Mail-Order Marriage Promise

by Regina Scott

  Dottie remained silent as they reached the far side of town and started toward Wallin Landing. John racked his mind for a way to break through the wall she had erected. Peter slumbered in her arms, head heavy. John’s heart felt just as heavy.

  “I love you, Dottie Tyrrell,” he murmured. “I wish I could convince you of that.”

  She swiveled, eyes wide, mouth open in an O of surprise, and he waited for her to tell him he wasn’t the man for her after all.

  “I love you, too, John Wallin,” she said, her voice hinting of more tears to come. “You are a fine and noble man. I never imagined there was anyone left in the world like you. That’s why I have to tell you the truth about why I came to Seattle, and why I must leave.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Dottie felt as if her insides were on fire. She’d meant what she’d said to John—she loved him. How could she fail to fall in love with a man so gentle, so kind? Her heart seemed to heal a little more every time he was near.

  And, loving him, she had to tell him everything, even if her explanation cost her his love. He deserved the truth. She was merely glad Peter had fallen asleep, so he wouldn’t see her disgrace.

  “I met Frank Reynolds in Cincinnati,” she said. Oh, but her voice sounded so soft, so scared. No more. She raised her head and took a breath before plunging ahead with a firmer tone. “My family thought he was the right man for me, and I began to hope so, too. You must have seen how charming he can be.”

  He shifted on the bench, and she reached out a hand to touch his arm.

  “Please believe me, John. Life had seemed empty since the day my parents died. Frank made me feel valued, loved. When he proposed, I happily agreed to marry him.”

  He sucked in a breath. “But I thought your husband was dead.”

  “Dead to me,” she said, trying not to squirm under the worried look he shot her. “You see, though Frank is Peter’s father, he was never truly my husband.”

  His brows tightened. “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither did I, at first. Why would I doubt him? He took me out of town to a darling country inn for the wedding ceremony, just the two of us with a minister I’d never met and my aunt and uncle as witnesses. I thought it was so romantic at the time. Later, I realized it was the only way for him to convince me we were wed. If he’d tried to marry me in Cincinnati, someone might have realized he already had a wife.”

  John reined in the horses, brought the cart to a stop at the side of the road.

  “Frank Reynolds married you when he already had a living wife?” His face was harder than she’d ever seen. Would she finally witness John Wallin angry? A shame she had more to confess.

  “I didn’t know he was already married, John. I honored my vows.” She hung her head. “But he didn’t.”

  She risked a glance in his direction. His jaw had tightened, and he gazed out toward the road ahead. She felt as if someone had shot her in the chest.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  The pain of remembering wasn’t nearly as bad as the thought of hurting John.

  “His true wife showed up at my door,” Dottie explained. “I was stunned, hurt, humiliated. I vowed to have nothing more to do with him. But he wouldn’t let me go so easily. He threatened retaliation if I ever told anyone about my situation.”

  His hand moved as if he meant to reach out to her, but his body remained stiff. “Did you go to the authorities?”

  Dottie shook her head. “I was too embarrassed to tell them, even if I hadn’t feared what Frank threatened. Then I learned I was carrying Peter. I was so sick, in heart, in body. I couldn’t tell Beth the truth in my letters. I thought surely I’d lose the baby and, to my shame, at times I thought that might be a good thing.”

  He was so still he could have been carved from the wood his family logged. Then he turned to her, and she could see her pain shining in his eyes. “Frank Reynolds violated your trust,” he told her, voice gentle. “He took advantage of a nature I suspect was far more trusting then. You are not to blame.”

  She gazed at him a moment, feeling she had been lost in the desert and offered a cool cup of water. “Don’t you understand? I wasn’t married when Peter was born. I let you believe a lie.”

  He winced as if she had struck him. “I was afraid I wasn’t enough of a man that you could trust me, Dottie, but I’m beginning to understand why trusting anyone had to have been hard.”

  Dottie sighed. “I can’t even trust myself sometimes. I see so many things about Frank and our so-called marriage I should have questioned.”

  His smile was soft. “Amazing what more we can see looking back. But God didn’t give us eyes in the back of our heads. Our eyes, like our feet, face forward, toward the future. And that’s what you did by answering Beth’s advertisement.”

  She knew her trust was growing, for she only felt relief at his response. It was as if her noble knight had somehow taken the pain onto himself. Even her breath came easier.

  “I wanted a better future. But as soon as I responded to the advertisement, I knew I shouldn’t have. What did I have to offer a husband? My heart was shattered, my body ill. Yet Beth’s letters were so encouraging, so normal, that I found myself daring to dream. And then Peter was born, and I knew I had to try, for him.” She bent and pressed a kiss to her son’s head.

  John wrapped the reins around the brake and turned to her, opening his arms. She leaned into his embrace. The warmth, the strength of him, surrounded her. Her head against his chest, she closed her eyes a moment and allowed herself to be cherished.

  “You don’t have to be afraid anymore,” he murmured against her hair. “You’re not alone. I won’t let Frank Reynolds hurt you. I can see why it was important to protect Peter. Was Reynolds angry when you told him he had a son?”

  She swallowed, unable to look at him. “I never told him. He still doesn’t know.”

  John leaned back to eye her. There was no censure in the look, only confusion. “Did he see you with Peter today?”

  “I don’t think so. But that’s why I had to leave the picnic, John. Frank can never know about Peter. I don’t want him anywhere near me or my son.”

  Now his face sagged, as if she’d wounded him anew. “But, Dottie, surely even someone like Frank deserves to know he has a child.”

  Guilt tugged. She pushed it back. “That’s not the issue. If Frank learns about Peter and decides he wants to raise my son as his own, he could take me to court. A father’s preferences always prevail over a mother’s.”

  “Even if the father is a bigamist?” he challenged.

  She shuddered. “He may not be a bigamist. Perhaps he learned his lesson with me. Perhaps he divorced his first wife to marry the one he brought with him to Seattle.”

  John stared at her. “He brought a wife with him? Another wife?”

  Dottie nodded, throat tight. “I met her today. She’s so happy, John, so much in love. I couldn’t stand by and see another life ruined. I told her to go to the Pastry Emporium tomorrow afternoon. I thought I could leave her a note, explain the situation so she can protect herself. That’s why I wanted to stop there on the way back from the picnic.”

  He ran a hand up her arm. “Even though it might have endangered you, you thought of her needs first.”

  She could not see herself as brightly as he did, not yet. “Well, perhaps second,” she acknowledged with a glance down to her sleeping son. Then she met John’s gaze again. “But after I warn her, I must leave Seattle. I can’t risk that Frank might learn about Peter and claim his fatherly rights.”

  “I still think the court will take a dim view of the situation,” John insisted. “Bigamy is against the law. He could well go to jail.”

  “Not if he claims we never wed. He held the marriage certificate, for safekeeping, he told me. I have no
idea whether my aunt and uncle would stand by me. He could easily say I was the one who seduced him. He threatened as much.” She shuddered again. “Oh, John, sometimes I despair of the woman I was.”

  He took her hand. “And anyone who has met you here in Seattle can only praise the woman you’ve become. You’re a good mother. You try to do what’s right. Don’t let Frank chase you away from where you belong.”

  She had once. Did she have the strength to fight him off this time? She stroked Peter’s silky hair. “I don’t know what’s right anymore.”

  “Stand your ground,” John told her. “My family and I will support you. We won’t let Reynolds win.”

  He looked so determined, with his lips tight and his eyes snapping fire. He believed in her, would likely do anything to protect her. But was it right to put John between her and Frank? Who knew how Frank would react if he found her in Seattle. She’d feared for Peter, and now she feared for John. What would her gentle suitor do when faced with Frank’s evil?

  “You don’t understand,” she said. “He can appear friendly, kind even, while all the time he’s playing his own game. When I told him we were through, he was violent. I can’t inflict him on you, John.”

  He took her by the shoulders. “You’re not putting a burden on me, Dottie. I’m taking it with my own hands. I will stand beside you no matter what happens. I hope you’ve come to see that I’m a man you can count on.”

  Tears were starting to fall. She wanted to trust him so badly. If only she could put her fears away, once and for all. “Oh, John, I hate pulling you into this mess.”

  His smile brushed her heart so softly she was certain she could feel it mending some more. “But together, we’ll sort out the mess. We can find a way to make a future for you and Peter.”

  Hope bubbled up inside her. “I want to stay in Seattle, but if anything should happen to Peter, I would never forgive myself.”

  He released her shoulders to take her hand in his once more. “Trust me, Dottie. I won’t let anything happen to you or Peter. Let me take you home, where I know you two will be protected. Then I’ll ride back and speak to the sheriff. Frank Reynolds may have finally married one wife too many.”

  * * *

  John took up the reins and called to the horses, determination building inside him. Reynolds was a worm, the lowest of the low. Just the thought of how he’d used Dottie lit a fire inside John that he doubted would be quenched anytime soon. She’d been alone, friendless, and Reynolds had preyed on her dreams. John may have been called the peacemaker, but all he could think about was going to war.

  Beside him, Dottie looked drained, her face pale under her jaunty blue hat. Yet the smile she gave him offered hope, hope that she could be free of Reynolds, hope that she and Peter could have a future here. When she leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, he wrapped an arm about her. He told himself it was to keep her and Peter safe on the bench, but he knew he had another reason. He wanted to hold her, protect her. He wanted to be her husband.

  Her real husband. Whatever Reynolds had tried to be, it was never that. Husbands and wives shared all their lives. They didn’t keep parts hidden. They didn’t lie about their intentions. And they didn’t abandon each other in their time of need.

  For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

  He’d heard Drew, Simon and James take those vows. He saw them live out the words every day. That was the kind of husband Dottie deserved. That was the kind of husband he would be. Now he just had to convince her of that.

  He kept her close the remainder of the drive, sorting through options in his mind. But when he passed the drive to his house and headed for the main cabin, Dottie protested.

  “Please, John, I can’t face Nora and Simon right now.” Her look was nearly as scrunched as Peter’s when he was about to start crying.

  “You need to be around people,” John told her. “I always wondered why you were so worried about staying alone at my house. You kept expecting Reynolds, didn’t you?”

  She sighed, rocking Peter, who was just starting to wake by the way his little face wiggled. “Yes. I heard my first week here from an old friend in Cincinnati that he had headed west. But I hoped he wouldn’t come all the way to Seattle.”

  “Seattle has a way of drawing people,” he said as they rolled into the clearing. “Good and bad. It promises a new future. And I mean to give it to you and Peter, Dottie.”

  Her smile strengthened his resolve. He set the brake, then came around to help her down.

  The yard was quiet, but he could see faces lined up at the window of the main house. His nieces and nephews must have heard the sound of the horses coming in. Now the little heads disappeared, and the door opened. The oldest children spilled out on the porch, Simon just behind them.

  “Did you build the railroad?” James’s oldest son, Seth, asked, fairly hopping on the planks.

  “All the way over the mountains?” His cousin Lars, Simon’s oldest, wanted to know.

  “When may we ride on the train?” Victoria, James’s daughter, asked, steps as regal as her mother’s, but eyes bright.

  “I’m not sure how far they cleared today,” John told them as he led Dottie and Peter up to the porch. “But I don’t think it was much beyond the edge of Seattle. And no tracks were laid, so no train for now.”

  They all looked disappointed.

  “Where’s Mama?” Drew’s son Davy asked, gazing up at him with a trembling lip.

  “Not far behind us, sweetheart,” Dottie assured him with a smile.

  John escorted Dottie and Peter into the house, meeting Simon’s frown with one of his own before his brother went to see to the horses. The children’s smiles, the curious questions and the games Nora initiated seemed to put Dottie at ease. Peter watched the children as they passed, reached out hands to touch. Most of John’s nieces and nephews had had to deal with siblings or cousins younger than them, so they were careful in how they dealt with the baby.

  “He has pretty eyes,” Mary, Drew’s daughter, told Dottie. She smiled. “You have pretty eyes, too.”

  “Thank you,” Dottie said. “And you have your mother’s eyes. I can see that.”

  They had been in the main house only about an hour, helping Simon and Nora with the children, when Drew and the others returned. John heard the wagons coming in. Dottie stiffened.

  “It’s all right,” he assured her. “We’ll face this together, remember?”

  She nodded, and he went out onto the porch, even as the children lined up at the window.

  Catherine’s head was on Drew’s shoulder, and Rina was yawning as James pulled up the team. Mr. Blaycock went to take charge of his cart and horses. Tom and Dickie climbed down and loped for the house. Harry sauntered past with a nod to John.

  “See you couldn’t make it through a day of work,” he gibed. “Did Dottie have to drive you home to rest?”

  John bit his cheek to keep from responding.

  “Cleared a whole mile of track,” Harry continued, as if he’d done all the work himself. “The mayor and his like were impressed.”

  Yesler probably hadn’t even noticed Harry in the crowd, and if he had, John couldn’t have cared less.

  “They ate more than a mile of food as well,” Beth countered as she climbed down from the wagon. “I don’t want to see another piece of chicken as long as I live.”

  “And the fact that Beth ended after a mere two sentences should tell you how tired she is,” James added with a grin. He pressed a hand to his back. “I worked hard enough for three days. I’m taking tomorrow off.”

  “You always take Saturdays off,” Rina reminded him with a fond smile.

  “I know you’re all tired,” John said, ignoring Harry’s snort of an answer. “But Dottie and I would like to talk to you before you head for your beds.
It’s important.”

  Beth brightened. “Oh, John, did you finally propose?” Before he could answer, she threw her arms around him. “Thank you, thank you, for giving me another sister, a friend and a nephew.”

  John disengaged, conscious of Harry’s scowl behind her. “Congratulations are premature. Something’s happened, and I need your help.”

  “Of course,” Harry grumbled.

  Drew towered over his foreman. “When Wallin Landing’s main helper asks for help, we oblige,” he said.

  Beth cast a longing glance toward the path to her cabin, but she nodded. “All right, then, ladies, gather in the crockery, gentlemen, see to the horses and wagons. We’ll gather in the parlor in a quarter hour.”

  As usual, no one argued with his sister. The mothers headed for the house, where squeals and laughter greeted them, while the fathers and loggers did as she had bid. John took his sister aside.

  “Dottie is going to need a friend,” he said. “Would you be willing to move into my house to help her for a while?”

  Beth frowned. “Of course. But, John, is it truly so bad she must have company?”

  “I’m not sure,” John told her. “But I’d like to be ready.”

  As it was, it took a few minutes to get everyone settled. Nora agreed to continue watching the older children, taking them into the kitchen for a snack while the youngest remained with their parents. Even Tom, Dickie and Harry joined the family as everyone else gathered on chairs and benches.

  Dottie was soothing Peter in Ma’s old bentwood rocker, face troubled, as John leaned closer.

  “I’ll explain, if you’d like,” he offered, wanting only to shield her from the pain that seemed to be radiating from her body.

  She drew in a breath, and for a moment he thought she’d agree. Then she raised her chin.

  “No,” she murmured. “This is something I must do for myself. Just stand beside me, John, for I don’t know whether any of them can react as kindly as you did to the story.”