No time had passed. Charles was still struggling with the same large stone. And Adam had not released the full, held breath he had taken when time stopped.
Suddenly he knew joy and sorrow felted into one fabric. Courage and fear were one thing too. He found that he had started to hum a droning little tune. He turned, walked through the kitchen, and stood in the doorway, looking at Cathy. She smiled weakly at him, and he thought. What a child! What a helpless child! and a surge of love filled him.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
Her face tightened and her hand closed convulsively.
“You don’t have to tell me now,” he said. “I want you to think about it. But if you would marry me I could protect you. No one could hurt you again.”
Cathy recovered in an instant. “Come here, Adam. There, sit down. Here, give me your hand. That’s good, that’s right.” She raised his hand and put the back of it against her cheek. “My dear,” she said brokenly. “Oh, my dear. Look, Adam, you have trusted me. Now will you promise me something? Will you promise not to tell your brother you have asked me?”
“Asked you to marry me? Why shouldn’t I?”
“It’s not that. I want this night to think. I’ll want maybe more than this night. Could you let me do that?” She raised her hand to her head. “You know I’m not sure I can think straight. And I want to.”
“Do you think you might marry me?”
“Please, Adam. Let me alone to think. Please, my dear.”
He smiled and said nervously, “Don’t make it long. I’m kind of like a cat up a tree so far he can’t come down.”
“Just let me think. And, Adam—you’re a kind man.”
He went outside and walked toward where his brother was loading stones.
When he was gone Cathy got up from her bed and moved unsteadily to the bureau. She leaned forward and looked at her face. The bandage was still on her forehead. She raised the edge of it enough to see the angry red underneath. She had not only made up her mind to marry Adam but she had so decided before he had asked her. She was afraid. She needed protection and money. Adam could give her both. And she could control him—she knew that. She did not want to be married, but for the time being it was a refuge. Only one thing bothered her. Adam had a warmth toward her which she did not understand since she had none toward him, nor had ever experienced it toward anyone. And Mr. Edwards had really frightened her. That had been the only time in her life she had lost control of a situation. She determined never to let it happen again. She smiled to herself when she thought what Charles would say. She felt a kinship to Charles. She didn’t mind his suspicion of her.
5
Charles straightened up when Adam approached. He put his palms against the small of his back and massaged the tired muscles. “My God, there’s lots of rocks,” he said.
“Fellow in the army told me there’s valleys in California—miles and miles—and you can’t find a stone, not even a little one.”
“There’ll be something else,” said Charles. “I don’t think there’s any farm without something wrong with it. Out in the Middle West it’s locusts, someplace else it’s tornadoes. What’s a few stones?”
“I guess you’re right. I thought I would give you a hand.”
“That’s nice of you. I thought you’d spend the rest of your life holding hands with that in there. How long is she going to stay?”
Adam was on the point of telling him of his proposal but the tone of Charles’ voice made him change his mind.
“Say,” Charles said, “Alex Platt came by a little while ago. You’d never think what happened to him. He’s found a fortune.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, you know the place on his property where that clump of cedars sticks out—you know, right on the county road?”
“I know. What about it?”
“Alex went in between those trees and his stone wall. He was hunting rabbits. He found a suitcase and a man’s clothes, all packed nice. Soaked up with rain though. Looked like it had been there some time. And there was a wooden box with a lock, and when he broke it open there was near four thousand dollars in it. And he found a purse too. There wasn’t anything in it.”
“No name or. anything?”
“That’s the strange part—no name; no name on the clothes, no labels on the suits. It’s just like the fellow didn’t want to be traced.”
“Is Alex going to keep it?”
“He took it in to the sheriff, and the sheriff is going to advertise it, and if nobody answers Alex can keep it.”
“Somebody’s sure to claim it.”
“I guess so. I didn’t tell Alex that. He’s feeling so good about it. That’s funny about no labels—not cut out, just didn’t have any.”
“That’s a lot of money,” Adam said. “Somebody’s bound to claim it.”
“Alex hung around for a while. You know, his wife goes around a lot.” Charles was silent. “Adam,” he said finally, “we got to have a talk. The whole county’s doing plenty of talking.”
“What about? What do you mean?”
“Goddam it, about that—that girl. Two men can’t have a girl living with them. Alex says the women are pretty riled up about it. Adam, we can’t have it. We live here. We’ve got a good name.”
“You want me to throw her out before she’s well?”
“I want you to get rid of her—get her out. I don’t like her.”
“You never have.”
“I know it. I don’t trust her. There’s something—something—I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it. When you going to get her out?”
“Tell you what,” Adam said slowly. “Give her one more week and then I’ll do something about her.”
“You promise?”
“Sure I promise.”
“Well, that’s something. I’ll get the word to Alex’s wife. From there on she’ll handle the news. Good Lord, I’ll be glad to have the house to ourselves again. I don’t suppose her memory’s come back?”
“No,” said Adam.
6
Five days later, when Charles had gone to buy some calf feed, Adam drove the buggy to the kitchen steps. He helped Cathy in, tucked a blanket around her knees, and put another around her shoulders. He drove to the county seat and was married to her by a justice of the peace.
Charles was home when they returned. He looked sourly at them when they came into the kitchen. “I thought you’d took her in to put her on the train.”
“We got married,” Adam said simply.
Cathy smiled at Charles.
“Why? Why did you do it?”
“Why not? Can’t a man get married?”
Cathy went quickly into the bedroom and closed the door.
Charles began to rave. “She’s no damn good, I tell you. She’s a whore.”
“Charles!”
“I tell you, she’s just a two-bit whore. I wouldn’t trust her with a bit piece—why, that bitch, that slut!”
“Charles, stop it! Stop it, I tell you! You keep your filthy mouth shut about my wife!”
“She’s no more a wife than an alley cat.”
Adam said slowly, “I think you’re jealous, Charles. I think you wanted to marry her.”
“Why, you goddam fool! Me jealous? I won’t live in the same house with her!”
Adam said evenly, “You won’t have to. I’m going away. You can buy me out if you want. You can have the farm. You always wanted it. You can stay here and rot.”
Charles’ voice lowered. “Won’t you get rid of her? Please, Adam. Throw her out. She’ll tear you to pieces. She’ll destroy you, Adam, she’ll destroy you!”
“How do you know so much about her?”
Charles’ eyes were bleak. “I don’t,” he said, and his mouth snapped shut.
Adam did not even ask Cathy whether she wanted to come out for dinner. He carried two plates into the bedroom and sat beside her.
“We’re going to go away,” he said. “Let me go away. Please, let me. I don’t want to make you hate your brother. I wonder why he hates me?”
“I think he’s jealous.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Jealous?”
“That’s what it looks like to me. You don’t have to worry. We’re getting out. We’re going to California.”
She said quietly, “I don’t want to go to California.”
“Nonsense. Why, it’s nice there, sun all the time and beautiful.”
“I don’t want to go to California.”
“You are my wife,” he said softly. “I want you to go with me.”
She was silent and did not speak of it again.
They heard Charles slam out the door, and Adam said, “That will be good for him. He’ll get a little drunk and he’ll feel better.”