They'd
come for him a little after noon.
He'd been boiling with sweat and hitched to the back
end of a plow. Company was as welcome as a cool dipper of
water and he'd greeted the men with a smile.
It hadn't taken long for it to fade.
He had been completely dumbfounded by the accusation.
It was all a mistake, he'd assured them hurriedly.
Mosco
Collier has never been guilty of a crime in his life. He'd never
said a word untrue, never cheated in a poker game, never borrowed
a chicken from a coop he did not own. Any wild, rebellious streak
of youth had been sweated out of him by hard labor tilling rocky
ground and shouldering a man's responsibilities on a boy's young
shoulders. His whole life had been lived on the straight and
narrow.
Nonetheless
he stood accused. He was innocent, yet he was found to be guilty.
His punishment, it was determined, would be a life sentence.
Condemning eyes surrounded him. As he stood in the Meeting House
doorway, the words were read aloud.
"...for
better, for worse, in sickness and in health, as long as you
both shall live?"
Moss
hesitated only a moment as he stood on the pine plank steps.
Through his thin summer work shirt he could feel the cool metl
of a shotgun barrel between his shoulder blades.
"I
do," he replied.
Moss
glanced at the young woman at his left.
"And
do you, Eula Orlean Toby, take this man to be your lawful wedded
husband," the Preacher continued. "To...."
Moss
glared at her. The conniving little Jezebel looked extremely
pleased with herself. It was her word against his. And what
kind of woman would lie about being dishonored?
The
kind to whom Moss was about to be married.
"By
the power vested in me by our Father in heaven and the State
of Tennessee, I pronounce you man and wife."
There
was a collective sigh of relief. The shotgun was lowered from
Moss's back.
He
turned to look at the face of the woman he married, or rather
stare at the freckles upon her face which covered it completely.
How could he have thought her pretty? That day by Flat Rock
Falls, he'd actually thought her pretty. She'd been all golden
hair and sweet innocence. That innocence had proved to be a
mercenary ploy and her hair...her hair was just stringy blonde.
SWEETWOOD
BRIDE