Without looking back, Hank vigorously shrugged off her touch, causing Mary to nearly lose her balance. Thankfully, Doc caught her before she could topple over.
That, however, immediately ignited Dwight’s own anger. He leapt to his feet and lunged at Hank, knocking him back with a hard right to the jaw as his eyes blazed with fury and he roared, “I’ll not stand by and let you manhandle my wife—even if you are her brother!”
Hank came back swinging and the melee was on.
“Oh no, stop! Stop, please!” Mary cried out, her hands flying up to her face as she watched these two men whom she loved so dearly go at one another with such viciousness. How could this be happening? “Hank! Dwight! Please don’t!” she begged, tears filling her eyes. She looked around frantically, “Oh, someone, please stop them!”
Livvy, the twins, and several party guests squealed and hopped out of the way as the two men crashed onto the floor in a tangle of arms and legs, wrestling, punching, and grunting. Doc pulled Mary safely away from the pathway of destruction. Pearl hollered for them to stop. Pauline voiced her concerns. Tobias tried to step in and was nearly tripped.
Finn and Sam finally managed to elbow their way through the crowd that had quickly circled the saloon-brawling men.
Finn grabbed Dwight as the burly Sam gripped Hank, wrenching the two men away from one another.
“Knock it off, both of you!” Finn barked.
“What’s this all about? What’s going on?” Sam asked as Hank tried to yank free, but Sam held him in his lumberjack’s iron grip.
“This jackanapes ruined my sister!” Hank raged.
Dwight stood still within Finn’s grasp, gulping in air and swiping at his split lip with his shoulder as he glowered at Hank.
“Shut your filthy mouth, Robinson,” he growled.
“Dwight, Hank, this is not the place for this discussion,” Doc warned, as several party-goers began to whisper among themselves.
“Boys, please, let’s take this up later. This is Christmas. This isn’t the time for fighting,” Pearl joined in as she drew near to Dwight’s side.
Mary looked from one man to the other. Their clothing was torn and disheveled, and their bloody lips and glaring eyes—with faces already beginning to show bruising—told the story of their angst.
She was at a loss as to what to do. Her brother—her best friend all of her life—was angrier than she’d ever seen him…but her husband, the man with whom she was in love, was just as angry. And it was all on account of her. She longed to go to each of them to soothe and console, and yet she also wanted to whack her brother on the head for starting the whole thing. Oh, what a mess! What an awful mess!
And then…the thing that she had truly dreaded began. She could already hear the whispers.
“They had relations before their marriage and she got with child?”
“That’s what the brother said.”
“We don’t really know anything about her, do we? We really don’t know what kind of a girl she is…”
“They are outsiders, after all…probably from the wrong side of the tracks, as they say…”
“Well, they’ll not be invited to my gatherings again, not after a display like this. And especially knowing what we do now,” a voice said near Mary and she turned to see Cora Haggler staring down her nose at her as if she smelled something distasteful. Just yesterday, the woman had hugged her goodbye at the boarding house and had given her a pair of hand knitted booties for the baby.
Mary’s lips started to quiver and her eyes, already wet with tears, now filled and overflowed. She’d thought she’d been prepared, but the turning away of people she’d begun to think of as friends hurt more than she’d anticipated.
Suddenly, she realized Doc had drawn himself up in righteous anger. He tightened his arm around her shoulders.
“So, it’s started already, has it? The backbiting. The snide remarks. The judging and pronouncing a verdict without knowing all of the facts. The looking down at another as if you yourselves have never done anything that would cause you embarrassment if found out,” he waited as he pointedly made eye contact with several people in the circle who looked away sheepishly.
“Hypocrites. All of you. And if Jesus walked in that door right now,” he jerked a thumb angrily toward the double doors of the building, “He’d tell you the same. He’d tell you to take the beam out of your own eye before you look down your nose at Mary—and you know it.”
Reverend and Mrs. McKnight separated themselves from the crowd and came over to flank Doc and Mary in a show of support. These were followed by Charise and Beth Ann as well as Pauline and Tobias and several others.
Pauline grasped Mary’s hand and held on tightly. Mary sent her a watery smile of gratitude.
“Anyone here remember last week’s sermon?” the Reverend asked, letting his eyes sweep the crowd—all of them members of the church. “About the fact that God is faithful and just to forgive all sin when asked, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? If HE forgives us, who are you to stand in judgment?”
Doc nodded and mumbled in agreement, but he wasn’t finished. Mary trembled as he raised his right hand and pointed at Cora Haggler and several others before adding, “I want you all to understand something. And understand it well. In the short time since she’s been here, this young woman has become like a daughter to me. So, I’m giving all of you notice—if you speak against her, you’re slandering someone dear to me, and I’ll not allow it. If I hear one word against her, that person will have to make other arrangements for medical care, barring a life
