LA FAMILLE chapter 14 RAW LIFE IN THE BUSHES

A Wedding OR Two
courtesy photobucket.com

 

The outpost had been carved out of the woods near one of the many rivers in the area but high enough not to get flooded out.

As a boy Jean saw many floods in France and was determined not to suffer the same kind of damage he witnessed there.

When he got married he was determined to only have one woman in contrast to his father and many of his relatives in France.  

When his family came to New Orleans his father brought his wife and mistresses with all the children from the unions.  His father was the only one in the family to ever go bald.  His wife said and believed it was because he had so many wives.

The one thing Jean discovered was his wife Elise was extremely passionate and due to her expressions of delight at their encounters the whole post knew about it.

This bothered Doc Adams and Elaina very much, so much that the doctor asked Elaina to marry him.  Of course she said yes and the wedding was set for a month from the time he asked her.  

She wanted to travel to New Orleans and buy her trousseau there and bring some of the family back to the post with her.  By the time they got back it was only four days till the wedding.

Elise had prepared the wedding reception and knew they would need a lot of food and drink.  

 

The mule train was due tomorrow and she knew they would have to hide much of the foodstuffs otherwise they would be eaten up leaving them with nothing until the mule train made another trip.  

The day before the wedding the goods arrived and an unpleasant surprise also or at least it was for the Doctor.  There was a young woman and a child about a year old with her.  As soon as she got off her ride she asked for the Doctor.  

She said, “Doctor Adams. Is he here?”

Elise and Elaina saw and heard her and Elise went over to her and said, “You look tired and the baby too, you need to rest,” and took her into the post and sat her down.  

After giving her some water Elise asked her what she wanted with the Doctor.  She gasped a time or two and said again, “Is he here?”

Elise said, “Well there is a Doctor here by the name of Doctor Adams but I don’t know if it is your Doc Adams.”

The woman asked, “Please call him and we can settle the matter right away.” 

She went on saying, “I have traveled for eight weeks with the baby and I must find out if it was all in vain or not.”

Elise said, “For sure we need to find out,” and sent Elaina to fetch the Doctor.

When he arrived and saw the woman he cried out, “Delores where did you come from?”

She said, “Where do you think I came from?  I have spent months trying to track you down and I have finally found you.”

Elise said, “Do you know each other?”

Delores said, “You might say that we do.”

The Doctor said, “Will you excuse us for a while and later we will explain what is going on, when I figure it out.”

After an hour they came back and he said, ‘Where is the child?”

Elise said, “She is in my bedroom. I’ll get her.”  She brought the baby out and the Doctor said to Delores, “Are you sure?”

 
She said, “Yes, it’s your child for you are the only one ever.”
   
For the next few minutes no one said anything then the Doctor said I must explain this.  “Delores and I were engaged to be married and I’m afraid we started the honeymoon before the wedding day.  

Then I was accused of some impropriety of which I was only partly guilty and we’ll leave it at that.  Then I lost my license to practice medicine and I have told you the rest.  Delores’s family wouldn’t allow her to marry me and I left and came here.  

 

It seems I have a beautiful daughter and two women who want to marry me.  He said I didn’t know about the child and that Delores decided to go against her parents wishes and she has traveled all this distance to join me as a family.  

He said I don’t know what to do for I love both of these women; and the baby, well I will love it also.”

Elaina had just listened without saying anything until now.  She spoke up and said, “You will soon have another child and what are you going to do about that?”   She said, “I didn’t say anything because we were going to be married and that would have taken care of that, but now.”

The air was getting tenser by the moment when Jean talked softly to the Doctor, Delores and Elaina and then spoke up and explained, “It looks like we are going to have two weddings.”  

Jean said, “I will get that new farmer who used to preach to come and marry all of you or at least the three of you.”   A couple of hours later the farmer came and the wedding ceremony only lasted about three minutes and they were all married and it was settled.

Jean said we will have the reception tomorrow as planned.  Elise asked, “How could you suggest they all be married when you are against having more than one wife.”  

He said well they were all willing to do it and with Elaina going to have Doc’s baby and Delores having his baby already it seemed the right thing to do.  Besides that I didn’t want to lose the Doc for he said he would have to pick one and leave with her. 

 

Some people might object but when they are sick and about to die they won’t care if he has more than one wife.”

To Be Continued