Save the Date (Complete)

Chapter 33

"HOW WAS YOUR CAMPING TRIP?"

May's eyes flashed open only to see Piorret standing over her bed. "How did I get here?"

Piorret's eyes narrowed. "I'm assuming Elijah brought you back."

"Elijah? Why would he bring me back?"

"You went camping with him."

May groaned and sat up on her bed. "Elijah didn't take me camping..."

"Where did he take you?" Piorret demanded.

"I think she means to say that I'm the one who took her camping." Matthew stepped into the room. He heard Piorret head to May's room and figured May wasn't going to remember much about the night before.

"Did you bring me here?"

Matthew nodded to May. "I didn't think you wanted to sleep on the couch."

Piorret looked at Matthew and then at May. But May had already laid back down, so Piorret decided he would have to get the truth from Matthew.

"I need to talk to you." Piorret looked at him. "Now."

Matthew nodded and after checking on May one more time followed Piorret out of her room.

For a second Piorret wished that he was young again. Taking on Matthew when he was as old as he was, posed a slight problem, but his niece had no one else to do it.

Piorret waited until he was far enough down the hallway from May's room before he turned to Matthew. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought May home yesterday."

"Okay. Why are you here now?"

"She got scared and called me."

"If you have taken advantage of her, I don't care about the contract I'll kill you."

Matthew didn't mock the age of Piorret. He understood his concern though Matthew was insulted by it. "I didn't take advantage of her. I wouldn't do that to her. She was frightened and had no one else to call."

"You haven't been around for the last sixteen years, Matthew. I've taken care of May since she was eight. She always has someone to call."

Matthew held up his hands. "I didn't mean it like that. Piorret, I can't thank you enough for taking care of May, but you knew that someday I was going to come take her."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to allow you to steal May because of some contract. You won't get May until she wants you. I couldn't care less about the contract my brother created. I won't allow you to have May until I'm sure you're the right man for her."

"I am the right man for her. You've known it all along. Why else would you keep inviting me to her weddings? You wanted me to break them up."

May quietly shut her door. She didn't know quite what feeling was rushing through her body. Piorret had been the one who kept calling Matthew in. She remembered the conversation she had had with Matthew, and he had mentioned that he kept receiving invitations to her weddings. After she asked him what he could possibly mean by that, he told her a lie. A lie to cover Piorret's actions.

She couldn't actually believe that Piorret had done that to her. Every failed wedding, he had been there comforting her, but he had been the cause of them. She held onto that fury, not allowing her mind to carry her passed those thoughts, to the fact that she was glad she wasn't married to the men she had chosen. She wouldn't think about that, but that Piorret had gone behind her back. It hurt her more than she thought it would. Even her uncle was trying to control her, forcing her to marry Matthew, by breaking up every one of her weddings.

May moved slowly to her bed. She didn't know what to do. She sat not moving for five minutes only thinking of what her uncle had done to her. She got dressed. Finally, she left her room in search of her uncle before any more of her anger dissipated.

"Good morning, May."

"So, Piorret, when you told me that you were just as mad at my guardian as I was when he broke up my weddings, did you really mean it?"

Piorret had lived a long time and had learned a lot during his years. He knew May found out about the wedding invitations, but he also knew he couldn't admit to the fact of messing with a woman's life.

"I was as mad at Matthew as you were."

"Really? Then why did you keep inviting him?"

"I wanted him to break up the weddings, but I didn't want him to just leave afterwards."

"But it was okay that he broke my heart three times. It was okay that he rode in only to ruin my life and then disappear again."

"No. It wasn't okay. And don't tell me your heart was broken. You never loved those men."

May dropped her head. "Thank you for telling me that, Piorret. But you wouldn't understand exactly what it's like being left at the altar three times. Matthew didn't even have the dignity to ruin my life out of the spotlight. He waited until I was at the church before paying my fiancées to leave. How could you do that to me?"

"May, sit down and let me explain something to you." Piorret didn't wait for her to sit but went straight on with his speech. "I never told Matthew until it was almost too late. You were one of the smartest people I know, and I always had faith that you would come to your senses and not marry those men. Marriage is for life. You don't get any second chances. I hoped you would realize that before you got married. When it didn't happen, I had to let Matthew know."

"So he wouldn't find out later and demand that my husband gives over his paycheck."

"I would have never done that," Matthew spoke for the first time.

"Well, now we'll never know. I read the contract, Matt, there is an escape clause."

"You're not becoming a nun."

"Why? You don't think God will care for the money?"

"May..."

"What? Do you have a better offer than complete freedom, because I have yet to see you offer something?"

"Do you want complete freedom? Is that what you are looking for?"

"I'm looking for love, Matthew. I don't want a paper marriage." She looked at her uncle. "You're right I didn't love those men, but they weren't chosen for me. I got to find them on my own."

Matthew wasn't about to walk away from the fight. "You're right, May, you did find them on your own, because they weren't the ones who searched you out. Did you propose for them, too, because I can't see those boys doing anything on their own?"

May stepped back as if she had been slapped. "I hate you, Matt." With her venomous words she grabbed her purse and her keys. "I'll be back. After he's gone." She pointed at Matthew and left the kitchen and house whistling for Shilo as she did so.

"Great." Piorret looked at Matthew. "You were going to convince her, how again?" Piorret watched her back out of the driveway.

"I'll find her. Don't worry."

"It's not her I'm worried about." Piorret looked at Matthew. "You don't get it. If she's not going to have you, then I'm not helping you take her."

"I don't want to take her. I want her to want to come to me."

"I'd offer you good luck, but it's not going to take luck. It's going to take love, and I don't think May's feeling any sort of love towards you."