Wesley, his grip tightening on Kim’s hand, thought of all the things he had to do before he and she left for Kentucky in two weeks. They’d be married on Sunday, spend the night—oh lovely night—at Stanford Plantation, then set out early Monday morning. Awaiting them in the new state was Wes’s land with a new house and barn on it, livestock tended now by a neighbor. For the first time in his life he’d be in a place where he wouldn’t be judged by what his brother did or said.
It was while Wesley was contemplating this idyllic scene that the side door of the church flew open with a bang. Reverend Smyth paused in his monotonous intonation to glance toward the disturbance, but what he saw made him cease speaking.
Crazy old Elijah Simmons, his face red with fury, was pulling behind him, her hands bound with rope, what must have been one of his daughters, but the swollen, distorted face made identification impossible.
“Sinners!” old Elijah bellowed. “You sit here in the Lord’s house yet all of you are fornicating sinners!”
He pushed the girl forward so hard that she stumbled to her knees. And when Elijah pulled her up by her hair, it was clear that she was pregnant. Her hard, round belly protruded from her gaunt frame.
“Travis!” Regan said with a plea, but Travis was already on his feet ready to stop the old man.
Elijah pulled a pistol from the pocket of his coat and held it to the girl’s head. “The fornicating whore doesn’t deserve to live.”
“In God’s house!” the reverend said with a gasp.
Elijah held the girl and backed up the stairs leading to the preacher’s box. “Look at her!” he yelled, forcing the girl’s body back to make her stomach more prominent. “What sinner did this?”
The preacher started down the stairs, but Elijah pressed the pistol deeper into the girl’s temple. She appeared to be only half-alive, one eye swollen shut, the other drooping tiredly.
Travis slowly began walking around the walled bench. “Now, Elijah,” he said soothingly, “we’ll find out who did this and he’ll marry her.”
“The devil did it!” Elijah screamed, his head bent back, and the congregation, eyes on him, gasped in unison.
“No,” Travis said calmly, inching forward. “A man did it and the man will be made to marry her. Now, let me have the pistol.”
“There are no men!” Elijah said. “I kept her under my eye; I watched her day and night; I tried to beat some goodness into her, yet the slut—.” He broke off as he bent the girl’s arm backward. “The twelfth of September she stayed out all night. On the thirteenth of September I tried to beat some shame into her but she was born in sin and she will die in sin.”
Wesley, his face turning whiter with each moment, saw his world collapsing about him. He knew the girl was Leah, the one with whom he’d spent an hour and whose virgin’s blood he’d seen on his cloak the next morning. He knew, without a doubt, that the child she carried was his. If he went forward now, perhaps he wouldn’t have to marry her, but he wondered if Kimberly would be able to forgive him his one lapse. But if he didn’t step forward, the girl Leah might lose her life.
He stood.
“Stay out of this, Wes,” Travis said from the corner of his mouth.
Wesley looked at old Elijah. “I’m the father of the girl’s child,” he said clearly.
For a moment all sound in the church ceased. The first sound was a half-gasp, half-sob from Kimberly.
“Take the sinner!” Elijah screeched, and he pushed Leah down the stairs.
Wesley and Travis worked together, Wes grabbing Leah and sweeping her into his arms before she hit the floor, Travis wrestling the pistol from Elijah’s hand.
Everyone began to move at once, the congregation excitedly leaving the church, Steven holding Kim, who kept her head high and her eyes dry while Clay, Nicole, Reverend Smyth, Travis, and Elijah followed Wesley into the vestry.
Regan lifted her skirts and ran out the side door to the parsonage, where she demanded that hot water and clean cloths be brought immediately to the vestry. When she returned, everything was chaos. The girl lay lifelessly on a sofa, her bonds cut away, Nicole kneeling beside her. Clay stood beside Elijah, who was sitting, reluctantly, in a chair. Reverend Smyth cowered in a corner. And in the middle of the room were Travis and Wesley, bellowing at each other like two enraged bulls.
“You’d think you’d have enough sense to stay away from virginal young girls. What with all the—,” Travis shouted.
“The bitch flung herself on me,” Wesley answered. “How was I to know it wasn’t her profession? I even paid her.”
“You fool! Why did you have to pretend to be a saint and say in front of everyone that it was your kid? I could have handled it.”
“Like you handle everything else in my life, Travis?” Wesley yelled, fists clenched.
The water came, the housekeeper left, her eyes wide with terror, and Regan knelt beside Nicole. Ignoring the two men in the center of the room, they began tenderly to wash the girl.
“You think Kimberly will still take Wes after this?” Regan asked Nicole, hope in her voice.
“Probably,” Nicole answered, and Regan’s shoulders fell.