Touched (27 page)

Janelle looked around the church and found that more than half the people were watching us as we argued in terse whispers. Reverend Bates took three steps toward us, then hesitated as a tall, white-headed man in a black coat stepped toward the pulpit. Janelle put one hand on me and one on Agnes. “That must be Reverend Ellzey. Now calm down, Agnes. Mattie, I told you if you took up with that woman you’d end up in a mess. Now everyone is talking about you. You’ve shamed your husband, Mattie.”

The complete unfairness of that remark was almost my undoing. Floyd’s hand held me down in my seat, but I managed to turn to Janelle. “You don’t know a damn thing about shame. Nothing! If you had any idea …”

“Mattie.” Floyd reached over with his free hand and grasped my shoulder closest to Janelle, turning me forcefully, holding me as I struggled to swing back around to them. “Mattie, be quiet.” He spoke softly, but his hands held me so that I faced the front of the church.

“My God, look at that!” Agnes stood up at the sight of Floyd’s hand on me. “He touched her. He actually had the nerve to touch her, telling her what to do like she was his … Not only is JoHanna raising up a child that has the talents of Satan, they’re letting the town idiot touch them.” Agnes cowered back from me as if I had leprosy. “We’ve tolerated Floyd in this town because we were sorry for him. But now, we’ll call a town meeting and see what’s to be done about him. He can’t be left on the loose.”

Everyone in the church turned to look at us. In my ignorance, I had made a bad situation worse. For myself. For JoHanna and Duncan. But mostly for Floyd. He would suffer for this. They would always turn on the weakest.

I carefully removed Floyd’s hand and rose to my feet facing Agnes in the pew. “Floyd is an innocent.” I wanted to tear her stringy hair from her head and make her swallow it. “He isn’t capable of the evil you’re filled with. He touched me, yes, he did. And that fact saved you from the beating of your life. Whatever dirty things you see in Floyd come from your own filthy mind.”

From the pew in front of me Rachel Carpenter stood, her wide hips almost brushing her husband into the aisle as she turned. Her stout face was white with fury. “How dare you come into our town and threaten us. Everyone tried to help you, to ignore the fact that you were poor white trash. But we won’t be threatened. Not by you or that spawn of Satan or that idiot.”

Floyd rose slowly, his fists clenched at his side. He towered over me, daring any one of them with a look to take this further.

Rachel Carpenter stepped back out of his reach. “I can see plainly how you’ve driven your husband into the arms of a whore.” She pushed her husband’s shoulder. “Let’s find another seat.” She stared at Agnes. Chas had risen also, his hand on his wife’s rounded shoulder. The look he gave me was half pity and half contempt as he dragged Agnes backward with him as he moved, Annabelle Lee crushed between them.

Janelle, her big chest moving in and out in rapid, shallow breaths, scooted away from me. She cast one fearful glance at me and Floyd before she stood up and ran to the other side of the church. I turned to find the out-of-town minister who had come to preach Red Lassiter a farewell sermon standing in the pulpit, doubt and concern tightening his mouth. Even as I looked his expression changed, and I followed his gaze to the front door where JoHanna stood, Duncan in her arms.

“JoHanna!” Floyd’s cry was filled with relief. He brushed past me and rushed toward her, scooping Duncan into his arms.

Freed of the weight of her child, JoHanna stepped forward. Her blue gaze was white-hot as it swept the room. Agnes Leatherwood actually cringed back into her husband’s chest. Rachel Carpenter looked down at the floor. Janelle gave a small cry, as if she’d been stung by a wasp.

“This is a time to show our respects to Red Lassiter,” the minister said softly. “Please, let us take our seats and begin.”

Reverend Bates swept up to the pulpit, his long arm pointing at JoHanna. “That woman doesn’t belong in a house of God.” He pointed at me and Floyd. “Get out of here.”

The visiting minister refused to move aside. “Stand back, Reverend Bates. God’s house is open to all.”

Reverend Bates looked around at his congregation, taking strength from them. “This will not be allowed….”

“You sicken me.” JoHanna’s words echoed eerily in the sanctuary of the church. “You turn on a child of sixteen and a young man who hasn’t the ability or desire to defend himself, and you do it in a place you claim to be sacred to your religious beliefs.” She swept her hand around the wooden sanctuary. “If there were truly an all-powerful God, he would send a blight down on you and take what you hold dear. He would destroy everything you possess.” She nodded at me and I hurried to join them at the doorway. “I’ll pay my respects to Red at the cemetery.” She turned, leading our small procession out of the darkness of the church and into the brisk fall morning. Pecos awaited us, perched on the back of the rocking chair that was once again strapped in the wagon.

The rumbling of the congregation within could be heard out on the street. It was a swarm of hornets, a nest of snakes. The two ministers were shouting at each other, and that was the only thing that delayed the congregation from boiling out of the doors after us.

“I’m sorry, JoHanna.” I had started to cry. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” She was furious. Grasping my shoulders, she shook me until I looked at her. “For what? Because you’re not cowardly or cruel. I heard enough to know that you were defending Duncan and Floyd. Those people are narrowminded, bigoted fools. They see evil because they are evil.”

Floyd had placed a very quiet Duncan in the wagon. He picked up the handle, turned it around, and started toward Peterson Lane. He sensed the need to get away.

“We’re not running away.” JoHanna suddenly realized what he was about and ran after him, grabbing his shoulder. “I came to the service to show them I’m not afraid of them. If they think I’m afraid, they’ll only get worse.”

“We’re taking Duncan home.” Floyd didn’t stop and he looked only at the ground as he moved forward, one long step at a time.

“We are not running.” She grabbed his arm and dug her heels into the ground.

Floyd pulled her along as if she were a reluctant puppy.

“Floyd, stop it! We can’t run now.”

He finally stopped and turned to look at her. His blue eyes were troubled. “They don’t like me or Mattie.” He shook his head in disbelief. “They don’t like you or Duncan. They wanted to hurt us. Why, JoHanna?”

That finally stopped her. The hand she placed on his arm was gentle. “Because they’re ignorant, Floyd. It’s only ignorance that makes them the way they are.” She sighed. “You’re right. Let’s go home. Now isn’t the time to confront them.”

I hung back, hoping they would leave and get home fast. I could not run to the safety of Peterson Lane with them. What I had done in the church would be at the barbershop in a matter of minutes. Left to brood about it, Elikah would be truly angry by suppertime. It was best to confront him head-on and get it over with.

They had gone two dozen yards before Pecos gave a loud squawk and jumped off the wagon and ran toward me.

Duncan swiveled and found me standing, the bird running around me in a circle, pecking at the backs of my heels, as if he intended to herd me along.

“Mattie isn’t coming.” Duncan’s face was still pale.

Floyd stopped the wagon, and JoHanna started walking back to me.

“I have to stay. I have to face Elikah now.”

JoHanna stopped. Worry etched the fine wrinkles of her face into more permanent lines. The sun had done its damage to her, and in the coming years, it would show. “You don’t have to stay here.”

I nodded. “I do.”

“Is it true what Rachel said? About Elikah?”

“He’s moved a whore into the house.” I felt my lips twist into a bitter smile. “Until I can be wifely again.”

JoHanna pressed her lips together. “Why go back there?”

I didn’t have an answer to that, except that I had to. I was also afraid. JoHanna and Duncan had only Floyd to protect them. If I remained in town, maybe the anger would be drawn to me. At least until Will returned, and I intended to make that happen as soon as possible.

“I’ll send Floyd to check on you.” JoHanna was clearly worried.

“No!” That would be the worst thing she could do.

She understood, and she bit her lip in frustration. “Please, Mattie. Come with us.”

“I have to face them. I’d rather get it over with before it has time to fester in Elikah.”

Duncan lifted her chin and stared directly at me. As if at some unspoken signal, Pecos abandoned his attempt to herd me along and ran crowing to the wagon. With one awkward leap and a flap of his wings, he was beside Duncan. “Don’t worry about them in town, Mattie.” There was the ghost of a smile. “It won’t be long before they’ll be too busy to hurt you.” She looked down at Pecos and began to stroke his feathers.

Twenty-six

T
HE cool cloth on my face, the soft voices strained by worry, awakened me. I kept my eyes closed, wondering where I was and what had happened to me. I didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, but her touch on my throat was gentle as she felt for a pulse.

“You likta kilt her.” There was no accusation in the voice, only stated fact.

“A wife doesn’t shame her husband the way she did me, letting that half-wit touch her. Talking to Mrs. Leatherwood and the other ladies.” Elikah had lost some of his bravado, though his words were still bold.

“If you’d hit her one more time, she’d likely be dead. And you’d be going to prison.”

I knew it was Lola who spoke. It was Lola who had put the cold cloth on my face. I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn’t. I lifted one hand, and there was a raspy breath of recognition from Lola that I was truly alive.

My fingers crept along my face and discovered that where my eyes should have been were puffy slits. I remembered Elikah slapping me, hard enough to bust my lip. Apparently, he’d also used his fists on me. I took a deep breath and cried out with the pain.

“Her ribs are broken.” Lola spoke with authority. “That was when you kicked her.” She was talking to Elikah. “You’d best get the doctor.”

“No!”

There was fear in his voice. Real fear, and not for my condition. He was terrified of having to pay for what he’d done. JoHanna had read him correctly. He did not want anyone to know of his treatment of me.

“You don’t get the doctor, I’m not gonna stay here. If she dies, I don’t want nobody saying I had a hand in this.”

Lola was far smarter than I’d ever thought. I wanted to smile at her, to give her some encouragement, but I could only moan. My tongue was swollen to the point that I could not make a comprehensible sound.

I felt the trickle of cold water at the corner of my mouth, and I opened it enough for Lola to dribble some in. Swallowing made me gasp with pain.

“Go get the doctor. I’ll say she tripped in the road and a horse stepped on her.” Lola spoke as if she were an old hand at making up excuses for wounds and injuries.

“What horse?” Elikah was grasping at the story she’d concocted.

“Any fuckin’ horse you want me to say.” She splashed the cloth in the water and replaced it on my face, her touch not as gentle now. “Your horse, in the yard. You can’t say anybody else’s.”

“You’re right.” Elikah was calculating the odds. It gave me a sense of satisfaction to know that I was causing him at least a little discomfort. “You go and get Doc. I’ll stay here. You tell him about the horse and how I dragged her in and tried to help her.”

Lola stood up. “Funny,” she said with bitterness in her voice, “I didn’t take you for no hero.”

“Shut up or I’ll give you—”

“You get any ideas about what you’ll give me and I’ll go straight to the sheriff.”

Lola’s blank brown eyes apparently hid a sharp mind. And a nerve I’d never suspected. I didn’t want her to leave me. Elikah might decide to kill me while she was gone, and I could hardly lift a hand.

“Get out!” Elikah gritted out the order. “Just as soon as Doc examines her, you’re gone. You understand?”

Lola’s laugh was sharp, almost a bark. “I understand plenty. I’ll be more than glad to get away from a mean bastard like you, but I ain’t goin’ without plenty of money. You’ll make it worth my while to go. You’d better keep it in mind that I ain’t your wife. You can’t treat me the way you treat her and get away with it.”