Page 18 of Liberty
Fate and Belle laughed.
Ma chuckled. “I can see what a handful you two were as youngun’s. I bet your daddy was whippin’ your behinds plenty. Now go on and drink your tea then tell me your ideas for this wedding.”
Chapter Six:Steppin-in-it
Belle
“Ideas?” I asked Ma. “Just to decorate the ballroom, I guess. Then maybe have a small party for Scarlet…” I paused. “No, maybe not. I mean since no one can leave here, they can’t get gifts for her.”
“They can order them,” Fate suggested.
“We don’t have time for that,” I said.
“A week,” Fate replied. “That would be enough.”
“We don’t do a lot of that here,” Ma spoke up. “Draws attention. There’d be too many deliveries when no one is supposed to be here.”
I stared at her. “What do you mean no one is supposed to be here?”
“Oh, that’s right, you probably don’t know,” Liberty said.
I slowly shook my head.
“Deacon used this place first.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“He held both my sister Glory here along with Jewel and Scarlet.”
I felt totally confused. “Here at the bed and breakfast?”
“Yep. Talon and Liv suggested that we hide out here,” Liberty went on. “For one, he would never use the place a second time because we already knew of the location. For two, he would never expect us to use it.”
“Wow, that is ballsy.” I knew why they were here. I learned that the hard way. Deacon planned to drop bombs on the Walker ranch. At first, when they told me he would actually kill a wholefamily in their own home, I never believed it, but after the rocket launch attack and all the shooting at the house they set up as a decoy? I believed it after that. I looked over at Ma. “Well, it sure has the room and two wings, three kitchens and 3 living rooms. It was actually the best place to use.”
Ma nodded. “It is roomy here, I miss home though. That's where my heart is so to speak. All my gardens and our family plots are there. Raised my kids there.”
The kitchen went quiet.
I felt bad for Ma and her family. I now paused to think about how hard and stressful this all had to be. I’d been busy thinking about how it had affected me when everyone here had been through the wringer with this Walker War, so to speak.
Ma tisked. “Don’t be feeling any pity for me, younguns. If the good Lord's willin’ and the crick don't rise, He’ll be fixin’ things soon. I have no fear of that. Sometimes it takes a while to get rid of evil. It took years to find out about what was really happenin’ to the Walkers, then it got taken care of. People may think I’m over religious or something, but I’ve seen it too many times. Yes, I lost plenty to evil. But I still got my kids and they all are gettin’ set to give me some grandkids too. I got yer Daddy in my life.” Ma looked at Fate and Liberty. “When I never expected to have someone to grow old with. I’m blessed and you will all see this come to an end. It just ain’t time yet is all.”
We all stared at Ma.
I felt amazed by her deep belief. She just seemed so strong, so sure of things. I wanted to be like that. Oh, I worked at it, but I wasn’t nearly as tough as this woman. I also never had faith really. My childhood scared that out of me. No one helped us out. When they came in and took us from mom, that hadn’t been helping. She had been the only good thing in our lives. They thought we would be better off with foster parents. Boy,were they wrong. I could say it was great when we got to be with her again, but she had been the one to work for that. Constantly jumping through their hoops and making sure she could get us back home. All when it had been our dad’s fault, not hers.
Ma now broke the silence in the kitchen, “Ok, so you did find wedding decorations in the room?”
“We did,” I replied. “The box said, ‘anniversary,’ but it was all silver and white streamers.”
“Well good.” Ma nodded “There's probably more than one box too.”
I shook my head and shivered a little. “Well, I’m not checking on that.”
Ma laughed and reached over to pat my arm. “We’ll get the place sprayed and dig them out for ya. No worries.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do at all,” Liberty admitted.
