Maggie paced the living
room. Daryl had asked for a few days to think things over after her mother gave
him Hershel's letter. That had been a week ago. A whole week in which Maggie
waited for word from Daryl about the fate of their family's future. He'd
offered to do anything he could for the family, but this was taking that offer
to the extreme. While she waited for him to come over that evening, possibly to
tell them no, she was losing precious time to find someone. She especially
feared that Beth would have to wed Noah, without being certain he was the man
she wanted to be with, at least until she could produce a male heir. She was so
young, and Maggie dreaded putting such heavy responsibilities upon her
shoulders.
"He'll say no, of course," Maggie
said, worrying her thumb between her teeth, chewing on the nail. "Who the
hell marries somebody for a farm they don't need or want?"
Maggie wanted to rage against the sexist,
draconian laws General Walsh refused to overturn. His excuse was always the
same: Until society fully bounced back from near annihilation from the
outbreak, they had to use a system that works, a system based on patriarchy.
Humanity always fell back on what it knew to survive, blah, blah, blah. It was
bullshit. As far as she was concerned all that was just an excuse to create a
power imbalance in favor of men, but there was nothing that could be done to
change it. Not yet. Not for a very long time.
When a military Jeep trundled up the driveway on
that early February morning, Maggie felt her stomach clench. Beth's eyes were
wide when she looked at Maggie.
"If he doesn't want you, maybe me?"
She said in a timid, trembling voice. "I'll do it if I have to."
Maggie squeezed Beth's shoulder knowing if Daryl
declined he probably didn't want the whole deal, not because he didn't have the
hots for her, specifically, but she didn't have the heart to say that.
"That's brave of you, Beth," said
Maggie. "Thank you. We'll see what he says."
Josephine leaned in the kitchen entrance. Her
arms were tightly crossed, she shivered, and her even, white teeth bit her
bottom lip. She nodded at Maggie to answer when Daryl rang the bell.
"Come in," Maggie said. He had a few
snowflakes on his shoulders that she brushed off. She accepted his jacket and
hung it up before she closed the door against the cold.
"Would you like some tea? Patricia grows
it," Josephine said. "Coffee is just too pricey, I'm afraid."
"Oh, Lord up above, are you gonna say yes
or not?" Beth blurted. She wrung her hands and looked a nervous wreck.
"Beth!" Josephine snapped. She looked
as mortified as Maggie felt. For his part, Daryl looked amused.
"I'd love some tea, Miss Jo," he said.
"Beth, would you make the tea?"
Josephine asked.
"Can't Patricia do it? I don't wanna be
left out like some kid."
"Perhaps you should behave like an adult if
you wish to be treated as one," Josephine scolded. "Do as I say. Make
the tea."
Beth went to the kitchen without further
protest, while Josephine ushered Daryl and Maggie over to the couch. She took
Hershel's easy chair and sat to face them.
"So, Daryl, have you come to a
decision?"
"I did some research," Daryl said.
"I spoke to a lawyer concerning the laws around the issue. It's clear,
Miss Jo. If agree then the house, the land, all the equipment, animals, everything,
would come under my authority. This wouldn't be the Greene farm anymore, but
the Dixon farm. This would still spell the end of the Greene family name, at
least in Genesis."
"Yes, I know," Josephine said,
"but at least the place wouldn't be snatched up by the government. It
would be in the family. Maggie would be able to call this place home and that's
what matters. The Greene family will have to carry on elsewhere in Georgia
through his cousin, Vernon Greene, in Augusta. All I ask is that you give Otis
and Patricia time to find housing, and give me a few months to find a place for
me and Beth. Then you and Maggie would have the house to yourself."
"Ma'am, this is a five-bedroom house,"
Daryl responded. "There's plenty of room for all of us. I wouldn't, if I
agreed, ask any of you to leave. Housing is scarce anyway. It's unlikely y'all
would find anything in Genesis with us barely running at sustainable capacity
already."
Josephine and Maggie both sagged in relief. This
had been their biggest worry, having to move out and split the family apart.
Now they knew they wouldn't have to if he decided to grant Hershel's request.
Josephine thanked Daryl, and then waited on him to make a choice.
He looked at Maggie for a few moments.
"You're sure?"
"I'm positive," she said, without
hesitation.
"All right," he said, "then my
answer's yes. I'll do it."
"You're picking Maggie instead of me?"
Beth asked, having returned from the kitchen without the tea. "Oh, thank
God."
Daryl cocked an eyebrow at her, and she
immediately stammered an apology.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like you're…I
mean…uh…"
"It's all right, I get it," he said,
smiling at her, before he pulled a black velvet box from his pocket.
It was a surreal moment, watching him open it to
reveal a diamond ring that was much more expensive than she would've believed
possible in these hard times, even for a ranking SL officer. He even got down
on one knee for a proper proposal.
"Maggie Greene, will you do me the honor of
becoming my wife?"
"Yes," she said. "I will."
This was never what Maggie had in mind for
herself. She'd long held a fantasy that she'd be in love with the man who
proposed to her. Perhaps they'd be on a romantic walk, get caught in the rain,
and he'd propose anyway. They'd laugh as he slipped the ring on her finger,
then kiss, and start their lives together. Having a long-time family friend pop
the question, merely to save the family farm, had never once crossed her mind,
and her dreams of marrying for love were further from her than ever.
When Daryl slid the ring onto her finger Maggie
felt like he was slipping a chain around her neck. They'd have a friendly but
loveless marriage, some children, and that would be her life, however long it
was. She felt the ring on her finger. It was a bit loose once it slid on, but
her knuckle kept it from falling off. He'd guessed her ring size perfectly.
"What happens now?" Maggie asked.
"Now we set a date. We have to be married
within thirty days of Hershel's passing. We've got eighteen days left,"
Daryl said. "I'm leading the aid mission to Collins settlement and I have
to leave tomorrow. I'll return in ten days, which is plenty of time for us to
make it official, I give you my word. How about the sixteenth? A couple of days
after I've returned?"
"That sounds fine," Maggie said.
"Mama?"
Josephine bowed her head. "Agreed. Shall we
move your things here, Daryl?"
Daryl shook his head. "I'll do it when I
get back."
"The tea is almost ready," Beth said.
"You ladies enjoy it," Daryl said,
heading for his coat. "I've got a lot of preparations to make with regards
to my house. Good day."
He faced Maggie. They awkwardly made a couple of
attempts at a kiss to the cheek goodbye, moving in the same direction and
almost bumping noses, unable to get the angle right, before Daryl settled on
kissing her hand. He nodded to the other women.
"The announcement will be in the paper in a
few days," he told them. "It's just a matter of public record when a
high ranking Security League officer marries. We can't refuse the
announcement."
He looked glad to be out of the house when he
trotted down the steps, Maggie was relieved when he was gone.
"That attempt at a kiss was plain painful
to watch," said Patricia.
Maggie secretly agreed and could only imagine
their wedding night. Beth must've read her mind because she melodramatically
slapped a hand to her chest.
"How are y'all gonna have sex if you can't
even manage a little kiss to the cheek?" Beth asked, earning a shush from
Josephine and a gentle nudge in the ribs from Patricia at the same time.
Maggie hurried upstairs, desperate to be alone
and away from her sister's blunt honesty, delivered in the guise of a joke.
"Nice going, Beth," Josephine
grumbled.
"But it's true!"
Three days later the announcement hit the papers
and the cards started coming in to congratulate Maggie on making a good match.
Most of the people meant well but there were a few that reeked of phony cheer.
It was obvious why she was marrying. It had nothing to do with love, and
everything to do with saving the family farm, and everyone knew it. Some of the
comments in the cards were nothing short of trolling.
Josephine tutted when she saw a card from one of
their neighbors. She set it aside.
"Who sent that one?" asked Maggie.
"Annette Miller," Josephine answered.
"You've never liked her, Mama. May I ask
why?"
Patricia and Josephine looked at one another for
a long time.
"You may not want to know," Josephine
said.
"I've heard rumors," Maggie said.
"She and Daddy used to be an item."
"Yeah," Josephine said, sipping from
her cup of tea. "The problem is, they were an item ten years into our
marriage."
Maggie couldn't have been more shocked if her
mother had announced she was an alien from outer space and turned orange to
prove it. She also would've been less hurt, and disappointed.
"Is...is that why Daddy slept on the couch
for a year when I was twelve? Why you argued when you thought I couldn't
hear?"
"Yes," said Josephine. "He had an
affair, and it almost cost us our marriage. In the end, I decided to forgive
and he earned back my trust. Don't hold it against him, Maggie. It was a long
time ago. He was human, and made a mistake. He atoned to me, and I'm the one
person it mattered to most."
"He never went back to her?"
"I'm positive he didn't," said
Josephine.
"Esther Cartwright," Patricia said.
She flicked it toward Maggie.
"Daddy didn't-"
"God no," Josephine said, chuckling.
"It's blind luck she never knew about Hershel and Annette. It would've
spread all over Georgia in a week if she had. She's a gossip. She tries to
ingratiate herself, win your trust, and then spread your business all over
town."
"If she doesn't have anything real to
gossip about she'll make something up," Patricia said. "She almost
got Otis banned from church starting rumors he was a homosexual! This was back
when Reverend Tucker oversaw the protestant church. When he found out she'd
lied about something so serious he banned her for two years."
"She tried to convert to Catholicism but
Father O'Bannon wouldn't accept her," said Josephine. "She had to eat
crow. She was humiliated, and the talk among the other gossips she usually
chatted with. She's still a horrible gossip but she hasn't made up one truly
harmful falsehood, that we know of, since."
"I know she likes to feel important,"
said Maggie. "When Daryl and I have a public ceremony this summer I'm sure
she'll expect an invitation. She won't get it. Neither will Annette. I don't
want her there."
"It's your day," Josephine said.
"You invite only those you want to be there."
Maggie was congratulated at work, too, by both
students and faculty, but she wondered how many secretly judged her. She wasn't
just marrying to save the farm, which anyone with common sense could figure
out. She was marrying the last Dixon in Genesis. Granted, Daryl was the last of
his name, but his family history was practically a thing of legend, and for all
the wrong reasons.
She was surprised by a cake and tea in the staff
break room. Rosita, Carol, and Karen Gutierrez had gathered together, putting a
little celebration on for her.
"Is this to save the family farm?"
Carol asked.
"Carol!" Rosita said, embarrassed by
Carol's bluntness, but she still looked at Maggie with curiosity.
"It's okay," said Maggie. "Yes.
It's an arrangement. A marriage of convenience."
"I went out with Daryl a few years
ago," said Karen. "Just for a few months. We didn't fall in love but
we had fun. Boy, are you a lucky woman."
Carol and Rosita laughed. Maggie felt her face
heat. "Yeah?"
"Slightly better than usual endowment but
that's not what I'm talking about."
"Then what are you talking about,
Karen?" Carol asked, batting her lashes innocently.
"His tongue," she answered, with a
devilish smile on her lips. "It's like magic. On your wedding night, just
lay back and let him do his thing. You'll wake up the whole fucking house,
cumming your brains out."
Maggie inwardly cringed at the idea, but she hid
it well behind a smile and a wink.
Daryl surprised Maggie with a phone call that
night.
"How's food?"
"We're okay," she said, noticing Beth
standing on the porch with Noah. They shared a kiss before Beth came back
inside and he went to his bike to head home. "Patricia and I plan to go
trading tomorrow."
He paused, and in the background she could hear
men talking and dishes clanking. Daryl wasn't trying to carry the conversation,
and she wasn't sure what to say to him. She was just about to ask about the
weather, or how his mission was going, when he started speaking at the same
time as her.
"Sorry, you go ahead," he said.
"I just wondered how's the mission
going?" she asked awkwardly.
"It's all right," he answered, but his
voice was strained. "We've got the citizens safe. They're being fed,
tended to."
"It's noble what you're doing," Maggie
told him. "You're noble."
There was a lot more intensity in her voice than
she expected. She was truly proud of what he did. When she learned he was
leading a mission to save another settlement from a fire that destroyed most of
it, a fire that started from an attack from Beta Settlement, under General
Blake, she'd felt pride in the man he was. It showed through in his voice.
"Thank you," he replied. He sounded
embarrassed, a little bashful, at the praise. "That's nice of you to
say."
"Just speaking truth. What were you gonna
say?"
"I added you to my supplies account,"
he informed her. "Just call the quartermaster and tell her you need a
basic family food package delivered. Tell her it's for a family of five adults.
Call tonight and they'll have it delivered by the time you're home from work
tomorrow."
"You really don't have to do that."
"You're gonna be my wife, Maggie," he
said. "Your family will be mine. It's time I started providing for you.
Make the call, please.
"Okay," she said, writing down the
number he gave her. "Are you okay?"
"Just a minor wound," he said.
"I'm gonna be fine, though. It's nothing."
She told him to stay safe, and as soon as they
hung up, she called the number he gave her and put the order in. She'd have to
sign for it next day. She set the phone down after and caught Beth smugly
grinning at her.
"What?" she demanded.
"'You're so noble, Daryl'," Beth said
in a dramatically simpering voice. She batted her eyes, which made Patricia and
Otis snicker. Even her mother had to bite down on a grin. "'Oh Daryl, be
careful my brave soldier man!'"
"You shut up!" Maggie said, feigning
insult. She was just glad her sister was smiling for the first time since their
father died. To see her joking was a relief, and it lifted not only her
spirits, but everyone else's. "I didn't say anything of the sort, and I
don't talk like that."
Her family was outright laughing now. It was
embarrassing, annoying, and admittedly she was amused, too. This was the first
time she'd heard laughter in the house since her father died, and it felt good.
It was nice to see her baby sister smiling again, her blue eyes bright with
something besides grief.
"'I can't wait until you're home safe and
sound, my love!'" Beth teased again.
"All right, that's enough," Maggie
said.
She lunged for her, and Beth barely dodged out
of the way. She took off running but Maggie caught her in the living room and
pinned her to the couch where she tickled her little sister into fits of
screeching laughter until she begged for mercy.
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