The Marriage Barter

“But there’s nothing that specifically forbids it?” Mr. Brooks asked her with a gleam in his eye.

A little of Rebecca’s color returned. “No. No, there isn’t.”

“In that case,” Mr. Brooks said smoothly, “I’d say the agreement is officially in dispute. The only resolution I can see would be to bring the matter before a judge. Wouldn’t you agree, Madam Mayor?”

Pauline gave him a stiff yet clearly grateful nod in return. The mayor might chafe at Mr. Brooks’s oversight of the loan, but his handling of this incident had apparently raised him a few notches in her estimation.

“Yes, Mr. Brooks, that is the clear course of action.” Pauline turned back to Wyatt. “Mr. Reed, I believe I speak for the town when I say that you must make your case before Judge Broadside.”

Again, Wyatt didn’t show any emotion at her decision, but his question came out clipped. “Where can I find the judge?”

Pauline offered a dismissive smile. “He is currently on circuit and is next due in Evans Grove on Monday. That gives you the weekend to prepare your argument.”

He barely flinched, but Charlotte saw it. “Greenville won’t be pleased. They’re expecting the children to arrive on this afternoon’s train.”

Mayor Evans didn’t blink. “The town, and Mr. Baxter, may react however they wish, Mr. Reed, but the law will decide this matter.”

He must have known he’d been bested, for he nodded curtly and strode out of the room, his eyes dark and unreadable. Was he upset? Would he fight them? No small part of Charlotte hoped he would reconsider and end this before the judge ever showed. He had already agreed that Sasha and the other placed children could stay. Surely it would only take a little more persuasion to get him to spare all the children.

But who could convince him? Wyatt had disregarded her plea. Perhaps Mr. Brooks had the answer.

She watched Brooks join Mayor Evans, Holly, Beatrice and Sheriff Wright at the front table. The Orphan Selection Committee. Of course. They were supposed to meet today. Perhaps more children had been selected. Maybe the committee would have even let Holly and Mason take in Liam before they wed, but now, with this mess, the prospective parents would have to wait for the judge’s ruling. Charlotte ached for them, but at least they had hope. And she had Sasha. She breathed in that single wonderful fact.

Curtis Brooks stood, and the room quieted. The man exuded genteel authority, and given that he had been the one to suggest Greenville had no case, everyone wanted to hear what he would say next.

“If we want to see the orphans stay here, we can help our case by ensuring the remaining children have good homes. If we can demonstrate to the judge that the town is capable of taking in all the orphans, he may look more favorably upon our position.”

“Let’s do it,” cried more than one person.

Holly and Mason Wright nodded, as did Mayor Evans. Only Beatrice didn’t.

In fact, she glared at Mr. Brooks. “As Mr. Reed clearly stated, any children who weren’t chosen at the distribution should have been put immediately on the train to Greenville. We can’t continue to break the rules by letting people claim children now.”

Charlotte’s heart sank for Holly and Mason’s sake. The rest of the committee wouldn’t listen to her, would they?

Beatrice pressed on. “And that’s assuming that the distribution we held here was even legal. According to the original agreement, all the children should go to Greenville.”

“No one is going to Greenville until after the hearing before the judge,” Pauline Evans insisted.

Beatrice shot her a scathing look, but Mayor Evans backed down to no one.

“We will let the judge decide the case.”

Beatrice clearly struggled with the possibility that the judge might rule against her. “But whatever he decides must apply to all of them, correct?”

Charlotte held her breath.

“Not to my girl.” Theodore Regan stood, looking like he would take off Beatrice’s head if she so much as threatened to come near his farm. “We followed all the rules and got her fair and square. Lina stays with Helen and me.”

Mel Hutchinson, Charles’s apprentice, chimed in, “And Lizzie isn’t going anywhere, either. Marie won’t stand for it.”

Beatrice frowned, but even she saw the wisdom in avoiding conflict with the burly men. She opened her mouth and snapped it shut again until her gaze landed on Charlotte.

Panic beat hard against Charlotte’s rib cage, but what could Beatrice do? She alone couldn’t take Sasha away.

“Perhaps you have a case for your two families,” Beatrice said coyly, her lips curving into an ugly smile, “however, Mrs. Miller is now a widow. If I recall the rules correctly, an unmarried person cannot have an orphan.”

Charlotte felt all eyes turn to her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t stop shaking. This couldn’t be happening.

“The placement must be revoked,” Beatrice crowed, fixing her gaze on each of the committee members in turn. “If the judge rules that only the unplaced children must go on to Greenville, then Sasha must go with them.”

Charlotte looked hopefully to the committee. Surely they would disagree. But Curtis Brooks frowned. Sheriff Wright took a deep breath. Mayor Evans cast her eyes downward. Charlotte looked to Holly. Surely her friend would stand up for her. Yet even Holly stayed silent, though stricken.

The room buzzed, narrowing as Charlotte’s head began to spin.

“Give her air,” someone said, and Charlotte sensed the people around her moving. Someone instructed her to breathe deeply. Another person fanned air toward her. The window squeaked as it was raised.

Gradually, Charlotte came to her senses, but nothing had changed. The selection committee still sat in front. Curtis Brooks was whispering something to the mayor, who rapped on the table to recall everyone’s attention.

“I’m sorry, Widow Miller,” she began.

Charlotte knew what that meant. She knotted her hands together until her knuckles turned white. She bit the inside of her lip until it bled, but physical pain could not dull the pain of her heart. Tears streamed unhindered down her face.

Pauline Evans gave her a look of sympathy, but her words still hurt. “I’m sorry, but Miss Sterling confirmed that the Orphan Salvation Society makes no allowance for widows or widowers. You must be married to take in an orphan.”

“But Sasha,” Charlotte squeaked, her heart breaking more than she thought possible. “She’s talking and playing like normal now. She calls me Mama.” She choked, unable to continue. How could they do this? She fought to regain enough composure to speak. “I’ve just lost my husband. Now you’re taking away my daughter?”

Not Sasha. Please, not Sasha.

“There is one solution,” Curtis Brooks said calmly. “You could marry.”

Virtually everyone gasped at the scandalous suggestion.

“Marry just days after she buried her husband?” Beatrice practically shouted. “She’s in mourning. If she married now, she’d dishonor her husband’s name. You can’t be serious.”

“I’m completely serious.” Mr. Brooks fixed his gaze on Charlotte alone. “In difficult times, convention must be set aside in favor of the greater good. Jesus himself ignored the rules when the situation demanded it. On more than one occasion he worked miracles on the Sabbath to heal those in need. If Widow Miller is inclined to wed, we shouldn’t forbid it, lest we be like the Pharisees.”

That quieted Beatrice, though she looked none too pleased. But Charlotte couldn’t see how this helped. Who would marry her so quickly? Who would make Sasha a good father? She glanced around the room and saw only husbands and men too young or too elderly to take on a thirty-one-year-old wife.

She drew in her breath. “How long?” The question trembled in the warm air like a butterfly just emerging from the cocoon, weak and unable to fly.

Somehow the committee knew what she meant. Mayor Evans glanced at Mr. Brooks for confirmation before she spoke. “Three days. You would need to marry before the judge hears Greenville’s case.”

Three days? How could she find a husband in three days?

Chapter Four

The meeting ended, and many of the women gathered around Charlotte in support. She struggled to regain her composure, but Mayor Evans’s words echoed in her head.