A Betting Bride

by Rebecca de Medeiros

  "He hit you?" Alec's jaw dropped. He did not remember his father and was glad for it.

  "For a long time, I thought it was my fault. I was not good enough, pretty enough, I did not make him happy in... well anyway, your grandfather came to your father one day and told him that he wanted Stanley Junior to go out to the west coast and start a new office for their business. It would save the company he had said. Stan, your father, said that he was bringing that woman along. I nearly lost my mind. I said that I would go not that thing he had been seeing. I wanted my husband back."

  "Why? Why would you want a man that cheated on you and beat you?" Alec asked. He was shocked by her story.

  "Because, I thought that I was in love. Your father was the only man that had ever said that he loved me. I thought that was what love was about. I never knew my own father, and I wanted this man to protect me. Cherish me."

  "Some cherishing..."

  "Your grandfather agreed with me, even though your father protested it. In the end, Stanley Senior said I could go and get our new home set up. When all was ready, he would come there and bring you to me. I was so young, so hope filled that I thought it would be a matter of months until I had you back."

  "Instead your wagon train got attacked and my father was killed."

  "Alec, what I am about to tell you will hurt a bit. I can do nothing to ease the pain and I am very sorry, but I promised you the truth."

  "Tell me," he demanded.

  "I loved your father, and I know he loved me in the only way that he knew how, but he was a weak man. He was a spoiled, selfish man. Drinking was his source of happiness, so was his need to fornicate with everything in skirts." Taking a deep breath, Bethany continued on. "Stan was supposed to sit his turn as lookout one night. Earlier that day some braves had been spotted tracking our movement and we were told to be on alert. The wagon train had been smaller than usual, and we had lost a few of the men along the way due to a sickness they had caught from drinking tainted water. Anyway, the men had chosen to divide the chore of lookout."

  "Go on..." he prompted when Bethany stalled in her story. Her breathing became labored as if she struggled to inhale.

  "He only had two hours! Two god damn hours that was it, before he would be relieved, but a woman who had lost her husband had taken a fancy to him. Instead of being on alert, he snuck off to her wagon to get under the bitch's skirts. The Indians attacked, they charged the camp. Their war cries waking us all." She paused in her story for a moment as if collecting the courage to go on.

  "I ran from our bedding only to see your father sneaking out of her wagon, his pants still undone. The warriors began killing the men who rushed to arms, one by one. Children and women grabbed what little weapons were left to us, and we tried to fight. Your father chose to run off into the woods. He left me to fight for myself."

  "Sweet Jesus," Alec gaped.

  "I was raped repeatedly that night. I was devastated. One of the braves must have caught up with Stan not too far away. His body had been drug back to camp. It was mutilated in front of our very eyes. After that, the women and children still alive were taken as slaves."

  "I am sorry that happened to you," Alec squeezed his mother's hand in comfort.

  "The worst part, the very worst part is that I had left you with a monster!" Wailing loudly, the sound so broken and pain filled, she fell to her knees in front of her son. Her head in his lap she begged. "Please forgive me. I never knew he would hurt you. Your grandfather had showed a lot of interest in you. He seemed the proud grandfather, so I thought he would be different. I thought you were living a good life without me." She continued to sob. "I never forgot you, son. Never."

  "Bethany, please don't cry," Alec pressed his palm against her silky head and lightly caressed the woman's hair. His mother hadn't forgotten him. The truth both hurt and made him feel a sense of release. He felt relief that he had not been abandoned because she loved her second family more. "I forgive you. Let's not talk about this anymore tonight. The past is the past. We cannot undo it, but we can move on."

  Rising to his feet, Alec helped Bethany to hers and walked her through the doorway to the stairs. "Go up to bed. We will talk more tomorrow," He ordered her gently.

  "Listen to me Alec. You are going to be a loving, wonderful father. Only a strong man can forgive the past hell you have lived through. I know that you can do it," reaching up on tiptoe, Bethany kissed her son's cheek and tweaked his nose as she had done many times when he was a little one. "Sleep well button," she said before walking up the stairs and out of sight. She never looked back to see his stunned expression.

  "Button," he whispered. He remembered that nickname. He remembered that she would call him that. The ache in his chest eased. She had loved him after all. Walking back to his desk he laid his head upon his arms and did something that he had not done since he was a child. He cried like a baby.

  He cried until he felt spent. Alec rose from his seat and picked up the bottle he had earlier sipped from and tossed it in the trash. He would not need it any longer. Never again would he allow himself to become like his father and depend on spirits to ease him. He had a beautiful wife up the stairs that could help him focus on the good things in his life.

  "She needed that," a voice spoke from the darkness making Alec jump nearly a foot.

  "Son of a ... Hunter!" Alec turned to the younger man who sat at the bottom of the stairs awaiting him.

  "You listened?" Alec felt embarrassment at having such a private moment observed.

  "No shame in it man. Even a strong man like myself, has shed a few tears," Hunter smiled at Alec's disgruntled expression. "Don't worry about it, I won't tell a soul that you cry like a baby girl."

  "You are such a pain in the ass," Alec muttered as he passed by Hunter on the stairs on the way up to bed.

  "But you still love me right?" Hunter called out chuckling as his brother reached out and smacked him on the back of his head. "Love you too," Hunter called making kissy noises in the air.

  "I love you about as much as I love a kick in the ass," Alec quipped.

  "It's a Christmas miracle!" The younger man shouted at his back.

  Alec did not think anything could be worse than Hunter knowing he cried. That was, until he got to his bedroom. Turning the knob it failed to open. His lovely, sweet, wife was angry. She apparently was not going to let him sleep by her side. Turning on his heel he had to make his way back down the stairs. He either had to ask Hunter if he could bunk with him, or he had to find a place to sleep on the floor in his cramped study. Either way, it was going to be one long night.

  "A life lived in fear, is a life wasted."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  "Papa!"

  Scrambling to her beloved father's bedside, Serena nearly collapsed with fear. His frail form was crumpled in a heap on the floor next to the bed. Her hands shook as she placed them gently upon his ashen cheeks and patted them lightly. He felt like ice, but he was always so cold anymore.

  "Oh papa, please open your eyes... please."

  Tears began to flow unchecked down Serena's cheeks. He was weakening faster and faster every day now and Serena felt powerless to stop it. She came to see him nearly every afternoon for fear that she would miss out on a single moment with his.

  "Pumpkin...shh. It's ok." One boney hand cupped her cheek though his eyes had not fully opened. "I'm fine. Help me up, will you?"

  It took all the strength Serena had inside to help lift his body back onto his bed. She fussed with the covers and pillows just to give her trembling hands something to do.

  "I'm going to go get mama. You just lay there papa, I will be right back."

  "No. Serena, just sit with me a moment sweetheart," George Sinclair smoothed a rebellious strand of hair back behind Serena's ear. His breathing was labored, and Serena could tell that her father was in pain. "You need to listen to me my darling."

  "Papa..."

  "Hush, Sunshine. I'm worried about you. I think that you are
hurting inside and I want to help you."

  "I'm fine, papa." Serena leaned forward and kissed his brow.

  This strong man, who would lift her high into the air when she was a child, was now brought so low by this horrid sickness. Tears sprang to Serena's eyes, but she battled them. Papa did not need to see her cry, he needed her strength. She needed to pretend that all was right in the world so that he would not worry.

  "Serena, you need to face the fact that I am dying. The doctors that examined me in Austin have all agreed that I may not live much longer," George Sinclair started to cough a bit. "I may not even make it to summer."

  "Papa, you will be fine. You have to believe," Serena sniffled as she helped her father take a sip of the water by his bedside.

  "I want you to be a happy little girl. I want to know that when I am gone, you are settled with someone who will love you and take care of you like you deserve," he rasped. "I know how you feel about Alec. I've always known. Marriage is a hard adjustment. You will both be fine."

  "There is nothing wrong between Alec and me," Serena denied, unable to meet her father's eyes as she did.

  "Don't lie to a dying man, it is not nice," her papa chuckled dryly.

  "Papa, don't talk like that," Serena kissed her papa's brow and shook her head. "We will be happy, and you will live to see your first grandchild and bounce him on your knee. I know it."

  "Did I ever tell you the story of your very first steps, sweetheart?"

  "I love when you tell me stories papa," Serena smiled, she had probably heard all of his stories a hundred times, but she would gladly hear them a hundred more just to hear his chuckling as he told them.

  Settling herself next to him on the bed, she rested her head against his bony shoulder and inhaled. He smelled of his pipe tobacco and the peppermint candies that she knew he kept stashed under his pillow out of reach of mama's hands, for he knew she would scold him for gorging on them instead of the broth she had set out earlier for his lunch.

  "Tell me the story, papa." Serena sighed happily.

  "You were the tiniest little bit of a thing. Barely nine months old. Already you could lift yourself to stand, you would use my favorite chair to balance yourself." Reaching one hand up, he smoothed away a misbehaving curl from her forehead and smiled. "I said to anyone who would listen, 'that baby is going to walk any day,' but everyone told me what a fool I was."

  "Why, papa, why did everyone think you were a fool?" Serena asked, though she knew the answer already.

  "Because, no one else thought a baby so young would have the strength and courage to take those first steps on her own... but there you were. On this particular day, Mathias's birthday, in fact, you did not want to be upstaged by your big brother," he chuckled over the memory as it replayed in his mind. "You were always a brave little one, always willing to explore the places that were forbidden to you."

  "I think I still am, papa," Serena said sadly. She was thinking of the illicit things she had done with Alec so recently, the same things that forced them into a rushed marriage. She tried to summon the strength to regret them, but found she could not. Her husband had a way about him that drove her into wantonness. A hand went to her belly and she caressed the delicate life within her.

  "That is one of the best things about you my girl. You are never afraid to take chances. Don't be afraid to now, whatever it is that is wrong between you can be fixed." he advised her, "be brave, be fearless once again, and trust yourself to do the right thing Serena, before it is too late."

  "Oh papa, you cannot be dying... we can't go on without you!" Serena wailed.

  Just the thought of losing him was tearing her apart. She needed his wise counsel, his bad jokes and storytelling. She needed to be that little girl once again dancing to the music of fiddles on the tops of her papa's feet. She was not ready to lose her hero.

  "Listen to me, Serena, Alec's present to us is in the box on the side table. Open it." George pointed toward a flat box that sat on her mother's writing desk.

  Walking over to it, Serena lifted the top and peered inside. There were numerous scraps of paper ripped into tiny pieces inside."

  "I don't understand. What is this?" Serena asked.

  "It is our mortgage on the house and the store. Your mother and I ripped it to pieces last night. Alec paid off all of our debt and he set up an account to help your mother for when I am gone."

  "Papa!" Serena burst into tears.

  "You are married to a good man. Remember that, and you will both be fine," George wiped his daughter's tears and smiled at her sadly. "Darling, you will all be fine, but promise me you will look after Mathias for me. The boy has put himself in a shell that I am afraid no woman can crack. That Howard girl sure did a number on him all those years back."

  "Mathias needs a good swift kick in his backside," Serena agreed of her hard headed brother.

  "I wish I could live to see the woman he finally falls for, do that to him," George chuckled. "I hope she leads him a merry chase. It would serve him right. I just want you both to be as happy as I was with your mama, sunshine."

  "I don't know if that is going to be possible, papa."

  "Anything is possible darling. You just have to believe."

  "A secret is a veiled lie."

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "Where is my sister?" Mathias did not bother to knock, but stormed into Alec's study. He did not bother with niceties for he was much too preoccupied with giving the girl on his mind hell.

  "She went to see your parents this morning and then she was going to stop at the bank to handle a bit of business for your parents," Alec answered without looking up from the town's account book he was going through with a fine tooth comb.

  He would find the missing money some way, somehow. After he had completed that task, he would then make up for all the horrible things he had said and done to his wife. He would tell her how happy he really was to share the gift of a child with her and that last night he had figured out that the only thing keeping him from telling her he loved her was his fear. The stupid fear that he had always harbored that he would give his heart to someone only to lose them. Or worse, hurt them somehow.

  "You mean she went there to cover the debt that they owed don't you? I know all about their money problems now... they should have come to me," Mathis thundered. "I am their son. They should have come to me with their problems, not you. They should not have tried to hide Pa's sickness either." Stabbing a finger in Alec's direction, Mathias demanded, "How much did you give them? Tell me, and I will cover it."

  "I don't know how the hell you figured it out Matt, but they did not come to you because they knew you would mortgage the blasted ranch that you spent so long trying to build," Alec slammed the book shut and rose from his seat to face the braying jackass. "You have no right to confront my wife about this. She has shouldered the burden of their secrets for far too long."

  "Trudy Bixby came to me and told me what her father had planned."

  "Did she?" Alec smirked. "Trudy seems to be letting a bunch of secrets out of their family cellar these days."

  "She said that she wanted to stop Thomas before he bankrupts my parents. That she knows for sure that her father had been padding the figures on their debt since my father became ill, all of this because he wanted his daughter to marry you for somehow unknown reason"

  "He found out about my inheritance from my grandfather's estate," walking over to his liquor cabinet, Alec poured two drinks and handed one glass to Mathias. His glass contained only water. Alec was staying strong on his decision to not drink alcohol ever again.

  "That was the big push to saddle me with his little dumpling. Besides the money, he wants a position on the city council. Now that I am married to your sister, he has resorted to blackmail," Alec informed his brother in law.

  "Blackmail? What sort of blackmail?"

  "This," lifting the account book from the desk, Alec tossed it one handed to the giant man.

  "What is this?" />
  "It's the account book for the entire town budget. The expenditures and deposits of all the revenue the town has made through the past three years," tilting his glass in the direction of the book, Alec continued. "Look at the figures in the columns."

  "This can't be... these figures show that the whole town is in debt by the thousands," Mathias sputtered.

  "Thomas plans on revealing this at the next town meeting," Alec tossed back the rest of his drink and slammed the glass onto his desk.

  "I don't understand this...I've seen the figures. The council showed them to me."

  "That was a second set of books Mathias. It was a fake, this is the real figures. The town's coffers had been empty since before I took over when Sam Garfield died," Alec informed him.

  "Why the second set of books?"

  "I did not want anyone to know that I have been funneling money from my personal accounts into the towns, to keep Liberty afloat," Alec explained. "I was almost to the point of keeping the town fiscally stable on its own, when Thomas Bixby uncovered this."

  "Why don't you just tell the town the truth at the next meeting? Let them know what is going on," Mathias asked his friend.

  "How can I? It looks bad. It looks like I am paying back money that I may have mishandled. Their trust in me as mayor will be broken."

  "You can't know that for sure," Mathias argued.

  "Someone embezzled those funds Mathias. If it was not me that took the money, and then who did? The only other suspects would have to be someone on the town council...can you honestly see one of those old men stealing from the town?"

  "There was no one else with access to the funds? Anyone else who could see the balances? Maybe a teller at the bank? "

  "No one else had access to the records. Just myself, the council and the bank president who handled the money transfers."