Tully's Faith (Grooms with Honor Book 11) Read online

Violet jerked her head to see Tully’s shocked face. His first funeral would be for a special family friend? Could Tully do it?

  “What? No! I haven’t been ordained a week yet. I can’t do Dan’s service!”

  Pastor laid a hand on Tully’s shoulder and gently squeezed it.

  “Duty calls, son. Being a clergyman was your calling. You should consider it an honor to conduct the funeral for a dear friend.”

  Violet watched Tully’s fists flex at his sides. The two of them had had long discussions in the past about why he was attending the seminary.

  Tully became a minister because his parents had expected it, not because Tully believed it was his true calling. None of Tully’s brothers had followed into their father’s profession, so it was up to Tully to do so.

  “Da, I can’t. I simply can’t,” Tully pleaded.

  “Your ma and I will help you through it, Tully. Service is tomorrow afternoon, so you have time to visit with the Clancy’s to ask for their choices of hymns and Bible verses for his service.

  “Jasper Kerns has been the unofficial undertaker since he’s been building caskets in his workshop. He’ll have Dan’s body set up for viewing in Clancy’s parlor after lunch today.”

  “Should you stop to visit Edna and the family before you come home, Patrick?” Kaitlyn asked her husband, the perfect helpmate for her husband’s profession. Could Violet be a pastor’s wife, if their wedding certificate was revealed as official?

  “Yes, I’ll accompany Tully to call on the family.”

  “What about my luggage?” Tully asked, valiantly trying to stall meeting the Clancy family in an official capacity.

  Pastor waved at Angus. “Your brothers will take care of bringing your trunks home to the parsonage.”

  “Tully, you haven’t said where you’ll be serving your first church. Where are you going and how long is your visit here before reporting to your church and parsonage?” Kaitlyn asked as she wrapped her arm around her husband’s elbow.

  Tully’s eyes met Violet’s as if to find the answer but all she did was give a slight shake to her head. She probably didn’t think it was the best time to spill his secret either.

  “I’ll be heading north, but I have a few weeks before I need to leave.

  “Violet?” Tully changed the subject. “Do you want to go with me now to give your sympathies to the Clancy’s, before you drive out to the Cross C?” Tully’s hand slightly trembled as he reached out to Violet.

  “Yes, I—”

  “Let’s let the pastors perform their duties, Violet. We’ll be back for the funeral tomorrow,” Violet’s father interrupted. “Let’s get your trunks and head home. Your brothers are anxious to see you.”

  Violet looked back at Tully one last time before linking her arm in with her mother’s. She wanted to stay with Tully for support, but his family would take care of that, as they always did. Hopefully, his training would get him through his first funeral. Violet wished she could sit in the front pew by Kaitlyn Reagan, as a pastor’s wife to support Tully.

  But Tully didn’t want to be a preacher. Nonetheless, he’d do it because Dan asked him too.

  *

  “I can’t believe Dan’s gone, Mama. He counted me as one of his grandkids, just like every other kid in town,” Violet said as she wiped her nose with her lace handkerchief. She teared up just thinking of her old friend.

  Mother and daughter stood together as they watched Rusty load the wagon with her luggage. Violet had two steamer trunks of clothing plus her personal items she’d taken to Chicago and accumulated over the two years at the school.

  Personally, she could have left most of the fancy dresses in Chicago, but her mother would love to wear them. And Rusty had spent hard-earned money to buy them for her.

  “I know, Violet. He was a foster grandfather to so many,” her mother reached around Violet’s shoulder and gave her a hug.

  “He always had the cookie jar in the café kitchen filled for kids to raid if they were hungry.” Or needed someone to talk to. The Reagan boys spent a lot of time in Dan’s kitchen as their parents worked on their ministry to the congregation.

  Was that one of the reasons Tully didn’t want to be a minister? Did he feel neglected growing up, and fear his children would feel the same way?

  “I’m sorry Dan’s passing ruined your homecoming, Violet. Kaitlyn and I had planned a family picnic this evening to welcome you both home, but we’ll have to do that another time before Tully leaves for his first congregation.”

  Violet squeezed her eyes to stop her tears. But they weren’t all for Dan, but for Tully too. What would his parents say when Tully told them he wasn’t heading north to be a pastor at a church? And why did she want to be with him when he spilled the truth and left?

  Because she wanted to go with Tully.

  “Rusty!” Angus Reagan called to her father as he walked from the depot to the baggage loading dock. “I just got a telegram for you. Glad I caught you before you left for the ranch.”

  “We would have been back tomorrow for the funeral,” Rusty shrugged his shoulders, not worried about when he got the telegraph.

  Angus glanced at Violet while handing the piece of paper to Rusty.

  “I think someone might be excited to get this news now, instead of later,” Angus said with a tip of his hat before returning to the station.

  Rusty read the telegraph and smiled before handing it to Violet’s mother.

  “Good news, Faye. Our daughter is getting married,” Rusty broke into the first smile Violet had seen since arriving home.

  “Oh, I’m so happy for you, Violet!” Violet’s mother raised her arms to praise the heavens and then tightly gave Violet a tight hug.

  “What are you two talking about? Who’s the telegraph from?”

  Surely Rollie or one of their friends didn’t send word of hers and Tully’s fake marriage. Plus, her parents seemed happy about it. She didn’t think that would be the case of her marrying a poor preacher.

  “It’s from Mr. Westin. He’ll be here this weekend,” Rusty explained as if Violet knew what that meant.

  Panic surged through Violet. She’d shown Westin the fake wedding certificate.

  “Why?” One word was all Violet would squeak out.

  “Two months ago, Mr. Westin asked to court you, and I wrote back permitting it. He wrote again two weeks ago asking for your hand in marriage, and I gave him our blessing. This telegraph says he’s traveling here to wed you.”

  “Oh congratulations, honey. With all the bad news, we didn’t give you the chance to tell us your good news.”

  “You said I’d marry him?” Violet asked incredulously. She had shown the certificate of marriage to Westin four days ago. He must have thought it was a fake. And what about the other thing she’d told him?

  “Mr. Westin didn’t propose to me, nor would I ever accept if he did!”

  Rusty looked at the telegraph and handed it to Violet to read. Sure enough. The scant words said it plain and clear.

  “TO RUSTY TUCKER. WILL ARRIVE SATURDAY FOR WEDDING. HORACE WESTIN

  “NO! Absolutely not. No way will I marry Horace,” Violet stubbornly shook her head, not worrying that the action would loosen the pins holding her hat securely to her hair.

  “Violet. He’d give you a good home, security for life. I paid money to check out his background, and he’ll make you a good husband.”

  “Mr. Westin is so old, he could have been my father,” Violet argued, then closed her eyes when her mother stiffened beside her.

  “I’m sorry, Mama. I was just mentioning his age difference is all.”

  Because Faye wasn’t positive who Violet’s father was, her mother was sensitive about the subject. Faye worked in a brothel and had baby Violet before Faye left to find her family at the Cross C Ranch. Rusty Tucker, the foreman of the ranch, had taken over the role of Violet’s father when she was three months old.

  Her father cleared his throat. “I’m almost a decade older th
an your mother, but it didn’t make any difference to us.”

  “But you’re physically fit working on the ranch, Papa. Mr. Westin’s got a big gut from sitting at his desk all day long.

  “Mr. Westin sent a photo with his letter, and he looks like a nice young man, Violet,” her mother tried to placate her.

  “Then he sent you a photograph from years ago because he’s as bald as an egg now and he’s got to weigh as much as a yearling heifer!”

  “Faye, we sent you to school to learn manners. Please don’t slip back into rough talk as soon as you get home,” her mother asked.

  “Papa,” Violet pleaded, “why can’t I work the ranch like the rest of the family?”

  “You’re not going to be a cowhand, Violet. We saved our money through the years, so you could go to school and find a rich husband.”

  “I’d prefer to break green horses than be saddled to that old man.”

  “Violet quit whining and get in the wagon. We’ll talk about your wedding later. We need to get home to tell the Connely’s and Brenner’s about Dan’s accident and funeral,” Rusty ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Violet climbed in the back of the wagon and sat on the top of one of her trunks. Her mother motioned to sit on the wagon seat with them, but Violet preferred to act like the child they apparently considered her to be and rode in the back. She’d prefer listening to the rumbling of the wagon wheels than hear the praises of the man they’d picked out to be her husband.

  But what was Mr. Westin’s plan by showing up here in the prairie town of Clear Creek? Why didn’t Westin think the marriage certificate was real?

  Probably because Western attended the same church as the seminary students and Violet and knew all of them. The man even attended the student’s ceremony.

  Mr. Westin was a kind soul, and Violet always enjoyed talking with him at church, but she never meant to encourage him or hint she wanted to marry him.

  A simple prank had turned into a giant misunderstanding and mess for her, and for Tully.

  Now she had something else to spring on Tully after the funeral tomorrow. Violet looked back as the town disappeared from view. How was Tully handling his grief about Dan as he consoled Edna, the man’s wife? At least the old couple lived with their grandson, Nolan, his wife, Holly, and their children.

  And Violet bet Holly felt guilty for not keeping track of Dan in their kitchen.

  Birth circles on to death. No one could change the outcome, but it still caused one to grieve.

  Violet had longed to return to the ranch and its open range, but right now she wished she was in town with Tully as he consoled the Clancy’s.

  And not for the first time in a week, she wished their marriage certificate was legal.

  Chapter 3

  “How are you doing, son?” Tully’s father asked as they walked toward Clancy’s house.

  Should he be truthful? Just as well to get some guidance for the overwhelming situation he was going to walk into.

  “I feel like running to the outhouse and puking up my breakfast,” Tully muttered and waited for his father’s stern lecture.

  Tully glanced sideways as he father chuckled and broke out in a broad grin.

  “I’m serious, Da. I’m afraid I’m going to throw up or break down and cry when I see Edna.”

  “Well, don’t worry about crying with Edna. She’d expect it from one of her ‘grandsons’ as she called the lot of you.”

  His father sighed and stopped to turn to Tully.

  “I’ve never told this story to any of you boys, but now that you’re a pastor, I’ll share it with you. And I expect you to keep it confidential.”

  What big secret was his father going to tell him?

  “I really botched my first funeral. I didn’t know the elderly man that had died before I arrived at my first congregation.

  “During the church service, I mispronounced his last name. I lost my place when reading the Bible verse and skipped to another page, not making a lick of sense by reading half of two different chapters. And how do you tell a eulogy about a man you never met? I mumbled through the usual ‘he was a good man’ I thought I should say.

  “And,” his father stopped to chuckle again, “at the burial, I dropped my service book into the grave. Plunk, right on top of the casket.”

  Tully stared at his father, surprised his calm parent would ever do something like that.

  “What happened then?”

  “Of course, everyone gasped in horror as we all stood looking down into the hole. Then one of the man’s grandsons, about seven years old, hopped down on the casket as he called out ‘I’ll get it!’ I thought the boy’s mother, the daughter of the man I was performing the service for, was going to faint from shock and embarrassment.

  “And the boy wasn’t big enough to get out without caving the soil down off the side of the grave, although he tried. A couple of men reached down and pulled the boy out before the loose soil buried him too.”

  “And the moral of this story is…” Tully asked as the tension eased out of his shoulders.

  “You may be a preacher, but you’re not perfect, especially until you get some experience. Expect the unexpected to happen, good or bad.”

  “But this was Dan. What do I say to Edna!?”

  “You’ll cry and laugh with Edna and Dan’s family as you remember a wonderful man. You’ll listen as Edna curses Dan for crawling up on a chair when he clearly shouldn’t have, and you’ll wrap your arms around her when she cries. And laugh as you drink coffee and eat the cookies Dan was known for…although Edna will tell you her recipe for oatmeal cookies was better than his,” his father said as he shrugged his shoulders.

  “But my final advice is don’t stand too close to the grave as you give the blessing.”

  “By that part of the service you’ve closed your service book and have handed it to Ma,” Tully realized, thinking of the funerals he’d attended in their community’s cemetery.

  “And now you know why. I’ll forever hear that plunk as my book hit that casket.”

  His father turned and started walking again, and Tully had no choice but to follow.

  “Come on. Dan asked you to do this for him. The man fed you enough food over the years that it’s time you pay him back.”

  Tully took a deep breath as he knocked on the Clancy’s front door. Nolan opened it and hugged him before he had a chance to say anything.

  “Thanks for coming right away, Tully. Or should I be saying, Pastor Tully? Boy, that seems strange, but I guess that’s right now.”

  “And you’re the first one that’s called me that, so it’s a shock to me too. How’s your grandma doing?” Tully asked Nolan as the men stepped away from their embrace. Tully’s father had stayed back on the porch, letting the two friends meet. Nolan was Angus’ age, but Tully followed both older boys around whenever he could get away with it.

  “After the initial shock…” Nolan moved his outstretched hand sideways to indicate the woman’s up and down mood. “She’ll cry, then yell she’s going to hit him on the head with her frying pan for doing something so stupid.”

  Tully couldn’t help but smile, thinking of the good-natured squabbles he’d witnessed between Dan and Edna over the years. The mentioned frying pan to Dan’s head was a threat he’d heard before.

  “Actually, she's done okay. Grandma says, ‘death happens when you’re old.’”

  “Good philosophy,” Tully answered, feeling at ease for the first time since hearing of Dan’s death. It felt good to stand in a home he’d spent so much time in over the years. Visiting the couple with his mother when he was young. Running through the house trying to keep up with his brothers, Nolan, and his sister, Daisy. Who knew Dan’s granddaughter, Daisy, would become Tully’s sister-in-law, Angus’ wife.

  “I’ll go into the kitchen and check on the coffee pot while you talk to Edna,” Tully’s father said after greeting Nolan. “I’ll let Tully listen to this round of stories,” he said good-nature
dly, and Nolan nodded with a smile, but Tully didn’t. He’d prefer his da to be with him.

  “I’ll join you, Pastor. Tully, Grandma, is in the back parlor with Daisy and Holly,” Nolan pointed to the back addition to the house the family added on when Dan and Edna couldn’t maneuver walking upstairs anymore.

  But yet Dan thought he could climb up on a chair…

  Tully nodded his thanks to Nolan, and he hesitantly walked to the back rooms. He relaxed when laughter reached his ears. At least his entrance would start on a good note.

  “Tully! Come here and give me a hug. I’ve been waiting for you,” Edna said from her upholstered highbacked chair. Rather than waiting for Edna to struggle to stand up, Tully leaned down on one knee beside the old woman and let her embrace him. He didn’t want to squeeze too hard and hurt her arthritic joints.

  “I’m so sorry, Grandma Edna,” Tully said against the woman’s fine silver hair. She still smelled like cookies or the Vanilla Toilet Water he’d spied on her dresser one time when he was looking for someplace to hide in the house.

  “I’m grieving Tully, but death happens when a person gets old. Dan and I were together a long time, and I thank the Lord for that. But, the old coot wouldn’t listen when I told him not to climb up on the chair. He was looking for a box of old cookie cutters and—”

  Edna stopped talking and sobbed into Tully’s jacket. He couldn’t do anything but silently cry along with her as he gently hugged her.

  Edna pulled away and blew her nose on the damp-looking handkerchief. “You need to greet your sister-in-law and Holly too.”

  Tully stood up and hugged Holly first, offered his condolences, and then turned to Daisy. “Big Sis, I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you, Tully. Grandpa was so excited that you were coming home as a pastor. He was looking forward to your first sermon…”

  Tully drew back, nodding to Daisy because he didn’t know what to say. Would Dan be upset Tully didn’t want to lead a congregation or understand? Dan was the one person who always told him he could do whatever he wanted, rather than try to catch up with his brothers. Of course, Dan’s words might have caused some of his reckless behavior too, now that Tully thought about it.