Then the pastor turned his gaze to Jasper. “Aren’t I performing your wedding ceremony this afternoon?”
The Logans sure didn’t waste any time. Will glanced at his friend, who shrugged.
“I’ll be there. Then I’ll be back out helping Will.”
If Pastor Lassiter saw anything wrong with the situation, he didn’t voice his opinion. A wise move, considering. Will had tried telling Jasper to take more time before marrying Emma Jane, but apparently this shotgun wedding was almost as literal as a man could take it.
Thoughts of his friend’s impending nuptials reminded Will of the nuptials they had to prevent. A woman might think that losing her reputation was the worst thing that could happen, but truth was, marrying Ben Perry was a far worse fate.
Chapter Fifteen
The rumors were true. Every last one of them. Mary had hoped that at least some of the venomous words from Mrs. Logan were exaggerated, but if anything, the stories Mrs. Logan told were missing the worst of the details.
“I don’t understand how this could have happened.” Mary sank into the comfortable sofa in Frank’s study.
“You never told me he was a scoundrel.” Polly’s voice rose above the noise in Mary’s head.
Her fault. That was what Polly was saying. Polly was right. This was all completely Mary’s fault.
“I was ashamed.” Mary looked at her lap, wishing she had a cup of tea so that she’d have something to do with her hands. This would have been so much easier had the room not been so full.
Frank, Maddie, Gertie, Polly, Will and even Jasper all stood around, discussing Rose’s ruin, but only Polly had voiced the one truth they were all thinking.
Mary’s shame had led to Rose’s downfall.
Gertie sat beside Mary and took her hand. “He didn’t—”
As the older woman’s eyes searched her face, Mary turned away and refused to meet her gaze. “No. Ben took advantage of me in other ways.”
Even admitting she’d been taken advantage of was almost too much to bear.
“I can’t see why Rose would...” Mary stared at the pattern on her dress. Her own dress, for the first time in days, and she couldn’t enjoy it. Worse, she resented it. Because the time it had taken her to change and freshen up at Maddie’s insistence was time wasted in getting her sister back.
“It’s my fault,” Maddie said, her voice sounding almost as dull as Mary’s heart felt. “I saw them embracing in the side yard, and I told Rose that if she was going to act like a doxy, they ought to go down to State Street.”
Maddie began sobbing. “I never meant for her to do it. I only thought to shock her into realizing the error of her ways.”
Unfortunately, the housekeeper had not yet learned that Rose would have taken such a taunt as a dare. But even Rose should have had more sense about things.
“It’s not your fault.” Gertie got up and put her arm around Maddie, then looked around. “Nor is it anyone else in this room’s fault. Rose has a brain, and she should have used it. There was something about Ben I didn’t like from the moment he announced his engagement to our Mary.”
Though Gertie’s words were meant to make everyone feel better, and they seemed to have calmed Maddie’s hysterics, they did nothing to ease the ache in Mary’s heart.
“I should have been more open with my sister,” Mary whispered, knowing that the failure to confide in Rose began a long time ago, for too many petty reasons she should have let go of years ago.
“As if Rose would ever listen to you.” Polly took the seat Gertie had vacated. “If you said something was black, Rose would say it was white, just to be contrary. When I got back, she was already batting her eyelashes at him, probably just for the thrill of stealing your beau.”
Which wouldn’t have happened if Mary had made it clear that Ben wasn’t her beau. Polly was right, though. Rose often wanted things simply for the sake of taking something from Mary.
“Assigning blame isn’t going to solve anything.” Will’s voice broke through the melancholy threatening to swallow Mary.
“The real question is, what are we going to do to get Rose back?”
Mary looked up, noticing the grim expressions on everyone’s faces, her gaze landing on Frank, who wore the grimmest expression of all.
“I’m not sure that’s possible. When I went to The Pink Petticoat to try to talk some sense into her...”
The poor man looked more uncomfortable than Mary had ever seen him. Which was saying a lot, since he often went to places like that to help the women get out of that profession.
“She was dressed like the worst of them, imbibing strong spirits and sitting on Ben’s lap.” Frank coughed.
Mary didn’t want the picture he was trying to avoid painting. But it came anyway, eating at Mary’s soul. Would things be different had Mary been honest with Rose, back when Rose had a beau herself? Would they have shared confidences and been able to see the truth about the men they’d fallen for?
“All that matters,” Gertie finished for him, “is that Rose refuses to come home. I’m not sure there is anything we can do if she doesn’t want to be here.”
A single tear trickled down Mary’s cheek. After everything they’d been through as a family, now that things were finally going their way, Rose didn’t want to be a part of the family. Where had Mary gone wrong?
“We can’t let her stay there,” Mary said.
Polly snorted. “Why not? If that’s where she wants to be, then let her stay at The Pink Petticoat. They’ll be tired of her whining soon enough and send her packing.”
“Polly!” Gertie’s tone was usually reserved for the younger children. But even Mary shrank back at the chastisement.
Mary had often wished for Rose to go somewhere far away. Had been impatient with Rose far too many times to count. Though Mary claimed to
