The Brides of Chance Collection (103 page)

Then, as suddenly as the gunshot had gone off and started the whole ordeal, the storm began to ebb. Rooster’s eyes, no longer lit with the manic need for moonshine, darkened in pain. He stopped yelling, stopped trying to get to his still, and lay quiet for hours on end. Logan and Hattie couldn’t tell whether he was lost in the pain or his thoughts—probably both.

“Go home, Hattie.” Logan put his hands on her arms and looked into her eyes. They looked tired but carried the first flickering of victory.

She shook her head wordlessly.

“Listen to me,” he demanded. “You’ve held off the infection, nursed him through the fevers, and took the abuse he rained upon you. That’s all over now. You’ve splinted his leg, and he’s no longer thrashing, so he won’t hurt it further. Bryce will help me watch him through the afternoon and night. You need to go home and sleep.”

“I…” She closed her eyes, thinking it over. Determined, she raised her chin before proclaiming her decision. “I’ll be back come mornin’ tomorra.” Her face softened as she looked at him. “Thankee, Logan.”

He bundled her up in her cloak, even though the sun shone outside, and had Nessie ride with her back to Miz Willow’s house before she could change her mind.

So many people had worked alongside them. Nessie had come every day to bring more medicine, mop her father’s brow, and help keep the cabin as clean as possible. Bryce stayed every night, holding Rooster down when he thrashed violently against his restraints, taking turns staying up at night, and caring for the animals in the barn. The Trevor twins came to help muck out the barn every morning. Since Rooster had stepped in one of their traps, they felt partially responsible.

Silk Trevor, Miz Willow, and Mary Pleasant took turns cooking and bringing by breakfast, dinner, and supper. They also carried out the towels and bandages every day, washed them, and brought them back to be dirtied again. The entire holler banded together once they heard what was happening and looked to Logan to tell them what they could do and how Rooster was progressing. Everyone prayed.

“Logan, is Rooster sleeping?” Bryce stuck his head through the doorway.

“Yep.”

“Then we need you to come outside,” Bryce ordered. “Asa has gathered together the men of the holler, and they say we have a decision to make.”

What is going on now?
Logan walked to the door and found a crowd waiting in the yard.

“Glad yore here, Logan.” Asa stepped beside him and clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re having a town vote, and you and yore brother have more than earned a say in the matter.”

The men nodded and gave a general rumble of agreement before they all headed for the barn. Logan had an inkling of what this was all about.

“Here’s the thing,” Asa continued, once they were out of Rooster’s earshot. “We don’t hold with laying a hand to the property of another man, but this here is whatcha call a unique circumstance.”

“Rooster coulda shot anybody,” Edward Trevor growled.

“He’s become a danger to the holler!” someone else shouted.

“So we’re fixin’ to dismantle the still.” Asa opened the barn door and pointed to the far wall.

“Everybody in favor?”

Logan looked at Bryce as they both raised their hands.

“Aye!”

Chapter 24

L
ogan helped with the most rigorous part of the work, then needed to check on Rooster. When he stepped into the cabin, he found Rooster’s eyes wide open.

“Hey, Rooster,” Logan spoke softly, not certain how the man would react.

“Hey, Logan.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve a favor to ask you, though I’ve no right.”

Lord, please don’t let him ask for moonshine. Not after all Hattie’s gone through. Don’t let him backslide. Please
.

“What is it, Rooster?” Logan pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down.

“I been doin’ a lot of thinkin’,” Rooster began. A rueful smile stretched across his face. “Ain’t been much else to do these days. Fact is, I need to git the thoughts outta my head and into the air—see iff ’n my good intentions cain live in the world.”

Can it be? Has Rooster decided to turn over a new leaf?
Logan nodded his encouragement.

“So I need you to do two things. First is, untie me. Now don’t go shakin’ yore head already,” Rooster pleaded. “Listen, I’m not goin’ to try and git outta bed. I ain’t gonna ask for a drink or even try to git one m’self. I jist want to sit up and talk, man to man. I ain’t been upright for a long while, Logan.”

Something in Rooster’s eyes convinced Logan. He understood the deeper meaning behind the man’s words. If there was even a chance that Rooster wanted to leave liquor and come back to God, Logan could do nothing less than listen and support him. He undid the knots holding Rooster down and helped him carefully slide up and lean back on a mound of blankets. Rooster kept his word and didn’t try to get up.

“Thankee, Logan.” Rooster took a deep breath. “Fer everything. I cain’t remember much of this week, but I know it ain’t been easy on either of us. I owe you more’n I cain say.”

“You don’t owe me a thing, Rooster.” Logan looked into his eyes. “But you do owe it to yourself and Nessie and Hattie to take better care of yourself.”

“I ken what you mean, son.” Rooster closed his eyes. “I stepped off the path a long while ago and lost my way. I ain’t been able to see straight in a good long while.”

“I know.” Logan took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “Isaiah tells us of men of God who ‘are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.’ ”

“That’s it, right there.” Rooster bowed his head. “Moonshine. It’d be easy to lay the blame on the drink, but I allowed myself to let it destroy me.”

“You aren’t destroyed, Rooster. You’re alive, and you haven’t had a drop in over a week.” Logan saw the need to encourage him. “Your leg is in a bad way, but Hattie has it on the mend. You have a chance to make things right.”

“That’s what I want to do.” Rooster’s eyes filled with the depth of his emotion. “I cain decide niver to touch the stuff agin, but I don’t know how to make right what I already done.”

“You can’t change the past, Rooster,” Logan told him. “But the good news is, you don’t have to. Remember First John 1:9? ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ Sounds to me like you’re confessing and want to make a change.”

“I do.” Rooster began to cry. “Lord, forgive me for what I done. Holp me not to do it agin. Holp me to make it right with the people I love.”

Logan prayed as he held the old man, who cried away the years he’d drowned his soul with liquor. After a while, Rooster’s sobs subsided, and his drained face shone with peace.

“You know, I’ll need to take down m’ still,” he mused, sinking down onto the bed and closing his eyes.

“I’m glad you mentioned it.” Logan grinned as Rooster began to snore.

Hattie woke up late the next morning to the smell of bacon frying. For the first time in more than a week, her eyes didn’t feel as if a fistful of grit had blown in them. She stretched and got out of bed, pulling on her blue cotton dress. She needed to get back to Rooster.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Miz Willow’s voice stopped her in her tracks. “You jist sit yore pretty little self down at that thar table and eat. Yore nothin’ but skin an’ bones.”

Hattie obediently sat down and buttered a roll, suddenly realizing how hungry she was. She’d have to bring some of this back for Logan and Bryce.

“Things shore been changing ’round the holler since Logan left for Charleston.” Miz Willow poured herself a cup of tea and lowered herself into the rocker.

Yep. He left without saying a word, come back with no explanation, and then proposed as though nothing had happened. How cain you expect that I’d deem him worthy of my trust anymore? I placed you and ev’rybody I love in his hands, and he let y’all slip through his fingers when he wanted to go off on another adventure. He acted like an overgrown boy
.

Hattie pushed away her plate, her appetite gone.

“Otis Nye came by an’ tole me all about it.” Miz Willow’s head bobbed up and down. “Now I ken why Logan couldn’t tell us ’til after he talked to Otis, Asa, and the Trevor twins.”

“What do you mean?” Hattie had no idea what her friend was going on about.

“You’ve been with him all week tending to Rooster, and it never came up?” Miz Willow stopped rocking. “Dearie, Logan went to Charleston on business. He done met up with an old friend and struck up a few deals. Otis has a standin’ order for his fancy checker sets, and so does Asa for those nativities of his. Logan even found a new buyer for the pelts the Trevor boys trap—all at a very tidy profit.”

Hattie couldn’t say a word, but Miz Willow kept right on going.

“Every one of them families’ll be farin’ well now. Bryce says he reckons Logan can do the same for Daisy’s lace, too. Ain’t niver seen the like of what that buck’s done for our holler.”

Hattie got up and headed for the door. She needed to think all of this over. She mumbled a hasty good-bye to Miz Willow and waved to Daisy and Jamie, who were working in the vegetable garden. She walked as fast as she could until she came to the stream. She couldn’t sit, so she paced.

He didn’t abandon the holler
, Hattie acknowledged
ruefully. He knew I’d be back in about a day, and Bryce was still there with Miz Willow. He knew thangs would be fine with them here. I jist felt like he’d left us behind because he wasn’t home when I got back. He told me he’d had to go—that he’d done it for the holler. I didn’t listen. I was too wrapped up in my own assumptions. He deserves better
.

Look at how hard he’s worked to holp people around here. He’s chopped enough wood to see me and Miz Willow through the winter. He went huntin’ on account he knew he and
Bryce et a lot of our meat. He spent time with the people of the holler and valued them for who they are and what they do, and then he took that and found a way to give them a better life. He stayed by me an’ Rooster through thick and thin and showed respect to us both, even after I railed at him for his proposal
.

He didn’t leave us. Logan wouldn’t leave me. I don’t jist love him; I trust him. I had no call to say those awful things to him, and he turned the other cheek and holped me anyway. He deserves a woman who sees him for the man he is. Even though I know I was wrong, it cain never be. I still won’t leave the holler, and even if he wanted to stay, I wouldn’t tie him down
.
He should have children. We cain’t ever be together, because I’m not good enough for him
.

She gave herself some time to mourn her mistakes and accept that Logan would move on, then headed back to Rooster’s cabin. When she got close enough to see it, she noticed Logan standing in the yard, watching her.

“Nessie’s with him now. They have a few things to talk about.” Logan met her halfway beneath the shade of a towering elm. “So do we.”

“Yore right, Logan,” Hattie looked into his intense blue eyes. “I owe you an apology. Miz Willow tole me what you done in Charleston. You tried to tell me you was lookin’ after the people I care about, but I didn’t listen. I misjudged you, and I’m sorry for that.”

“You don’t bear the blame alone, Hattie.” He reached out and held her hands, sending a wave of heat through her arms. “I shouldn’t have proposed until I could explain where I had been. You deserved to know everything before giving me an answer.” His eyes searched hers. “Now you do. I still want you for my wife, Hattie.” He raised a hand to cup her cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Logan,” she whispered, tears coursing down her cheeks and onto his hand. “And I know I cain trust you.” She swallowed hard. “But I still cain’t marry you.”

“Why?” Logan demanded an answer, not budging an inch.

“I cain’t go to Californy.” She silently begged him to understand. “These are my people, and they need me, Logan.”

“I know. Over the past months, they’ve become my people, too.” His words sent a shiver of hope to her aching heart. “Asa, Otis, Fred, and Ted need me to follow through on the business agreements. The men of the holler came and said I’d earned a right to voice my opinion in a community vote about disassembling Rooster’s still. Rooster himself cried in my arms and forsook liquor, coming back to Jesus. I can’t leave them, Hattie, and I wouldn’t ask you to, either.”

“You mean…” She couldn’t even voice the question.

“I want you to marry me, Hattie, and we’ll stay here together.” He drew her into her arms. “Say you’ll love me forever.”

“I cain’t wed you.” She pushed him away and wrapped her arms around herself to ward away the pain. “You deserve a woman who cain give you sons to carry on the Chance name. I cain’t.”

“Hattie.” He put his arms around her once more and waited until she looked at him. “I already knew that. I want
you
. Having children isn’t important to me. I have five brothers, four of whom are happily married and having babies about as fast as they can. The Chance name is well taken care of. As for me, I left Chance Ranch to find my place in the world.” His arms tightened around her. “And I found it here, with you. Marry me, Hattie.”