“I made a mistake, an error before I came to Grass Valley. It wasn’t serious -just poor judgment about what I was doing here - but Silas won’t forgive me for it or hear me out. He regards it as the worst thing that I could have done, a personal insult to him.” She turned now, stepping back out into the hallway. “So you see, there really isn’t anything that I can do about him. And if he is being short with you and annoying your men, you will have to talk to him about it.”
She walked away without looking back over her shoulder, hearing her heart beat as she ran up the stairs to her room. Something about what the women were saying had made her feel as though she ought to stay at Grass Valley.
It was nonsense, of course. Silas was short-tempered with the men because they were striking, and because they were fighting and blaming him for their money worries. He had always been irritable with them. If he was quick with the women and children, well, that was likely simply because he couldn’t get the men to see reason. He was simply taking out his annoyance on the women. The troubles at the mine had been there long before she had arrived, and Silas’s attempts to solve the problem had fallen on stony ground. That would be why he was treating everyone around him so harshly. Nothing to do with her at all. She dropped onto the bed, still in her clothes, and shut her eyes to the sounds of laughter from outside. She had finished with Silas, she reminded herself, and even if she had not, he would never talk to her again. Before she could even think any further, she had fallen asleep.
Chapter 13
It was late into the afternoon before Mary woke up from the bed. The party was almost at an end, and she jumped up, feeling guilty. She had wanted to be with Mrs. Scott for her big day, and instead her own emotions had caused her to leave the party and then fall asleep. The woman had always been generous towards her, even when nosy. It would be the height of rudeness not to go back to the celebrations. She rushed to straighten her clothes and tidy her hair, and then remembered the note that Silas had given to her. She pulled it from her bodice. It was warm with her own skin, and had been carefully, almost obsessively folded over and over until it was small enough to fit into a hand.
She sat back down on the bed, carefully handling the note, and turning it over in her hands. It was probably just a curt thank you for helping him last night, so why was she trembling so much? Silas certainly had a way of stirring her emotions like no other. Not even William had made the same impression on her. She started to feel her stomach turn again as she thought about her engagement, and decided to turn her attention to the note.
It had been stuck together as though it were an old-fashioned letter, and Mary had to work her fingernails between the sheets in order to separate them. The pages came apart reluctantly, and she peeled them back trying to avoid ripping them. She then smoothed the paper down, easing out the creases. As she did so, she turned the note over, and saw that it had been addressed, formally. Then she saw that it was, in fact, addressed to her real name, not the name that she had chosen for herself. Her heart skipped another beat. What was he playing at? Was this another way for him to inflict pain upon her? She set to reading the message with a hardened heart.
The letter was written in his usual scrawling but readable handwriting. She read the first few lines and then set it aside, before picking it up again and reading the letter straight through.
LOOKING for a wife: wanted in Grass Valley, a sensible, open-hearted woman who is able to manage a rough, irritable man. Must be able to speak honestly about her feelings, to open a rude man’s eyes to the beauty around him, but still keep him down to earth. Should be cheerful and comfortable, and have the friendship of the townspeople. Must have experience of rushing to the rescue, careless of her own safety. Must also be good to a poor, half-blind and wholly silly former pit pony and his frequently silly owner. Quilt-sewing a necessity. Would particularly suit a woman by the name of Mary.
Applicants should apply to Silas Warner, Wolf Creek, who is sorry.
There was nothing else in the letter, and Mary sat on the bed, confused, for some time. What did he mean now? The first time she had spoken to him, she had thought that he had liked her. She had had enough confidence in him to take his offer of work, and to settle in the village. Then she was uncertain of him, sure that he was angry and rude and didn’t care two beans for her. He had given her up, and she had done the same to him. Now she was puzzled by his letter, and her own reactions to it. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, and her hands were trembling. That must mean something, surely? He had certainly made a change in her, one that might last even after he had given her up.
He had driven thoughts of William from her mind, and hadn’t that been part of the reason for coming to Grass Valley in the first place? But he had also caused her pain with his rejection and rudeness. She was more puzzled by this latest note than she had been previously. Before, his actions and statements had been clear, and she could not have misunderstood them, while now she didn’t know what to make of this note. What did he hope to gain from her? What did he think that she wanted from him? Was he offering her marriage? If so, was it because he wanted her, or because he thought that he should? The town must have been pressurizing him as they had been her, and it could have made him feel that he must ask her.
She looked at the letter again. Why had he set it out like this? It was similar to some of the matrimonial replies that had been spread around the room after the theft, but it was no real proposal. Is that what he had intended? Perhaps he wanted to test the waters and see if she was really interested. Maybe it was just a mockery of the usual applications she had received.
Silas had been good to her, but the miners’ wives had been certain that she had been good for him, to the point that he was no longer able to control himself without her presence. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? If he was so emotional due to the rift between them, could her coming back to him make the lives of everyone easier, including her own? She had so many questions, and constant re-reading of the note gave her nothing else. What he had written there was what he had written, nothing more. The only person who could really explain the note would be Silas, and she didn’t even know if he was at home right now.
He had pushed the note into her hands, and she had fled him, without realizing what it meant. He might have changed his mind after seeing her run away from him. He might even be regretting the note tonight. If so, going to see him could be a mistake. Not going to see him could be an even bigger one.
She jumped from the bed. She didn’t want him to regret this strange proposal. She wanted to hold him to it, and marry the man from Wolf Creek who had first been kind to her. That didn’t seem too far out of her reach right now. She had spent enough time with foolish men, she needed one who was honest and true. Silas was the man she had been searching for through her advertisement.
Night was falling as she dashed from the house, running towards the mountains. It would be dark now, as it had been when he had rejected her, but she was not afraid, and her body felt light, not like lead. She wanted to leap there in one bound, to bounce into his arms. She feared no wolves or bears, only his reaction to seeing her, and even that was losing its edge of terror.
What was it that he had said, about being born somewhere and not being afraid of small things? That is how she felt now. Newly born in this time and place, and completely fearless. Funny, as she was running towards a man who caused a lot of women fear and made men fight. If Silas wanted her, as the whole world seemed to think, then she could fit right into life in Grass Valley. She could help him turn that house into a home, and put some words onto those flyleaves. It seemed more like home to her now than any dim and distant life in New York, or any potential future in Sacramento. She wanted to put that former or future life away now, and if to start with people had thought that she was just another go-backer, here for a short time and then home when it got tough: well, the events of the past few weeks would show them how wrong they were. They would also show how right Mrs. Sc
ott had been when she tried to get the two of them together again.
Chapter 14
By the time Mary got to the house, it was completely dark. The path seemed to go a little further beyond the big building, and then disappear completely. She could not see her own hut, nor any of the others that came after it, and there were no lights in the area at all. The only illumination was from the lamp burning above Silas’s door, and the few lights that she could see shining in the town below. There were no lights on in the house itself. She had to feel her way along the wall beside the house, the rest of the path obscured by the bright light of the lamp.
She knocked at the door, barely touching the wood, and hardly making any noise. It seemed like thunder to her, alone on the mountains. She expected no response, and was about to turn away to head back to town when the door swung open.
Silas stood there, his dark eyes flickering in the torchlight. They were bright, as bright as they had been at their first meeting, with the hard edge gone completely.
“I thought you wouldn’t come,” he said, and she heard his voice tremble for the first time.
“Fell asleep,” she said, forcing her mouth to make the words. It wasn’t much of an explanation, it seemed a little rude even, but it was all that she could say. If Silas had noticed her curt response, he didn’t react to it.
“I was so hoping that you would come,” he said, “but I was afraid you would reject me. I couldn’t even bear to put the lights on, in case you changed your mind when you saw I was waiting for you.” He smiled, sadly. “I’ve been standing by the door since I came home.”
She smiled back. “Well, let me in then, and we can both sit down.”
He held out his hand, and she took it, letting him guide her over the threshold and into the main room. He held her hand tightly, as though worried that she might pull away and leave the house forever. Instead, she walked close to him as he took her to the fireplace. He sat her down in his own chair, and pulled another over so that he could sit beside her. He took her hand back into his own as soon as they were both seated.
In the absolute darkness, he started to talk to her, his voice all that she could hear, the slight movement of his head the only thing she could see. She could hear the full tremor in his voice now, as he tried to talk to her about his emotions.
“I’ve been a fool,” he said. “I should never have turned you out of this house. My mother would never have allowed me to do such a thing. No-one of honor would have allowed me to do it.” She didn’t say anything, and so he rushed on, “You were working for me, but you were a guest, too. I’d invited you here and I should have kept to my original ideas.”
“Silas, I’m sorry. I wish that I had been able to explain to you what happened.”
“There is no need, Mary,” he said, quickly, as though afraid that she would speak. “Since you’ve been gone from this house, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to learn a few facts myself. I have a friend in New York, I sent a telegraph. Well, a few telegraphs. He helped me see why you might come here under a flag.” He paused for breath.
“My friends thought it was the best way to start fresh. My former fiancé spread some stories about me, tales that…”
“I know, I know.” He interrupted her. “I know it all now. I could kill that man. That’s all I’ve been thinking about for days.” He clenched his hand tightly around her fingers, and then relaxed, letting her hand rest in his without restraint.
She put her other hand on top of his. “There is no need for that. I came out here to leave it all behind me, and it worked fine until I saw his letter.”
“Until I saw his letter. I’m afraid that I jumped to conclusions, like a fool.” He paused. “I can only say that I wanted you for my own wife, and the thought that you might already be married nearly made me insane. I was worried that you had fled New York trying to escape an unhappy marriage, or a creditor. I was worried that you might not be free for me. Anything terrible that I could think against you, I thought it.” He squeezed her hand. “I should apologize for that.”
She smiled in the dark, but could not reply, except by pressing his own hand.
“I’m a rough man, Mary. Ask anyone in town, they will tell you what an uncivilized man I am, barely able to manage my tongue at the best of times. I’ve never tried marriage, I never thought that I’d find a woman to manage my temper. But I’d take you in an instant, if you would have me.” He paused. “What I mean is, would you marry me, Mary Deboc?”
She leaned towards his voice, planting a soft kiss on his cheek.
“All the world has already told me that you are a bad, rude man who scares children. The miners’ wives told me that you are a devil, just like one of your men.”
He made a small, grumbling sound, and she kissed him again.
“They think I can help you to be better, and perhaps I think that you can make me better, too. So I will marry you, temper or not.”
He put his arms around her, pulling her across the chair towards him. “Then let us make a date, and you can put all your summer names away, and be Mrs. Warner.”
She laid her head on his shoulder, nodding her assent, and they stayed there, like that, until the first peels of the Sunday bells rang out across the town.
The town of Grass Valley was delighted to hear that they had been right all along, and Silas and Mary were married in the summer following. Mrs. Scott helped Mary to find a new dress for the occasion, and Mary returned her kindness by ordering a pattern book from New York. It quickly became dog-eared and scuffed as it circled around Grass Valley. Mary’s quilting-bee friends were the first outside Grass Valley to get the news, and Elizabeth and Lydia brought their new husbands to the wedding. They had made a grand new quilt for the happy couple’s bed, complete with little patterns showing the mountains of Wolf Creek. Rachel and her husband traveled from Sacramento to see Silas get married, and although none of the miners attended the wedding, all of the wives were invited, and all of them came.
The next spring, Silas was able to write something in his family Bible.
THE END
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Copyright Georgia Grace 2014.
Mock Wedding (Grass Valley Mail Order Brides Book 1) Page 6