“No, you don't,” Jillian replied, feeling absolutely horrible. She wanted to crawl into the cracks between the hardwood floor panels. “It isn't that simple.”
“Why not?”
“Because they're going to be here in three days.”
“So?” He looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language.
“So we have a real problem here.”
“We?” he questioned, shaking his head. “Why
we
?”
She had no other recourse but to just lay out the truth. “Mac, I told them I was engaged to you.”
He looked at her in stunned silence for a moment, then began to chuckle. Only he didn't just chuckle. Soon he was nearly howling with laughter. “Oh, that's a good one, Jilly.”
He'd never called her that before, and somehow the nickname only made her feel worse. It suggested an intimacy that she would have cherished under different circumstances.
“I'm sorry, Mac. I didn't think it would ever come to this. But now they're on their wayâor soon will be. I didn't even read the entire telegram. I feel just awful. I know I shouldn't have lied, but I was already steeped in deceit. Telling them about you seemed to be easy enough and, I thought, harmless.”
“Well, there's just one thing to do about it,” Mac told her, sobering rather quickly.
“What?” The word was barely a whisper, she was so nervous.
“I'll just have to ask you to marry me and you'll just have to say yes, and when your folks step off the train, we'll greet them like any other loving couple.”
“You'd do that for me?” Jillian questioned, incredulous. “Oh, but Mac, I couldn't ask you to do that. That goes beyond friendship.”
“And right into matrimony,” he said with a grin. “So what about it? Will you marry me, Miss Danvers?”
“But we can't just keep on lying. I promised Gwen I would not deceive her anymore. I just can't continue to lead everyone on like this.”
Mac took hold of her hand. “So don't make it a lie. We can always call it off later.” His expression caused her heart to beat faster as he added, “Or not.”
“Not a lie?” she questioned weakly. How she wished he were serious. Mac grinned. “Not at all. Folks get engaged and unengaged a lot out here. We can cross that bridge later. It might be fun to be engaged to you. Who knows where it might lead us? After all, we like each other, right?”
He sounded so enthusiastic that Jillian began to see the possibilities. “I don't know, Mac. It wouldn't really be right, would it?” Though her mind was hesitant, her heart pleaded with her to be convinced.
“We're the two who are getting engaged,” he said softly. “We know the truth of the matter, and we'll work on it as we go.”
Jillian saw no other way out. Her father would descend upon them both, no matter what she did. And if he came all the way to Arizona on a farce, he would be livid.
“But what will we do once we convince them we're engaged? I told them we were going to marry right away.”
Mac shrugged. “Don't borrow trouble. Maybe we'll have a hideous fight and break if off after they get here. Or maybeâ” “But you don't know my father,” she interrupted. “He's used to having his way about things. He might force me to return to Kansas City.”
“Jillian, you're a grown woman, fully of age. You have a way to make a living for yourself and a good head on your shoulders. Why not just stand up to your father respectfully and let him know how you feel? He sounds like the kind of man who appreciates honesty and strength.”
“Both qualities that I seem to sorely lack,” Jillian moaned.
Mac laughed. “Just answer my question and we can get on with this. Will you marry me?”
Jillian's heart ached. How she would love to hear Mac ask that question for real. “Yes,” she murmured. “But I still don't see how we're going to pull this off. After all, the entire town knows us and knows that we aren't engaged.”
“We'll get that resolved real quick. After all, what are small towns good for if not spreading gossip? Besides, we really are engaged now. I just asked and you just accepted.” He smiled, seeming quite pleased with the outcome of this situation.
Just then Gwen returned to check on Jillian's condition. “Will she be all right? Is it broken?”
Mac grinned at Jillian, then met Gwen's concerned look. “No, it's not broken. It's just a sprain. She'll have to stay off of it for a few days.” He stood up and struck a roguish pose. “Oh, by the way, we want you to be the first to know that we're engaged to be married.”
MAC FOUND HIMSELF WHISTLING a lot over the next couple of days. The idea of being engaged to Jillian Danvers was just fine by him. Now his only problem was how to change their make-believe situation into reality.
He had thought himself resigned to a life of solitary existence, until meeting Jillian. The idea of marriage had never appealed to him, given his past and the tragedy that haunted him. But Jillian had a way of making him forget the past, even as she awakened in him memories of love and joy.
However, he never would have allowed himself to consider marriage to Jillian had she not spoken of her love of the territory and of the desire to remain here rather than return to Kansas City. No one would be forcing her into a life in the middle of nowhere, for she had already chosen it for herself. She had come to love this arid, sagecovered land. Now if only she could come to love him as well.
Sitting on a chair outside his front door, Mac worked at sharpening a knife on a whetting stone as this thought played in his head:
The
entire town thinks she's mine. Even Jillian doesn't seem to mind the idea, but
then again, she's trying to hide from the lie she's told her parents
. A lie that seemed to draw everyone into plans for their wedding. Images of Jillian smiling up at him from behind a wedding veil made his heart race a little faster. He whistled and contemplated what his next move should be.
“Congratulations, Doc,” one of the town's old-timers called. “Heard you was getting' hitched up with one of them Harvey gals. Sure are the purtiest thangs I ever saw.”
“Thanks, Zeke. I have to agree with you,” Mac replied, then put his attention back to the knife. He glanced up to ask Zeke how his rheumatism was acting when a cloud of dust on the horizon caught his attention.
“Riders are a'comin',” Zeke said as Mac realized it for himself.
Mac went inside and deposited the knife and stone. Hopefully the riders would include Zack Matthews and Mary Barnes. The entire town had been on edge since word had come about the school being burned down. It hadn't been that long since the government had arrested neighboring Hopi men for interfering with their children being educated in the white man's schools. Those men had been taken to Alcatraz Prison in the San Francisco Bay. The government officials believed this would be a very visual lesson to others who might protest, but it hadn't worked. Mac could have told them that it wouldn't. The Navajo and Hopi would rather die than rob their children of their heritage and culture.
Mac returned to the street to watch the riders draw near. It became clear that a company of soldiers were approaching, along with six or seven mounted Navajo men. The Navajo had been bound and tied to their mounts with leg-irons that looped under the bellies of their horses from one ankle to the other. Bear sat proudly at the head of the group. He looked neither left nor right as the soldiers brought him into town.
Not far behind this group of riders came Mary Barnes and Zack Matthews. They looked very unhappy, but none the worse for their two-and-a-half-day adventure.
Mac hailed Zack and Mary. “Anybody hurt?”
“Nothing too bad,” Zack declared. “Frankly I'm surprised, given the stubbornness of both sides.”
Mary nodded. “They act worse than a bunch of children.”
“You doing all right, Mary?” Mac questioned, seeing the weary expression on her face. Dirt caked the wrinkles in her skin, and her hair poked out in odd directions from the haphazard bun on her head.
“I've had better days,” the old woman admitted. “How about 163 you?”
Mac smiled. “I'm not too bad off, considering.”
Zack watched the soldiers as they headed for his jail. “I've got to get down there. They're going to put this bunch in my jail while they go out and find the others. They believe there to be about twenty altogether who either plotted or actually carried out the destruction of the school.”
“What'll happen to them?” Mac questioned.
Zack shrugged. “Who knows? Given the army's delight in making an impression, I'll be real surprised if they don't line them up and shoot them.”
“What's going to happen with the children?”
Mary answered before Zack could speak. “That Colonel Windbag or Winthrop or whatever his name is has already ordered them to be packed up and moved not far from Fort Defiance.”
Mac shook his head. He could only imagine that this was only the beginning of the problems to come. The Navajo were a proud people, and they held their culture and heritage in high regard. Now their children would be forced to live away from their people and wear white man's clothes. The boys would have their hair cut very short, and no one would be allowed to speak their native Navajo languageâall in order to Americanize them. Never mind that the Indians didn't even have the right to vote. Never mind that no one wanted to allow them to be educated in universities and rewarded with prestigious positions or live in their neighborhoods. Let the Indians become civilized, but don't welcome them in as friends or leaders.
“I'll catch up with you later, Mac,” Zack told him, nudging his horse's flanks.
“How are Jillian and the baby holding out?” Mary questioned as Zack sped off to catch up with the soldiers.
“She's doing real well. She named the baby Hope.”
Mary grinned a wide, toothy smile. “That fits. I knew she'd come up with the right choice. She's got a good head on her shoulders, even if she does let herself get a little mixed up now and then.”
Mac nodded. “I couldn't agree more. In fact, there's something you should know.”
A gunshot rang out, giving both Mary and Mac a start. “Now what?” Mac growled. “I suppose I'd better get my bag and make sure no one has been injured.”
“I'd go with you, but that colonel has already forbid me to accompany them further. I'm going over to the Harvey House.” She grunted a bit and tightened her grip on the reins. “I'd like to give him a piece of my mind, but I just get mouthy when I'm around that bunch. Then Colonel Winthrop just takes his anger at me out on the Navajo.”
Mac nodded. “I'd feel better if you stayed away from that bunch as well. They don't cotton to women interfering in army matters, and I fear someone would just end up hurt. I'll come over and let you know what's happened.” He went inside for his bag, and as he came back out, Mary was already positioning her wagon at the back door of the Harvey House.
“Oh, ask Jillian to tell you about her big plans!” Mac called out as he hurried off down the street. He grinned to himself. Maybe if enough people told her what a good idea it was to marry Mac, Jillian herself would begin to believe it. Then maybe he could turn this temporary engagement into something more permanent.
“I swear she looks like she's grown six inches,” Mary declared, holding Hope up for inspection. “Life with you must agree with her.”
“Oh, Mary,” Jillian said, watching her fuss over the baby, “she's such a sweetie. Everyone here simply adores her. But what about you, Mary? Are you all right? What happened out there?”
Mary continued to play with the baby as she spoke. “I made it to Bear's settlement, but all the men who were involved with destroying the school were gone. I stayed with the women and tried to give them encouragement by praying and talking of God's love. Several decided to trust in Jesus and became believers, saying that they knew my faith had to come from something very real, and they wanted that for themselves.
“Anyway, the army came and ransacked everything in sight. They stopped short of beating the information out of the women, but I'm not sure they would have if I hadn't been there.”
“Oh, how terrible!”
“It was. Most of the soldiers were angry and wouldn't listen to much in the way of reasoning. They were following orders and seemed happy to comply. I finally threatened their windbag of a leader, saying that if they touched so much as a single hair on the heads of those women and children, I would have a telegram off to the president of the United States, giving such detail that he'd be sure to come under his scrutiny. Then I promised I would take the story to every newspaper I could find willing to run the story. He didn't seem to like the idea of such negative publicity and settled for merely stalking around the women in an intimidating manner.”
“I was so worried for you. Hope kept waking me in the night, and when I'd get up to feed her, I'd think of you. I prayed too, although I don't suppose they were very good prayers.”
Mary smiled and cradled Hope in her arms. “Prayers are prayers and God hears 'em all. He knows the heart and that's what counts. Well, I knew you'd be anxious to get back to your own life, so I figured to come and take the baby home with me.”
“You're taking her?” Jillian questioned, trying to remain calm.
Mary didn't seem to notice the hesitant tone in Jillian's voice. “I figure we'll do all right for ourselves until the good Lord sends a family for her. Say, Mac tells me you have some sort of plans going on that I should ask you about.”
“Oh, he did, did he,” Jillian more stated than questioned. “Well, much has happened since you've been gone. I twisted my ankle, but it's much better now. Hardly hurts me at all to walk on it. And my parents are due in on the train tomorrow.” She hesitated to say more.