by Gina Wilkins
“All right.” He turned and ushered everyone but Jill out of the room, already taking charge.
Maddie swept past Jackson, already headed for the nearest exit.
Jill hurried after her. “Maddie, wait! Don’t you want to change first? Your dress—”
Maddie hesitated, glanced down at the layers of heavy fabrics and lace and thought of the dozens of tiny buttons closing the back of the gown. It had taken her ages to get into all this garb—and she was too impatient now to go through all those steps in reverse. “No. Jackson, please. Let’s go now.”
He nodded. “My car’s right outside.”
Maddie clutched her full skirts in both hands and hurried after him.
“I’m coming with you,” Jill said, tossing her nosegay onto a table as she rushed along behind them, barely avoiding stepping on Maddie’s train.
Maddie nodded absently. All her concentration now was on getting to Case.
Jackson had his car ready. He seemed a bit surprised to see Jill, still dressed in her wedding finery, but he didn’t comment. Maddie got into the front passenger seat, bundling her gown and veil around her. She reached up impatiently to rip the headpiece from her hair, freeing her from the veil, at least, which she draped carelessly over the back of her seat. Jill slid into the back, and Jackson left the crowded church parking lot in a burst of impatient speed.
* * *
JACKSON HAD JUST turned onto the road leading to Case’s house, when Maddie caught a glimpse of movement in the woods that lined the country road. She turned her head in time to see two ATVs speeding through the trees, away from the road.
“Danny,” she said, and spun to face Jackson. “I’m sure I just saw Danny Cooper and Steve Langford on their four-wheelers.”
“I saw them,” Jackson said grimly, and pressed harder on the accelerator. The car leapt forward.
“You don’t think they’ve hurt Case, do you?” Jill asked from the back. “I mean, Danny’s a little creep, but—”
“He hates Case,” Maddie said, remembering the look on the boy’s face at the festival. “I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
Jackson squealed to a stop in the driveway, behind Case’s Grand Cherokee.
“His car’s here. He has to be here, too,” Maddie said, throwing her door open and leaping out of the car. “Case? Case!” She ran toward the house, stumbling over her skirts and petticoats but managing to keep her balance.
The front door was locked. She pounded on it, rang the bell. The house remained ominously silent.
Jackson rejoined her. “I’ve checked all the other doors,” he said. “They’re all locked.”
“Oh, God. Where is he?”
“I’m going to break in and search the house. You and Jill go around back and check the garage and the yard.”
Maddie was already running down the covered porch that wrapped around the side of the house. Jill followed closely behind her.
The garage doors were closed, but there was an access panel set into one outside wall. Maddie punched in the security code Case had taught her. The doors opened. The three-car garage was empty.
Hands pressed to her temples, she turned and scanned the yard. It was neatly mowed, the flower beds cleared of weeds and waiting to be replanted. Case had been working so hard, she thought with a catch in her breath.
Where was he?
“He’s not inside,” Jackson said, rushing up to join them. “I’ve looked everywhere.”
“I think we should call the police,” Jill said in a small voice.
Biting her lip, Maddie started to agree. She turned toward the kitchen door, which Jackson had opened from inside after entering the house through a window he’d broken. Something made her turn back and study the yard again.
Everything was still, quiet. The August sun burned directly overhead, hot and almost painfully bright. Something glittered in the sunlight, drawing Maddie’s attention. The reflection came from a metal padlock on the double doors of the storm shelter at the back of the property.
Drawn by a compulsion she couldn’t have explained, Maddie took a step in that direction, and then another. And then she was running again. “Case? Case?”
“Maddie, what is it?” Jackson was following behind her. Hampered by her high heels on the soft grass, Jill struggled to keep up.
Maddie stopped in front of the shelter. She pointed to the scuffed dirt around it, evidence that the doors had recently been opened, and what might have been ATV tracks leading away from the shelter and into the woods.
Studying those signs for only a moment, Jackson reached the same conclusion Maddie had. He leapt toward the wooden doors and pounded on them. “Case? Hey, Case, you in there?”
All of them waited with bated breath for an answer. There was nothing.
“Maybe he’s not in there,” Jill said. “He wouldn’t have let the boys lock him in.”
“Not if he was expecting them,” Maddie agreed. “But what if they caught him by surprise?”
She knelt by the doors, her ear close to the weathered wood. She rested a hand against the door, and fancied that a ripple of electricity coursed through her with the contact. “He’s in there,” she whispered, looking up at Jackson. “I just know he is.”
Jackson frowned, but rapped on the door again. “Case?” he shouted. “Can you hear us?”
“I think I hear something,” Maddie whispered, trying to identify the faint, muffled sound. Could it have been a groan?
Suddenly frantic, she tugged futilely at the heavy lock. “We have to get this off. I have to see!” she cried, her throat tight.
Jackson put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her away. “You can’t break it off with your hands. We need a crowbar.”
Maddie strained against him, resisting his efforts to restrain her, her fear clouding her thoughts for the moment. Jackson shook her gently. “Maddie!” he said sharply, his voice penetrating the panic. “Does Case have a crowbar? Anything I can use to break this lock?”
She drew a deep breath and tried to think. “Look in the storage room in the garage,” she murmured. “That’s where he keeps his tools.”
Jackson was already running back to the house.
Jill put an arm around Maddie’s shoulders, but she didn’t speak. She probably didn’t know what to say. Both of them were afraid that, if Case was inside that shelter, there was a reason he wasn’t answering them.
It took Jackson fifteen minutes of straining and cursing to break the padlock. He threw open the doors. Afraid Case wouldn’t be there—and almost as desperately afraid that he would be—Maddie stepped forward. The sunlight beamed down into the dank, shadowy cellar, providing just enough illumination for them to see the dark, crumpled shape lying at the foot of the concrete steps.
“Case!” Maddie screamed, and started to rush forward. Her foot caught in her petticoat. Jackson caught her just in time to keep her from tumbling right on top of Case’s prone body. Together, they entered more carefully.
Ignoring dirt and cobwebs and unpleasant scurrying noises, Maddie knelt beside Case, reaching out a shaking hand to touch his pale cheek. There was blood on his face and in his hair, and his left leg was twisted at an uncomfortable angle. But he was breathing, she realized with a sob.
He was breathing.
“Case?” she whispered, her mouth close to his ear. “Case, can you hear me?”
He groaned and his eyelids fluttered.
“Case. It’s me. Maddie. Open your eyes, darling.”
He opened his eyes, though they were clouded and unfocused. “Maddie?” His voice was thick. “Did you call me darling?”
She caught her breath on a sob that might have been a broken laugh. “Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, Case, are you all right?”
“Head hurts.” He lifted his head cautiously and looked around. She could almost see his memory return as he began to curse beneath his breath.
Having seen that Case was all right, Jackson crossed the cramped, dirty room, h
is head bent to avoid contact with the low ceiling. He bent to pick up a cheap plastic, battery-operated radio that had been sitting in one corner, static pouring from its single speaker. “What the hell is this?” he asked as he turned off the grating sound.
Case pushed himself upright, with help from Maddie and Jill, who’d knelt at his other side. “That,” he said grimly, “is what lured me down here. I was leaving for the church when I noticed the shelter doors were open. When I came over to close them, I heard the noise. I was just coming in to investigate when I was shoved from behind. I hit my head on that beam when I fell forward. Damn it.”
Hearing the self-disgust in Case’s voice, Maddie touched his grubby cheek, worrying that he might have a concussion. “Have you been unconscious ever since?”
“In and out, I think. I kept hearing the static, but I couldn’t seem to wake up enough to do anything about it. I’m okay now, though,” he added as though to reassure her.
She wasn’t reassured. She fully intended to get him to a doctor as soon as possible.
“We think it was Danny and a friend who attacked you,” Jill said, heated indignation coloring her voice. “We saw their ATVs in the woods.”
Case’s face hardened. “I’ll cream the little—”
“You will let the authorities handle this,” Maddie interrupted firmly. “Is that clear?”
He sighed. “Yeah,” he muttered. “But they’d damned well better do something about those kids this time, or I’ll handle it myself.”
“Something will be done this time,” Jackson said flatly. “I’ll help you see to it.”
“I’ll go call an ambulance,” Jill said, moving toward the steps.
Case shook his head, then pressed a hand to his temple as though the movement had made him dizzy. “No ambulance,” he said. “What time is it?”
“Almost twelve-thirty,” Jackson answered with a glance at his watch. “C’mon, Brannigan, let’s get you out of here and over to the doctor’s office.”
“No,” Case said, though he allowed Jackson to help him to his feet. “I have other plans.” He glanced at Maddie’s disheveled clothing. “Look at you,” he scolded. “You’re getting your skirts filthy. How’s that going to look in the wedding photos, hmm?”
She caught her breath on a sob, then released it shakily. “I looked fabulous an hour ago,” she answered in mock exasperation, relief making her a bit giddy. “I seem to have been stood up—again.”
Case gave her a smile that melted her heart. “Oh, no, sweetheart. The wedding was just postponed—again.”
Though he wasn’t quite steady on his feet, he nodded toward the steps. “Come on. We have to catch the preacher before he decides to go fishing or something this afternoon.”
Maddie blinked. “You want to go on with the wedding? Now?”
He brushed a kiss across her cheek. “I love you, Maddie. I don’t want to wait any longer to make you my wife.”
She stared at him, oblivious to their audience. “You’ve never said that before,” she whispered.
He blinked, looking surprised. “I haven’t?”
“No.”
“Surely you knew.”
“I wasn’t sure,” she admitted. “Not until an hour ago.”
He seemed confused. “When I didn’t show up for the wedding? How did that convince you?”
She smiled tremulously. “I knew with all my heart that you would have been there unless something had gone terribly wrong. You wouldn’t have purposefully stood me up.”
“Because I love you,” he murmured. “More than life itself.”
The realization had finally come to her in that church dressing room. Case wanted to marry her, not because she was convenient or compliant or any other reason that had worried her earlier. There were many other women he could have married if all he’d wanted was a wife—younger, prettier women, for that matter. But it had been Maddie he’d proposed to on that beach in Cancú. Maddie he’d thought of as he’d lain in that foreign hospital bed. Maddie he’d followed to Mitchell’s Fork, Mississippi. And Maddie for whom he’d created a home, and with whom he wanted to start a family.
It was Maddie he wanted. Only her. Because he loved her.
Blinking back tears, she made one last attempt at being practical. “But what about calling the police? What about Danny and Steve?”
“Someone can call from the church. I’ll make a statement as soon as I’ve said ‘I do.’ Now, are you coming or not?” He held out his hand, his eyes locked with hers, and in their silvery gray depths she saw the deep, heartfelt emotions that were difficult for this strong, complex man to express.
She placed her own hand in his slightly clammy palm. “Let’s go.”
* * *
MOST OF THE GUESTS were still at the church, curiosity having kept them there talking and speculating. Clearly fascinated by the turn of events, they hurried back to their seats when a flustered Anita tried to regain control of the ceremony.
The organist had left, having other plans for the afternoon. One of the guests knew how to play, and was hastily pressed into service. The flower girl had fallen asleep in her mother’s lap, and had to be awakened, yawning and heavy-eyed, but sweetly cooperative.
The groom’s and best man’s tuxedos were wrinkled and dusty, and there was a jagged rip in one leg of the groom’s pants. He was limping badly on his reinjured left leg, though he stood straight and tall as he waited for his bride. His hair was still a bit disheveled and matted in one spot with dried blood. His face was pale and bruised. He’d washed hastily, and had missed a smudge of blood at his temple. Doc Adcock sat ready to examine him the moment the ceremony ended. But the groom was smiling.
The bridesmaid’s midnight blue dress was dusty at the hem and her dainty, dyed-to-match shoes were grubby. Her flowers were starting to wilt, as were the ones in the bride’s bouquet.
The bride was beautiful. No one seemed to notice that her veil was wrinkled, that tendrils of hair had escaped her careful upsweep, or that the hem of her lacy gown was dirty and ripped in a couple of places. Nor, of course, could anyone know that there was a long, jagged run in one stocking, hidden by her long, full skirts.
Many of the guests would say later that it was the most touching, most lovingly sincere exchange of vows they’d ever witnessed.
Maddie would always agree.
Epilogue
“WHERE IS CASE? What could possibly be keeping him?”
Maddie Brannigan managed a shaky smile at the near panic in her father’s voice. “Don’t worry, Dad. Case will be here in time.”
Standing beside the hospital bed on which she lay, Mike tried to look reassured. “I hope you’re right, honey. I’m just not prepared to step in as a labor coach. Back in my day, men stayed out in the waiting room during this sort of thing.”
“Times have changed, Daddy,” she murmured, then caught her breath as another contraction ripped through her.
Mike groaned in sympathy, patted his daughter’s hand and again wished aloud for his son-in-law to arrive.
To everyone’s relief, Case rushed in only minutes later. “Am I too late?” he demanded, hastily tying a paper scrub suit over the uniform he wore beneath it.
“No,” Maddie assured him, tears of relief in her eyes. “You’re just in time.”
Mike eagerly relinquished his place at her side to her husband. “Let me know when it’s over,” he called over his shoulder as he bolted from the labor room.
Zachary Michael Brannigan was born an hour later, nine and a half months after his parent’s wedding day. He had been conceived during a long, adventurous honeymoon in Europe, the groom’s gift to his bride. Despite a concussion and a sprained ankle, the groom had made that honeymoon a memory for the bride to treasure for a lifetime.
After the scandal that had sent Danny Cooper and his friend Steve Langford to military school—the boys had sworn they hadn’t intended to hurt Case, that they’d only been playing a practical joke by locking him in
the storm cellar on his wedding day—Case had been persuaded by a group of Mitchell’s Fork citizens to run as an independent candidate for sheriff in the next election. He’d won easily, though he’d ruefully said on more than one occasion that he couldn’t imagine why he’d allowed himself to be convinced. He hadn’t really intended to remain in law enforcement, but Maddie suspected he enjoyed the job more than he would admit.
Surprisingly enough, Case had been supported by Major Cooper, who’d received a rude awakening when he’d realized that his overindulged son could have killed Case with his cruel and vindictive actions. Cooper claimed that he hadn’t truly realized until then that his son had gotten so far out of control.
It had been Case who’d recommended military school, followed by a stint in the service. He’d explained that Danny would benefit more from the discipline and training he would receive in the military than from the adverse influence he’d be exposed to if he was sent to jail for assault and battery or any of the other charges Case could have brought against him. Cooper had gratefully agreed.
Propped against the pillows in her hospital room, Maddie rested from the delivery and watched her husband rock his tiny son, a look of adoring wonder on Case’s lean, strong face. She tried to speak past a lump in her throat. “Well, Sheriff? What do you have to say for yourself this time? You almost stood up me and your son.”
Case gave her a sheepish smile. “There was a chemical spill out on the highway. No one was hurt, but someone had to supervise the cleanup.”
“That someone being you.”
He nodded. “But I came as soon as Jackson tracked me down to tell me that you’d gone into labor during the wedding shower for him and Jill. He was frantic to get me here in time, and I’m grateful to him. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything short of disaster, Maddie.”
She smiled. “I know, darling. I knew you would be here.”
He didn’t return the smile. Instead, he looked from her to their sleeping son. When his eyes lifted again, they glittered with emotion. “I love you, Maddie.”
It was still something he said rarely, only on very special occasions. Like this one. The words were all the more special to Maddie because she knew how sincerely he meant them.