The preacher stared hard at me when Toby finally got me inside the church. It had been years since I’d stepped inside it, for I’d found it difficult to return after attending the funeral of my family, and now I felt odd. I straightened my shoulders and pasted a weak smile on my face.
“Lonnie Ryan,” said the old man, forcing a genuine smile past the reproach in his eyes. “Lonnie Ryan, you’ve come back into the fold and you’re bringing a husband.”
I slid a glance at Toby. “Well,” I said uncertainly, “I am getting married. The ‘fold’ might come a little later.”
The preacher nodded, taking my callused hand in his. “Whatever your reasons, I’m glad to see you again. I must admit I was surprised when this stranger came bearing such an odd tale.”
Loggins, perched uncomfortably on the end of a hard pew, rose, hat in hands. He came forward and quirked a sandy eyebrow at me.
“I thought maybe you’d back out.”
I glared at him. “I never back out of an agreement.”
He nodded, fiddled with the hat, and sighed. His eyes slid around the interior and I realized he was highly discomfited. It amused me, and the smile I couldn’t hide brought color to his dark face. His mustache twitched and he shook his head slightly.
“Lonnie, you’re too perceptive for the likes of me.”
“Don’t matter,” I retorted. “It ain’t you I’m marrying.”
“Isn’t,” corrected Toby, and took my hand from the preacher’s into his own.
I shot him a disgusted look and then smiled weakly at the preacher. “Abner Barton and his wife and boys will be here soon. And Olaf Larsson, and Elmer Tolleson. It shouldn’t be long. I’m sorry if we’ve interrupted.”
The preacher’s smile lit his face. “You’re interrupting nothing, Lonnie! I’m glad to do this for you.” His eyes slid uncertainly to Toby. “Even if I don’t know the young man.”
I jerked my hand from Toby’s, startled by the realization of how our intimacy must look to the preacher, and did the introductions. Things eased a little then.
The Bartons came then, and the Swede joined us. Elmer Tolleson arrived on Larsson’s heels. I swallowed and looked at Toby. He was a little pale, but his smile was the same.
“Let’s get her done,” Loggins announced.
The men, who had not the faintest notion who this man was, frowned at him. Once more I had to make the introductions, and once it was known Loggins had done the capturing of the Barstows, his presence was accepted with welcome.
Emily Barton pulled me aside and pressed a tiny bouquet of prairie flowers and blooms from her garden into my hand.
“Lonnie, I wish I’d known. We could have made a dress for you.”
I glanced down at my faded yellow dress and nodded a little, knowing how I looked. But Toby had said he liked me this way, and I wasn’t about to change on the spot. He’d have to take me the way I was.
“I guess I’ll do,” I said in a low voice.
She squeezed my shoulders. “You’ll do fine. The kind of person you are has nothing to do with the way you look. All of us realize that.” She looked across at Toby, saying something to her husband. “He sees it, at any rate. That’s what counts.”
I sighed heavily, suddenly afraid. “I reckon. Thanks for the flowers.”
“Let’s get her done,” Loggins repeated, clearly uncomfortable.
I shot him a frowning scowl. “What’s your hurry?” He fingered his hat, still in his hands out of respect for the church. “I have to leave tomorrow morning. I’d as soon get you two married off so we can celebrate it before I have to go.”
“Where are you going?” Toby asked sharply.
Loggins pulled at his mustache. “Got a job.”
“Bounty hunting?” I asked disparagingly.
He flushed. “No. After the trial I got offered a job. Being sheriff in a little town south of here.” He shrugged. “I got nothing better to do, and bounty hunting ain’t entirely respectable. It’ll do.”
“Isn’t respectable,” I corrected, and felt unaccountably happy as I saw Toby’s delighted grin. I nodded. “Let’s get her done.”
My guests took their places in the pews, and I grasped Abner Barton’s strong arm. Toby sent me a long, eloquent look, then headed up the aisle to wait for my arrival.
It was a simple ceremony. We had neither organist nor many words to exchange, and I guess it was a pretty bare affair. But my friends watched, and it was all I cared about.
Toby, clutching my hand, went abruptly stiff when the preacher asked for a ring. I looked at him.
“Ring,” he whispered, stricken. “I—I didn’t think.” He gazed at me. “Lonnie, I’m sorry.”
“It don’t matter,” I said back. “A ring don’t make a marriage.”
“But….”
The preacher shook his head. “Young man, out here it isn’t often a man can provide a ring. She’s perfectly right in what she says. In the eyes of God you’re married regardless of the ring.”
I smelled whiskey and tobacco as Loggins moved up behind Toby. He fumbled in a pocket. “I got one.”
“A ring?” I asked. “You?”
He avoided my eyes and held something out to Toby. “Here, you have it. I got no use for it.”
“Loggins,” I began.
He shrugged. “It was Charlotte’s. She left it behind, and I just sort of hung onto it. Perfectly good ring.”
I stared at him, stricken, and after a moment Toby nodded silently. Loggins grinned lopsidedly and returned to his place. After a moment Toby slid the narrow gold band on my finger, and it was done. Except for the kissing part. That we got done too, though I flushed bright red before those watching. And then I was a wife.
We were hardly out of the church when Loggins cracked the bottle he had gifted me with. The preacher, who had come along to give us good wishes, glared at him disapprovingly, then vanished into his church. Emily Barton shook her head, then sighed. She smiled at me.
“Men and their whiskey. Rarely do you get one without the other.”
I laughed, then quieted as Loggins thrust the bottle at me. “Here,” he said. “You be first. You’re the bride.” His eyes gleamed wickedly. “Besides, you claim you have a taste for it.”
I grabbed it. “So I do,” I told him, and proceeded to suck down a substantial swallow.
Silence greeted me when I handed the bottle back. Tolleson, Larsson and Emily Barton were shocked, but Abner Barton only smiled faintly and nodded. He knew me.
Loggins accepted the bottle. “One of these days, my girl, I’ll discover something you can’t do.”
I laughed at him. “One of these days, sheriff, you’ll realize there’s nothing I can’t do—if I feel like it.”
Loggins prodded Toby’s shoulder with a stiff finger. “Talk to the girl, laddie, or you’ll be henpecked in no time at all.”
Toby grinned companionably and captured the bottle, downing a deep swallow. Then he handed it across to Barton.
“Here, sir. I’d be pleased to have you drink with me.”
Barton studied him seriously a moment, and I realized he was not entirely reconciled to him. Things had moved too fast for the blacksmith, and I knew I should have trusted him with the truth. I had hurt him.
The burly blacksmith lifted the bottle high. “This is no proper toast, since we have no readied glasses, but it’ll serve.” He smiled. “Here’s wishing the best for them, and may their farm prosper.”
“You know?” I asked, before he could drink. “You know it’s clear?”
“Toby told me, Lonnie. He told me about the reward money Loggins brought him. That, more than anything, assures me he means only the best for you.”
Loggins, who had slapped his hat back on, cleared his throat. “I must leave. I wish you all the best as well. Toby, take care of her.” He grinned crookedly at me. “Maybe I should tell you to take care of him.”
“You said you’d stay till morning!” I exclaimed.
“I’ll start now. There’s nothing for me here.”
He moved past the others, heading for his horse. I left them all and trailed him into the street. He cinched his saddle tighter and untied his horse, peering around at me as I stood barefoot in the dust. “You want something?”
“No.”
He frowned at me, puzzled, then mounted with the enviable ease of a longtime horseman. From atop the dun he looked down upon me.
I patted the horse on the shoulder. “I wish you’d stay here.”
His face was very still, but his eyes were bright. “I’ll be around.”
I said nothing until he lifted the reins and began to turn his horse. Then I put a hand out. “Loggins!” He glanced down at me. “What is it?”
“Thank you. For everything. I—I….”
He understood as I trailed off. A bright smile stole across his face as he nodded. “I was wrong. You’re nothing like Charlotte. Remember that, my girl.”
“I will.”
I watched until he was gone, and felt Toby’s arm slide around my shoulders.
“He has to go, Lonnie. There are things he must do.”
“He could do them here. Ridgely needs a sheriff.”
“But Loggins needs something more than Ridgely.”
I met his steady eyes. “Then you feel it too. The loneliness in his soul.”
“Of course I do. But it’s for him to diminish. Just as you had to diminish your own.”
“I had help,” I reminded him. “There’s you.”
He tugged my braid. “Just so you remember it.”
“Something tells me you won’t let me forget.”
“Something tells me you’re right.”
I stared down at the ring shining on my hand.
Carefully I wiped a smear from it, then swallowed and looked at Toby, feeling odd. But happy.
“Ain’t it pretty?” I asked softly.
He opened his mouth and our grins flashed at the same time.
“Isn’t,” we said as one.