A Bride For The Asking -- (on hold)

Chapter 7--Promises That Bind

Rose paused inside the door to let her eyes adjust to the dimness and was surprised to see a dark hallway in front of her. The smell of pine was overpowering.

"I guess everybody’s waiting on us in Judge Blackwood’s office."

"I thought Mr. Jorgenson said he was a justice of the peace?" Rose asked as she let him guide her down the hall.

"I guess he was sick, so the circuit judge will be doing the honors today. Watch your dress, there’s pine gum still seeping out of this partition."

They walked through a door on the left that contained benches and a desk. Rose presumed it was a court room. Silently, Woodrow led her on through a small anteroom, and into the office of the Justice of the peace.

A tall, silver-headed man Rose assumed to be Judge Blackwood, was sitting behind a desk, while Ike and Aunt Mary stood against one wall. Near them stood a family Rose presumed was Woodrow’s kin.

A bearded man with the same startling blue eyes as Woodrow, stood turning his hat around between his hands. By his side stood a pinch-faced, disapproving woman, obviously the man’s wife. She looked like a crow in her black dress and hat. At their side stood a small child that was so beautiful she looked like a china doll. She bore familiar startling blue eyes that stared around her in silence. One thumb was thrust firmly in her mouth. These people must be Woodrow’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece, Rose thought, trying to work out the family relationships.

Judge Blackwood smiled warmly at Woodrow and Rose as they approached him shyly, arm in arm.

"Ah, I see you got your bride here all in good time, Woodrow," the judge grinned out from beneath his steel-gray, hoary eyebrows. "And a prettier bride, you could not have chosen, If I may be so bold."

"Thank you, kindly. I can’t help but agree with you on that, Judge, " Woodrow grinned, and looked down at Rose, still unable to believe this woman really wanted to marry him.

Rose smiled shyly up at Woodrow, her cheeks blooming with the roses she was named after at the way he was looking at her.

"I have your papers here. Everything seems to be in order. You are of age, aren’t you, Miss McGregor?" Judge Blackwood looked up from the papers he’d been studying and addressed Rose directly.

"Yes sir. I am."

Woodrow couldn’t help but smile at the "Ah" Rose said instead of "I". He loved her accent. It suited her. He was marrying a true southern belle.

"Woodrow, if you and Miss McGregor will come stand in front of me." Judge Blackwood stated, standing up himself. He came around his desk, Bible in hand. He opened it to a place that was well-marked. Inside was a paper with notes on it.

Judge Blackwood looked up when he’d found his place.

"First off, is there anyone here who has any objection to these two people getting married?"

Woodrow and Rose automatically looked around the room. The woman in black looked liked she wanted to say something, but a clearing of the throat of the man next to her caused her to suddenly become interested in the knot in her shawl.

Rose could feel her heart beating faster as the seconds ticked by. Judge Blackwood waited in silence for an objection that never came. Rose wanted to scream at him to get on with it before the man beside her changed his mind.

Woodrow scratched at the unfamiliar feel of the starched white collar and waited in agony for the judge to get on with it before Rose could change her mind. She looked as if anybody said boo at her she would go high-tailing it out of here. If possible, her creamy pale complexion had gotten even paler in the silence, making the spangle of freckles across her nose look like a sprinkling of little brown stars. He looked forward to kissing each and every one of them, and felt the burn of embarrassment, at his own thoughts, creeping up his neck from his tight neckline.