Josh sighed. “I knew Nora was unfaithful, but I didn’t care. She’s the type of woman that all you want from her is to get your hands on those—” He cleared his throat. “I had no desire to live with her. I sent her money and assumed sh
e was taking care of Tem. I assumed she loved him as much as I did. But then I was playing in Hamlet in Dallas, and I saw her in bed with another man. I didn’t think that was good for Tem and I told her I wanted a divorce.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment.
“I assume she talked you out of the divorce,” Carrie said, her voice dripping sarcasm.
“Yes, she did. Dallas was born nine months later and given that absurd name to remind me of when and where she was conceived. I put up with Nora for two years after Dallas was born, then I realized I had to get rid of her.” He smiled. “The oddest thing. When I lost my desire for Nora I realized what a really bad actress she was.”
“A condemnation if ever I heard one.”
“Up until then, I’d believed Nora when she said she was taking care of the children and was being a good mother to them.” Josh gave a snort. “I thought it would be so easy to get a divorce. She had cause and to be divorced for infidelity certainly didn’t hurt my reputation any, and I gave Nora all the money I had saved over the years—seeing the poverty my parents lived in has made me spend less than I make—and asked only for the custody of my children. Nora was more than willing to trade the kids for money. It should have been very simple. I’d already hired an excellent French governess to take care of the children while I was on the stage.”
“Why wasn’t it simple? Why are you living on your brother’s farm and killing corn?”
Josh gave an ironic laugh. “My own towering vanity. A vanity that surpassed everything that meant anything in life to me. A vanity that nearly cost me my children.”
Carrie took his hand in hers. “Tell me what happened.”
“A judge gave me what I asked for.” Josh gave a grim smile of remembrance. “You should have seen me that day in the courtroom when I was to plead with the judge to give me custody of my children. It was probably the most brilliant performance of my life. I planned it all very carefully. After all, I was the Great Templeton, and I was to argue my own case. How could I possibly lose? I wore a black cape lined with red satin and carried a silver-headed cane.”
Josh looked up at the rafters of the shed. “ ‘The best laid plans,’ etc. etc.” He sighed. “In return for the judge giving me my children I was planning to honor him and the rest of the courtroom with a private, one-time-only performance by the great Shakespearian actor. Fool that I was, I went into the courtroom thinking I was doing them a favor.”
Pausing, his voice grew soft. “I had to put on a show because I couldn’t allow anyone to see how I really felt, that I was scared to my very bones of losing my children.”
“What did you ask the judge for?” Carrie urged.
“I talked for over an hour. You should have seen my audience—for that’s how I saw the spectators in the courtroom. I had them in the palm of my hand. I made them laugh; I made them cry. I frightened them; I soothed them. They were mine. I told them how much I loved my children, how I’d do anything in the world for them. I said that I would give up all my worldly goods in order to have them. I said I’d even go so far as to give up the stage for them. By this time I’d made them realize that if the world lost me as an actor, the world would suffer a great deal. I went on to say that I’d go so far as to farm the land like a peasant of old if I could but have my children. I think it was at this point that I flipped my satin-lined cape so the audience could try to picture me as a farmer.
“When I’d finished, I received a standing ovation from the audience and I was sure I’d won my case. The judge said he’d never heard such an eloquent plea in his life and he had but one question for me: Did I even know anyone who owned a farm. I, with a slight bow, told him that my brother was a member of that worthy profession. The judge said such a speech as mine should be rewarded, so he was going to give me exactly what I’d asked for. All my worldly goods were to be put up for sale at auction, with the exception of one suit, and all the money was to be put into trust for my children. I was to refrain from going on the stage for a period of four years, during which time I was to live on and work my brother’s farm with my children. If I could make it through four years, then the children would be mine. The judge, after giving his sentence, gave me a little smile and said he thought I was going to miss my red cape, that I used it so well.
“Later my attorney informed me that the judge’s wife had run off with an actor two years before and that his uncles, aunts, and cousins were farmers. I’d managed to insult the man on every level.”
Josh sighed. “So that’s what I did. I moved back to Eternity, took my stepfather’s name in the hope that no one would recognize me, and tried to become a farmer.”
“So,” Carrie said, “you have to live on your brother’s farm and be a normal person for four years. No applause. No footlights. No adoring young ladies begging you for your autograph. Nothing but people who love you and see you as you are, warts and all.”
Josh smiled. “Lots of warts.”
“A few. But at least they’re not hidden under greasepaint.”
Josh began nuzzling her neck. “Right now I wish I didn’t have anything at all on, greasepaint, clothes, not anything.”
Responding to him, Carrie slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him with weeks’ worth of pent-up desire.
“Papa! Papa!” Dallas yelled as she came running into the shed. “There’s a man here, and he wants to see you.”
Josh’s brain was a little foggy as he pulled away from Carrie. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know,” Dallas whispered loudly, “but I think he’s God.”
Carrie and Josh looked at each other. “ ’Ring,” they said in unison.
Chapter Sixteen
Carrie and Josh were still brushing straw off of each other as they walked back to the house.
“He’s going to make me go back with him,” Carrie mumbled. “As soon as he meets that fat woman you married, he’s going to make me leave with him.”