who’d been hanged and took a deep breath.
“I do.”
Eulis nodded with satisfaction. Halfway through the ceremony and he was still doing fine. He turned to Dooley.
“And do you, Dooley John Pilchard—”
Letty interrupted the recital with a hack that startled everyone. He turned, afraid she was choking only to hear her muttering something about a ring.
“Oh. Oh yes, I almost forgot.” He took the ring from his pocket and handed it to Dooley.
“Here you go, young man. Now put this on her finger and listen.”
Letty sighed. Eulis was never going to get this stuff right.
Eulis continued. “Do you, Dooley Pilchard, take this woman to be your wife, even in the hard times and the sick times, to be your wife until she dies?”
Dooley’s throat tightened with emotion as he felt his Mary’s fingers clutching at his hand. Poor little lamb. She was still afraid he’d change his mind and she’d be found out.
“I sure do,” Dooley said, and put the ring on her finger. It had been his mother’s, who’d been a sight bigger woman than Mary and it was a bit large on her finger, but Mary kept it in place, which seemed to him, a good sign.
Eulis knew the rest of this ceremony by heart.
“Then by my powers and God’s blessings, I announce you man and wife. Give her a kiss Dooley. She’s yours.”
It wasn’t exactly the words they’d expected, but the citizens of Plum Creek knew that it took when Dooley Pilchard lifted Mary into his arms and kissed her soundly.
“Well now,” Dooley said softly, as he put Mary back on her feet.
Mary’s lips were still tingling, partly from his dark wiry beard, and partly from shock. There was a lot more fire in this man than she’d expected.
“Thank you, husband,” she said softly.
He smiled and squeezed her fingers. “I’m the one who should be thankful.”
Then he turned to the crowd.
“Cake and punch in the hotel dining room.”
A cheer went up. It was done.
Letty was breathing a small sigh of relief as the crowd began to disperse. Most of them drifted toward the hotel, while a few moved to their buggies and buckboards to go home.
Eulis was shaking hands with people who’d made up the congregation while Letty began gathering up Eulis’s bible and book of sermons.
“Ma’am?”
She looked up and then stifled a groan. It was that damned cowboy Willy, or Billy, or whatever his name.
She clutched the books close to her breast and stepped backward as if his mere presence was a personal affront.
“Sir?”
He frowned and moved forward. “It’s sure something,” he muttered.
Letty frowned.
“You shore do look like this woman I knew.”
“Indeed?” Letty said.
He nodded and moved another step forward.
“Sir, you are getting far too close for good manners. I must ask you to step back.”
The cowboy frowned. “But you shore don’t talk like her.”
“Then that must mean I’m someone else, don’t you agree?”
He thought about it for a minute and then nodded.
“Yes, ma’am, I reckon that’s so.”
“Then if you’ll excuse me?”
It took him a bit to realize he’d just been dismissed.
“Oh. Yeah. Uh… nice wedding and all.”
Letty gave what she hoped was a disapproving sniff and sailed past him with her head high, and her lips clamped tightly in a small, angry pucker. She grabbed Eulis’s arm and none too gently pulled him out from the crowd.
“That cowboy is back. We need to go.”
Eulis sighed. “You’re gonna have to quit botherin’ me when I’m workin’.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Letty snapped.
“When you weren’t hissing like a pissed-off snake, you sounded like you was comin’ down with the ague. I can’t keep my mind on my business with you doin’ all that.”
“I was just trying to warn you that you were saying it wrong… again,” she added, and gave his wrist a yank. “Hurry up. I can feel that cowboy’s eyes on the back of my head.”
“It ain’t my fault that most of your acquaintances knew you better without your clothes.”
Letty frowned. She wouldn’t let Eulis know that his words had hurt.
“Shut up, Eulis. Just for once, why don’t you shut up?”
“I’m sorry, but you must have me confused with someone else. The name is Reverend… Reverend Randall Ward Howe.”
Letty dumped the books into his arms and stomped off to the hotel.
Eulis grinned.
It wasn’t often that he got in the last word with Sister Leticia, but it always felt good when he did.
Get Thee Behind Me Satan
Thanks to Orville Smithson’s rigid, straight-laced beliefs, his daughter Fannie was withering on the vine. Fannie was nearing twenty-five years