Eternity (Montgomery/Taggert 17)

Josh’s mouthful of brandy went spewing out across Carrie.

After brushing the front of herself off, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you laughing at me?”

“No, my love, not at all. Paris in the Desert is an excellent choice of name. It goes with Choo-choo very well.”

She was looking at him hard, but she couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. She finished her story by telling how the increasing business of her shop had helped the economy of the entire town.

When she’d finished, she looked at Josh in triumph. She was expecting praise from him, but instead, he looked gloomy.

“What is wrong now? Haven’t I proven to you that I’m not useless?”

“You can even earn money,” he said miserably. “What’s your brother going to say to your being married to a man who can’t seem to earn a decent living? A man who can’t support his wife?”

“My brother doesn’t expect me to marry for money. His wife had no great fortune when he met her so why does my husband have to be rich?” Carrie thought that sometimes talking to Josh was like talking to a block of wood.

“You don’t understand. But I imagine your brother will. Isn’t that why you’re worried about his visit?”

“No. ’Ring will have a great deal to say about my…well, he’ll see the way I got Father to sign the papers as dishonest. Then there’s the possibility that our marriage isn’t quite legal because Father didn’t know what he was signing and I’m not twenty-one yet. And ’Ring will be upset about you and me living together for a few days then my living in town all alone, unprotected, uncared for, while my husband stays at his farm. ’Ring is an old-fashioned man who believes that a man and wife should live together.”

Josh smiled. He couldn’t make her understand what it meant to a man to not be able to support his wife, but at the same time he knew he was testing her. In three years he could leave the farm, and when he could get away from the farm, he could again earn his own living.

He pulled Carrie back onto his lap. “If your brother is worried about our not being married properly, then we’ll just have to get married again. I’m sorry I missed the first one, but this time we can have a wedding night.” Holding her face in his hand, he kissed her. “I am beginning to think that you really do love me. If you can love me as I am now, perhaps you can love me later.”

“What does that mean?” After one look at his face, she turned away in disgust. “Oh, yes, secrets again. When are you going to love me enough to tell me all about yourself?”

“As a matter of fact, I already have,” Josh said as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the letter he had spent the night writing. As he withdrew it, the letter that had come in the mail to him fell to the floor, and Carrie picked it up. “I spent all night last night writing this to you,” he said. “I was going to send it to Maine.”

Carrie reached out to take it, but he pulled it back.

“I can tell you everything in there now.”

“I’d like to read it. Do you make undying declarations of love to me in the letter?”

“Yes,” he said, his eyes soft. “What is that?”

Looking down at the letter she held, she saw that it had no return address. “It’s addressed to you.”

Teasingly, Josh put the letter he’d written to her on a table out of her reach. “Perhaps I’d better read my own mail first. Maybe it’s from a female admirer.” Still smiling, he ran the letter under his nose.

Josh had meant to tease Carrie, but as he smelled the letter, he turned pale.

“J

osh, are you all right?”

More color left his face. Getting off his lap, Carrie went to refill his brandy glass. At this rate, both of them were going to be drunk.

After Josh put the brandy back in one gulp, he held out the glass for her to refill, and after she’d done so, he downed that too before he opened the letter with trembling hands.

He took only seconds to read it. Carrie had never seen a man faint before, but she thought she was seeing one now. Picking up his arm, she put it around her shoulders and helped him to the couch.

“Josh!” she cried, beginning to shake him. Smelling salts were on the table, and she held them under his nose.

He turned his head away so he was facing the couch back.

“Josh, what’s wrong?” He didn’t answer her, but just kept staring at the back of the couch, looking as though his life were over.

Picking up the letter from where it had fallen to the floor, Carrie read it.