The Pastor's Replacement Bride
Copyright© 2023 by George H. McVey
Chapter 24
Hattie
It had finally arrived. Saturday. Her wedding day. Today she would become Mrs. Joshua Bryce, Hattie Bryce. She loved the sound of it. She’d said it maybe a hundred times already. In every form she could. Mrs. Bryce, Mrs. Hattie Bryce, Mrs. Joshua Bryce. They all sounded great to her. Then she looked down at her little girl. RoseAnn Bryce. Yes, that sounded good too.
Just ten scant hours and she would slip into the wedding dress she had spent so much time sewing. She was proud of the way it turned out. The neck and sleeves were made of Chantilly lace, it was open to the hollow of her neck. Then started the buttons; they were tiny pearls and ran down the front of the bodice, to the bottom of her waist. Between the waist and the skirt was a ribbon that laced the bodice and skirt together and tied in a bow in the center.
She knew it was different, but she had remembered hearing the girls at the brothel talking about how the men liked to undress them. She blushed even thinking about asking Joshua to help her out of the dress, but she’d made it that way for him.
The skirt of the dress flared out a slight bit, thanks to the four petticoats she would wear under it. She had covered the satin skirt with lace. Then, she’d taken three yards of lace and created an open cape of lace.
It covered her head and ran down the back of her dress. The only person who had seen it was Lyla, and she had agreed to stay and help her get into it after the other brides had gone to the church.
She had so much to do today, on top of taking care of RoseAnn, who was stirring. She looked at the rooms she had lived in for the last month. Both were back to the way they’d been before she arrived. They had transferred almost all her things over to the parsonage. She had just one work dress and the things she needed to care for RoseAnn, who would get handed over to Aunt Caroline in about an hour, and what she needed to get ready for the wedding.
Helen was in the kitchen heating pots of water for a full bath. They had carried the copper tub into her private parlor and it was waiting for her. All her sister brides were in the house, including the three who had married a month ago.
They had come to talk with her about her wedding night. She was grateful, but a little amused. They loved her so much that they seemed to forget where she had spent her teen years. She probably had more knowledge about how to fulfill her wifely obligations than they did, even if they had more experience.
The conversation had been an eye opener, not for her but for them. She’d ended up telling them things that they didn’t know. She smiled, thinking about the blushes and shy glances of her three friends. They told her from now on she should be the one to have this talk with the new brides on their wedding day. Then asked why she hadn’t told them this stuff on theirs.
“Because you weren’t supposed to have to fulfill those duties till spring. How was I to know you would be so eager to fulfill them you’d practically threaten your husbands with sleeping unclothed to get them to talk to Joshua?”
All three had turned bright red at that. They then all laughed when Hattie had broken down and started laughing.
Now, she sat feeding RoseAnn in this room for the last time. She would miss her first ‘home’, but she was looking forward to the home she and Joshua would share. The furniture from Elias was already in the parsonage. He’d worked overtime to get it all done. He’d even gone above what they’d asked and had carved more scenes with those funny little men into the crib and the top of the rocking chair.
The furniture she had ordered would arrive in the spring and until then, since she was moving out, Helen had offered her the furniture from her parlor. She’d thanked her, and Joshua and his uncle would move them on Monday.
RoseAnn finished her bottle and had burped. Now she was jabbering up a storm and Hattie had picked up the habit from her new papa of talking to the girl like she understood what she was saying.
“Yes baby, we will move in with your Papa tonight. Well, Mommy will move in tonight, you will move in after church tomorrow.”
She listened to the little girl’s jabber.
“Because that’s what Papa wants. We always try to give Papa what he wants, because we love him so much.”
RoseAnn laughed and then babbled some more.
“Yes. He loves us both, very much, but he wants a special night with just Mommy.”
She listened again.
“You will stay with Aunt Caroline and Uncle Jethro tonight.”
She giggled.
“Yes, I think he will probably sneak you another candy stick. But you have to not fuss when Aunt Caroline wants to bathe you after.”
She laid the wiggly little girl on the bed and quickly changed her diaper and then put her in a clean gown. Not the one for the wedding. Caroline had that already safe at her house, to be put on moments before they walked over to the church.
She slipped on her blue cape, wrapped RoseAnn in her little quilt, and then let the girls know she was going to the mercantile to give RoseAnn to Caroline.
She quickly dropped her off and told Caroline that one of the brides would bring over the lard bucket and the rest of the freshly washed diapers before the wedding. She needed to get back because the girls were going overboard in getting her ready.
She was halfway to the front of the street when she saw a huge man step into the alleyway in front of her.
She couldn’t see him, because the noonday sun was directly overhead casting him in shadow, but when he spoke she recognized the voice and stood frozen in fright.
“Well, lookee here. Seems like our information was right. Papa John’s gonna be pleased as a pig in slop to get you back, sweet Hattie.”
She turned to run back up the stairs into Jethro and Caroline’s place and saw two more of the thugs Papa John kept around standing behind her.
“Now, you weren’t thinking of running away again, were you sweet Hattie? You’ve had your holiday, now it’s time to come home where you belong. And before you start yelling, know that if you do, Slim there is just going to kill whoever comes to your rescue. Then Two Gun’s is going to go upstairs and kill that little baby you were just carrying along with anyone else he finds. So, you just come quietly with us.”
Hattie nodded, and the four of them went out of the alley. They had a covered wagon sitting in front of the mercantile. She turned to get up front when Slim took her arm. “Nope, missy, in the back for you and under the cover. We don’t want anyone seeing you leave.”
She followed him and was about to head over to climb inside, when Deacon Lyman came out of the mercantile. He saw Hattie and the three men with her. “Miss Long, I didn’t expect to see you out and about before the wedding.”