A Man for Temperance (Wagon Wheel) (27 page)

He reached out, asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

He took her chin, gently pushed it away from him, and saw a huge, blue black bruise on the side of her face. “Who did this to you, Rena?” he said. His voice was very soft, but anger raged through him.

“I did it to her,” Slaughter said as if proud of it. “She’s got a smart mouth.”

“He—he beat Bent and he put his hands on me.”

Temperance could stand it no longer. “Get your things. You’re not staying here.”

Slaughter turned and faced her. “Keep your mouth shut! You’re not taking these kids anywhere. Get out of my house!” He caught Temperance by the arm and shoved her toward the door.

Instantly Thad stepped forward. “Take your hands off that woman, or I’ll break your neck.”

Slaughter roared out a vile curse and threw his massive fist toward Thad. The blow slashed Thad on the cheek, causing blood to run down his face, but Thad ignored it. He stepped under it and with all his might struck Ed Slaughter far below the belt. It was as hard as he had ever hit a man in his life, and he got an intense satisfaction when Slaughter suddenly screamed like a woman and fell to the floor, holding himself in a fetal position. Thad stared at him for a moment. “I ought to kick your head in, but I’m letting you off easy.” He turned and smiled. “Bent, get your things; we’re leaving.”

Bent ran into the adjoining room. “Help me, Rena!”

Temperance quickly took Bess. “Help him get your things, Rena. You’re not staying here.”

Rena’s eyes were shining. She disappeared, and soon the two returned carrying their clothes and suitcases.

Slaughter had struggled to his feet, and as the children moved toward the door, he began screaming, “I’ll have the law on you! You can’t—”

He broke off suddenly. In one smooth movement Thad drew the Navy Colt he had stuck inside his belt under his coat. He rammed it into Slaughter’s mouth, grabbed the man’s hair, and held the Colt steady. He pulled the hammer back, and it made an ominous click. “Shut your mouth, Slaughter! I’ve got a mind to pull this trigger right now.” Slaughter began moaning and trying to talk, but Thad shoved the gun even farther against the roof of his mouth. “You let me hear one word of complaint out of you, I promise you’ll get this slug right through your brain.” He jerked the revolver out, loosening several of Slaughter’s teeth. He waited to see what the man would do, backed to the
door, and stepped outside. He put the gun back under his belt and noted that the carriage driver was watching him cautiously. “That’s Ed Slaughter,” he said. “He killed one man.”

“He looks like a sissy to me,” Thad said. “Now, take us back to the hotel.” He helped Temperance into the back seat with the children and saw that she was holding Bess and had her arm around the other two, holding them tightly. He looked at Rena and said, “I’m sorry you kids had to go through that.”

“It’s all right,” Rena said, and then she reached out and touched his face. “You moved a mountain, Thad. You did it!”

“WE’VE GOT TO GET you cleaned up, Thad.”

They were in the lobby of the hotel, and Thad dabbed at the blood on his cheek with his handkerchief. “It’s not too bad,” he said.

“No, we need to take care of it. Come to my room.”

She led the way and told him to sit on the bed while the children watched. She began to clean the wound, and fishing into one of the bags, she found a bit of sticking plaster. She put it over the cut. “There. That ought to do.”

Rena had kept quiet as long as possible. “What are we going to do? We’re not going back to that place, are we?”

“No, you’re not,” Thad said. “What are we going to do? We’re going to go eat breakfast.” He led them down the stairs, into the dining room, and ordered a monumental breakfast for all of them. They were all hungry, it seemed, for Bent and Rena had had nothing to eat. They had eggs, pork chops, and biscuits. Thad kept his eye on the children and saw that they were worried, and finally he looked up and said, “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to stay in this hotel for a few days. I’ve got a little business here, and we’re going to see all the sights of Baton Rouge. Maybe go to a theater. Go see some of them fancy show girls I’ve been hearing about.”

“We’re not going to see any show girls,” Temperance said. “Maybe there’ll be a concert.”

“Whatever you want. We’re just going to enjoy life.”

“What if Mr. Slaughter comes after you?” Bent said. “They say he’s mean.”

“I don’t think he’ll do that. If he does, I’ll clean his clock for him. Temperance, why don’t you take the girls with you in your room? Bent can stay in mine. How’s that sound?”

Temperance was immensely relieved. She had no idea under the sun what to do. Her plans had fallen apart, and now she was glad Thad had taken charge. “It sounds wonderful to me.”

“Good. You all hang on to your Uncle Thad here, and I’ll show you how to have a good time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana!”

* * *

THE NEXT THREE DAYS passed, and it was the best time in the lives of any of them. The children had never had anyone pamper them, and Thad set out to do exactly that. He took them to see the sights, bought them trinkets, and spent time with them.

Temperance felt as if a mountain had been lifted from her shoulders. Somehow Thad had become responsible, and although she had no idea about the future, at least she was enjoying the present. She saw a side of Thaddeus she had not seen before—a lighthearted, easy-going side—but she also noticed that the children were able to talk him into nearly anything. He spoiled them, but he could be stern when he had to. But they adored him, and this pleased her.

They were sitting in the park, feeding stale bread to the ducks late one afternoon, and finally Rena said, “We can’t stay here and feed ducks the rest of our lives. We’ve got to go live somewhere.”

“That’s right,” Bent said. “It must cost a lot of money to stay in that hotel.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Temperance said, “but I don’t know what we can do.”

Thad was whittling at a piece of cedar he had found, carefully peeling off long slivers and watching them curl up. “You can’t whittle the rest of your life, Thaddeus,” Temperance rebuked him.

“Why, God’s going to take care of us. Isn’t that what you’re always saying?”

“I know, but—”

“I know what we can do,” Rena said. She turned to face Temperance and Thad. “You and Thad can get married, and we’ll be your kids.”

Temperance’s face turned scarlet. She could not speak for a moment and then she sputtered, “Why, you—that isn’t—”

She was interrupted when Thad suddenly looked up, his eyes dancing with delight. “Now, that’s a fine idea, young lady. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that myself.”

“Don’t you be ridiculous, Thaddeus!”

“Nothing ridiculous about it. Just look at the economy of it all.”

“The economy? What in the world are you talking about?”

“Well, you ever stop and think about how much it costs to raise three kids like this? You got all the expense of buying clothes and diapers and then there’s doctor bills. Oh, all kinds
of expense. We’ll skip all that. They’re mostly through diapers anyway, and I don’t have to go through the trouble of living with a big, swollen-up wife for nine months for every youngun. Why, it’s wonderful!”

Temperance had become accustomed in the past three days to his mild teasing, and that was how she saw this. She got up and stalked away, saying, “I refuse to listen to such nonsense.” She walked to the water and stared out over the lake.

“Thad,” Rena said, “you’ve got to talk romantic to her.”

“Why, shucks, I don’t know how.”

“Yes, you do. Tell her how pretty she is and how she smells good and how you love her to death. Stuff like that.”

“I don’t think I can change her, Rena. She’s stubborn.”

“She wants to hear things like that,” Rena said fiercely, “and she loves you. I know she does. You’re just too blind to see it.”

Thaddeus stared at the young girl and said, “Well, you may be right. She’s too mad to talk right now, but later tonight I’ll give it a shot.”

* * *

TEMPERANCE HAD REFUSED TO eat dinner with the others in the restaurant and had gone straight to her room. She felt humiliated that Thad would make such talk about marriage to her. It was getting late now, she knew, and she wondered where Rena and Bess were. They should be coming in. A knock came at the door, and she assumed they were there. When she opened it, she saw Thad. “Where’s Bess and Rena?”

“They’re down in my room. I had to talk to you. Can I come in?”

“I don’t want to talk to you, Thaddeus. Go away.”

He stepped inside and shut the door, ignoring her. She stared at him and said, “You’ll never know how you hurt my feelings, talking like you did. You don’t know how a woman can be hurt, Thaddeus, about—”

“About what?”

“I’ve never had a man. No man ever wanted me, and here you make all those jokes about getting married and saving money on kids. Oh, it was humiliating.”

Thad moved toward her, and she twirled and started away, but he caught her by the shoulders and turned her around. He held her firmly. His face was totally serious. “I don’t know how to go about this, but I have to tell you three things. If you want me to leave after that, I will.”

“What three things?”

“Well, one thing is I love those kids. You don’t know it, but that’s a miracle. I’ve never been around kids. I thought they were pesky, but these have gotten to me. I couldn’t love them any better if they were my own blood. Can’t bear the thought of anything bad happening to them.”

“That’s—that’s a good thing, Thaddeus.”

“Well, I’m glad you believe that, and I hope you’ll believe this.” He hesitated and cleared his throat, and his hand tightened on her arm. “The second thing is I love you, Temperance.” He watched her face. He pulled her forward, kissed her gently, and ran his hand down the back of her hair. “That’s the second thing. Do you believe it?”

And suddenly Temperance Peabody knew that this man, so hard in some ways, who had struggled for his whole life, meant it—that he did love her. She had never had a man say this, and it seemed to sink into her inner depths. “Yes,” she whispered, “I believe you. What’s the third thing?”

“Well, the third thing. I want us to get married. I want us to go on a honeymoon.”

“A honeymoon? What are you talking about?”

“I want to take passage on a ship all the way around the cape to Africa. I want us to take the kids with us. They’ll be our kids, yours and mine. I want to change their names to Brennan. We’ll be Mr. and Mrs. Brennan. We’ll go to California. I always had a hankering to go to Santa Fe and get into the freighthauling business. You can sell your farm and give me all the money. You can be a silent partner.”

“But what about the man you shot?”

“Oh, that’s the business I had here. I’ve been saving it. I sent a wire to Joe Meek the day we got here. That fellow Simons got well. Meek pulled some strings with his senator daddy, made a deal somehow. He said I’m a free man.”

Suddenly joy filled Temperance Peabody. She smiled broadly and put her hand on his cheek. “You won’t be free with a wife and three children.”

“Oh, it won’t be three for long.” He winked lewdly at her, and she laughed but shook her head. “I’m too old to have children.”

“No, you’re not. I want at least three more. Now, you can do it any way you please,” he said and pulled her closer. “You can have them one at a time, or you can have a single and a double, or you can have a triple. It makes no difference to me.”

“You fool! That could never happen!”

“Anything can happen when you’re on God’s side. I found that out about moving mountains.”

Temperance Peabody put her arms around his neck and pulled his head down. She kissed him and felt a freedom and a
joy she had thought would never be hers. When she pulled her head back, she said, “Oh, Thaddeus, can we really do it?”

“Can we do it? As sure as a cat’s got climbing gear!” He laughed and then turned her around. “Come on, let’s go tell the kids they’ve got a new mama and daddy.” He opened the door but kept his arm around her as he closed it.

Augustus the cat had come all the way from Walla Walla. He felt neglected lately, and now he looked up from the bed where he had been lying as the two left the room. Gus stared at the door, yawned, and stretched out on the bed, digging his claws into the coverlet. Then his eyes closed, and the sound of his purring filled the room.