Mary pulled her hands from his grasp, shaking them to rid herself of the lingering kiss he’d placed there and to bring the blood back to the fingers he’d crushed.
“Then I hope you know how to do dishes.” She gestured to the pot that lay nearly forgotten on the ground. “Because now that supper’s over, we’ll have plenty to wash.”
Never mind the fact that she hated washing dishes. Ben hated doing them even more. Actually, the man hated any kind of work, so if there was any blessing to be found in the situation, this was it. Surely he couldn’t keep up this act with dishes to be faced.
“Now, darling.” He grabbed her hand again and brought it to his lips. “You know that I would love to help, but I’ve only just got to town, and I still need to secure lodgings. I’ll return first thing in the morning, and we can talk about our wedding then.”
She fought the urge to slap the face so close to her hand. Instead, she turned away, trying to ignore the whispers of how romantic it was.
“Tomorrow, my love, tomorrow.” With a look that could only be described as a threat, Ben was gone.
She should have felt relief as she watched him leave. Even more relief at noticing that Mr. Lawson had also disappeared. She gathered the dishes and brought them next door to the parsonage. But when she entered the kitchen, the murderous glance her sister Rose shot her only brought more discomfort.
“You evil, evil sister,” Rose hissed, standing in Mary’s way. “Oh, I recognized him right away. All those trips to the mercantile and errands to town. To think you almost had me fooled.”
Rose knew. She’d known all along. What should have brought relief to Mary’s torment only made it worse.
“Rose, I—”
Her sister gave her another look of sheer hate. “Don’t bother. Nothing you say can make it better. When I think of all the times I had to stay at Aunt Ina’s to look after the little ones so you could go to town on an important errand.”
With a shake of her head, Rose continued, “All that time, you were going to see him, weren’t you?”
Mary couldn’t deny it. Couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t done her best to find every excuse in the world to see Ben, leaving Rose to mind their younger siblings. Rose hadn’t been as good as she had been at protecting them from Aunt Ina’s wrath. But Mary hadn’t known that at the time.
Or maybe she’d been too head over heels to notice.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Because Mary had been wrong, terribly wrong.
“I’m sorry,” she said simply, wishing there were other words she could say to make her sister feel better. To take away the harm she’d caused.
But Rose wasn’t looking to feel better. She wanted blood. “You’re sorry? Sorry isn’t going to get Silas back. While you were off wooing your beau, mine got tired of waiting and married Annie Garrett. Annie Garrett! I could have been Mrs. Silas Jones, but you were too busy lying to me and catering to some dandy so you could be first.”
Silas? Rose was mad about losing Silas to Annie? Was it wrong to be relieved that her sister wasn’t accusing her of greater sins, of which Mary was indeed guilty?
“Rose...” She softened the look she gave her sister. “That had nothing to do with Silas marrying Annie. She was the only child of the family who owned an adjacent farm. Their fathers wanted to combine the farms and expand the holding. Silas was always going to marry Annie.”
“It was me he loved,” Rose wailed. “He told me so by the cottonwood behind the church. Silas carved our initials in it to seal the promise of our unending love. He didn’t bring Annie there, he brought me, and he kissed me, and he said he’d love me forever.”
Tears rolled down Rose’s face. “I was supposed to meet Silas so we could run away together. But you were late getting home from taking the eggs to town. You said you were delayed helping Mrs. Burdoch’s lame horse. Now I know it was a lie. You were meeting him. And since I missed my meeting with Silas, he married Annie instead.”
Nothing Mary said would convince Rose of the truth. She had been helping Mrs. Burdoch. Ironically, it had prevented her from meeting Ben—the first time they’d planned on running away together. Unlike Silas, Ben had been more patient. Who would have thought that one lame horse could wreak so much havoc?
If Mary could kiss that horse, she would. It had saved her from making the biggest mistake of her life even worse.
“Rose, you were there when Mrs. Burdoch brought over the pie to thank me for helping her. It’s true that I did lie to meet Ben on a number of occasions, but that wasn’t one of them. I’m sure Silas was meeting you to tell you that the wedding had been arranged, not to run away with you.”
The sting of her sister’s hand against her cheek was wholly unexpected. It should have hurt more, but as the side of her face throbbed, it felt almost good to finally receive some of the punishment Mary deserved.
“You know nothing of my relationship with Silas. Just as I knew nothing about your beau. And now you sit here telling me that Silas never loved me because you’re so smug about having a man track you down. I hope you remember at every happy moment of your life with him that it came at the expense of mine.”
Rose turned and ran out of the house. Mary took a step toward her, but Polly reached out a hand to stop her.
“Let her go. She needs time.”
Mary turned to face her friend. “How much of that did you hear?”
“Most of it.” Polly shrugged. “If she’d done more than slap you, I’d have stepped in. But she needed to get it out. She’s been nothing but angry and bitter since she got here. Now I know why.”
And here Mary had thought it was about having to accept an illegitimate sister. Maybe Nugget was the least of their problems. As much as Mary thought she’d been listening to her siblings, perhaps she’d been making a lot of assumptions.
“I had no idea.” Sure, she’d seen the flirtatious glances in church, but with everyone knowing that Silas and Annie had been promised for just about forever, Mary had assumed it to be meaningless. If only her sister had been more forthcoming, perhaps her heartbreak could have been prevented.
Of course, Mary herself hadn’t been all that forthcoming, either. She’d never been as close to Rose as she had been to their brother Joseph. When Joseph had left to search for their father, she’d kept her own counsel about things she’d usually have talked with him about.
“You and Rose will work things out.” Polly gestured to the pile of dishes they had yet to wash. “How about we get to work, and you can tell me all about this beau of yours?”
Her friend gave a wicked grin, then splashed her with some water. “All this time you’ve had a secret engagement and didn’t even tell me!”
If Mary thought that facing her angry sister was hard, this was going to be an even tougher conversation. Rose was right to hate her for her deception over Ben’s courtship. Though her sister was wrong about Mary’s part in her failed romance, she was all too correct about the damage Mary’s absences had done.
How could she tell Polly the truth? It was something that would make Polly turn from her in disgust.
So much to atone for. An entire lifetime wouldn’t be enough to earn absolution for her sin. Mary had already made up her mind to take on most of the burden of raising her younger siblings so that Joseph and his new wife, Annabelle, had the chance to raise their own family without the burden of their siblings. They deserved a chance at happiness. Especially Joseph, who’d worked so hard to keep the family