Chapter 44:
It took some wrangling. Logan didn't want to live in the mansion with a lot of other people; nor did he want to sleep in the bunkhouse with the other stablehands. Finally, he went with Charles to the local land registrar's office and bought a small parcel of land, about a half acre, adjoining Charles's stables. There he and the men of the mansion erected a cabin like the one back in Missouri, with a little fence around it. Betsy and Thunder grazed side by side companionably in the little plot of land, and Logan could keep them apart from the rest of Charles's horses. Snow, unwilling to live in the big mansion (his presence scared the maids; they screamed and ran when they saw him coming, At first Snow had been delighted, chasing them all over the mansion; but the game soon wore thin, and he soon took up residence in the cabin with Logan, and played with the boys in the stable.
Andrew was dismissed, to everyone's great relief. The stables ran smoother without him, and Logan was universally liked by the other hands. Billy loved him, followed him around constantly asking questions, and soon Bobby followed suit. Logan, who at first missed Jubilee's happy chatter and ceaseless questions, soon found that two boys made a suitable replacement, and spent hours with the two small boys and the wolf (and various other stablehands, including John) talking about the Indians he'd known, the battles he'd seen them fight with the soldiers, and the buffalo hunts he'd witnessed and taken part in. He even showed the boys how to make bows and arrows out of branches and sinew, and taught them how to shoot and ride bareback like the Indian youths did. In turn, the boys almost worshipped the ground he walked on. Logan had to admit to himself privately that it was like having sons of his own.
He was polite to everyone in the mansion, though a little cool toward Scott. When Scott had found out that Jubilee was pregnant, he had been extremely sniffy about it, and his conversation had been full of veiled references to Jubilee's morals, as regarded her getting pregnant before she and Remy were married. Logan had enough of the grumbling one day and faced the younger man. "Look here, Scott. Ain't like my girl gone and gotten herself pregnant on purpose, it jus' happened. It was God's will that she have a kid, an' He don' need ya ta tell Him it's right or its wrong. She a'ready feels bad enough 'bout not bein' married yet; so lay off her. An' in case ya didn' notice, it takes two ta make a baby. So if yer gonna blame her, ya might as well blame the Cajun fer it too." Scott was silent on the subject for a while afterward, and he and Logan remained a little cool toward each other for a while.
Remy was ecstatic. He and Jubilee hurried off to the office in town and got a marriage license, and a week later, in front of all the mansion's residents, a minister blessed the couple and joined them in marriage. Logan stood to one side, the father of the bride; Ororo was a bridesmaid, and Henry and Scott were groomsmen. Jean and Ororo had spent weeks sitting in a locked upstairs room sewing the dress; and Logan had to admit the thing was beautiful. A high waist pulled the waistband of the skirt up above her natural waist, thereby hiding the slight bulge around her middle where the baby was getting bigger. The ceremony was beautiful. Everyone cried, and Logan even saw Charles wiping a few tears from his own eyes.
His gift to Jubilee and Remy was the use of his cabin for a week. He moved into the mansion for the duration of that week, not only to give them privacy but also for his own convenience. Ororo slept in the family wing near the room Logan had slept in when he first came, and the nearness of the two rooms made it easy for him to slip into her room in the evenings. At first it was just to chat; Logan was curious about her.
She had been a slave on a plantation in Virginia. She had been born to a kind master who kept her with her parents and also allowed his slaves to learn to read and write. Ororo had stayed with her parents until she was sixteen…and then her Master had died, and Ororo and her parents went to the auction block. They were sold to another master' Ororo was bought by a man who wanted a maid. He had used Ororo for other things, too, though he never branded her as Jubilee had. Ororo had tried to run away; she had been caught and whipped. She didn't go into details; but late one night Logan had woken to hear her crying in her room. She had been asleep when he slipped in to wake her, and the sagging bedcovers had shown Logan the white scar lines on her chocolate skin, from her shoulders to her calves. And later, when they had progressed to touching and kissing in the dark, he had felt the front of her body seamed by white, raised, ridged scars. Her whipping had been bad, worse than anything Jubilee had ever taken. And Logan knew he loved her in that instant.
His love and respect for her had grown over the months, and seemed to be returned in kind. She took to spending the nights with him in his cabin, until one morning Remy asked them point blank if they were going to be getting married anytime soon. Logan was startled; he hadn't even thought about it, but after he'd thought about it for a while, it seemed to make sense, so he went and spent some of his money on a pair of gold rings for them, and in a private wedding much like Jubilee's and Remy's, Logan found himself repeating the vows he'd made to Annie with another woman, a woman who was about as opposite to Annie as he could get. But she made him happy, and he made her happy, obviously. And Jubilee, who had been worried about him all alone in his cabin, stopped fussing now that he had some companionship. After that they both started sleeping in his cabin. For a while Ororo continued to get up early in the mornings and hurry up the lane to the mansion to fulfil her duties as cook and housekeeper.
Then early one winter morning, while it was still dark, she was on her way up the road to the mansion when a passing carriage ran into her. It had taken some time before anyone noticed she was missing, and it was Logan who found her crumpled on the hard, frozen ground, unconscious. Her leg had been broken just above the ankle, by a man too drunk to see the woman in the narrow lane in front of his horses. Henry did what he could, but a leg broken that badly would never be whole again. Afterward, Charles hired another woman to take over the housekeeping duties; although Ororo was still in charge, she no longer had to get up early in the mornings.
And months later, both Logan and Ororo were woken from a sound sleep by Bobby's furious pounding on the door of the cabin. "It's Miss Jubilee!" he shouted, his breath coming in silvery vapor pants. "She's having her baby. Miss Jean needs Miss 'Ro!"
Logan had walked into the mansion with Ororo and took his place with the men downstairs as Ororo hurried up the stairs to Jubilee's room. Remy paced the room frantically as the faint sound of screaming filtered down to them. "I'll never touch her again," he swore anxiously as the night wore on. Then most of the morning.
It was early afternoon before Ororo finally came downstairs, holding a tiny blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. "It's a boy!" she said, weary but happy, and she placed the tiny bundle in Remy's arms. Logan and Charles and Henry crowded around to peek at the little bundle.
The baby had an astonishing crop of auburn curls on its head. As the four men watched, he opened his tiny mouth, yawned prodigiously with toothless gums, and then opened brilliant blue eyes to look into his father's watering brown ones.
"He got his mot'er's eyes," Remy said. "And he got his mot'er's nose, too!" He reached in, touching the small button nose gently.
"Jubilee wants to name him Charles Logan LeBeau," Ororo said softly.
Logan stared at her. 'She wants to…name the…baby…after me?" he repeated, not quite believing his ears.
"And Charles," Ororo said, but her voice was warm.
"I t'ink dat a fine name," Remy said happily. "What you t'ink, Logan?"
Logan looked at the little boy in Remy's arms and smiled. "I think so too," he said.
END
Well, that's it for this one.
I'm terribly sorry about the glitch, and the fact that the wrong version went up. I'll start rewrites tomorrow (the rewrites will cover mostly the latter half of the book, from chapter 25 up. If you're interested in seeing how the second version differs, I'll be posting the rewrites as I did the story; one chap each day. I know there have been some lapses, but you gotta cut me some slack; I have three kids (a 1 year old, a 2 year old, and a 35 year old (yes, he's my kid too. Anybody reading this who's married will understand!)
According to the front page of X-Day (www.xday.info) they'll start accepting entries and submissions on Nov. 1st. 'Last One Standing' will be entered in the 'Novels' category; if you like it, create an account, read the other submissions, and vote for it if mine really is the best. Please. (don't vote just because you like it; please be objective. If I do win it will be all the more fulfilling if I win it honestly!)
Other entries include:
How Far………Novellas
Shape Shift…...Novellettes
I'll Be There (short version)….Long Shorts
When She Cries…..Ficlets
If you liked any of the above, your vote will be muchly appreciated. And even if you don't want to create n X-Day account and vote, go there to read the stories. There are many excellent writers, some professionally published ones, who write for the competition. There's also a great fan art and fan websites competition too, not just fan fiction.
Thanks in advance to anyone who does choose to vote for me, and I hope you all enjoyed the novel!
----Jaenelle
