The Bride Backfire (6 page)

Adam heard various shouts as he swept Opal into his arms but didn't care. If they shot him, they shot him. He was done standing around waiting for them to do it.

He'd gotten called out for gaping at Opal. Accepted that Larry's note would get him killed. Withstood Opal announcing to her family he wasn't a man, gotten bashed in the noggin for taking exception to the same, and not called her out on her grand deception to pass off another man's bastard as his.

He'd held her hand, looked into blue eyes awash with tears, seen the pathetic clump of flowers she gripped as though they could save her from being his bride. All told, it was more than enough to make a man reckless.

She didn't resist as he pulled her close. Her eyes widened when he lowered his head to hers, pressed his mouth against lips swollen from crying. Opal went still before melting against him, warm and soft and everything a woman should be.

Everything she's already been to another man.

He ended it, withdrawing so abruptly she almost lost her balance. The bewilderment and wonder on her features could have fooled him into thinking he'd given Opal her first kiss, but given the circumstances, Adam knew better.

Who?
The question sank its teeth into him the moment he realized what she'd done and didn't let go as Parson Carter took Midge back to town.
Whose child does Opal carry? Whose child will I raise as my own?

Because that, of course, was what he'd do. Their hasty marriage couldn't be annulled without physical evidence of nonconsummation. And if he denounced her as a liar, his family would seek vengeance. Their families would battle until blood flowed on both sides.

No, he'd continue the pretense she'd begun. Opal must have seen today as a God-given opportunity, knowing he'd take her as his wife in exchange for his life.

“I always figured you were the Grogan who put aside what he wanted for the good of the family.”
Oh yes. She'd known he'd marry her and keep her secret, too.

But why hadn't she wed her lover? Adam would find out everything from the woman he'd spend his life with.
She'll learn the meaning of what it is to honor her husband straightaway. There will be no lies between us.

They didn't exchange a word as everyone walked to the Speck soddy. He waited outside while Opal went in to gather her things. It took only moments for his new wife to emerge with a satchel holding her worldly goods.

“I don't know when I'll be back.” Her words sounded dry, as though she'd exhausted all her crying.

“You won't be.” The first words Adam spoke to his bride, and they made her shudder.

“He's right.” Her father jerked a thumb toward him. “You're a Grogan now. You belong with them.”

“Pa!” Opal reeled back at his words as though she'd been slapped. “You're my family!”

“Not anymore.” He didn't look at her as he walked into the house. “Don't forget to move your apiary. No one here will tend it for you. Consider it and all that goes with it your dowry.”

Sobs wracked her as she grabbed each of her brothers for a hug when they walked past. “I love you all more than you know.”

Each gave her a fierce embrace in return.

“Goodbye, Opal.” Ben shut the door behind him, and it was done.

She turned and walked in the direction of the Grogan boundary, making it out of sight of the house before she collapsed. Huddled on the ground, clasping her knees to her chest, with her bag and cloak strewn beside her, Opal made the very picture of desolation.

Adam hunkered down beside her to wait it out. He extended a hand to pat her shoulder, but her flinch made him end the contact immediately. “You were right when you said I wouldn't hurt a woman, Opal.”

“I know.” Her answer came out muffled. “But you could do worse.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

“Promise?” She peered up at him, wary and hopeful. “Pa might forgive me someday if he never knows I lied.” Opal's face fell again at the reminder of what she'd done.

“Whatever your reasons, it saved my life.”

She gave him an odd look. “My reasons should be fairly easy to understand.”

“Pretty much.” Since she showed no signs of getting up, he went ahead and sat down beside her. “Why don't you tell me everything.”

“Like what?” Opal gaped at him now. “You were there.”

“Let's start with the basics.” He reached over and enfolded one cold hand in his. “Who's the real father?”

There was a roughness to his hands as he clasped hers, a capable strength Opal found so reassuring it took a moment for the full meaning of his question to take hold.

“The real father?” Repeating the words squeezed no sense from them, unless...

A shiver shook her as Opal considered the possibilities. Surely Adam didn't believe her to be with child in truth? Her new husband couldn't think so lowly of her!

“Yes.” His steady gaze told her that's precisely what he thought.

“No!” Opal could scarcely gasp the denial as her breakfast clawed its way up the back of her throat. “I wouldn't...” She swallowed hard, searching for an explanation and finding none.

“You will.” Determination underscored his order. “I need the name of the man whose child I'll be raising.”

Dear Lord, how can I convince my new husband I haven't made him a cuckold even before our wedding night?

Wedding night. The very thought drove every other concern from her mind.
I'm a married woman. A wife. Tonight...

Her alarm must have shown in her expression, because Adam's softened. “Whoever he is, it doesn't change things. You don't have to be afraid.”

“I know!”
Because I'm not carrying any babe!
Opal realized her hands were tearing clumps of grass from the ground and stopped. How best to tell him?

“No matter your answer, I won't seek to have the marriage annulled.”

“Annulled!” The word loomed larger than life, an undeniable threat. If Adam dissolved their marriage, nothing would stop her family from seeking vengeance. “You can't!”

“I know.” A muscle in the left side of his jaw twitched. “Without proof of nonconsummation, it's not an option. I understood that when I married you, Opal.”

“But you considered it.” Her face grew hot enough it must match her hair. “If you had proof?”
If I tell you the truth, will you discard me? Destroy everything I worked for today?

“I try to consider everything.” He smudged away her tears with his thumb.

“Everything?” A huff of laughter escaped before she could hold it back.
You didn't consider the truth—that I'm untouched. That no man before you so much as kissed me!

“And everyone.” He shifted, laying the warmth of his palm against her stomach. “This child will bear no stigma, Opal.”

Tears did nothing to cool her shame as she met the gaze of her husband. “You mean it, don't you?” Wonder at his selflessness stole her sorrow for a moment. “You'd take a child you didn't sire into your home, into your life, and stand as father?”

“Yes.” He shifted away, doubts rushing to fill the space he'd taken. “I don't like lying, Opal. But I don't see another way to avoid bloodshed. If my family knows I'm not the father, there'll be no stopping them.”

“They won't.” She wouldn't allow it.

“But I know, Opal.” Adam rubbed the back of his neck, staring at his boots. “And for my own peace, I need a name.”

“Please don't ask this of me.” She closed her eyes.
I can't tell him the truth, but the lies have to end. As things stand, they're piled higher than a windrow.

“Our wedding was a farce.” He clasped her hand in his once more. “Our marriage needn't be.”

“I'll be a good wife to you, Adam.” The words spilled over from her heart. He deserved so much more than having to settle for lies and a woman he didn't want.
I'll try to make up for it.

She couldn't ask him to understand.
After tonight, I won't have to. He'll know there is no child. Adam will know I betrayed my family to spare his life ... and that I betrayed his trust by not telling him the truth.

“Tell me his name.”

Opal swallowed. “I can't.”

“Yes, you can.” A rumble of anger edged his voice. “You're choosing not to tell me. Not to trust me.”

“If I only had myself to think of things would be different.”
But I won't risk my family.

“I know you've more to think of than yourself.” His agreement took her by surprise. “Now you have a husband. A husband who's already promised to claim your child as his own.”

“Thank you for that.”

“Don't thank me.” He shook his head. “I don't have much of a choice. But I want to know ... who is the true father?”

“Ask me tomorrow.” She shied away from the question, from another lie.

“Why tomorrow?” Suspicion darkened his gaze. “Why wait?”

“Because...” This time her blush had little to do with shame and everything to do with embarrassment. “I know you're a man of honor. You won't even consider setting me aside once we...” She couldn't finish the sentence.

“Once we've faced my family?” He let out a deep breath. “I already told you his name won't change things between us.”

“Then not having a name won't change things between us.” She dug her nails through the dirt she'd exposed by uprooting the prairie grass. “Ask me tomorrow, if you still want an answer.”

“Of course I'll want an answer. One day won't change anything!”

“Yes, it will.” Opal dug deeper. “One day can change everything. Force your family to accept me, avoid a feud, and make ours a marriage in truth.”

“You talk in circles. Unless...” He stopped pacing to stand before her. “You don't mean a day, at all. You mean tonight.”

Her voice abandoned her, leaving Opal with nothing to give but a tiny nod.

“That's what you were saying about my honor.” His form blocked the sunlight, casting his features in shadow, but Opal could see the hardening of his jaw. “That I wouldn't seek an annulment after our wedding night.”

“Yes.” Her whisper scarcely tickled her own ears, but it seemed he heard it.
When you won't be able to get an annulment. When I won't be a maid anymore, but a wife. When my family is safe.

“Then I'll ask you tomorrow, Opal Grogan.” His use of her new last name pierced her heart. “But tonight won't make any difference.”

“What?”

“Until you're my wife in trust,” Adam reached down to grab her satchel once more as he spoke, “you won't be my wife in truth.”

“Where is he?” Lucinda twisted a rag in her hands and peered out the window. “Adam's never missed dinner!”

“Maybe he went into town for something and stopped by the Dunstalls' café?” Her daughter's suggestion failed to calm her concerns. “Adam will be fine.”

“You're sure he wasn't in the fields?” She turned to her husband and second eldest. “Nowhere on the farm?”

“We checked.” Larry's shrug only made his mother worry more. “All we found was that gate needs fixing in the southeast pasture.”

“Weren't you supposed to take care of that earlier this week?” Her husband squinted at Larry. “Why does it still need mending?”

“Well”—Larry's gaze shifted away from his father, alerting Lucinda her middle son was doing some fast thinking—“with things the way they've been with the Specks, going near the boundary doesn't seem a good idea.”

Since when have you been so preoccupied with what is or isn't a good idea?
Lucinda covered her anxiety by fussing with the faded curtains. “Seems to me that's exactly why you'd be keeping that fence in good order.”

“Aw, Ma...”

But Lucinda wasn't listening to Larry anymore. Her attention focused on two shapes coming closer. “Adam!”
But who else?
She couldn't shake a feeling of doom, despite the surge of relief. “Here he comes!”

“See?” Willa's smile shone through her voice. “Adam wouldn't give us any cause to worry.”

“No?” The word came out as a croak, dry and rough as she hurried to the door and rushed out to meet her son. And Opal Speck. Lucinda's years hadn't touched her eyesight, and she hadn't missed the satchel her son carried.

“Adam!” She gave him a swift hug. “Where have you been?” Lucinda's gaze flitted on Opal. “We were worried.”

That she blamed Opal as the cause for that worry carried through. It was plain enough in the way the girl didn't move a muscle that Opal was standing on her pride.
As though a girl like that has anything to be proud of.
Lucinda felt the corners of her mouth tighten.
Coming between my sons ...
The thought brought her attention back to Adam.

“I have some news.” Discomfort showed in the line of his shoulders, the telltale way he rubbed his jaw.

“What's
she
doin' here?” Excitement filled Dave's voice. More importantly, the presence of her youngest child alerted them to the arrival of everyone else.

Lucinda looked at the tableaux as though viewing it from a far distance. Willa came to stand beside her, as she always did. A good daughter. Larry stopped just beyond Diggory ... until her husband's hooded glare and less subtle jab made him fall in line. Dave scampered right up in front of everybody, eyes bright with interest and expectation as he stared at Adam.

Adam. Her eldest. The one who kept them all together.

The one who even now stood beside a Speck.

He opened his mouth, and Lucinda had a wild urge to slap her palm across it and hold back the words to come. With a mother's intuition, she knew as certain as sunrise and as dark as the depths of a moonless night that her family would be changed forever by what Adam had to say.

“You all know Opal.” He reached for the upstart's hand, drawing her forward as though presenting someone of importance.

“Yeah!” Dave practically shouted the agreement while the rest of them managed grudging nods. “But what's a Speck doin' here?”

“That's what I need to explain.” Adam's gaze sought hers, and Lucinda's hands caught on Dave's shoulders for support as the scene grew smaller, dimmer. “Opal's not a Speck anymore. She's my wife.”

Blackness descended, a fuzzy blanket promising to block reality. Lucinda swayed into its softness.

“No!” Larry's bellow dragged her back from the darkness. “It can't be!” It wasn't the outrage in his shout but an underlying anguish that tore into her mother's heart anew.

“It is.” Opal's whisper, a pale apology, floated around them for a heartbeat.

“When?” Diggory didn't bother denying Adam's statement. Instead, her husband wanted to know the details. As though his answer could somehow salvage everything.

“Today.”

“Then it's not too late! Dave, fetch Parson Carter straight away!” Hope glimmered once more as Lucinda laid out her plan. “You'll get an annulment.”

“No...” Opal's moan, so desolate and plaintive, would have moved any woman to feel for the girl. At least, it might have if the girl hadn't reached out to clutch Adam's sleeve.

“Don't you touch my son!” Lucinda knocked her hand away.

“Ma!” Willa's gasp didn't spear her half so much as Adam's frown.

He reached for Opal's hand and tucked it in the crook of his arm. “Annulment isn't an option.”

“I don't believe it!” Larry's denial came so fierce and furious it took everyone aback. “You wouldn't.”

Anyone would think his words were directed at his older brother, but Lucinda noticed Larry's gaze hadn't moved from Opal. The intensity of his stare unnerved her.
What hold does this girl have over my sons? Lord, protect my family!

“She'll lie, then.” Lucinda glowered at Opal. “She'll say an annulment is possible.”

“I can't.” If the girl went any more pale, she'd turn transparent. “I can't lie that an annulment is possible.”

“You will.” Larry all but hissed the order. “You'll do it so we don't seek revenge on your family for trapping Adam. I know you'll do it.”

“No, she won't.” Adam set his jaw. “Opal is with child.”

And with that, the darkness won.

“Ma!” Adam barely caught her before she hit the dirt. He scooped her up, noticing for the first time how thin the skin of her face looked.
She's getting older.

Guilt hit him like a load of rocks.
This will almost be too much for her. But, Lord, what else am I to do? Tell her Opal is my wife and carrying my child? Or tell her the truth, and watch the feud erupt and Pa and Larry get themselves killed? That would be harder on Ma than anything.

He carried her inside, laying her on the worn sofa before he realized only Dave had followed him. Shouts rang outside.

“Whose is it?” Pa's yell carried best ... followed by the unmistakable sound of flesh striking flesh.

Adam raced outside in time to see Pa cup his cheek and step forward, fury in his face. “Stop!” He planted himself between his father and his wife, who'd obviously slapped the older man for his insult.

“How dare you!” Opal's outrage almost fooled Adam, who knew the truth. “I'm not the type of woman to bed one man and pass off his child as Adam's!” She moved forward, casting a pain-and-accusation-filled glance his way. “That you'd ever even consider such a thing ... you should be ashamed of yourself.”

I never would have thought it,
Adam agreed.
But here we stand.
His eyes narrowed. She had no right to strike his father, no matter the foulness of his insult, when the offense proved just.

“Wipe that look off your face, son.” Pa obviously interpreted Adam's disgust as being aimed squarely at himself.

“You don't talk like that to my wife.” He struggled against the urge to defend Opal and the knowledge she didn't deserve it. But he couldn't let his father know that. “Ever.”

“Had to ask.” After working his jaw side to side, Pa let loose a begrudging shrug. “I won't make that mistake twice.”

“Thank you.” Opal's regal nod acknowledged the closest thing to an apology Adam had ever heard come from his Pa.

Maybe she knows what she's doing, to convince everyone.
The thought didn't make him rest any easier.
How am I to live with a wife who lies so well?

“I still can't believe it.” His brother's bewilderment didn't spark offense as he stared at them. If anything, Larry sounded ... sad?

“Believe it.” He couldn't have anyone doubting his wife or his marriage. “Opal and the child are mine.”

Despite the situation, there was something ... primal ... about saying that aloud. Something
right.
It was the same sense of calm he'd had when he'd agreed to marry her in the first place.

This, then, must be from God. A peace that passes understanding.
Because I sure don't understand, Lord.

“Are you sure?” Now his brother was pushing it, his hoarse query making Opal bristle anew.

“Yes.” Adam laid a hand on her arm, feeling some of her tension ebb. “Opal wouldn't tell me another man's child is mine.” His words skated the fine edge of truth, when that was exactly what she'd told her father. His peace fled in the face of her grateful smile, a smile pretty enough to make his mouth go dry.

“Not that.” Larry peered at Opal, searching out her secrets. “I mean are you sure she's expecting at all?”

“Yes!” His mother's cry made them all look to the house. There she stood, clinging to the doorway as if unable to stand without its support. “It wouldn't be the first time a hussy lied to trap a decent man!”

Opal tensed again, her fingers digging into his wrist, sparking an anger whose power almost overwhelmed him. For the first time, he realized what his wife faced—what Opal knew awaited her when she reached his home.

Far from trap him, Opal's actions spared his life. Sure, she'd turned the situation into a means of saving her own reputation, but she hadn't set out to sacrifice his freedom. Of course she was with child. Otherwise why would she put herself in such a terrible position?

“Opal never sought to trap me.” His words came out so low they could have passed for a growl. “Never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“I take it her family knows?” Pa got back to the matter at hand. “You haven't run off with her so we'll have a herd of angry Specks on our doorstep?”

“They know.” Opal bit her lip but said no more.

“They're the ones who fetched the preacher, aren't they?” Ma all but shrieked the words. “Did they force you to marry her, Adam? Shotgun weddings aren't valid!”

“Yes, they are.” Pa rounded on her. “If a man got our Willa in the family way and thought twice about doing the honorable thing, it'd be valid enough.”

“
Willa's
a good woman.”

“So is Opal.” Adam knew the truth of it, despite their situation. “And make no mistake, it was my choice to marry her.”