Sgt. Billy's Bride

by Bonnie Gardner

  If she had to be marrying into a family, she would have much preferred to be joining Bill’s. These people seemed so genuine and caring.

  So real.

  She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like to be a real part of this big, happy clan. Not the stiff and formal family that she was a part of.

  Smiling to herself, she lost herself in the fantasy. Soon she drifted off to sleep.

  “YOU AREN’T PLANNING to bring Darcy with you to church?” Momma asked Bill at the breakfast table.

  That was something he hadn’t thought about and a question he hadn’t been prepared to answer. And if it weren’t for Momma, he’d probably skip church. When he’d talked Darcy into agreeing to play his fiancée, he hadn’t anticipated they’d find themselves digging deeper into a mess he wasn’t sure he would be able to get out of. He certainly wasn’t about to drag Darcy into another situation that would put her on the spot.

  Taking Darcy to church seemed wrong. It was one thing to pretend in the safety of his own home, but something else to do it in church.

  “I’d like to go to church with you, Bill. I met Reverend Carterette last night, and I’d like to attend services at his church.” Darcy reached for a mug for coffee, then turned to Momma. “Will the sweater set I had on at the party last night be all right? I can put on the lower half of a suit for a skirt. I didn’t bring much in the way of nice clothes with me.”

  “I’m sure you’ll look lovely, Darcy,” Momma said, beaming. “The Lord don’t care what you’re wearing in His house, only that you’re there.”

  Their reasons for pretending to be engaged outweighed the lie, Darcy tried to convince herself. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to show herself in the church. Even if she had met most of the congregation—or so it seemed—in this house last night.

  Bill touched her on the shoulder, squeezing it slightly, and Darcy was warmed by his gentle gesture. She liked Bill, she liked Nettie, she had to believe that she was doing the right thing for everyone.

  “Well, I’m right pleased that you are going to go with us,” Nettie said. “Most of the time, I have to nag our Billy to death to make him come with me.” She put down her cereal spoon and pushed herself heavily to her feet. “I’ll just go get ready and leave you two alone to eat your breakfast. Services don’t start for a couple of hours yet.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Darcy said, hoping she was doing the right thing. It had seemed so simple yesterday morning when Bill had talked her into pretending. After all, she was going to be helping by keeping an eye on Nettie’s condition. Now, the reason didn’t seem simple at all.

  It seemed very complicated, indeed.

  She smiled up at Bill, more for herself than for him, as he scraped scrambled eggs onto her plate then sat down across from her. Darcy had thought that matters were complicated when she’d left Dick waiting at the altar two days ago.

  If she’d known just how much more deeply involved her life could get, would she still have run? She scooped up a forkful of eggs and looked across the table to Bill and imagined sitting across from Dick.

  Yes, she would have.

  In Darcy’s eyes, Bill seemed more of a man while serving breakfast to her than Dick had ever been.

  HE FELT AS THOUGH he’d dodged a bullet. Bill breathed a figurative sigh of relief as he and Darcy helped Momma down the short flight of steps from the church and escorted her to the car. What he’d expected to be torture hadn’t been so bad, and Momma seemed to have enjoyed showing off her son and future daughter-in-law as much as she had the service.

  That alone outweighed the guilt he felt about their deception.

  “Excuse me, Miss Stanton?”

  Bill turned to see Darcy taken aside by old Doc Williamson. The doctor attended church about as regularly as Bill did, but Bill guessed that he had come to check out Darcy, just as about half of the less-regular members of Bobby Carterette’s flock had.

  He helped Momma climb into the Cherokee then stood watch outside the Jeep as Darcy and Doc Williamson engaged in a lively—and long—conversation. “I wonder what that’s all about,” he mused half out loud.

  “I reckon the doctor couldn’t wait till the morning to interview his new nurse,” Momma said through the rolled-down window. “You saw how Becky Porter looked about to pop. I reckon he’s afraid she’ll have that young’un and leave him hanging without a nurse, and he wants to be ready.”

  “I suppose,” Bill said, his eyes still trained on Darcy and the doctor.

  “Don’t worry, Bill,” Ken Peterson, the high-school principal, said, waving as he passed the Jeep. “I don’t think he has any designs on your woman.”

  “Uh, no, sir,” Bill said, returning the wave. “Just waiting on her.” If this was supposed to be a fake engagement, he and Darcy must be doing a pretty damned good job of playing their parts. Everybody seemed convinced.

  Bill guessed that was a good thing, but maybe not. After all, if he wasn’t careful, he’d begin to believe it, too. And marriage, especially to a woman he’d known all of forty-eight hours, just didn’t fit into his plans.

  While he had been distracted by Mr. Peterson, Darcy had disengaged herself from Doc Williamson. She all but skipped back to him, a wide grin on her face.

  “I got the job,” she announced enthusiastically, throwing her arms around Bill. “I’m so excited.”

  He didn’t know whether to hug her back or step away, but Darcy seemed to realize what she’d done, and, blushing slightly, she quickly let go. Bill felt almost chilled from the loss of her touch.

  “Sorry,” she said under her breath, but she apparently couldn’t control her enthusiasm for long, for she continued excitedly. “Doctor Williamson said his nurse is due any day now, and he doesn’t think she’ll make it to term. So he wants me to start right away so she can show me the ropes before she goes into labor.”

  “Well, that must make you right proud,” Momma said from her seat in the Cherokee. “That calls for celebration, don’t you think, son?”

  Bill turned, surprised by his mother’s remark. He hadn’t even thought that much about it when his mother had mentioned that Doc had the opening, and he hadn’t realized that Darcy had followed through.

  “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Darcy said as she climbed into the back seat beside Momma.

  “What did you have in mind?” Bill finally said, dragging his gaze away from Darcy. He turned and quickly rounded the Jeep and climbed in.

  “We could stop off at the SaniFreez on the way to Lougenia’s and get an ice-cream cake.” She looked at him, her expression hopeful. “Now, I know I’m not supposed to be eating ice cream, and I do appreciate Lou fixin’ me the right kind of food when she has me come over, but I reckon you young’uns would rightly enjoy having some ruther than fruit salad. And I do declare that I would just love to watch you eat it.”

  That was logic that Bill certainly couldn’t argue with. And he also knew that one little serving of ice cream would make little difference in his mother’s condition one way or the other in the long run. “Let’s do it,” he said.

  THAT NIGHT, after they had returned from Lougenia’s and Darcy had helped settle Nettie for the night, she found herself alone with her thoughts on the swing on the tiny front porch.

  The night was warm and scented with honeysuckle, and fireflies danced over the lawn, entertaining her with their simple show. The only sounds were the chirps of crickets, the drone of june bugs dive-bombing the window screens, and the occasional creak of the swing.

  Funny how her life had changed. In just a few days, she’d gone from a troubled, reluctant bride to a happy and contented woman. With a job!

  This was the first thing she’d ever really done on her own. Besides running from her wedding. She was finally doing something for herself, and she was helping Bill with his mother, as well.

  She still had a few reservations about staying in Nettie Hays’s house when she wasn’t really engaged to her son. She h
ad always, in the back of her mind, imagined having an apartment of her own, but she rationalized that she was earning her way by keeping watch over Nettie. And, there would be time for an apartment soon enough.

  The pretense couldn’t go on forever. And neither could Nettie, for that matter. Darcy sighed and tried to push that thought out of her troubled mind. It was enough, for now, to try to make Nettie’s life more comfortable. No matter how long or short it might be.

  She wondered vaguely if there was anything that could be done. After all, they’d made great strides in cardiology in recent years. Perhaps, there was something that could be done to reverse Nettie’s condition. She’d check with Doctor Williamson once she’d settled into her new job.

  Bill stepped outside, leaned against the doorframe, and seemed to drink in the evening fragrances as she had. He said nothing, but Darcy was very aware of his presence.

  She waited for Bill to say something or to sit beside her or to do anything, but he seemed to be content simply to stand there, so near yet so far.

  Darcy didn’t know how long they shared the night like that, and the time wasn’t important. She wondered if this was what it was like to be an old married couple, so comfortable with each other that words didn’t matter. She wondered why she seemed so comfortable with Bill when they were involved in such a strange situation.

  She drew in a long, deep breath of the warm, fragrant air. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Bill didn’t respond, and Darcy wondered if he had heard her, but whether he had heard her or not didn’t matter. She was content to sit and listen to the summer symphony and soak up the peace and quiet. For now, her problems didn’t matter. For now, this beautiful summer evening was hers to enjoy.

  Finally, Bill shifted, and Darcy wondered if he was going back inside to leave her with the night. She’d like him to stay here with her, but if he went, it didn’t matter.

  “A while ago you said thank you,” Bill said suddenly, startling Darcy with the abrupt intrusion into the serenity. “Why? I should be thanking you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Darcy said softly, knowing exactly why he was thanking her. She supposed she should explain. Maybe she couldn’t tell him everything about her flight from the chapel and Dick, but she could help him understand.

  She drew in a long, deep breath, then patted the swing seat beside her. She didn’t care whether Billy joined her there or not, but it mattered to her that she had invited him. “For sharing your family with me,” she said simply, knowing there was no way she could explain her own complicated situation. “I’ve never known such gentle, caring people.

  “My family is nothing like that,” she said softly, not really wanting to confess her parents’ shortcomings, even though they might have been well-intentioned, even as she was happy to be free from them. For now. She closed her eyes, as if doing so would make the truth easier to admit.

  “They always had a firm idea of right and wrong and what I should do with my life,” she said finally. “They had my life all mapped out and planned in front of me, and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t what I wanted to do.” Darcy gave Bill a moment to probe if he was going to.

  “What did you want to do?” Bill accepted her opening, but the question wasn’t the one she’d expected. She’d been prepared to explain about her family duty and expectations, not her own plans. No one had wanted to hear her dreams before.

  Darcy sighed and took a few moments to formulate her answer. “I guess I just want to be myself,” she said finally. “Not the woman my parents expected me to be. They lived a life of rules and great expectations. I never felt I could live up to them,” she said, choking up. She smiled, forcing the lump from her throat. “I always knew I was a big disappointment to my father for not being a son, and my mother’s idea of perfection was just not mine.

  “I tried,” she said, sighing again. “I really did, but I just couldn’t do it any more.”

  “Is that why I found you all alone hitchhiking on that dark country road?” Bill laid his big hand over hers still splayed on the wooden swing seat. He squeezed gently.

  Darcy nodded, unable to speak, her emotions overwhelmed by this simple gesture. His touch seemed so warm, so caring, that it made her heart ache. Maybe if even one of her parents had accepted her as Bill’s family had, she wouldn’t be here today. Then, she realized with a pang, if that had been the case, she would never have met Bill Hays.

  Though everything else in her life had gone awry, sitting here with Bill seemed very right.

  Chapter Five

  Bill turned off the chain saw and took a moment to wipe the sweat off his brow. He wished he could take his leave time off to relax like the other men on Silver Team, but Momma needed his help. There’d be plenty of time to relax after…Well, he didn’t want to think about that.

  It had been a long time since anyone had cleared the brush around the old cowshed. Edd mowed the lawn, and Jim, his older brother, kept the house in good repair, but they each had their own jobs, their own lives and their own places to keep up with. Truth be told, Bill felt better doing something physical rather than sitting around and wringing his hands over something he could do nothing about.

  With the dry conditions around here in the summer, it was better to clear brush away from around the house and outbuildings to make a fire break than to let everything go wild. Although this year seemed to be wetter than usual, he figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Bill looked out over what had once been a thriving vegetable plot, now overgrown with weeds and blackberry brambles. Momma had always kept a big garden going, and what the family hadn’t eaten in the summers, she’d frozen or canned for the winters. They’d never been rich, but they’d never gone hungry. He admired Momma for that, but he never wanted a woman he loved to endure the kind of hardship that Daddy’s unexpectedly early death had caused his mother.

  He’d seen what it had done to his mother. It had made her old before her time. Surely all that past struggle just to survive had contributed to her illness today. Maybe that’s why he was so determined to save some other woman from the heartache by not marrying while he was on active duty.

  It was one thing to work hard to provide for a family, but another knowingly to take on a job that could take him away from that family, temporarily, if not permanently. He was not going to let another woman struggle to support herself and her children the way Momma had done.

  He started to rev up the chain saw again, but he wasn’t ready to go back to work. One thing about this kind of farm work: it gave a guy time to think. And he had plenty to think about. Not the least of which was his temporary fiancée.

  With Darcy up early and gone to the first day of her new job, Billy almost felt as though life had returned to normal. It was amazing how much easier it was to concentrate without her distracting him. And why she did, he didn’t know.

  Of course, now that he’d thought about her, she’d moved up to the front of his mind. Why did she bother him so? She was just a woman, and not even the most beautiful one he’d ever met. Compared to other girls he’d dated, she wasn’t the prettiest. Yet, there was something about her that drew him like a moth to a flame.

  He chuckled wryly. Yeah, that was a fatal attraction. He sure hoped it wouldn’t prove to be the same for him. The last thing he needed along with everything else was to crash and burn.

  Just like this brush if he didn’t get it cleared away, he reminded himself. He reached for the insulated jug of water he’d stashed in the shade of the shed and took a long swig. Then, once his thirst was quenched, he set back to work.

  AFTER THE BUSY SHIFTS of her hospital training last term, her duties with Doctor Williamson seemed far from complicated, Darcy thought as she steered Nettie’s old car home after her first day on the job. She thought vaguely that she needed to try again to retrieve her own car, but since Nettie had given her free use of hers, it didn’t seem that urgent. After all, her VW Bug was older than she was and would probably c
ost a fortune to fix.

  And she’d only kept it to irritate her parents and Dick. They’d complained about it from the day she’d bought it for $800 through an ad in the paper. Her father had taken one look and declared the elderly woman who’d sold it to her a thief, but Darcy had liked her, and the old vehicle had taken her a lot of miles from eleventh grade all the way through college with very little upkeep. Perhaps it deserved a decent burial, but she didn’t think she needed to put it back to work. If it had been a racehorse, she’d have put it out to pasture.

  She paused at the intersection of the main highway and waited for a produce truck to pass, then turned onto the road toward the Hays place. She’d had a pretty good day. Except for learning Doctor Williamson’s rather strange filing system and getting to know the patients, this new job would be a breeze. She spent more time taking patient histories and doing triage than anything, and considering the number of bedpans she’d emptied in her hospital practicals, she was just as happy for the change.

  Another couple of minutes and she’d be home, strange as that seemed. Nettie’s small house seemed so much more welcoming than any of the military base quarters she’d lived in growing up. She didn’t know why, unless it was the knowledge that these people had roots, something she’d longed for and never had.

  Of course, she’d have to face Bill again and play the part she still felt guilty about.

  As she pulled into the drive, she couldn’t help thinking that she wouldn’t mind being Bill’s fiancée for real. As she turned the key and cut the engine, that thought was seconded as she caught a glimpse of the man, hard at work on the far side of the shed. There he was, clearing out the wild overgrowth, bare to the waist and sweaty and all too male.

  Darcy opened the car door and stepped out into the thick, hot summer air. Feeling as though she’d been mugged, all she could do was stare.