Lily

by Greenwood, Leigh

  He was certain there hadn't been such an ill-matched gathering since everybody who could run, climb, or crawl had packed themselves inside Noah's ark.

  The church was filled with the exception of one pew reserved for Lily's family. Lily had insisted that Fern use it for other guests. Fern was equally insistent it would be held in reserve until the last minute. "You never know about trains," she had said. "They don't always arrive on time."

  The trains had arrived, but Lily's family hadn't. She had tried to pretend it didn't matter, but Zac knew it did. He didn't look forward to the confrontation in the least, but one of these days he was going to have words with Isaac Sterling. Zac wasn't about to have his wife made unhappy just because her father had decided to be churlish. He was a Virginian. He had manners. It was time he learned to use them.

  "It's time to start," Mr. Thoragood said to Zac. The two men walked to their place in front of the altar.

  Zac considered the church too dark and gloomy, but Fern had insisted it was the only church big enough for a Randolph wedding. Grey stone absorbed most of the light the stained glass windows let in. Dark wood pews and choir stalls and deep red carpets and hangings added to the tomblike effect. Fern had tried to brighten the atmosphere by the liberal use of candles and white ribbon, but Zac thought it still looked like the bottom of a cave.

  But once his family started down the aisle, he forgot about everything else. It was a truly magic moment, and even he could sense it. They came in pairs, each brother with his wife on his arm. It wasn't the usual way, but Lily had insisted. George and Rose were first. From oldest of youngest.

  Zac had never thought of himself as a sentimental man, but he couldn't help feeling a little strange inside. It was impossible not to think back nineteen years when George and Jeff returned from the war. The six oldest were married now, and eighteen of their twenty-two children would soon be marching down the aisle.

  They were good men, tall and straight, proud of their accomplishments, proud of their wives and families. For the first time Zac felt part of them. He no longer felt like the boy struggling against his older brothers. He was a married man about to be welcomed into the fraternity of married men by the people who mattered most to him.

  His entire family -- even the babies -- had come to the church.

  He watched as Jeff's Dorothy and Monty's Susan started down the aisle. They were very serious about their job of spreading the rose petals evenly down the long aisle. Zac expected that if Elizabeth Rose hadn't been between them, Aurelia and Juliette, following impatiently behind, would have run over them.

  It came as something of a shock when Zac saw William Henry. The boy had grown as tall as his father and looked so much like George it stunned him. When had the brat had time to grow up so much?

  Jordy was a year younger, but he, too, looked like a young man. Zac decided he would have to start seeing more of his family. He had missed too much of their lives already. He hoped they wouldn't ignore him the way he had them. He'd been mortified to have to confess to Lily a few days earlier he'd never seen Hen's three youngest children.

  Dodie. She looked as nervous as a cat in a dog pound, but he had never seen her more radiant. From the moment Lily asked her, she hadn't stopped insisting she couldn't possibly be the maid of honor. But Zac was certain Lily couldn't have done anything that would have made her happier.

  Dodie arrived and Julie Peterson started down the aisle. Lily had insisted on two maids of honor. Julie did look lovely -- no wonder Hezekiah had fallen in love with her -- but she couldn't hold a candle to Lily. In a few minutes, they'd all see. His Lily would outshine every woman in the church.

  That included Iris!

  He thought of his eleven nephews, nervously waiting outside the doors to carry Lily's train. He hoped they didn't stumble over their feet. He wanted everything to go perfectly. He wanted this to be a day Lily would remember with happiness for the rest of her life. Maybe he couldn't give her the kind of love she longed for so much, but he would damned well give her everything else.

  Whatever happened, Zac was going to make sure he never let her out of his sight again. He felt a shiver of dread run all through him every time he thought of what could have happened on that dock if he hadn't arrived in time.

  He couldn't stand it if anything happened to Lily. If the way he felt when she ran away to Bella's was anything to go by, there wouldn't be anything left to do but shoot himself. He'd be too miserable to go on living.

  There'd be no point getting up if he couldn't see her smile, hear her quote her ridiculous father, or find somebody else for him to take under his wing. She was an essential part of his day, of everything he did, of his every thought. He couldn't even think of himself as an individual any longer. The two of them had merged in his mind until they had become one unit made up of two inseparable parts.

  All at once he had so much he wanted to tell her, things he'd never told anybody, thoughts he'd kept to himself because they seemed too foolish to utter. None of them seemed silly any more because he knew Lily would understand.

  Then, as he stood there waiting for the doors at the back of the church to open, Zac finally understood what Lily had been talking about. He finally understood what could turn Madison and Jeff, two of the most unfeeling men in the world, into charming, devoted husbands and lovers. The love they felt for their wives was so important to them, so essential to their existence, that it simply transformed them.

  Just as his love for Lily had transformed him.

  He hadn't turned his life upside down because he thought he ought to, or because he though he must to make Lily happy. He'd done it because he wanted to, because he simply couldn't imagine doing anything else.

  All because he loved Lily.

  And he did love her, really love her. With his heart, his soul, his mind, his whole body right on down to his toes. He was so full of it he was sure it showed on his face, the same lovesick expression he'd seen on his brothers' faces time and time again.

  But he didn't care who knew. He was crazy about her, so crazy about her he wanted to yell it out to everybody, especially Fern and Daisy. He hadn't been left behind. He was just as good as anybody else. No Randolph was going to make a bigger fool of himself over his wife than he was.

  Zac knew his family would probably think he'd lost his mind, but he didn't care. He wasn't the same man who looked down at that the Ace-high spade flush two months ago. Then no power on earth could have gotten him to attend a wedding such as this, much less be the focal point.

  Now he couldn't wait to marry Lily, and he didn't care who watched. He was proud of her. He wanted to show her off to his brothers, to his family, to the whole world.

  Zac felt a great weight lift from his shoulders. He loved Lily. He really loved her. He knew it was real because he could feel it. He couldn't wait to tell Lily. She had looked troubled and unhappy recently, all because he was too dense to see what was staring him in the face. Why else would he have sold his saloon and taken a job with Madison?

  He was tired of waiting. He was impatient with the whole proceedings. He wanted the wedding over so he could tell her. He wanted to see the frown disappear, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes smooth into a happy smile. He wanted to see her as happy as he felt at this very moment.

  The organ swelled again, and the guests craned their necks to get the first glance of her, but the doors stayed closed. Lily didn't appear.

  It was those boys. They must have gotten the train balled up. Or pulled it off. Anybody should have known it was ridiculous to ask eleven boys to do anything together, especially when their name was Randolph and they ranged in ages from four to fourteen. He wondered how long it wouldn't take Lily to get things straight again. He hoped it would be long.

  He knew as far as the rest of the world was concerned she was already his wife, but he'd never felt married. He wouldn't have even if he'd had the marriage recorded properly. His heart hadn't been in it that day.

  Everything wa
s different today. He didn't care how much discomfort he had to endure. If it would make Lily happy, it would be worthwhile. Besides, he was looking forward to his new life. He was a gambler, and change was always a gamble. Being Lily's husband was the best gamble of all.

  Zac was aware that too much time had passed for a simple mix-up to be the cause of the delay. Fern and Daisy were looking at each other with worried glances. The guests were beginning to fidget. He couldn't imagine what was wrong, but something definitely was.

  "Don't worry," Mr. Thoragood whispered. "Sometimes brides get so nervous they're afraid to open that door. But once they do, they're just fine."

  Zac knew that wasn't it.

  He wanted to go find her, but he knew he couldn't. It was unheard of for the groom to go running down the aisle to fetch the bride.

  But as the seconds ticked off, it was clear somebody was going to have to do something. Rose and Fern were holding a whispered conversation. Fern handed Rose her bouquet. But before she could take a single step, the doors at the back of the church burst open. Instead of his bride, an enormous man flanked by two equally large young men burst into the church.

  "Ye sons and daughters of Satan!" he intoned in a voice that sounded as though it had been honed by years of speaking from mountain tops, "bow your heads and pray for your salvation. But before you do, you miserable sons-of-bitches, somebody had better tell me what you've done with my daughter!"

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The vestibule looked more crowded than the sanctuary. Eleven young male Randolphs stood waiting nervously, certain they were somehow responsible for things going wrong.

  "She never came out of that room," Madison's oldest son told Zac. "We waited here just like Mama said, but she never came out."

  "Are you the Zac Randolph who calls himself my girl's husband?" Isaac Sterling demanded.

  "Of course," Zac replied, heading toward the bride's room. "Do you think I'd be dressed up like a French waiter if I weren't?"

  He went down a short corridor, turned right, and entered a room littered with boxes and tissue paper. Lily's veil and train lay on a table, waiting for her to put them on. Her street clothes hung neatly in an open cupboard. A deck of cards lay scattered on the floor. One card, the Jack of spades, remained on the table.

  Lily was gone.

  Fear threatened to numb his brain, but Zac fought it off. He had to think. He had to figure out what had happened to her.

  At first he thought she had run away because he didn't love her, but Lily wouldn't have left without telling him, certainly not at a time like this. She was impulsive but only when it came to helping others. No, somehow, for some reason, she'd been forced to leave. But why?

  Immediately he thought of Captain Borger. They had freed his crew and burned his ship. But Borger would be after Zac, not Lily.

  Isaac Sterling bulldozed his way into the bride's room. "Where is Lily?" he demanded, his eyes blazing. "What have you done with her?"

  "It's a little late to start worrying about her now," Zac growled. "As soon as I find her and we get this wedding over with, I've got a few things to say to you. Until then, get the hell out of my way."

  "Do you know where she is?" a soft-spoken woman asked.

  Nobody had to tell Zac the woman was Lily's mother.

  "No, and I can't figure it out with all these people asking questions."

  Dodie pushed her way in, adding to the confusion. She looked around, her expression one of shock and bewilderment.

  "She's gone," Zac said. "Disappeared."

  "Have you any idea why?" Dodie asked.

  "All I can think of is that ship's captain, but it can't be him. Who else could hate Lily?"

  "Or have a grudge against you," Dodie said.

  Zac moaned. "That could be half of the city."

  "What were these instruments of Satan doing in a room with my daughter?" Sterling pointed to the cards.

  "Can't you stop worrying about sin for five minutes?" Zac demanded, furious.

  "She was playing cards to calm her nerves," Dodie said.

  "I can't imagine why the cards are on the floor," Zac muttered absently. "Everything else is in perfect order."

  Zac and Dodie's eyes met.

  "She did that intentionally," Zac exclaimed. "It's supposed to tell us something."

  "Only a fool looks to cards for help," Sterling thundered.

  "Be quiet, Isaac. Let the man think."

  He was quiet. Zac figured it was from shock that for the first time in his life, his wife had told him what to do.

  "What can she be trying to tell us with the knave of spades?" Dodie asked.

  "Chet Lee!" Zac exclaimed, certain he knew who had kidnaped Lily. "He's not only a black knave. He has reason to hate me, you, and Lily."

  Zac darted past Mr. Sterling and dashed into the church. "Lily's been kidnaped," he called to his brothers.

  As they started toward him, he addressed the guests. "Stay where you are, folks. I'll have her back before long."

  "Who's got her?" Asa White, who was seated close by, asked.

  "Chet Lee."

  He thrust a gun into Zac's hand. "Here, you'll need this."

  "What do you want us to do?" Hen asked Zac.

  "Follow me. I think I know where he's taken her. I need you to make sure he doesn't sneak out."

  "I'm afraid I came off without a gun," George said. "I never expected to need one in church."

  "None of us are armed," Madison said.

  Suddenly a dozen or more guests were in the aisle, pressing pistols of various sizes and descriptions on the brothers.

  "Damn," Monty exclaimed, his eyes gleaming with pleasure as he accepted a snub-nosed pistol and a long-barrelled colt. "My wedding wasn't half this much fun."

  Out of the corner of his eye, Zac saw Madison and Rose take Lily's father in hand. That was one less worry. By the time he got back, they ought to have him broken to halter. He hoped Tyler and Jeff could convince the guests to wait. After all this trouble, he didn't want to come back to an empty church.

  Zac ran out of the church ahead of everyone. He headed straight for one of the cabs waiting to take the bridal party to the hotel for the wedding reception. "Head to the dock on Clay Street he ordered." He climbed into the carriage.

  "You're not leaving us behind," Monty said as he and Hen piled in behind Zac.

  "Then you've got to keep up," Zac said, too worried about Lily to consider his words.

  "We may be thirty-five," Monty said, "but sitting astride a horse every day keeps us in better shape than bellying up to a gambling table."

  "What's the place we're going to like?" Hen asked.

  "I think he's taken her to the docks," Zac said. "The only thing he can do is try to get her on a ship. He's got to know if he keeps her anywhere in the City, she'll be recognized."

  The brothers said very little during the drive to the pier. Zac kept berating himself, thinking if he'd married her properly in the first place, this would never have happened. He'd have sold out long ago, that disastrous game with Dodie would never have taken place, and he'd be trying to figure out how to coax her up to bed in the middle of the afternoon.

  The cab stopped before a drab, wood frame building fronted by a covered boardwalk. The back of the building extended out over the water.

  "What's the inside like?" Hen asked as they jumped out of the cab.

  "There's a big gambling hall downstairs with some offices. The girls have rooms upstairs."

  "Those kind?" Monty asked, curiosity dancing in his eyes.

  "I'll search the rooms," Zac said. "You take the offices and keep everybody off my back."

  They burst through the door. Hardly anyone in the saloon took notice. Zac headed straight for the bartender. "Did Chet Lee just come through here?"

  "I ain't seen him all day," the man replied and turned away.

  Zac reached across the bar, grabbed the man by the collar, and jerked him off his feet. He banged his head on the b
ar.

  "I'll ask you once more. Did Chet Lee just come through here with a woman in a wedding dress?"

  "Now that you mention it, I do think I saw him go past," the man said.

  "Which way did he go?"

  "I didn't notice."

  Zac banged his head on the bar again. This time he split his lip.

  "Upstairs," the man managed to gasp.

  "This place has more escape routes than a gopher town," Zac told Hen. "See if you can keep most of them covered."

  Zac ran up the stairs three at a time. He started throwing open the door to each room as he came to it. He left a trail of screaming women and shouting men behind him. He didn't slow down until he came to a locked door at the back of the building. He didn't hesitate. Using his foot, he stomped the door at the lock. The soft wood splintered. The door swung open revealing a narrow stairway.

  Zac bounded down two flights of stairs half a dozen steps at the time. They ended at another closed door. Unlocked, it opened into a room that seemed to be a basement storage area. Zac heard muffled sounds of a struggle coming from beneath the floor. He found the trap door almost immediately. He threw it open just in time to see the door at the other end open.

  The light coming through the doorway framed Chet Lee and Lily in a struggle.

  "Lily," Zac shouted as he catapulted down the dark stairway, "I love you!"

  Lily ceased to struggle for a moment, and Chet pulled her away from the door and shut it behind him. He locked it. Zac hit it with a crash, but it was much stronger than the inside doors. It held.

  "What did you say?" came Lily's muffled voice.

  "I said I love you," Zac shouted, then stomped the door with his foot. It still held, but he heard the wood begin to give. Twice more he hit the door. Afraid he would injure his foot and be unable to run after Chet Lee, he threw his shoulder against it. It gave way and Zac tumbled out, hitting the ground at the edge of the bay.

  Zac scrambled to his feet to see Chet and Lily standing near a boat. Chet held a gun to Lily's head.