“No.” Cora clutched his sleeve. Her eyes watered from the pain, but she wouldn’t show weakness, not with what she was about to ask for. “Please let me go with you and tell him myself. I want to face him the way I didn’t face the Union soldier for my sister. The way his wife didn’t get to defend herself. For the workers and all the women he’s wronged, I, as a woman, want to bring him down. Show him he doesn’t rule over us.”
Ed brushed the stray hair from her forehead and kissed her. “I promise. If you promise me something.”
Cora would do anything to keep Grous from harming anyone else. “Anything.”
Ed dipped the cloth in the water and dabbed at the corner of her mouth. “Marry me as soon as you’re able to walk down the aisle, because I can’t live another moment without you by my side, and that includes at night.”
Her skin heated at his confession. “I’ll marry you tomorrow.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
Ed stoodby the magnolia tree in the garden with the pastor, Ghost, the old and new staff, Captain and Mrs. Wilkins, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, and the children.
“You sure you’re up for this? I know the doctor said your ribs weren’t broken, but it’s only been two days.” Ed worried she’d faint from exhaustion or pain.
“Mr. Neal, I don’t care if the earthquake took down the entire city. I’m marrying you today,” Cora insisted.
Mr. Miller chuckled. “That’s a McKinnie girl for you.”
“I do wish you had your dress, though,” Mrs. Miller whined.
“I think she’s perfect.” Ed admired her crimson gown, the scandal of getting married in it, and the woman who showed him he didn’t have to guard his heart, only to love with it.
Mrs. Miller tsked but said, “Due to the earthquake damage and the dress being buried, I think we can allow it in this private ceremony.”
Mr. Miller eyed the back door. “You sure you want to marry like this?”
Cora snuggled into Ed, despite the pain he knew she felt. “I want to be free of Grous before we’re joined and can start our lives together.”
“You did tell him about our ceremony, right?” Ed asked.
The back door flew open, and out stepped Grous at the stroke of noon. “I warned you that I’d tell everyone about your debts.”
Cora swung around, her dress and hair like a fireball propelled at the enemy. “And I told you I would never marry you and this is a wedding.”
Ed didn’t leave her side and shot a look to the officers waiting behind the bushes.
“You’re no better than any other woman.” Grous flew down the steps.
Cora didn’t back down. “You mean the women you beat and strangle?”
Grous went sheet white. His nose wasn’t even red. “You know nothing.”
Cora went to the bench and picked up the newspaper. “I know you’re James Smith and you murdered your wife. And I’m the one who will send you to the rope.”
He pulled a gun from his holster. “You little—”
Ed covered Cora, Ghost surrounded the little girls, and Mr. Miller guarded his wife. The officers tackled Grous before he even knew they were behind him.
“You’re no better than my prostitute of a mother and my cheating wife,” Grous shouted.
“I’m not. I’m the same as them, and on behalf of all them, I want you to realize that a woman is the one who beat you.”
The officers dragged him to the fence and around to the front of the house. His screams faded the way he would fade from their lives.
The three little girls who’d been staying with them huddled around Ed’s leg. He knelt down and opened his arms to the youngest. Despite her still-too-small frame, her skin color had returned and her eyes looked alive instead of fading. “I think our girls should be part of this ceremony, too, since they will be part of our family soon enough.”
He lifted Beth up and pointed to the magnolia. “Can you put that in your new mama’s hair?”
