Eternity (Montgomery/Taggert 17)

When they went back to the farm, it was dark, and Josh told Carrie he was sleeping with her. The truth of the matter was, he wanted to hold her, wanted to be near the woman he loved tonight.

“You just gave your children away and you expect me to sleep with you?” Carrie said.

He kissed her hand, trying, and succeeding, to sound lighthearted. “At last my acting has received a compliment from you.”

She glared at him. “You don’t touch me until

you get those children back.” When she slammed the bedroom door in his face, she heard a sound from him that was half whimper, half smug laughter. And there was something else in the sound that almost made her open the door again, but she didn’t.

For the first time in her life, Carrie didn’t sleep for the whole night. When dawn came creeping over the horizon, she dragged herself out of bed and, holding Choo-choo, she went into the parlor. Josh was already sitting at the table, and he was wearing the clothes he’d worn the day before.

“You haven’t been to bed, have you?” she said, sitting across from him.

When he looked up at her, there was no falseness in his eyes. “I couldn’t help remembering how good a liar Nora is. And how spiteful. She might want to keep the kids just to repay me. She might—” Breaking off, he looked down at his empty coffee cup.

When Carrie reached out and took his hand in hers, Josh got out of the chair and went to kneel before her, his head in her lap. She stroked his hair.

“I’m afraid, Carrie,” he said softly. “I can’t lose them. When I came up with my little plan, it seemed so foolproof, but now I don’t know. If Nora told a court how I’d given the children back to her and told them what I said, I think the judge—any judge—would take the children away from me. What will I do without them? You and the kids are the only things in my life that mean anything to me.”

She kissed his head and wanted to reassure him, but she was as afraid as he was. “Tell me what you have planned.”

When he lifted his head, he turned away from her so she wouldn’t see him wipe away tears and said, “They’re to come to the church at ten o’clock. By then they’re to have made Nora’s life such hell that she’ll be glad to give me the paper just so she can get rid of them.”

“Then we’ll have to go on the assumption that your children are as good at acting as you are. They are the children of the Great Templeton, you know.”

Josh managed to smile at her. “Come on, let’s see what we can find to eat and then let’s go. We have to trust the children.”

Carrie nodded and tried to keep Josh from seeing the way her hands were shaking.

It was cold in the church, Carrie thought, but it wasn’t as cold as she felt. Her hands were clammy, yet she was sweating. It was five minutes after ten, and there was no sign of the children. ’Ring, sitting in the first pew in the otherwise empty church, looked at his pocket watch for the third time, and the minister had already said that he had another wedding in an hour.

But Josh and Carrie had said that they couldn’t be married without the children there, and they meant it. Josh took Carrie’s hand, and his was as cold as hers. Even Choo-choo, hiding under Carrie’s old-fashioned dress, was quiet.

After Josh looked at her once and saw the fear on her face under her veil, he couldn’t meet her eyes again. Too many thoughts were going through his head. Had Nora seen through the whole scam and taken the children away with her? Was she going to hold out until she got her Warbrooke money? Dallas was only five years old, yet Josh had asked her to be mean to her own mother. Could the child do that? Should she do that?

Round and round Josh’s thoughts went. Had he been so clever that he’d lost his children? Due to his reputation with women, the judge had been reluctant to give Josh custody of his children, so if Nora went to a judge and testified to what Josh had said to her last evening, about the children being brats and his not wanting them, no court in the world would give the children to Josh.

He squeezed Carrie’s hand harder.

Standing up, ’Ring walked up behind them. “It’s twenty minutes after,” he said to his sister. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?”

“No,” Carrie said, but her voice squeaked. “I mean…”

“I’m sure Nora will bring the children soon,” Josh said. “She is an old friend of theirs and—”

He broke off at the commotion at the back of the church.

Nora entered, and for the first time since Josh had known her, Nora looked awful. Her dress was dirty, her hair hanging about her shoulders; there were dark circles of sleeplessness under her eyes, and worse, she looked her age.

Dragging Tem and Dallas behind her by their wrists, she marched to the front of the church, practically threw the children into the first pew, then held out a paper and pen to Josh. Her face was past rage as she looked at him.

Josh had to stick the pen in his mouth to dampen the ink, then held the paper on his hand as he signed it. When he was done, he put the paper inside his coat pocket and looked at the woman who used to be his wife.

Nora opened her mouth to speak, but could say nothing. Turning on her heel, she stomped out of the church.

Very calmly, Carrie and Josh turned back to the minister. “You may begin,” Josh said.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of—”