That last chapter was short and so is this one, so I updated nice and fast…
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Chapter 25
Concerning item #5: The Key Around His Neck 17 (continued)
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Spot held Cat's letter in his hand as he stepped up the carpeted stairs of the mission in California, where she had directed him. The bells were silent, and the carriages were parked all around. The marriage was taking place right at this very moment.
Spot ascended with a set mind. He was here for Cat, and Cat only. He'd fight that old man if he had to, to get her back. She wanted to be with him, he wanted to be with her, and now he was going to get her back. He was going to get her back…
He kept telling himself this with every step up the flight of stairs. She was so close now…
Spot paused for a moment behind the large wooden door, marking the entrance to the wedding and the starting point of his certain commotion to be soon caused. He sighed, and wondered for a split second of how he got here, how he found himself on the other side of the country, in front of the door to a church bearing a woman he loved who was about to marry someone else. It was so bewildering.
But yet, he was here. He had better get on with it before it was too late.
He took a deep breath, furrowed his brow in determination, and burst through the door, marching down the aisle in long strides. Immediately the guests began to whisper in wonder, and the priest spoke louder above their murmurs to finish off the ceremony.
"I now pronounce you, husband, and…"
"Stop!" Spot commanded. "I have reason this pairing should not be, and that reason is… Me."
The guests gasped in shock, and openly talked amongst themselves in confusion. Spot turned to them with obvious annoyance.
"Oh, shut up, will ya!" he told them.
They were silent at once.
"This woman told me that if I loved her enough to follow her all the way out here from the depths of New York state, I would come for her and stop this madness of a wedding. And guess what everybody! Here I am! So if you all could kindly--"
"Maria! Is this true!"
"I swear Tomas, I've never seen this man before in my entire life…"
Spot's heart took an abrupt halt. He slowly looked to the altar toward the voice. And his eyes went wide.
That was not his woman in the white dress. It was some other woman he had never laid eyes on before.
Spot gulped, a feeling of sorrow and embarrassment welling over him as the crowd simply stared now in shock, and the to-be spouses continued to argue.
"Maria, who is this man! Why won't you tell me who he is?"
"I swear, I have never seen him… I swear it!"
Spot checked the invitation Cat had given him. This was most definitely the place. So where was Cat?
Spot looked back to the guests in the pew seats. Every one of them had faces of surprise, anger, and confusion. But there was one face near the back of the church that was smiling. It was the face of a thin old woman with silver hair.
"Miss Gray?" Spot wondered aloud.
"Don't worry everyone!" Miss Gray said, standing up. "I can speak for this man."
She looked at Spot square in the eye.
"He is crazed, and has hallucinations. He lost a woman recently and now he seeks to steal yours. Come with me now, Mr. Conlon."
Spot froze, still confused at what was going on here. He had imagined this moment going much differently than this.
"Come with me, Mr. Conlon," Miss Gray commanded again. Spot crumpled the invitation and threw it to the floor, then followed the old woman out of the church.
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"What the hell is going on here?" he demanded once the doors of the church had closed behind them. "What did you do with Cat?"
"Me?" Miss Gray said defensively. "I did nothing. She was the one who left you that wretched letter."
Spot immediately began to get it.
"She told you about it," Spot guessed.
"She warned Howard about it, and then Howard warned me. She's in dire love with you boy."
Miss Gray looked him over with disgust.
"Though I can't account for taste. And you wouldn't have known any different if she hadn't sent you that damn key."
She spoke so calm, so collected. It infuriated Spot to no end.
"That was you," Spot said decidedly. "You were the one that paid Fingers to get the key back from me, not Howard."
Miss Gray scrunched her nose at him like she had just smelled something foul.
"I couldn't risk you finding out the truth of how she felt about you, boy. You are slime, worth nothing more than the dirt under Howard's boots. Even you have to admit that she would surely be better off. But that all doesn't matter anymore anyway boy, because she didn't go through with it, thanks to you."
"Thanks to me? What are you saying? I was too late…"
"Too late? Of course you were, but the representative you sent wasn't. Howard already sent her off for New York with that man. He was completely heartbroken, and angry besides. I wouldn't doubt it if he came after you with a hundred men…. Anyway, the man who came here said he was sent 'by Spot to get Catherine'."
"Gray…" Spot said, the first time he had ever had true terror in his voice. "I didn't send nobody…"
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Dun dun DUN! Who took Cat away? The plot
thickens… Review for goodness sakes!
Signed,
--RedRogue
