Tully turned to Violet as she rushed forward, his palms up defending himself. “Violet, I swear I didn’t invite them to our wedding.”
“That’s good because there isn’t going to be another wedding between us! You can take off for Wyoming right now,” Violet hissed, trying to wipe the tears off her cheeks at the same time.
“Violet, calm down,” Rusty put his arm around her tense shoulders. “I invited the Chaney’s to your wedding, not Tully.”
Violet’s posture dropped in shock, and she looked up at her father in confusion.
“Why? How…do you know them?” And do you know I know them?
“We’ve sent Richard a few photos of you over the years since he was kind enough to let us raise you. He wrote when you visited his family the first time two years ago, wondering if we knew you had done so.
“We waited for you to say something, but you didn’t, thinking it would hurt us.”
“And it did. I’m so sorry, Papa.” Violet chortled because her throat was clogged with tears now.
The Chaney family stood there, probably not knowing what to say or do with her outburst.
Someone gently placed a handkerchief in her hand, and Violet turned to see it was her mother, now standing beside her.
“It’s all right, Violet. I knew they were coming, but it…took me a minute to get over the shock of seeing your sisters. You three are as much alike as the Brenner triplets.”
Then her mother stepped forward to greet the family.
“Hello, thank you for coming. We thought this was a way for us all to meet and clear the air so to speak for Violet.”
Richard held out his right hand to shake Faye’s while keeping his other hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Thank you for inviting us, Faye and Rusty,” Richard said acknowledging both her parents.
“This is my wife, Bonnie, and our daughters, Alice and Emma.”
Violet stood in shock as the two groups met. Her two families, unknown to each other before now, were meeting for the first time.
How brave her mother was to tell her in-laws now about Violet’s father and family. Grandpa and Grandma Tucker were visibly shocked, but cordially greeted Violet’s other family.
“Violet, we also brought my mother, Eugenia, who you haven’t met yet. She lives in Illinois but just arrived the day before to spend a month with us,” Richard said, pulling an older woman to his side.
“Ma, this is your granddaughter, Violet,” Richard said merely.
Violet gained another link to her past in that instant, and it was as if Violet was seeing herself in the mirror fifty years from now. The resemblance between them was striking.
Violet felt a hand on her shoulder, and she knew it was Tully’s. She reached up to put her hand over his and looked back at him.
“I’m sorry,” Violet whispered.
“No need, Violet. You just got a shock, and I was closest to hit,” Tully said, but he pulled his hand off her shoulder and stepped back.
“Shall we gather your luggage and move over to the hotel now? You can all freshen up in your rooms, then we can visit over lunch,” Rusty talked to the crowd.
“Mama, are you all right?” Violet asked her mother when the two faced each other again.
“Yes, I am. It was time the Tuckers knew the rest of my past, and I’m anxious to get to know Bonnie and her girls. I think you three girls need to go over to Fergus’ photography studio today and have your portrait taken together.
“I still can’t believe how much you three look alike,” Faye chuckled. “I can’t wait until your aunt Sarah meets them. But I hope you get along better than Sarah, and I did when we first met. Oh, we were spitting cats at times until Cate straightened us out.”
“Really…I didn’t know that about you and Aunt Sarah. I’ve always enjoyed visiting with Alice and Emma,” Violet answered back, wiping the last of her drying tears off her cheeks.
“That’s good, and please continue to keep contact with them. They are your family too, just like the Tuckers.”
“Thank you, Mama, for inviting them. You really know how to make a ‘vow renewal’ special,” Violet smiled when calling her wedding by what her mother called it.
“I knew Tully was the man for you. I thought it best to say renewal instead of wedding to keep Rusty from interfering. It was so sweet of him wanting to buy me a house, but I didn’t want it, and Rusty shouldn’t have pulled that stunt.
“That’s a lesson for you, Mrs. Violet Reagan. Always talk to your husband about everything, good or bad. And I suspect he needs your attention now that you found out your father, not Tully, invited the Chaney’s. Right?”
Faye nodded her head toward Tully, who had left the group to talk to his brother, Angus, who was unloading a luggage cart on the depot.
“Yes, Mama. I deeply hurt him, thinking his inviting the Chaney’s was another of his pranks gone wrong.”
“Ouch. You need to talk to Tully while we get our guests settled in at the hotel. Go over to Tully and apologize. I put too much planning and work into this ‘vow renewal’ for him to back out of this wedding now.”
***
Tully knew Violet was walking toward him and Angus, but he ignored her. He wanted to know her mood before putting his foot in his mouth and making the situation worse.
It hurt that Violet thought he’d invited the Chaney’s to the wedding without consulting her first. It had never dawned on him to do that, especially knowing Violet hadn’t told her folks about her visiting the Chaney’s. He had told her when they visited them last time that she needed to tell her parents. Lies have a way of backfiring on a person.
And the first person she’d blamed for the mess was him.
“Hello, Angus,” Violet greeted her brother-in-law and looked sideways at Tully. “My…father’s family from Kansas City is here for our wedding tomorrow.”
“That’s nice. I’ll look forward to talking to them at the reception,” Angus said but looked at Tully while saying it. After Tully confessing to his older brother what had happened, Angus was probably surprised there would be a wedding to attend.
“I was just asking Angus about the train times heading west,” Tully said to test Violet. “Am I still supposed to be on the next train heading out of town?”
Violet covered her face with her hands, then opened them enough she could peak through them at Tully. “I’m so sorry for saying that, Tully. I jumped to conclusions, and I shouldn’t have. You suggested I tell my parents about my visits to Kansas City…and I didn’t. You were right. I was wrong.
“Please forgive me?” Violet asked sweetly as she leaned against his shoulder, apparently confident he would do so.
“We’ve already said our vows, Mrs. Reagan. Yes, I forgive you. Remember the ‘for better, for worse’ part? This was just a tiny test of what might be in our future.”
“Amen to that. You’ll have much worse things than a five-minute misunderstanding to test your marriage in the next sixty years,” Angus said since he was still standing there.
“Violet, I can honestly say you’re married to an honorable man. Please have faith that he’ll always do his best for you and your future children.” Angus’s words filled his heart with humbleness and pride.
“Unless his explorations are about to lead you over a cliff, then I’d stop him,” Angus teased to get in the last word.
“I don’t care where Tully leads me. I have confidence in him,” Violet winked at him and pulled her arm through his.
“Shall we go to the hotel to mingle with our families? They are already yours too, maybe in the ‘for better, for worse’ category right now. When my Tucker grandparents figure the Chaney connection, they may need a preacher to talk to.”
Chapter 16
Tully and Violet faced his father who stood in front of the altar. Violet’s cousins, Maggie, Molly, and Maisie stood to her left. Tully’s five brothers stood in line beside him, but this time in opposite direction than usual. Cullen was beside him, with Angus
on the end. Tully felt a special kindship today with his brothers as he joined their ranks as “married” and maybe finally feeling equal because of it.
After nodding to Tully’s mother, his father began the wedding service. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the renewal vows of Tully and Violet Reagan.”
His father stared down at his service book for a long moment, then quietly closed it. “Tully and Violet, because you’re renewing your vows, and you’re now a pastor, Tully, I’d like to sit with your mother to witness this occasion. Is that all right with you?”
Tully was taken aback by his father’s request, but then Tully looked at Violet. She smiled and nodded her agreement.
“That’s fine, as long as you still come back up here to bless us,” Tully said with a crack in his voice, honored that he could give his parents this gift on their anniversary.
“Thank you. I always wanted to sit with my wife for a wedding,” his father said as he handed Tully the service book and walked down the altar steps to sit in the front pew with Tully’s mother. All those years of his mother and his brothers lined up in the front row of the pew…without their husband and father because he was leading the service.
Tully stood at the altar beside Violet and addressed the congregation.
“Well, I performed my first funeral for Dan Clancy, and now I’m honored that the first wedding I perform will be for my wife, with all of our family and friends around us to witness this special occasion,” Tully said as he gestured to Violet.
“Maybe my first baptism will be for a niece or nephew, or for friends,” Tully continued while pointing at Nolan and Holly for them to take the hint. He hoped he could baptize Dan’s next great-grandchild when he and Violet were home after their trip to Wyoming. Both Clancy’s nodded that they liked that idea.
Tully turned to lay the service book on the altar. He didn’t need the book to guide what his heart wanted to say to Violet.
He took Violet’s hand and turned to face her. His wife wore a stunning satin and lace ivory gown fancier than any dress he’d seen in Chicago. The tulle veil framed her face and draped down behind her in a pile of fluff. Faye must be ecstatic with how beautiful her daughter looked today.
Tully lightly squeezed Violet’s hands and started the vows.
“I, Tully Edward Reagan, promise you, Violet Rose Tucker Reagan, to uphold my wedding vows to have and to hold from—our first ceremony in Chicago—until death do us part.
“I promise to love and honor you, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish you forever, according to God's holy ordinance. This is my solemn vow.”
“Mrs. Reagan, it is now your turn to say your vows,” Tully nodded in her direction.
Violet took a deep breath and pronounced loud and clear.
I, Violet Rose Tucker Reagan, promise to love and honor you, my husband, Pastor Tully Edward Reagan, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish you forever, according to God's holy ordinance. This is my solemn vow to you, Tully.”
“And to make this finally official,” Tully said as he dropped Violet’s hands, so he could dig the wedding ring out of his vest pocket. He took Violet’s left hand and slid the custom-made silver band on her wedding finger. The lavender amethyst set in the delicate ring caught the light and caused Violet to gasp in surprise, just the reaction Tully was looking for.
“Violet, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love, and with all that I am, and all that I have. I honor you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
“In so much as you and I have agreed to live together in Matrimony, have promised our love to each other by these vows, the giving of this ring and the joining of our hands, I now declare us husband and wife.
“You may now kiss your husband, Mrs. Reagan,” Tully pronounced. After Violet’s shocked laugh, she wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a long, delightful kiss.
After they finished their kiss, Tully looked down at his father.
“Da and Ma, would you please come up here to give us your blessing?”
His Ma touched her heart with her hand as tears welled in her eyes. She let his da pull her from the pew, link their arms together, and walk up the altar steps to stand in front of Violet and Tully.
“Before you do, though, your family wants to wish you a happy anniversary. We brothers could never have found better parents to raise us. Through thick and thin, sickness and fights, worries and wonders, you’ve always guided us with loving arms and words. And we brothers have something for you, to commemorate the day you finally have all of us married.”
Tully stopped a moment as Cullen dug the rings out of his vest pocket and handed them to Tully. The Reagan brothers had met with Kiowa Jones to have him make custom rings for their parents.
Tully put the rings in his palm and raised his hand upward.
“Precious God, please bless these rings to symbolize the love and devotion that our parents have given to their family, their congregation and community, and to each other. May these bands be reminders of the endless love you have also given us. Amen.
“Ma, you first. Please hold out your right hand.” Her hand shook with surprise as Tully slid the silver ring on her right ring finger. It had six tiny hearts engraved around the band.
“Thank you, Ma, for…everything,” Tully said as he gave his mother a quick hug. Then he turned to his father.
“Da, we also had a ring made for you. Instead of hearts, the maker engraved six crosses in your ring. Besides to signify your profession, we thought it might represent the ‘crosses you had to bear’ with raising us boys.”
Tully slid the ring on his father’s hand, then gave him a hearty hug and pat on the back.
“Thank you, Da, for guiding us to adulthood. I know it was trying at times.”
The family and congregation chuckled at his remark, knowing what a problem Tully had been for Pastor Reagan in his teenage years.
“Finally, Da and Ma, please give us your blessing. We won’t feel married without it.”
Da laid his right hand on the top of Tully’s bowed head, the other hand on Violet’s head. Ma stepped down to stand behind Violet and him, and she put a hand on each of their shoulders.
“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance unto you and give you peace,” Da’s voice was choked with emotion, but he got through the blessing.
Da stepped back and smiled at Tully.
“Well done, son. Well done.”
The End
~*~*~*~
Interested in Violet’s mother’s story?
Here’s the description and the first chapter of Faye Favors a Foreman.
A sweet historical romance set in 1873.
Faye Longoria arrived unannounced at her step-uncle’s Cross C Ranch, using cash she stole from…a, uh “customer” to buy her train ticket. All Faye brought with her, was her three-month-old baby and extra diapers.
Confusion erupts because Faye looks like a twin to Sarah Brenner, who lives on the ranch. Turns out they are half-sisters and the two clash with jealousy and stubbornness when Faye has to live with her sister and help take care of her sister’s newly adopted eight children, which includes triplet newborns.
Rusty Tucker, the foreman of the Cross C Ranch, likes the spunk of the young woman who grew up in a brothel, and he becomes attached to Violet, her baby girl.
Faye sets her sights on the foreman because she wants to move out of the ranch house and into Rusty’s cabin. Rusty wants a role in raising baby, Violet too
Will Faye’s and Rusty’s goals mesh into love and a happy family of three?
Chapter 1 of
Faye Favors a Foreman
Late Summer 1873
Cross C Ranch, Clear Creek, Kansas
Rusty Tucker, the foreman of the Cross C R
anch, watched from the entrance of the ranch’s stone barn as a wagon and two rides pulled up to the massive ranch house. Built by his employer, Isaac Connely in ’68, the rich man hadn’t spared any expenses on the buildings or the Longhorn cattle herd which grazed on thousands of acres of native prairie.
Rusty had been here at the beginning of the ranch because as a young man, he’d worked with Isaac during the Civil War. Rusty had been a scout and Isaac was a sharpshooter, working together to find the Confederate troops.
After the war, Isaac sold his family’s business in Illinois to follow his friends, Moses and Cate Wilerson to Kansas. When Isaac asked if Rusty wanted to work for him, Rusty had readily accepted, not wanting to go back to his family in Missouri.
The ranch had flourished and had been a quiet place until a month ago. Then Isaac’s nephew, Marcus Brenner, married Cate Wilerson’s daughter, Sarah, and they, in turn, moved into the ranch house with eight orphaned children. Cate moved in to help Sarah, and the huge house was filled to capacity.
Rusty walked across the ranch yard to take of the horses for the visitors and noted who they were.
Marshal Adam Wilerson was driving the wagon with his sister, Sarah, sitting beside him. Adam’s brothers, Noah and Jacob, silently rode their saddle horses on either side of the wagon. Was something wrong? All three men looked as if they were ready to pull the guns from their hip holsters and shoot someone.
Isaac and Cate had been on the house porch and noted the group’s arrival.
Rusty stopped short by the group when the woman, who wasn’t Sarah after all, called out to Connely.
“Well hello, Uncle Isaac, aren’t you gonna welcome me to your home?”
Who was this woman? She was a match to Sarah with her almost black hair and blue eyes, but she couldn’t be a Wilerson cousin because then Isaac wouldn’t be her uncle.
“I know you haven’t seen me since...oh I’d say when I was about ten years old,” she replied sweetly to Isaac.
“Faye!?” Isaac gasped in disbelief.
“You guessed right! Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I’d come to visit,” Faye’s voice dripped with honey, but Rusty guessed it wasn’t sincere.
Tully's Faith (Grooms with Honor Book 11) Page 10