Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

WAGON OF SALVATION

EPILOGUE
by
Suzy


DISCLAIMER: The Young Riders is the creation of Ed Spielman, and the property of Ogiens/Kane productions in association with MGM/UA television. This Story is created for entertainment purposes only, no infringement intended. Not to be copied without permission from the author.



It took six long weeks for any of the riders to see any sign of the Buck they knew and missed. While not one of them could complain about his work ethic, he took all of his own rides and any that the others would let him take for them, all of them were sympathetic to his desire to stay busy.

He couldn’t seem to help it. Bernie’s departure had left a gaping hole in his consciousness, he had spent two days listening to the wisdom of his older brother but he had missed his family at the waystation too much, so he had returned to his home. When he first arrived, everything had brought a tear to his eye. She had been at the waystation for such a short time, yet everything seemed to remind him of her and her gentle loving touch. He knew that his friends were walking on eggshells around him, even Cody, who couldn’t usually help putting his foot in his mouth, was the soul of discretion around him.

Gradually, he found that it was getting easier to smile again. He often felt Lou’s eyes on him, watching him as he lay awake in his bunk, but there was nothing she could do to help him. The nights were the hardest, when he had nothing to take his mind from his thoughts of his angel with the flame coloured hair.

One day he would look back on his memories of her without pain, but until that day he would continue to take each day step by step, trying to put his pain behind him. He knew that he would recover, he would begin to live again, but he would never get over her.

--oo0000oo—

Bernie stood outside her Grandfather’s study door. Her palms were sweaty and her face pale, her fear of this man and this room obvious to even the most casual observer. She laughed nervously, she had always hated this room, decorated in dark olive green leathers and deep mahogany, it was a sombre austere room, where she had only ever been admitted to be punished for some misdeed she had performed, real or imagined.

Knocking sharply on the door, she waited patiently until her Grandfathers deep booming voice called her name. Opening the door, she entered the room, surprised to see two men that were far from strangers seated around the low coffee table in the corner of the room.

Her eyes stung with tears as she recognised both men and realised why she had been summoned here.

“You sent for me Grandfather” she spoke gently, her eyes downcast lest they betray her emotions.

“Bernice, I’m sure you recognise Dr Laughton” her grandfather spoke “He came to me concerned about your health, and he thought I should know for the family’s sake”

Bernice’s hand immediately lowered to cover her slightly rounded belly, hidden by her skirts. She had gone to visit Dr Laughton’s offices to confirm what she had suspected for some time now, but apparently her choice of discrete physician was misplaced.

“Now I don’t know what happened to you in that heathen little backwater, nor do I care” he glared at her “but I will not have you bringing shame on my families good name. You are obviously your mother’s daughter, there will be no more of that sort of behaviour. You will obey my rules, you will do as I say or you will be forced to get rid of your little problem. Is that clear?” he roared at her.

“Yes Grandfather” he tears would not be stopped and rolled down her pale cheeks unchecked, as she stood there willing to sell her soul to the devil himself if it meant she could protect her precious cargo.

“Luckily I found a man that is willing to have you, and give your bastard child a name” he smiled at the man he referred to “It has cost me a pretty penny in a dowry for you I might add”

“Thank you Grandfather” Bernie realised that fighting her Grandfather’s edict would be futile, but still her mind fought to find a way out of the promised union. Looking at her Grandfathers junior business partner Jefferson Eccles, the man she was supposed to marry a shiver ran down her spine. He was at least twice her age, probably more, a huge man who filled the chair he was seated in, his hair close cropped and tinged with grey at the temples. His eyes not the bottomless obsidian she loved but clear pale crystal blue, his lips a thin cruel line. Somehow she knew that this man would be a hard man to live with, but she couldn’t see a way out of her Grandfathers plans.

At a snap of his finger his butler appeared out of nowhere with a priest.

“You will be married this afternoon, no one outside these walls need know anything else.”

Jefferson stood and crossed to Bernie’s side. Bending he placed a hard kiss on her lips and took her by the wrist as she would have stayed where she stood, his fingernails digging cruelly into her wrist, and almost dragged her to the priest.

The ceremony was short, the anguish in the priest’s eyes for Bernie was real but his fear of disobeying the wealthiest man in the country was greater than his fear for Bernie’s future. At the conclusion of the ceremony he was ushered out of the house and put in a carriage back to his church. The three men remaining all toasting her groom with snifters of port and then he once again took her by the wrist and led her to his carriage, which was already loaded with her belongings. He helped her into the carriage and smiled as they waved goodbye to her family servants.

He sat opposite her and watched for several minutes as she cried silent tears of sorrow for what could have been. Growing weary with her emotional displays he raised his hand and slapped her hard across the side of her head.

Bernie’s head was rocked by the sudden impact, she straightened in her seat her face draining of colour, stars swimming before her eyes.

“Let me tell you how things will be for you now Bernie.” He stated clearly “You will be my wife in the truest sense of the word, the child you carry will bear my name, but that is all, I want nothing to do with it, it will receive nothing from me’ he stopped speaking as he saw the horror on her face “you on the other hand, will do everything that I ask of you, you will be the perfect wife and if I find that you have any contact with your lover I will have both him and the child killed.” He paused pleased with her reaction to his threats “Do you understand me?”

Bernie sat there dumbstruck, not believing that one person could be so cruel. Nodding her head, she tried to pull herself together, knowing that this man would punish her harshly and possibly hurt her baby in the process for any slight misdemeanour in his eyes. She sat silently and demurely for the rest of the trip, her anguish withheld, never looking into the face of the man whom she was supposed to spend the rest of her days with.

Bernie stood in the middle of the room she was to share with her new husband and sank to her knees, her hands caressing the small being that was created in her night of shared love and tenderness with Buck. She would do anything in her power to keep their child safe, her only link to her soul mate, even marrying the man she had always been afraid of, even before tonight.

The End

Back to the last chapter
Back to Ridingtall
Back to Tall Tales



Please give the author some feedback