Harrison remarked. 'I didn't realize what she meant until a few minutes ago. Should I go and get the judge tomorrow?'
'It would be nicer to have the wedding here on the ranch, and I do believe he would agree to come out here. Be sure to include Belle. She helped us with Mary Rose during her growing up years. She'll want to see her married. I don't believe you need to mention sleeping with your bride, however. The fact that you have to leave should be enough of a reason for the hurried ceremony.'
'I want her to come with me.'
'That's up to her. She'll have to decide after our talk.'
'I think maybe we ought to have that talk now.'
Cole made the announcement from the doorway. Travis was standing right behind him.
Mary Rose wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. If they'd heard she'd slept with Harrison, she was sure she would die of mortification.
'One problem at a time,' Adam suggested. 'What's done is done. Tomorrow we'll have a wedding. Are we agreed on that?'
Cole and Travis nodded. 'It's easy to get divorced out here,' Cole told his sister. 'You can hold on to that thought during the ceremony.'
Harrison wasn't amused by the brother's dark humor. 'It doesn't work that way. Once married, always married. Got that, Mary Rose?'
She pushed his arm off her shoulder and turned around. 'What kind of marriage proposal was that? Am I to translate 'got that' into, 'Will you marry me?' You do have a way with words, Harrison MacDonald, and if I didn't love you so much, I do believe I'd shoot you. Good night.'
She did get the last word. No one stopped her when she marched out of the library. She ran up to her bedroom and didn't start crying until she'd shut the door behind her.
Loving Harrison was becoming a pain in her backside. Shamed or not, she was not going to be married by a hanging judge. No sir, no way, she thought to herself, using one of Cole's favorite nonsensical replies.
She felt better now that she had her mind set. She fell asleep with her brother's words echoing in her mind. No sir, no way.
Chapter 16
She came armed to her own wedding. Judge Burns didn't cotton to the notion of guns in his courtroom or his marriage parlor, and he therefore insisted she remove the six-shooter from her pocket. He would have frisked her if Adam would have allowed it.
The judge wasn't an altogether unlikable man. He was young by a judge's standards, or so Mary Rose believed, for he wasn't quite fifty years old yet and had been a hanging judge for nearly fifteen years.
He cut a handsome figure. He was tall, only slightly stoop-shouldered from age, and had brilliant green eyes the condemned believed were the very color of Satan's. The judge didn't have horns though. He had a full head of dark auburn hair. He was given to an Irish temper and an English practicality.
He and Harrison got along quite well from the minute the two men met. Burns had distant relatives living outside of Canterbury, and so he felt he had something other than the law in common with Harrison.
The way the intended groom treated Belle softened the judge's heart as well, for Harrison treated the woman with a deference reserved for statesmen. It wasn't an act. Belle had helped in the raising of Mary Rose, and Harrison was therefore as beholden to her as the others were. He didn't care what her occupation was. She had a good heart, and that was all that mattered to him. The older woman's love for Mary Rose was very evident, and when Belle was asked to stand up as a bridesmaid and witness, she burst into tears.
Belle was dressed in blue. Judge Burns told Harrison he'd never seen her in any other color in all the years he'd known her. Why, even her lacy undergarments were blue, he whispered to Harrison while they waited for Mary Rose to join them.
Belle had gone upstairs to help the bride. Her advanced age and her occupation hadn't hardened her features. She was very pretty, with gray-tinged brown hair and warm brown eyes. And when she came back into the parlor with Mary Rose on her arm, the town's pride and joy looked more radiant than the bride.
Mary Rose looked miserable. And beautiful, Harrison thought to himself.
'Eleanor won't be joining us, I'm sorry to say,' Adam explained. 'She's still burning with fever, though Douglas assures me she's improved somewhat today.'
'Belle, can you play at the piano?' the judge asked.
'No, honey, I can't,' she answered.
'I'll play,' Mary Rose suggested.
'Now, that don't make no sense, child,' Belle told her with a laugh. 'You've got to say your vows. John, why don't you place us where you want us and get the wedding done. It's warm in here. Boys, you line up behind your sister. Which one of you is giving her away?'
Belle handed Mary Rose a nosegay of wildflowers. Then she took hold of her hand and placed it on Harrison 's arm.
'We're all giving her away,' Adam told the judge.
'Well, now, I reckon that's all right.'
'Wait. Judge Burns, did you hang anyone this week?'
'Not that I recollect, Mary Rose.'
She let out a sigh. 'All right then. Harrison, you still haven't proposed. He didn't, Judge. He just told me we were going to get married. He never asked.' Her voice sounded downright puny to her. She hoped no one noticed. The flowers were shaking in her hand too. She gripped them tighter and tried to act composed.
'Honey, you ought to ask her nice,' Belle insisted.
Harrison turned to his bride. 'Will you marry me, Mary Rose?'
'No.'
'She means yes,' he told the judge.
'She's got to say the word.'
Harrison looked at Mary Rose once again. 'Do you love me?'
'Yes.'
'Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me?'
'Will you try to get over your spells if I say I do?'
'Yes.'
'Then, yes, I want to spend the rest of my days with you.'
'Sounds like she's agreeing to me, John, honey,' Belle said.
The judge cleared his throat, opened his book, and began to read.
Harrison and Mary Rose became husband and wife less than five minutes later.
He looked relieved when it was over. She looked bewildered. Harrison gently drew her into his arms and kissed her. She clutched her flowers to her chest and kissed him back.
