LOST AND FOUND - PART 6
AND REJOICE
CHAPTER 50
While Hoss and Dora's wedding had been formal, the following celebration was not. Dulcy's hotel staff had started setting up in the long building behind the church when the wedding had started. So as soon as the wedding party had come through the door she hurried to check their work. Now Dulcy was smiling widely, pleased that everything had come off without a hitch.
The party was already in full swing when Adam suddenly realized he had no idea where his wife and children were. Always uneasy at that idea he began to make a circuit of the room and quickly found the twins with Marie. She had chosen to sit at a small table in a quiet corner and had pulled her chair back and to the side while the children sat on the floor in front of her with wide eyes and open mouths - Aunt Marie was the best storyteller they knew.
Adam stayed back for a moment to listen and study Marie's face. He had noticed her showing signs of fatigue from standing during the ceremony and she still looked tired. Since her place at the table was empty he assumed correctly that she hadn't had anything to eat or drink yet. He moved off to the buffet and returned in a few moments to place a filled plate and a tall glass of cold lemonade on the table just as Marie finished the story.
He came around to stand behind his children and said, "Alright you two, Marie needs a break. Why don't you go see what your Uncle Joe is up to?"
The twins grinned at each other as they jumped to their feet then hugged Marie before scurrying off in search of Joe. They knew when their father said that he actually meant, "Go bother your Uncle Joe."
Marie let out a small squeak of surprise, but then laughed when Adam picked her up, chair and all, then set her down at the table.
"Sometimes I think Joe isn't the only one Alex inherited his puckish nature from," she said.
"Now who could you possibly be referring to?" he answered and she shook her head as she began to eat.
He sat down across the table from her and the two talked about her tentative plans to visit family until Thea called for all the single women in the room to assemble - it was time for the bride to toss the bouquet. When he heard his wife's voice Adam automatically glanced back over his shoulder, then did a double take when he realized Annalise was standing in front of the group of women.
Hastily saying, "Excuse me," he hurried off as Marie snorted with laughter. She knew what he was going to do.
"Hold on a minute Dora, " he called as he strode across the open space in front of the single women, swept Annalise up, and carried her away.
"Oh no you don't young lady, not until your thirty," he said.
"But Pa!" she protested then burst out giggling as everyone within earshot laughed at him.
When he reached the other side of the room he turned around to watch. Dora called out, "One...two...three!" and tossed the bouquet. It sailed across the room, hit the ceiling, ricocheted to the left and landed in Joe's hands. He was just standing there staring down at the bouquet with a surprised look on his face when the women fell on him and they all crashed to the floor.
The women quickly scrambled to their feet laughing with one petite redhead holding what was left of the bouquet triumphantly aloft as they moved away. Joe still lay on the floor. Nate and Dylan were laughing so hard they were staggering as they came to haul the dazed young man to his feet and began to brush the crushed rose petals off him.
Adam and his daughter were both still laughing as he set her down, gave her a light swat on her bottom and said, "Go find your brother and try to stay out of trouble."
Annalise gave him a huge grin over her shoulder then scampered away. He stood there watching her nimbly weave her way through the crowd until her brother jumped out at her and she skidded to a stop with a shriek.
Even from a distance Adam recognized the way she seemed to vibrate with anger and clenched her small fists. He was not surprised when he saw her shove Alexander in the chest so hard she knocked him down. The boy lay there staring up at his sister with a startled expression as her face turned even redder with embarrassment. When Alex burst out laughing she relaxed and held her hand out to help him up. Adam could faintly hear him say, "That was really good Annalise, come on!" Alex was still holding her hand as the two scurried off.
Adam grinned. "More and more like her mother every day..." he said to himself then moved off in search of his wife. He finally found her some time later in a corner with her arms around Ben. She was leaning into him with the side of her head resting against his chest.
"Excuse me sir," Adam said when he reached them, "but is this woman bothering you?"
Ben grinned at his son as he continued to lightly rub her back, then laughed when Thea tightened her arms around him and said, "Go away, I'm busy," to her husband.
Adam couldn't help but smile as he asked, "She grabbed you as soon as she saw you, didn't she?" His father nodded.
"Of course I did," Thea said in a reasonable tone. "Pa's the best hugger in town."
"I see. So are you saying you have the extensive experience necessary to make that judgment?"
She smiled with her eyes closed. "I'll never tell."
The two men exchanged amused looks as Adam managed to pry his wife off his father. She immediately latched onto him and sighed when he absently began to move both hands up and down her back, but pulled back a moment later.
"What time is it?" she asked.
Ben pulled out his pocket watch. "Almost three o'clock."
"Damn, I have to go help set up for Dora and Hoss to cut the cake," she sighed again, gave her husband a tight squeeze then took off. Both men were smiling as they watched her go.
"I don't know about you," Ben said, "but I am so glad Hoss and Dora are finally married."
His eldest son laughed. "I'll say! I was getting sick and tired of being Hoss's bodyguard. Can you believe she was actually in his room again last night?"
"No...she was?" the older man was laughing now.
"Yes, I saw Hoss taking her back to her room."
His father just continued to laugh as Adam smiled and shook his head.
When he could speak again Ben changed the subject. "How long had you two been planning to renew your vows?"
Adam moved closer to his father. "Not for long. Jon and I have been doing some research on the legal points of marriage since we were originally married under the last name of Eden. So I wrote to a few friends and they all said it couldn't hurt to be married again under the right name."
"That makes sense. What about your marriage license?"
"I petitioned to have that changed the day after Joe found me." He paused to look around to see if anyone was listening. "I have to be very careful about the legality of our marriage because I'm really not Thea's first husband."
"What!" Ben burst out loudly and Adam laughed. "Shhhhh!"
He gave his son an apologetic look and lowered his voice. "Thea was married before?"
Adam nodded as he frowned, "It's a long, sordid story, but suffice it to say her father signed her over to an older man when she was seventeen. She was given no say in the matter."
Ben shook his head, "Is there no end to the coldness of that man's heart? What happened?"
"The 'wedding' was in Westwood Hall and right after the ceremony he dragged her upstairs." He paused to glance over his shoulder at the open space. Dora was dancing with Alex in her arms while Hoss was doing the same with Annalise. Then he grinned when he saw Mike come to the dance floor with Marie. He picked her up and began to swing her around, dancing without her feet touching the floor. Her sweet laughter could be heard all over the room.
When he turned back he could see his father was impatiently waiting for him to continue. "She knocked him out cold and ran away."
"Good for her!"
Adam chuckled. "She ran to a good friend of hers, Lady Millicent Danville. She was the woman that sponsored Thea in London society when she 'came out' as they call it. The two of them were very close, and they came to the conclusion that the only thing to do was to leave the country. So they did. They went to New York City and Thea didn't see her father for four years."
Ben sighed, his expression concerned, "Were they divorced then?"
"No, when her father finally found her he said the man had died in battle overseas."
"So she was free to marry you. Good."
"Yes, but I decided to go a step further and had the marriage annulled, both here and in England."
His father gave him a shrewd look, knowing there had to be a good reason for his son's actions. "I take it then that you don't believe the man was dead."
"No," Adam answered with a smile, pleased at how quickly his father had followed his reasoning. "No one ever saw a body and from what Thea told me about him I just couldn't believe he had died in battle. Maybe as he was running away, but definitely not in the thick of things."
"Sounds like you covered every angle."
"Of course, but you mark my words. That man will show up again some day. I'm certain of it."
"Why?" his father responded. "Don't get me wrong, Thea is a beautiful woman, but why would he after all these years?"
"Money," Adam simply said and Ben's expression said he didn't understand. "Pa," he continued, "as far as money goes I am very well off. Thea, however, is rolling in it!"
"Ah, I see. Her inheritance."
"Correct. From her grandmother as well as her father."
"Well," the older man said with a smile, "if he does show up he has a very big surprise in store for him."
"Yes, a very unpleasant surprise," Adam agreed with a sharp smile and the two men laughed.
Ben looked across the room over his son's shoulder. "Looks like they're getting ready to cut the cake."
Adam turned around. "Speaking of surprises, you don't want to miss this," he said to his father and the two men began to work their way through the crowd.
A small square table held the five-tier wedding cake. Hoss and Dora were standing in front of it with the four deputies lined up, two on either side. They had been told earlier that they had to be present as members of the wedding party.
Hoss and Dora carefully cut the first piece, and instead of stopping, went on to cut three more. Everyone in the room was watching as they each picked up a piece - expecting them to feed the cake to each other, as was the custom. The couple's eyes met and Hoss gave Dora a faint nod. Then they each quickly picked up another piece, turned around, and smashed the cake into the deputies' faces.
Everyone in the room was howling with laughter as Nate and Jon tried to get back on their feet - Hoss had knocked them down. Mike was sputtering and bent over with mirth while Dylan just calmly began to scrape the cake off with a finger and eat it saying, "Not bad."
The newly married couple had their arms around each other, weak with laughter, but being careful not to get cake on each other. Thea was practically stumbling, she was laughing so hard when she came to hand out towels. Hoss and Dora stepped back to wipe their hands off and grinned at each other.
"Whose idea was this?" Ben asked.
"Mine," Hoss said as he smiled at his father, "but Adam helped to set it up." Then he turned to the four deputies who were still wiping their faces. "I ain't always as dumb as I look," he said. That set everyone off again.
Jon had made it to his feet, but was having a hard time seeing - he had icing in his eye. Thea came to take him by the hand and lead him toward the kitchen saying, "Come on, we'll need to wash that out."
"Sorry Jon," Hoss called after him.
"That's OK Hoss," the smaller man called back. "You got us good!"
"Yeah, you did!" Nate said with admiration and held his right hand out to the big man. Hoss cautiously took his hand and then smiled as they shook. Mike and Dylan came to shake his hand too, and Dylan clapped him on the back saying, "I never suspected a thing and that's hard to do!"
The three deputies moved away then, still breaking out into short bursts of laughter, as Adam came to whisper something to Hoss who nodded. The couple went into the kitchen while Dulcy came to finish cutting the cake. Her staff then rushed around delivering the pieces to the guests. No one had noticed yet that the newlyweds and their immediate family had disappeared. Jon was the first to realize this some time later.
He came up behind Nate who was standing at the edge of the dance floor talking to the petite redhead who had snatched the bride's bouquet out of Joe's hands. He poked the taller man in the back.
Nate looked at him with an impatient frown. Jon took him by the arm and pulled him a few paces away.
"Have you noticed that a few key people are missing here?"
The tall man's head came up and he quickly surveyed the room. "Yeah, there are."
"And what do you think THAT means?"
Nate looked down into Jon's face. "They're making a run for it, aren't they?" The shorter man nodded saying, "I thought it was strange when Joe told us Hoss and Dora were spending the night here then catching the train in the morning."
"You get Dylan, I'll get Mike. Damn, we're not going to have time to do ANYTHING we had planned. But at least we can see them off," Nate said and the two men hurried off.
When the four of them ran outside they decided to "borrow" the wagon the hotel staff had used to transport everything. They all piled in, Dylan backed it up, and they took off as people began to spill out the hall door. The news had gotten around.
They made it to the train station just as Dora and Hoss were climbing the steps to the private car. Hoss laughed and gave them a mocking wave as Dylan brought the horses up so sharply they almost sat down. The four men jumped down and hurried over to join the family.
Adam was laughing when Nate came to stand beside him. "This was your idea, wasn't it?" he asked his boss, who shook his head. "No, this was all the best man's doing." The four deputies turned to Joe who grinned at them. "Now WHO can't keep a secret?" he said and cracked up at their expressions.
The window in the back of the private car opened and Dora leaned out to wave. Everyone was waving goodbye when the train whistle blew a startling blast and she jumped, whacking her head on the bottom of the window. "Ow!" she said laughingly and drew back.
A moment later they all heard her shriek while Hoss yelled something. They gave each other puzzled looks then mouths fell open with surprise when frogs began flying out the window. Some jumped out themselves while others were being thrown out. Hoss appeared in the window with an armful just as the train started to move. He tossed them out and pointed at the four deputies who were practically howling along with everyone else.
"I'm gonna get you for that!" he yelled and the four men began to shake their heads, but couldn't find the breath to tell him they hadn't done it. The train picked up the pace and the last thing they saw of the young couple was Dora appearing in the window to toss one last frog out then turning to kiss her new husband.
Adam was giving his deputies a narrow-eyed look when Nate finally managed to speak. "I swear boss, that one we didn't do!" The others nodded vigorously even as Jon fell down, collapsing with laughter, and began to roll around.
"Then who did?" Thea asked as she wiped away tears of mirth.
Nate just shook his head as he staggered over to help Jon up.
"Well, let's see," Adam said. "Whoever did this had to have prior knowledge that Hoss and Dora were leaving early. Only the immediate family was in on it. So who do YOU think did it?" Everyone turned to look at Joe who stopped grinning and shook his head. "It wasn't me!" he said desperately as he began to back away when the deputies gave him hostile looks.
"Run Joe!" Adam yelled and the young man took off with the four deputies in hot pursuit. Unfortunately for him, Nate had a much longer stride so he caught up to him halfway down the next block. They picked him up by the arms and legs, carried him over to the nearest watering trough, and dumped him in.
Joe was flailing around in the cold water, coughing and sputtering as he tried to get out when Alexander sidled up to his father. He took Adam's hand and tugged on it until he crouched down so the boy could whisper in his ear. "Is that what we caught all those frogs for, Pa?"
"Yes it is, Alexander, and yes it is still a secret," he whispered back and picked the boy up as he stood. Then he looked down to meet Thea's suddenly sharp gaze.
"I guess we better get back to the party now," he said, chuckled at her suspicious expression, and began to herd the rest of the family toward the buggy, leaving Joe to the tender mercy of his four deputies.