Sally was radiant. She said, 'Oh, Daddy. Oh, Daddy. I'm just thrilled.'
Longarm said, 'Sounds just fine to me.'
'Then let's get on to bed. There's been enough of this foolishness.'
Longarm went on back to the cabin and sat down in front of the bottle of whiskey and poured half a glassful and didn't even bother with the water. Instead, he took a straight jolt and let it burn all the way to his stomach and then let it extend all the way from his stomach down his legs and back to his scrotum. He could feel his privates shrivel and his ears burn, such was the power of the whiskey. He thought out loud, 'I am in some serious kind of a trap. This is all Billy Vail's doing, and he is probably dying laughing right now. Marrying? Hell, I'll shoot my way out of here first. Marrying? She's as pretty a girl as I've ever seen, but I ain't marrying her.'
He spent the rest of the night trying to unscramble the mess in his mind, but it was just one of those kinds of knots that wouldn't come unwound. Billy Vail had warned him to stay out of the backwoods of the Ozarks. There was danger in these mountains. There were ambushes everywhere. Billy hadn't told him what kind of danger there was and what kind of ambush to look out for. He'd walked straight into one, and it was just about as soft and sweet and juicy an ambush as he'd ever walked into. A man could get healed from a bullet wound, but he didn't reckon he'd ever recover from a marriage. And the hell of it was, now that the matter was out in the open and declared, he wasn't even allowed to have any more pie. That was a hell of an arrangement. A man got invited into the bakery and then told he couldn't have any more pie until such time as certain formalities were gone through. As far as Longarm was concerned, pie was pie, and the saying of words or whatever it was that they did, didn't change the flavor of the pie. Finally, in disgust, he toasted the sun's arrival with some more of the vile-tasting raw whiskey.
It was an awkward day. He went in to breakfast. Sally was there, letting off a kind of glow. She didn't speak to Longarm, but she kept her eyes steady on him, so strong and steady that it almost made his hands tremble as he tried to eat his eggs and grits and bacon. Somehow, several more women had managed to squeeze in at the breakfast table, and they seemed to be well up on all the details. From time to time, one would whisper to another and then they would all giggle and stare. He could feel himself redden whenever they did. John was cordial and a cousin named Samson that Longarm had never met but only nodded to was friendly. Only Mark had a glower on his face. The old man, as if Longarm were already part of the family, began talking about the making of whiskey as if Longarm were familiar with every step and could appreciate the fine art they were practicing.
Asa said, 'Now, I don't hold much with morning drinking, but right afterwards we get through with this breakfast, I want you to come into my little office and I want you to drink some of this whiskey that we've had setting and aging for four years. I bet you're gonna get a surprise.'
Longarm gave him a wan smile. He said, 'Is this the kind of conversation that new sons-in-law have with their new daddies-in-law-to-be?'
Asa made a wheezing dry sound that Longarm took to be laughter. He said, 'Well, now, young fellow. I can see that you're a young fellow that knows his way around the family. Yes sir, we might speak about how your prospects are going to be looking for you. I want to make sure that my little girl is well provided for.'
Longarm said, 'I've been able to take care of myself for all this time.'
Rebecca, the mistress of the kitchen, suddenly spoke up. She said, 'Daddy, maybe Mr. Long has some kinfolk that would like to come to the wedding. Wouldn't that be fittin' that we should try and get word to them?'
Longarm interrupted hastily. He said, 'Oh, I haven't got no kin, just a couple of brothers, and they're back in Arizona. They couldn't get here in any time. No sir, I'm not as big on family as y'all are.'
John called from down the table. 'Sally will fix that! Ha!
Longarm gave him a weak smile. He said, 'Oh, yes sir, that's what I'm really looking forward to is having kiddies. I always was a man who wanted children.'
Rebecca said, 'It will change your life, Mr. Long.'
With a weak feeling in his stomach, Longarm said, 'I don't doubt that.'
The whiskey was surprisingly good. The old man was seated at a battered wooden desk in a little room not much bigger than a closet. He had several ledger books lying open in front of him, and Longarm was amazed to see the neat and precise columns of figures showing the gallons they had produced and the amounts they had received in return. Some of the figures stunned him. He had reckoned the family he was supposed to be marrying into was a lot better off than many of the people living in fine homes in big cities, but this little old man sitting in front of him in his overalls had steadily and quietly amassed a fortune. He said to Longarm, 'Now, I ain't expecting you to take much interest in this here money because this here money was earned before you came in, but you ought to know that when I slip off this mortal coil, Sally will come into some little money. It might come in handy to her husband in his business.'
Longarm said, 'Mr. Colton, you're embarrassing me, sir. As far as I am concerned, Sally is a prize even if she didn't have a dress on her back. I wouldn't be a man who would be studying about her fetching money along with her.'
Asa nodded. 'I figured you were that kind of fellow. Well, what do you think of that there whiskey?'
Longarm held his glass up to the light. It was a mild amber color. It was still stronger and had a more whiskey taste than he was used to--by no stretch of the imagination could he call it smooth--but it was whiskey that had been aged and had taken on the color of the wood barrels it had been aged in.
He said, 'Mr. Colton, you say this whiskey has only been laying down for four or five years?'
'That's a fact, young man.'
Longarm shook his head and took another sip. He said, 'Well, sir, I've got to tell you this here is prime drinking whiskey. This here is real sipping whiskey.'
The old man looked down modestly. He said, 'Well, we take pleasure and pride in what we give a man to drink. He buys his whiskey from us, and we intend that he doesn't get shorted. Of course, you understand that we only sell this stuff around here to our kinfolk and friends. That other stuff that we ship off, well, we don't know what them folks do with it, but it's their business. Once they've paid for it, it's their whiskey. We like to think that, locally, we put out some pretty good whiskey.'
'I don't think you just have to think that, sir. I think you can pretty well be certain of it. It still packs a good wallop, I will say that, though.'
