“So it’s settled, then,” Nellie said, smiling at him, turning her back on the quaint little church. “We shall visit the justice of the peace and be married. Then we can return to your home with me as your wife, and I will care for your children.”
Luke looked at her. “Is it really that simple?”
“It does seem odd, doesn’t it?”
Though many people would make the argument that Luke and Nellie didn’t know each other nearly long enough to marry, sometimes time wasn’t what was needed. Ernest had courted Nellie for nearly a year, yet she hadn’t known all the reasons not to marry him. In these few short hours of knowing Luke, Nellie had never been more certain of a person’s character. With their hasty marriage, it gave Nellie a way to hide, but also a second chance at a life she’d always dreamed of living—that of a wife and mother.
When Nellie had come up with her plan, she felt guilty at the thought of attaching herself to a man who might someday fall in love with her. The place in her heart that allowed a person to fall in love was so firmly locked tight, it would never open. But with Luke, she had no reason to feel guilty. His heart was in no danger of becoming entangled with hers.
Briefly, Nellie thought about the men who were after her. She’d done so much to protect Mabel. Though Nellie was reasonably certain that they would leave her alone if she was married, part of her wondered, was she putting Luke and his children in danger?
Nellie shook her head. She hadn’t come straight to Denver from St. Louis. She’d traveled to several places looking for a fresh start. And then she’d seen it. The ad for Mrs. Heatherington’s Matchmaking Service. She’d liked Mrs. Heatherington’s descriptions of mail-order matches gone wrong. It was easy enough to lie over letters, claiming to be of greater beauty than one had, to possess qualities or characteristics that didn’t exist, and to so completely miserably represent oneself as to be perpetuating a lie. It had given Nellie comfort to think that someone would examine a potential match and weed out men who would not be a good choice.
And so, Nellie had boarded the train to Denver. She’d been careful in all her journeys, giving false names, wearing clothes that would make her appear completely unremarkable and even going so far as to purchase tickets under her own name for destinations she had no intention of ever visiting. Yes, it had cost her nearly all that remained of the meager funds she’d squirreled away and hidden in the hollow of a tree at the back of her former property. The house had to be sold once Ernest died. Or at least that was what the men had told her. When she’d finally escaped, the house appeared unoccupied. But she knew they would look for her there. However, the money had still been where she’d hidden it. So she’d taken her money and run.
None of the men would suspect that Nellie had the means for so much travel. But she’d been careful anyway. There was no reason she should ever be found.
Luke took a step forward. “We need to continue on,” he said. “I’m not very familiar with Denver, and I have no idea where we would go to be married. If we were in Leadville, I suppose I should ask Pastor Lassiter to marry us. But I cannot, will not, bring myself to ask for his help. I know he wants to, and I know he means well. Many say that he genuinely cares about my circumstances. But I also can’t help but wonder if he’s trying to help me out of his own feelings of guilt. He made the decision to send the ladies to the mine to serve the miners.”
Nellie squeezed his arm and smiled. “I do not know the man, so I cannot say. I hope you don’t mind, but I believe I will leave my judgment of the pastor until I have met him myself. I know you are not comfortable with the church, but it would be good for the children if you allowed me to bring them.”
A sad smile found its way onto Luke’s face. “Of course. I have been neglecting their spiritual education. Diana’s friends have asked me if I might allow them to bring the children to church.”
Luke’s shoulders sagged as he shook his head. “I know my children need to go to church. But if I allow them to go, people will see that their clothes need mending, and though I am not ashamed of my children, they will feel compelled to once again step in and help me. I cannot bear such a thing. I don’t want to hear how my home needs a woman’s touch. Or that this is no life for a child. I don’t want people questioning my decisions, telling me how I ought to be raising my children. Nor do I want their charity. Most of all, I cannot bear the weight of any more of their pity.”
How interesting that Luke was a man of such pride. Though pride was a sin, and Nellie often thought it to be a terrible flaw in a man, something about the wounds in Luke’s pride made Nellie want to hold him tight and tell him everything would be all right. Unlike Ernest, who had reacted with his fists when his pride was wounded, Luke seemed to withdraw into the shame and do everything he could to make things right on his own.
None of this was Luke’s fault. He’d lost his wife, and in some ways, lost his way. The grief would have to be worked out on its own. But Nellie could help with the other things. Their home would once again have a woman’s touch. The children would go back to wearing clean, neat clothing. They would be well fed and well kept, and everyone who saw them would see that the Jeffries family was doing very well indeed.
“You don’t have to bear that weight alone. I promise to do my very best to make sure there is no reason for such pity to be bestowed upon us. In the eyes of everyone else, you are moving on with your life. You’ve given your children a mother to care for them, and I promise to take that duty seriously.”
Luke let out a long sigh as they crossed the street. “Do you know how frustrating it is to be mad at God, to be so angry with Him, and yet want to thank Him for how wonderfully He is arranging matters for your family?” Then Luke shook his head again. “But if it were not for God taking my wife away from me, He would not need to be providing for us now. So how am I supposed to feel? It is still God’s fault that all of this has happened to us. I am still so angry, so hurt, and it seems almost an insult that He’s choosing to remember our family now.”
Anger vibrated out from Luke’s body. Of all the men she’d known with the right to be angry, Luke had the greatest. But in his expression of anger, he did not raise his voice. He did not get violent. Rather, he seemed to be filled with such a profound sadness that only the weight of his bones was keeping him upright.
“I can’t pretend to understand your level of anger at God. But I agree with you—it seems terribly unfair. I won’t always understand how your children feel, but I will offer to them the same compassion I’m giving to you.”
Luke nodded slowly. “I have never known such compassion. You do not understand what a gift it is to be allowed to feel what you feel. You’re the only person who hasn’t tried talking me out of my anger at God. I suppose some might see that as a lack of faith. But I think you know that this is between me and God. It is something I must work out on my own.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. Gently. Not like a lover’s kiss, or even that of a dashing suitor. But something that reminded her of the warm kiss of her sister’s greetings. Comforting. Safe.
“Thank you,” Luke said. “Most of the time, I feel as though I am suffocating from the weight of all that I must deal with. Everyone wants to take it away and make it disappear, but it’s not that simple. You seem to know that. Instead, you are offering me a lifeline, choosing to walk alongside me and giving me what I need without lectures or judgment.”
“I am not one to judge,” Nellie said quietly. After all, hadn’t she done many things others would judge her for? Even as she stole a glance at the man who was to be her husband, her stomach churned at the thought of him finding out all of her secrets. Though she reminded herself that he’d been firm in saying he wanted a marriage in name only, the uneasy feeling didn’t go away. There was no reason for him to know everything.
But as they passed another place that looked a little too much like where Ernest’s creditors had kept her, Nellie couldn’t help but think herself a terrible person for hiding so much from him.