out of the ordinary. Normally, it was hot enough to scald the brain. San Francisco weather, he thought idly just before the truth hit him. He stood up abruptly and faced the newly laid stone. “You knew!” he whispered to Gannie’s grave. “You knew she was never pregnant.”

  And so should have you, Matt, came the thought in answer to his discovery. Well. He hunkered back down to the curb, stunned. Anyone passing would have witnessed one of the Ransoms pulling weeds by Gannie’s grave and thought nothing of it. Other than to admire the industry. The man whose strong hands tidied up the curb did not resemble someone reviewing the consequences of never having sought out the truth for himself.