Maggie Meets Her Match

by McLeod, Dinah

Joshua was looking straight ahead, at what I didn’t know, and didn’t even look my way when we approached.

  It was Wesley who caught his attention by clearing his throat. “Howdy there, Joshua.”

  When he turned, his eyes were so dark they looked like pools of spilled ink. “Wesley,” he replied evenly. “What brings y’all to these parts?”

  The shiver of delight that had run over my body when I saw his familiar face was turning cold. Why didn’t he look at me?

  “Maggie thought to have a word.”

  When his eyes flickered to me, they didn’t seem familiar at all. All the laughter and warmth had been drained out of his face until he looked like nothing more than a cold, hard shell of the man I’d been courting. “Howdy, Maggie.”

  I felt a fist clench in my chest. I couldn’t remember him ever speaking so coolly to me before. Didn’t he still care for me? “Hello, Joshua. I… I wanted to see you.”

  His grin came quick as ever, though his eyes glinted meanly. “Lots o’ folks come to see me nowadays. What’s one more?” He leaned over and spat after he spoke.

  I stumbled backwards, shoved by the wall of his indifference that rose up to meet me. “Since when am I just somebody? I thought we… I thought I was special to you.”

  “That you are, darlin’.”

  “Then why—” I stopped abruptly when I realized he was laughing at me. I flushed hotly and felt the warmth rushing through me. “What the devil is the matter with you?” I snapped.

  I felt Wesley jerk my arm, but I didn’t look at him. “Shush, Maggie.”

  “Don’t trouble yourself, Wesley,” Joshua drawled. “I rather like ‘er with a bit of backbone.”

  I was trembling from head to toe, though whether from anger or otherwise, I couldn’t be sure. “Is it true?”

  He met my eyes without blinking and I did my best not to flinch away from the coldness in his gray depths. “Why would you go and ask me a thing like that for? I s’pose it’s what everyone’s been askin’, but I reckoned you’d know better, Miz Maggie.”

  “We’re supposed to be getting married!” I said through clenched teeth. “Don’t you think I have a right to know?” I felt Wesley stiffen beside me, but Joshua’s laughter told me plain that my brother was none too happy at the news.

  “Well, that isn’t goin’ to happen anymore, is it, sweetheart? I already spoke to your pa and he reckons it’d be bad for the family name if you was to take up with an accused criminal.” He spat the word out, along with more spittle.

  I felt my bones stiffen inside my body until I thought they would break. What was he saying? I’d never known he’d come to Pa. My father certainly hadn’t thought it important enough to mention it to me if he had. “This will all get settled,” I said stubbornly. “And then things can go back to the way they were.”

  “The only way this is gonna be settled is with a bullet, darlin’.”

  I swallowed over a throat that felt as dry as sawdust. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

  “Maggie.” Wesley was tugging on my arm, but I only had eyes for Joshua.

  “If something else is going on, I need you to tell me! I believe in you, Joshua!”

  He smiled faintly. “I reckon you always will, won’tcha, Maggie?”

  “I—” I spluttered, so ruffled by his detached manner. Before I could make a reply to the question we both knew the answer to, there was a ripple of commotion behind us that I couldn’t ignore. When I turned around, I found myself face-to-face with Patrick Harris.

  He tipped his hat to me, though his face remained taut and determined. “Howdy, Maggie.”

  I knew it was rude, but my mind couldn’t form a reply and I doubted my mouth could reply if it did, so I only stared.

  “Joshua,” he acknowledged, turning his attention to my beau who met his gaze head-on.

  “What can I do for you, Pat?” he asked lazily, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “I want you to do the right thing by my sister, who’s carryin’ your bastard. Failing that, I reckon I want you to take a bullet to the heart.”

  “Oh, ho!” Joshua remarked. “And you mean to give it to me, is that right?”

  “That’s right,” he replied tightly.

  I looked back and forth between them, my heart hammering so loudly in my ears I thought I would deafen from it.

  “What’ll it be, Joshua? Do you intend to do the honorable thing?”

  Joshua didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest by every eye on town being on him. Rather, he seemed to bask in the attention. “Honorable,” he repeated, leaning over to spit as though it’d left a bad taste in his mouth. “There wouldn’t be anythin’ honorable about marryin’ your sister, Pat. We both know that.”

  Patrick lunged for Joshua, but before he could get to him, my brother was holding him back.

  “Easy there, Pat,” my brother was saying. “You’ll have your satisfaction.”

  “Get your hands off me,” he growled.

  “Go and cool off a spell,” my brother advised. “You’ll get your chance.”

  Patrick wrestled free and stood squaring off with my brother, huffing angrily. Wes didn’t give an inch. “I reckon he meant to be your brother-in-law, but I can’t stand by idle while he does this to my sister.”

  “Settle things the honorable way, like you said.”

  “So be it. I challenge you, Joshua, to a shoot-out here tomorrow at noon. Bring a doc. You’re gonna need ‘im.” Pat sent Joshua a murderous glance before nodding tightly at Wesley. Tipping his cap once more in my direction, he stomped off.

  As soon as he’d stepped away, I heard the buzzing of wagging tongues begin again, louder than before. Joshua had watched the entire exchange without a flicker of emotion on his handsome face.

  My heart was hammering hard enough it was like to kill me. It was some minutes before I could turn back to him and even longer before I could speak. “Is the Harris girl really… in a family way?” I persisted.

  “Her brother certainly seems to think she is,” he replied.

  “But why would Pat say you had a thing to do with it? I know you would never—” Before I’d finished speaking, that same impish, mocking smile sprang to his lips again, making me come up short.

  “Did or didn’t don’t make a lick of difference now. I suggest you get on home and don’t get caught talkin’ to me. Enough folks has seen you as it is.”

  “Will you come to the house?” I asked impulsively, stepping toward him with my hands clasped in front of me.

  “Think of your reputation, Maggie. Folks wouldn’t like it none if they knew—”

  “I don’t care what people think! All I care about is you!”

  “I think we best be goin’ home,” Wesley said, taking my arm once more.

  “Leave me be,” I snapped, shaking him loose. “Joshua, please. Promise you’ll come.”

  His eyes slid to my brother and his grin widened. “Alright, Maggie. I’ll come ‘round later on after noon.”

  I nodded gratefully and would have said goodbye if Wesley hadn’t pulled me away. I could hear Joshua’s low, rumbling laughter following us down the dirt road. “What’d you do that for?” I asked, trying to tug free of his iron grip.

  “You shouldn’t be makin’ plans with him, he’s lookin’ as guilty as sin.”

  “We don’t know that Lydia Harris really is expecting. Why, she could have made up the tale! And even if she is, that doesn’t make it his!”

  Wesley had never looked so grim. “We’ll talk about this later, alright? We best get home.”

  Just then, I noticed a gaggle of women had stopped to stare. Their eyes were following our every step and the thought that they had heard me made my cheeks flush with shame. I tried to smile at them, but no one returned the kindness. Instead, they looked away, covering their mouths, though it couldn’t quite muffle their animated whispers back and forth.

  Even when I turned away, I could still feel their curious eyes burning into
my back. Unable to get their judgmental faces out of my mind, I sat stock-still no matter how hard the buggy jostled me. I heard their vile whispers following me with the wind and strained to hear. But like their voices, the wind whipped by too fast for me to make out the particulars, touching my ear just long enough for me to know they were laughing at me.

  Wesley led me back to the buggy without so much as glancing at the mercantile. I didn’t fight him or try to protest—I was weak as a rag doll.

  We’d been on the road for home for a while before I even looked at him. His mouth was set in a tight line that looked permanently etched into his face.

  “What do you think is going to happen?” I asked quietly, breaking the silence that had fallen between us.

  “Can’t say I know for sure,” he said, and I could feel his eyes on me even though I was avoiding his. “I reckon all that can happen is someone is gonna get shot.”

  “And you think…”

  “I don’t rightly know, Mags. Pat… why, you know he’s the best shot…”

  In all of Texas, I finished silently, having heard it many times before. “Why does it have to be like this?” I burst out. “Why can’t they just… talk it out or something that doesn’t involve spilling blood?”

  Wesley guffawed. “Talkin’ is women’s business, I s’pose that’s why. Why, you wouldn’t know any of this if not for women’s gossip.”

  “But it was your gossip that I heard, brother dear.”

  Wesley shook his head at me. “Don’t sass, Maggie. You best curb your tongue when we get home, you know Pa won’t stand for it.”

  How well I knew. I bowed my head demurely, all the fight plain shocked out of me.

  “No matter what happens, Mags… you know you’ve got us. Me and Trent. And one day… well, one day, there will be someone else.”

  Even if I hadn’t known it before, his words left no doubt that he gave Joshua up as a goner. If I were honest with myself, I could admit that’s what everyone would think. Even a small part of me already mourned, hard as I tried to silence it.

  “No,” I replied brokenly. “No, Wesley, there won’t ever be anyone else for me.”

  Chapter One

  Texas, 1869

  The feeling of his warm, eager hands as they roved the length of my body left me dizzy with desire. They fit around me as easily as if his hands were made to span my waist. The gentle, insistent touch of his fingers awakened every nerve until my entire body was standing on end and humming with eagerness.

  This is what a wedding night is supposed to feel like, I thought, suddenly not quite as scared as I’d been only moments ago. The look in Joshua’s eyes told me that he wanted me and nothing could be quite so wonderful as that. There was nothing to be afraid of, so long as he was here.

  Almost as though he’d read my thoughts, he pulled me into his strong arms. “Shh. You’re shiverin’, darlin’. Are you catching cold?” He laughed before I had a chance to answer, hugging me tightly against him. “Don’t worry. I’ll warm ya right up.”

  Pressed against the heat of his body, I felt my knees give way. I had hardly dared believe that this day would come, even though I’d never given up hope.

  Joshua held me up and began exploring with urgency as he pressed kisses to the nape of my neck. “I want to see your hair down,” he murmured, his mouth pressed to my ear.

  I shivered from the warmth of his breath and lifted my hands to obey. I felt a smile teasing the corners at my mouth from the hungry look in his dark eyes. When I pulled the last pin free, letting it slip through my fingers with not a care for where it fell, I heard his low whistle.

  “You’re a sight.”

  I stepped toward him, reaching out a hand, but before I could touch him, I heard the thunder of a gunshot. I swiveled my head wildly, trying to figure out where it had come from. “What the devil?” I gasped. When I turned back to Joshua, I was stunned to see a hole in his chest.

  “Maggie,” he ground out, reaching for me.

  I cried out as I wrapped my arms around him, right before his knees gave way, pulling us both to the floor. “Joshua! What—what happened?”

  “Always knew… they were gonna get me. One way… or another.”

  “This isn’t happening,” I whispered fiercely. “We’re married now, this isn’t supposed to happen!” I was scared at how pale his face had become. “Joshua?” When he didn’t answer, I shook his shoulder. “Joshua?”

  His gray eyes were wide open, staring up at me, but he didn’t blink.

  I drew my hand back and fisted it over my mouth to muffle my screams without caring that it was slick and red with blood.

  * * *

  “Maggie? Are you alright?”

  “What?” I gasped, waking with a start.

  “You alright?” Wes repeated, staring down at me. “You were bellowin’ like a tomcat shot to pieces.”

  “Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… to wake you.”

  “It’s alright. Almost sunup anyway.” He was looking at me oddly. “That same nightmare again?”

  “Yes,” I admitted, still trying to catch my breath and calm my racing heart.

  “You’ve never said what it’s about.”

  “It’s silly, nothing to worry yourself over. I’m sorry.”

  “Alright, well… I reckon we best get up then.”

  I nodded my agreement and watched as he walked away, feeling the frantic pulse jumping in my wrist. It was just a dream, I told myself. That same old dream.

  Of course, none of that stuff had ever happened. I hadn’t married Joshua, had never seen him again after that day in town, in fact. He’d promised to come see me that very day, but even though I’d stayed rooted on the porch from the time Wesley and I had gotten home, he’d never showed. Whether that had been his intention all along, or he’d gotten held up, I’d never know. It was a question that had plagued me many a night. Still did, it seemed like.

  I’d never seen him shot, either. For all I knew, Joshua was still alive. It was a hope that I’d carried with me all these long years since the nightmare had begun. My pa wouldn’t allow me to go, and when the men returned I was so fearful for him, but as it turned out, Joshua had never shown his face at all. They’d waited and waited, but he hadn’t come and the riders sent down to his farm said his mother hadn’t seen him. No one had seen him since, either.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t have cared after everything that happened and all the time that had passed since I’d seen him last, but I did. A part of my heart would always belong to Joshua—the rest felt empty and hollow. I’d always be glad to think of him alive out there somewhere. Maybe there were times when he even thought of me.

  With a sigh, I swung my legs over the side of my bed and stood up. Better get to the kitchen—Mama had most likely already beat me there. If I was lucky, she wouldn’t have heard my screams and I wouldn’t have to answer any questions. I couldn’t lie to Mama as easily as I could to my brothers—she wouldn’t give me the chance by asking a question. All she had to do was look at me to know what I was thinking, or so it seemed to me. She knew I’d never stopped pining for him, no matter how much time had passed. While she might despair of having a grown daughter who wasn’t even courting, she never said so.

  Right after the shoot-out that never was, Patrick Harris had come riding out to the farm to see me. He’d suggested, calm as you please, that he should court me! After all the man had put me through, his audacity nearly shocked me into speechlessness. Almost.

  When I’d seen him standing there, his hat in his hands as he waited for me in the parlor, the breath had come rushing out of me in a whoosh. I’d known him since we were children; we’d even been friends, once, but that had been a long time ago and now, the sight of him made me sick to my stomach. If not for him, I wouldn’t be a spinster at nineteen years old. Why, I’d be Joshua’s wife and soon a mother. Instead, my dreams had been dashed and I had Patrick to thank for that.

  “Maggie.” He’d swept his hat off t
he minute he’d seen me come into the room. “You’re looking well.”

  My emotions were in such a jumble that I responded with an unladylike snort of laughter. It struck me as uncommonly funny that he should be here, in my home, after all he cost me. Besides which, if there was a word for how I looked, it wasn’t well. “What the devil brought you over here, Patrick?” I’d asked.

  “Maggie.” My father spoke in that quiet, stiff way he had that told me I was about to cross a line.

  “Beggin’ your pardon. Might I ask what brings you this way? It’s a good ride from your own place.”

  “Not so bad,” he remarked. It was plain to see that he was uneasy in the face of my forced civility.

  “Would you be wantin’ a glass of tea?”

  “Thank you kindly, but no.” He cut his eyes at my pa before looking at me once more. “I was actually hopin’ you might like to go for a stroll?”

  It was too familiar, and yet, this tall ox of a man was not Joshua. “Certainly,” I told him without a trace of a smile.

  “Bring her back before sundown,” Pa cautioned.

  “Yes, sir,” Patrick replied, his voice sounding so steady and sure that I envied him his normal life.

  I thought to myself that we’d be back long before that, if I had my way, but I didn’t say so. Patrick opened the door and I slid outside, into a world that, for how much it had changed, looked remarkably familiar.

  “Hardly a cloud in sight,” he crowed, as though he’d had something to do with it.

  “Hmm,” I remarked noncommittally. We didn’t get much further before I stopped in my tracks, turning to face him. “Is there a reason you’re here, Patrick?”

  He walked toward me, closing the distance between us. “Remember when you use’ta call me Pat?”

  I eyed him warily. “‘Course I do.”

  “I miss it,” he admitted. “I haven’t, er, seen you around town lately. ‘Cept for church, but then you’re usually with…”

  Joshua, I filled in silently. I nodded; if he was waiting for me to say something, he would need to get used to being disappointed. I’d had to, after all.