Rescued by his Fateful Arrival – Extended Epilogue

Marianne lifted her hair and let Eliza clasp the pearl necklace around her neck. It was the perfect accessory to go with her wedding dress, made of a soft white fabric with pearls inlaid throughout the bodice and waistband. It fit her perfectly, but then it should have. It was made for her according to her measurements.

“You look stunning,” Eliza said approvingly. “His jaw is going to drop.”

Marianne giggled, looking at herself in the full-length mirror, turning back and forth to see more of the dress. She had to admit, she looked and felt beautiful. 

“Thank you so much, Eliza,” she gushed gratefully, looking at her friend’s reflection. “I really hope he likes it. And you look wonderful, too, you know. Absolutely beautiful. I love the dress.”

Eliza glanced down at her gold dress, a look of satisfaction on her face. “I couldn’t believe she had a fabric so beautiful. It was worth the money I spent.”

“You are going to drop a few jaws yourself, honey,” Marianne said with a soft laugh, swatting playfully at her friend’s arm.

“We’ll see; we’ll see.”

The two ladies left the church office through the back door and circled around to the front. Marianne’s stomach was in knots. She didn’t know why she was so nervous but was positive she was doing the right thing. She and Todd would be the best married couple that ever lived. They were going on all these fictional adventures in his books; she was helping him illustrate, and they were thinking of beginning a series of children’s books that would focus on moral values like sharing and helping others. 

She’d urged Todd to set the ceremony for late March because it would start getting warm about that time again. Since it had been such a mild winter, they had no doubt the day would be bright and sunny. 

How could it rain on Todd and Marianne’s wedding day anyway? They were a match made in Heaven. 

These thoughts and more ran through Marianne’s mind as she jogged to the front of the church. Eliza would go in and see where they were at and if they were ready for Marianne to come in. 

Her friend was only gone for a few moments. When she returned, her face was flushed with happiness. She was nodding vigorously. 

“They are ready for us!” she announced, waving one hand in a frantic circle. “Come on; come on!”

Marianne laughed. Eliza was more nervous than she was. “They aren’t going to start without me, Eliza,” she quipped. “There’s really no rush. You don’t have to be so stressed.”

Eliza stopped in her tracks. “I guess you’re right.”

Marianne nodded, coming up to the church entrance and standing in front of her. She held her bouquet of flowers in front of her chest and lifted the other hand repeatedly through the air in front of her, mimicking taking in a deep breath. “Just breathe, honey. Breathe. My life is forever changing. Not yours.”

Both women laughed delightedly. 

“Oh, yes, I feel better now,” Eliza said. She rolled her eyes and gave her friend a sheepish look. “I’m sorry, Mari. This is your big day, and here I am taking attention away from you.”

Marianne shook her head, moving closer to her friend and putting one arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no one paying me any attention but you. But I think Todd does want some of mine, so let’s get in there now. You ready?”

“I’m ready.”

Eliza opened the church door and let Marianne in first. She crossed through the entryway but stopped short halfway through when she saw her father turn to look at her. 

She hadn’t even recognized him. 

His white hair was pulled back in a tie, and his beard and mustache were neatly trimmed. He wore a fine suit and was holding his hands together in front of him, a completely cognitive look on his face.

“Wh … wha …” Marianne couldn’t get the words out. She hadn’t expected her father to be able to walk her down the aisle to join Todd. 

“Go to him, Marianne,” Eliza whispered. “This is a miracle from God. You don’t want to waste it.”

“But how …” 

Eliza shook her head and pushed gently on Marianne’s arm. “Todd arranged it. Don’t worry about how. Just accept God’s miracles and go along with it.”

Marianne was afraid she was going to cry all the way through the ceremony because of this one thing. She didn’t want to trip going down the aisle because she had tears in her eyes. Plus, she wanted to be able to see her father clearly. 

She moved to him, and he turned to the side, holding out one arm for her to take.

“Papa.” Her voice trembled, and she couldn’t get out any more words.

“You are the most beautiful woman in the world,” Dr. El said with no hint of issue. “I’m so proud to be your father. I’m so proud of you, my dear. I can’t be more proud.”

Marianne’s tears let themselves loose. She lowered her head and sobbed for a moment. “Papa, I love you,” she managed to get out. 

He pushed a handkerchief between her fingers. 

“Dry your eyes, my dear. You are about to marry the man of your dreams. You don’t want to look like you’re upset about it, do you?”

His words made her giggle. She shook her head and struggled to stop crying. “No,” she whimpered. “I don’t. I’m not upset. I’m ecstatic. I’m so happy.”

“I know you are. Come. Let’s go to your husband.”

The ceremony went off without a hitch. Todd and Marianne didn’t forget their vows or trip on the way back down the aisle. 

By the time it was over, Dr. El was nowhere in sight. Eliza told the two that he had felt very tired in the middle of the ceremony and left close to the end. Jackson Grey took him home. 

This information worried Marianne, but she tried not to think about it while they had their reception in the community room in the town building.

Eliza and the children from the orphanage had decorated the room, and Marianne was not short on compliments. She and Todd sat in the place of honor while the children danced around them with long ribbons on the ends of tall poles. They sang happy love songs to the two of them. There was plenty of cake and sweets for everyone to enjoy. She was even treated to a bottle of Coca-Cola, which she had recently fallen in love with.

Todd was off mingling with their guests, and Eliza had taken his place of honor after his departure. 

“I am so glad spring will be here soon,” Eliza remarked in a relaxed voice. Her eyes were on the children, and her mouth formed a perfect soft smile that matched her eyes.

“Me, too,” Marianne agreed with a nod. “The children are going to be excited, too. They get to spend a lot more time outside. I think Mrs. Graham is going to start gardening classes. I suggested it last year, and she said she would think about it.”

She laughed. “I say last year, but it was October. Not that long ago. I guess it was probably the wrong time to suggest a garden. When it’s wintertime, you know. And the leaves are all falling and the grass is dying.”

“Yeah, Spring is a much better time for something like that,” Eliza added. “Everyone comes back to life when it’s warm out. It’s like the people blossom the same way the flowers do. I know we need rain and cold and all that, but I do prefer the warmer months.”

“Me, too. And so does my father. And Todd. Winter isn’t a fun time for any of us.”

“Just think,” Eliza said in a tone that drew Marianne’s attention to her. “This year will be the first we will all be able to move about freely and not worry about a tyrant trying to control all our lives. I didn’t know how bad he was until all that happened with you last year. I guess I was sheltered from it because my papa never had anything to do with him. It was good for me that they were enemies.”

Marianne thought about her friend’s words. She was right. It seemed like since Shane had been removed from his position and a trusted deputy had been put in his place till the next election, the town had breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

Suddenly, there was no elephant hanging over their heads, no one had an ax to grind. It was a wonderful thing to behold. 

“He’s in prison, you know,” Marianne stated in a simple voice.

Eliza nodded. “Yes, I heard. But he won’t be in there forever. What did he get? Ten years?”

“Yes. Ten. He might get out earlier. But he can’t come back here. And he can’t get a job as a lawman again.”

“He’ll probably be a politician instead,” Eliza grumbled. “He’s such a hothead with an ego the size of the whole state of Kansas. He could be a politician.”

Marianne had to laugh. “I think you’re right. But I hope he doesn’t. Then he’ll have authority over a whole lot more people than just this town of Garden Grove.”

“What a horrible thought,” Eliza murmured. “What if he became president? I would never vote for him. But he’s so charming and nice. People might not see the slime underneath.”

“They didn’t here,” Marianne observed. “They won’t out there, either.”

“I really hope what I’m saying here doesn’t come true.”

The young ladies shared a laugh.

Marianne’s was cut short when she saw a familiar face roaming aimlessly down the street. She got to her feet and headed toward her father, concerned by the confusion she saw on his face. 

“Papa?” she asked, approaching him quietly. “Are you all right?”

When Dr. El turned his eyes to her, she saw that he didn’t look confused. He looked pleased. Very pleased. 

“Oh, there you are, Mari!” he exclaimed, grabbing onto her arm. “I want to show you something.” He saw Eliza, who had come up beside Mari. “And you! You must come, as well! See what I have done! It’s truly amazing!”

Whenever Dr. El said he had something new and amazing to show her or anyone, Marianne always got a thrill. She grinned at Eliza, who also looked excited. 

“Take us to it, Papa!” Marianne exclaimed urgently. 

“It’s been ages since I’ve been up here,” Eliza whispered as the two girls went through the workshop door. “I forgot how wonderful it smells.”

Marianne raised her eyebrows, glancing over her shoulder at her friend. “Smells? What do you mean?”

“You don’t smell it?” Eliza asked, still using a soft tone of voice as if she was required to be very quiet. “The sulfur. The glue. The metal.” She closed her eyes, lifting her chin. “I love that smell.”

Marianne became aware of all the scents Eliza mentioned as soon as she said them. She told herself silently she would make sure to take notice of that from now on. Eliza was right. It definitely set the workshop off from all the other rooms Marianne had ever entered. 

“Come on, he’s disappearing.” Eliza headed off to follow her father, but Marianne knew where Dr. El was going. She went after them and grinned widely when she saw Todd standing in front of the huge circle window, looking down at something. 

“There you are!” she cried out. “I thought you’d run off.”

Todd laughed, and she went to him to give him a quick kiss.

“You’ll never guess what your father has done. It’s really quite amazing.” 

“Yes, my papa’s inventions are always amazing. Has he been working on something in secret?”

“He sure has.” Todd moved his eyes from Eliza to Marianne. “Thing is, I think he’s been working on it a lot longer than we might think. I’m thinking a year or two, at least.”

Marianne was stunned to hear that. She’d never seen her father concentrating on one single invention repeatedly while it was in progress. She would have expected to at least suspect something new was being made. But she’d thought the locket and the other puzzles were all they would get from him. 

“Does this have something to do with the broach?” she asked, looking for her father. He’d disappeared into the stacks. 

“No,” Todd said immediately. “Nothing at all to do with the broach. Which, by the way, has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve been messing with it but so far, no luck.”

Marianne grinned at him. They kept the broach on the mantlepiece at Big T Ranch, and she had caught him several times trying to figure it out. It wasn’t like the locket. If it was, they had found no amount of pushing or pressing made it change shape. 

Dr. El had so far refused to tell them if it even changed shape. 

“Well, where did he go?” Eliza murmured, peering into the dark stacks, watching for a lantern or a small torch or candle. Marianne hadn’t seen which her father had taken with him. He might not have taken anything. There were plenty of windows letting in the daylight.

“Hey.” Marianne looked up at Todd, who was looking at her with soft, loving eyes. “I need a kiss.”

The tingles that covered Marianne’s body left her with a relaxed, loved feeling. She lifted up on her toes and pressed her lips against his. 

“That’s the good stuff,” he whispered, leaning in to peck another kiss on her lips before turning toward the stacks. “I reckon we should go find him.”

“No need,” Marianne replied, shaking her head. “He knows his way around here better than we do. What’s he doing anyway?”

Todd pulled his eyebrows together. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, you know what his surprise is, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“He already showed you?”

“He forced me with great strength to come up here and look at it. I think because I was the first one he found. Well, he found me before you anyway. I had to tell him to go get you. I was just playing with this puzzle while I waited.”

“So where did he–”

Marianne stopped talking when a strange whirling and clicking sound met her ears. The sound was accompanied by a tapping. Something was tapping on the floor. 

Marianne and Eliza looked in the direction her father had gone. The aisle he’d gone down was where the sound was coming from.

Seconds later, Marianne’s eyes dropped to the ground, and she saw her father’s new invention. She gasped and slapped both hands over her mouth. Eliza did something similar, squealing with delight.

Her father had fashioned a mechanical cat, very similar to the dog, with triangle ears, small metal teeth, and green gems for eyes. 

It was walking toward them with jerking steps. It stopped, lowered its head, and then lifted it. A second time, the cat lowered its head, pushed out one front paw, and a makeshift tongue emerged from the between the metal teeth. The tongue scraped over the metal legs four times and then it resumed walking again. 

“Papa!” Marianne cried out. “You made a cat to go with your dog.”

“That’s right!” Dr. El clapped his hands together. “They are friends!”

Eliza moved close to the cat and put out her hands to pick it up but she stopped, looking up at Dr. El. “Can I pick it up? Is it safe?”

The doctor laughed delightedly. “He won’t scratch!” he quipped. “Go ahead and pick him up. You can turn him on or off right here.” He scooped the mechanical cat up in his hand and turned it over to expose its belly, which was a curved sheet of metal. In the middle protruded a small button that the doctor clicked to the other side. 

Eliza took the cat from him and turned it back on. She sat down on the floor and watched it with fascination, petting it as if it were real. Dr. El dropped to the floor on the other side of the cat, a look of pure joy on his face. He wasn’t just looking at the cat, though. He was looking at Eliza’s happy face.

Marianne knew that was what made him the happiest. All he wanted to do was make other people smile.

Todd’s arm snaked around her shoulders, and she leaned into him, her eyes still on her father. 

“I am so glad he tried to get you to marry Shane Hatfield,” Todd murmured under his breath. Marianne looked up at him, surprised. She had a sneaking feeling she knew why he said that, but it still sounded strange to her ears.

“I guess I know why,” she mumbled back. “But it seems like a hard lesson to get through. Even though it was worth it in the end.”

“I guess the Good Lord felt like we were the only ones who could pull Garden Grove out of the rut this town was in. Held hostage by that man. No more. And now I’ve got a beautiful bride, my sister has a purpose in life and is talking to my parents again, and your father created a mechanical cat. I don’t see how things could get much better.”

Marianne smiled at him, putting her arm around his waist and squeezing him to her. She didn’t have to agree out loud. She knew he knew.

She looked back at her father, and Todd proceeded to place a firm kiss on the top of her head. 

“You’re an amazing woman with an amazing father, and I’ve been blessed. I love you, my sweet girl.”

“I love you, too, Todd.” She squeezed him again. “I love you very, very much.”

THE END

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