His mother, Pearl, and sister, seventeen-year-old Olivia, were just spooning supper into serving bowls for the evening meal. Grace and Faith were racing into the kitchen at that moment, only to be immediately cautioned by their mother, “No running in the house, girls!”

  Ahh, the sights, sounds, and aromas of home. Dwight couldn’t resist a smile at the comfortable familiarity of it all.

  He crossed to the sink to wash his hands, exchanging amused glances with Livvy. He figured they were thinking the same thing—If I had two bits for every time Mother has said that to the twins, I’d be rich.

  Drying his hands, Dwight sat down at the head of the table in his father’s chair—the place that he had been unable to make himself claim until just recently, when Pearl had insisted that, as he was the man of the house now, he might as well.

  Finally settled, everyone reached for the hands to the right and left of themselves and Pearl gave a short blessing for the food.

  With a chorus of amens, the diners reached for their napkins as Pearl served herself a scoop of creamed peas and passed the bowl to her right.

  “How was your day, DJ?” she asked her nightly question.

  He smiled at her down the length of the table as he took a drink of lemonade, bestowed with sparkling ice and sweetened just the way he liked it. “It was all right. About average.”

  Livvy leaned close, her normal teasing glint lighting up her honey-brown eyes that were identical to his own. “Did you haul your girlfriend around again today?”

  Bristling, Dwight flashed his sister an aggravated glare. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “Mmm, hmm,” she tossed back, then pursed her lips and batted her eyelashes in a very bad imitation of a southern belle. “Oh Dwiiiiiiiiight, can you take little ol’ me on a buggy ride, my handsome driver?”

  “Awe, cut it out, Liv,” he grumbled, taking the bowl of chicken and dumplings from her and plopping some on his plate.

  Olivia snickered as she accepted the mashed potatoes from their mother. “Touchy, touchy.”

  Dwight clamped his mouth shut, striving to tamp down his frustration by reminding himself that it wasn’t Liv’s fault the Haldeman girl was so downright annoying.

  He took a bite of the delicious chicken, idly registering that Olivia had probably spent the better part of the day preparing it. Since their mother now worked five days a week and Pauline had left to join her husband, Livvy had quit her part time job at a hotel downtown and taken over the household duties. Cooking was something she actually did quite well—although he’d never bothered to tell her. That was the way between older brothers and younger sisters at times, right? They spent more time trading barbs than paying one another deserved compliments.

  Pearl lifted a forkful of food to her mouth, but said before she took it, “Mrs. Fetterman received a letter from that doctor in Brownville today.”

  That perked him up and his eyes snapped up to connect with hers. “Is everything all right? Pebs?”

  Pearl waved her fork in dismissal as she finished chewing and swallowed. “Yes, it wasn’t about Pauline. It was about that friend of hers…Mary?” Dwight nodded; his fork poised near his own mouth. “Seems she is in…” she paused with a quick glance at the twins, “some sort of trouble and the doctor asked Elvira for help.”

  Dwight pondered this for a moment. From the look on his mother’s face, he quickly surmised what kind of trouble the girl was in. Despite himself, his interest was immediately captured, as if an invisible line had been tossed out with a hook on the end and it had become lodged in his heart. Abstractly, he wondered why he felt more empathy than judgment toward her. It was as if, somehow, he knew she wasn’t to blame. Odd that.

  “What kind of help?”

  “The doctor asked if Elvira knew of anyone who would agree to temporarily marry the girl,” she paused with a twinkle in her eyes. “Seems that man has a real affinity for proxy marriages.”

  Dwight’s eyes widened. “He’s looking for a husband for her…like…in name only?”

  Pearl nodded as she took another bite, swallowing it before she answered, “Yes. Reading between the lines, I imagine he’s attempting to save the girl from shame and censure by finding a husband for her that isn’t a townsman. Alas, at the moment, Elvira doesn’t know anyone to suggest.”

  “What does censure mean, Mama?” Grace asked, brows furrowed.

  “Never mind, child. Eat your dinner,” Pearl admonished, flashing Dwight a look beneath her raised eyebrows that he knew meant, we don’t need the twins pondering a subject like this!

  The twins glanced at one another, shrugged, and went back to their meals.

  To Dwight, the answer was simple. After all—what was wrong with him doing it? From the little he’d seen of her, and from what Pauline had indicated, this Mary was just a girl who had fallen on hard times, lost her father and brother—if he remembered correctly—and had been attacked to boot. If she now found herself in this kind of trouble, he could only imagine it had something to do with the attack she had suffered on the main street in Brownville.

  He knew Pauline had formed a friendship with her, and he trusted his sister’s instincts and opinion. At any rate, from the sound of it, the marriage would be brief and just to help the girl out, right? Putting two and two together, he figured the doc wanted to get the girl married to smooth out the rough patches and to give the child a name—providing that was the trouble—and an annulment would be forthcoming, just like they had set up for Pauline and Tobias.

  “Tell Elvira I’ll do it,” he stated, his voice flat and brooking no discussion.

  He half expected his mother to immediately react in the negative, but she surprised him with a serene smile. “All right, son. I’ll do that.”

  Blinking at the suddenness of her answer and what he had just agreed to, Dwight sat back in his chair with a thud.

  Well, seems I’m about to be married. I’d say that was the fastest courtship in history.

  Chapter 3

  “Y ou want me to marry a man that I don’t really know…and it be a proxy wedding?” Mary asked the next day, once again sitting in Doc Reeve’s office.

  She cast a skeptical eye between Doc Reeves and Pauline Keller, her friend and the closest thing to a sister she’d ever had. “Like you did?” she added, her eyes searching Pauline’s for assurance.

  “Well yes, but less than what I did, actually. In this case, it’s not like he’s a stranger, Mary,” Pauline insisted. “It’s Dwight—my brother. You remember seeing him at the wedding, don’t you?”

  Mary did, indeed, remember seeing Pauline’s older brother, or rather, surreptitiously watching him from afar. She recalled that his features were quite similar to Pauline’s—warm brown hair, rich honey eyes and full lips. She remembered that his face was square-jawed and handsome, his teeth, when he smiled, were straight and attractive, his nose average, and his hair was thick and soft looking…so much so that it made her want to run her fingers through it. To Mary, he was strikingly handsome—but oh, so far out of her league.

  Besides that, they hadn’t even exchanged greetings or anything—and now, she was supposed to marry him?

  “He agreed to this?” she asked, incredulous eyes scanning between her friend and the doc.

  Pauline gave a definitive nod. “From what Mama said in her telegram, he suggested it.”

  “But, w…why?” Mary stammered. “Does he know what he’s agreeing to? Does he know,” she paused and sucked in a big breath of fortifying air, “that he will be giving his name to the spawn of an outlaw?”

  Immediately, Doc Reeves reached over and covered one of Mary’s hands with his own as Pauline did with the other.

  “Mary, you mustn’t think of your baby that way,” the doctor urged. “The child you are carrying is just as much yours as it is the begetter’s. And how the child turns out will be largely up to you and how you raise the little one.”

  “But…I don’t know anything about Dwight,” Mary hedged, desperately trying to wrap her mind around this development. When Doc Reeves had said to leave everything to him, she hadn’t dreamed he would come up with such a solution. At best, she thought he would find a place to send her, to quietly have the baby and put it up for adoption before coming back to Brownville and resuming her life. But this?

  “He’s twenty-two—no, he’s twenty-three now, his birthday was last week,” Pauline offered, ticking items off on her fingers. “He went to the University of Louisville for two years before…well, before our father died and DJ had to quit school and take a full-time job to help support the family.”

  Mary’s heart sank hearing that. “University? So…he’s um…real smart, then?”

  Pauline registered Mary’s meaning and she hastened to add, “Oh Mary, don’t think like that.” She exchanged a quick look with the doctor and went on, “You are smart, my friend. I’ve never seen anyone pick up spelling and vocabulary, as well as other school subjects, with the speed you do, and you have such a head for facts, figures, and anything you read. Stop thinking you’re dumb. You’re not,” she added firmly.

  Mary’s heart warmed at her friend’s words, and she managed a grateful smile. “Thank you, Pauline.” Catching her lip between her teeth for a moment, she ventured, “So…what else…about him?”

  “Well, he can be funny, and sweet…he likes to tease…and he’s very protective of those he loves. Sometimes he can go overboard being a big brother, but he means well,” she grinned, knowing Mary would remember the incident she was referring to. “He’s strong and brave, and talented…”

  At that, Doc Reeves chuckled. “I must say, Pauline, you’re doing a marvelous job of declaring your brother’s attributes.”

  Pauline sat back in her chair as they all laughed. A few beats later, however, Mary sobered again and stared at her friend.

  “Why would he want to do this?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know,” Pauline admitted. “I do know that he usually steps in when he sees someone in need of help. If it’s within his power to make something right, he does it. That’s just how he is. That’s one of the ways he and Tobias are alike,” she added, her eyes twinkling as she thought of her love.

  “All of this is neither here nor there, Mary,” the doctor put in. “You two will probably not even see one another during the duration of your marriage. Then, once the baby is born, the marriage can be terminated.”

  “But…what will I tell the people in town when they ask me where the father of my baby is?”

  “I’m working on that,” the doctor admitted, exchanging looks with Pauline. Looking thoughtful, he went on, “Without resorting to outright lies, you could hint that…your husband has a job in another state and can’t have you with him…”

  Mary raised a hand and absently brushed a lock of hair from her cheek. “What if someone lets the cat out of the bag?”

  “The only people who will know are myself, Pauline and Tobias, Charlie—but as to the telegraph operator, he’s sworn to secrecy, Judge Renner, and Attorney Mincer. Oh, and the man who will stand in and be the proxy groom. We’ll make sure he knows to keep everything to himself.”

  Mary once again met the concerned eyes of the doctor and her friend and then, seeing no other recourse, she lifted her shoulder and let out a resigned sigh.

  “All right. If you both think this is the best thing to do. When do we get this show on the road?”

  With a relieved smile, the doctor stood and rubbed his hands together.

  “You two go and get dressed for the wedding, and meet me at the courthouse in an hour.”

  Ninety minutes later, Pauline and Tobias stood on either side of a nervous Mary—wearing her prettiest light green, gingham day dress—and Deputy Keith O’Neill, Tobias’ good friend who had volunteered to do the deed. Attorney Mincer and Doc Reeves stood by as witnesses and to help the judge with the paperwork, as the man had never officiated on his end to solemnize a proxy marriage.

  “Well then, I guess everything is in order,” Judge Renner began as he finished reading the paperwork. Looking over the top of his glasses, he stared down at those assembled.

  “This is the bride and the…proxy for the groom?”

  “Yes, sir,” “Yes, Your Honor,” Mary and Keith spoke up at the same time.

  She sent him a shy, embarrassed smile and he grinned back at her. My, but he’s handsome, with that soft blond hair…and those green eyes…tall and lanky.... She watched him for a moment as he stood by her side with his cocky stance and the look on his face. Mmm hmm. He knows it, too.

  “All right, bride and proxy, turn to face one another, hold hands, and repeat after me,” the judge instructed.

  Mary handed her bouquet—a hastily gathered handful of pink peonies tied together with string—to Pauline, and then held out her hands to Keith, who clasped them firmly in his own. She couldn’t help but notice how warm, strong, and calloused his fingers felt against her own.

  “Dearly beloved…” the judge began, and Mary cringed at the wording of the marriage ceremony. Here she was, marrying a man she didn’t know, while holding hands with another man she didn’t know, and saying vows with him about the first man she didn’t know. It was enough to make a girl’s head spin! Oh, don’t think about your head spinning, or you might end up kneeling over that trash can in the corner, she warned herself sternly, remembering how quickly the dreaded morning sickness had struck when she’d first put her feet on the floor that morning.

  The judge’s voice droned on, but Mary was only half listening. Everything seemed to be happening so fast! A week ago, she had no idea she was even carrying. She was just working her two jobs—for Huber’s Restaurant, and also helping watch Charise and Finn Maynard’s children for a couple of hours a day. Everything seemed fine; the future rosy.

  Then in the space of just a few days—wham! She was expecting and now she was getting married.

  But…did she really want to keep this baby? What if it turned out to be a boy who resembled his no-good father? What if, as the Bible says, the sins of the father really are passed down from generation to generation? What if she became an outcast because of this? Could she even raise a baby on her own? Well, the doc and Pauline both promised they would help, but still…she had known women before, in some of the towns where she and her father and brother had lived, who were raising children alone. Very few of them seemed to be happy. Most of them had it very hard.

  Besides that, like most girls, she had dreamed of her wedding day, and the images in those dreams had looked nothing like this. She had always dreamed that someday she would find a man who would want to marry her… they would fall in love, and she would settle down, have children with him, keep house, and live a happy life. Would she find a man now who would want her…with a child in tow? A good man, that is…not the kind of man who had married Deputy Tobias’ widowed mother. A small shiver of revulsion rippled down her back. The stories she had heard about him were horrendous…and she wouldn’t even think about the blackguard who had caused her present predicament…

  A throat cleared and it snapped her back into the present.

  She felt her face heat with a fierce blush when she saw everyone in the room staring expectantly at her.

  “I…I’m sorry. What?”

  Keith snickered. “Now’s the part where you say your vows to me—I mean, to Dwight, your intended.”

  Mary blinked, feeling flustered as she tried to get herself together. “Oh, yes…”

  The silver-haired judge smiled down at her, seeming to understand that she was quite a bit rattled by the proceedings. Giving her a nod, he instructed once more, “Repeat after me. I, Mary Amelia Robinson…”

  “I, Mary Amelia Robinson.”

  “Take you, Dwight Jerome Christiansen, Junior…”

  Oh…I really like his name….

  “Take you, Dwight Jerome Christiansen, Junior.”

  “To be my lawfully wedded husband…”

  The vows went on, the same words that hundreds of thousands of people had said down through the centuries. It didn’t seem real at all to Mary, especially because she was holding hands with a man who was most definitely not Dwight Christiansen. Nevertheless, she kept her mind focused on the formalities and before too long Judge Renner was pronouncing her legally married to a man…a man whom she had never even heard the sound of his voice.

  It was all so…surreal. Was this happening? Or would she wake up in the morning to find it had all been one long, detailed dream?

  Signing her name on the marriage license and then accepting congratulatory hugs from those in attendance only compounded the dreamlike feeling of the entire situation.

  As she looked down, amazed at the ring Keith had slipped onto her finger—provided by Doc Reeves, of course—she couldn’t help but wonder what her husband was doing at that moment.

  At that moment, Dwight’s situation was anything but pleasant and dreamlike. It teetered more towards the nightmarish and bizarre. Surreal. In point of fact, he was sweating bullets.

  “Mr. Harrington, I swear to you, I haven’t laid a finger on that girl!” Dwight insisted. It was taking every ounce of control he had not to shout.

  His boss shook his head with a sigh.

  This had to be a bad dream. Surely it wasn’t really happening. In a flash, Dwight went over the events of the last three days in his mind.

  He had taken Miss Haldeman home from Madame Grunder’s and had endured the girl’s repeated pleas to go inside the mansion with her and wait while she tried on the new dress for him to see. He’d told her quite firmly that it was not his place to see or approve of her attire. He was merely the family’s regular cab driver, until her father decided to hire a chauffeur to replace the one who had left his employ to return home to the family farm and help out while his father recovered from an accident.

  Unbelievably, Miss Haldeman had cajoled, begged, pleaded, and cried before stomping her foot and issuing threats if he didn’t do as she asked.

 

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