Three Years Wasted I Married His Rival

In our mountain town we follow the courtship-marriage custom. Any woman who reaches twenty-three without a man coming to her door is driven out of the village, counted as a disgrace to her family.

I waited three years for Jason Cox.

The first year, he was in the city celebrating his childhood sweetheart's birthday, and the window for the courtship passed.

The second year, he was nearly at my door when she called him back, scared of the thunder in the middle of the night, and I waited out another night for nothing.

The third year, his sweetheart was getting married and he was too heartbroken to come. Not a word to me. He simply broke his promise again.

This year was the last year.

Jason swore to the heavens that he would come to my door before the courtship deadline.

There were only three hours left before this year's courtship window closed.

The sky had gone dark, and still there was no sign of him.

I panicked. I slipped out of the loft and went to find Jason and demand the truth.

But the moment I reached the local tavern in town, I heard him laughing with his friends.

"Jason, there's less than three hours left. Shouldn't you hurry over to Constance Glass's place for the courtship? If you miss the hour, you'll ruin Constance's whole life!"

Jason's voice drifted out from the courtyard, thick with drink.

"I'm doing it on purpose. Every year she nags me, and it grates on me. Especially last year, with Laurel's wedding tearing me up, and she still nagged. That's when I decided. This year I'm going to teach her a lesson."

"Jason, a woman past twenty-three with no one to propose gets driven out of town!"

"So I drive her out and then I bring her back. Nobody wants her, I pick her up off the ground, and after the wedding she'll treat me like the man who saved her life. She'll wait on me, sweet and obedient. That's how you break a woman in."

The branch I'd snatched up off the roadside bit raw into my palm.

I stumbled the whole way home and dropped to my knees in front of my parents.

"Dad, Mom, the man who's proposed three years running, I've said yes."

""

My mother froze for a moment.

The next second, tears slid down from the corners of her eyes.

She bent down, gripping my hands hard, her voice shaking.

"Good. Good. You've finally seen it. That Jason boy, nine parts of his heart belong to the Simmons girl, and only one part to you"

She pulled me up with one hand and shoved at my father with the other.

"Go, quickly, there's still two hours, there's still time. Get to the city, sign the marriage contract, and take it to the old town chief."

The sun had just climbed up over the ridge when my father pushed the door open, out of breath.

He drew the contract from inside his coat, still warm, and pressed it into my hands.

"I've already told the old town chief. We made the final hour, just barely. The marriage is settled at last."

With trembling hands I lifted the bright red contract and slowly unfolded it.

By the custom of our town, the groom's name on the contract must be written in the gold powder the bride has prepared.

Three years ago, I spent every last bit of my own savings to prepare the gold powder for Jason.

What I'd been waiting for was this: that before I married, he would use the powder I'd prepared to write his name on the contract.

Now the groom's name was filled in, written in the very gold powder I had prepared.

But it was a stranger's name.

Roderick Sanchez, the only son of the richest family in the city. Three years ago he'd come to town on a sketching trip, got lost in the mountains, and I was the one who led him back out.

From that day on, the proposal invitations stacked up to a man's height every year.

I never answered them. I never even looked.

My heart was set on waiting for Jason.

But in the end he never came

The thought of Jason stung at my nose, and tears welled up all at once.

"Constance, don't cry."

My father's rough, broad hand clasped my shoulder.

"No tears can fall on this contract. The Sanchez family are good people. The moment that Roderick boy saw the contract, he wrote his own name without a word."

"It all happened so fast. The Sanchez family says they want to bring you home in grand style, so you'll just have to bear with staying here one more day."

"That young man says it himselfif anyone dares talk behind your back this one day, when he comes tomorrow, he'll set it right for you."

There was worry in my father's eyes, but relief mixed in with it too.

For hundreds of years,

no woman in our mountain town had ever failed to marry into her husband's family before twenty-three.

I might be the first.

At least I was leaving tomorrow. In the end I hadn't become my parents' shame.

I wiped my tears and was just about to tuck the marriage contract carefully into the red cloth wrap,

when Jason came rushing in, breathless,

drenched in sweat, gasping for air.

"I'm sorry, Constance."

"I was up all night getting things ready for our wedding day, I slept late, and only just got up. Am I too late...?"

I looked at him, caught the faint smell of liquor on him, and spoke flatly.

"You're late."

At the cold edge in my voice,

Jason's smile faded.

He raised a hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead, glancing at my father standing stern-faced to one side.

"Constance, my mother said she saw your father come out from the old town chief's place early this morning, out of breath. Is it because I held things up past the final hour, and the chief gave your father a hard time over it?"

So he'd seen it.

And he'd still let the deadline pass on purpose before coming.

The words I'd heard outside his door three hours ago ran through my mind like a film reel.

"All that nagging gets on my nerves. I want to wait until no one else wants her. Marry her then, and she'll do as she's told."

My heart felt clamped in a great hand, dull and aching, too tight to breathe.

Thinking that I'd be leaving this place tomorrow,

I had no wish to tangle with Jason any longer.

So I stepped back, pointed at the door, looked at him, and said coldly,

"Jason, I told you. This year was the last year I'd wait for you. You came too late, so there's nothing left between us."

"Go. I can't marry you now."

Jason froze for a moment,

then quickly stepped forward and seized my wrist.

He gripped so hard

that my hand loosened, and the marriage contract slipped straight to the floor.

Looking at it lying there,

Jason let out a short laugh.

"Look at you. A grown woman, still throwing childish fits."

"Saying you won't marry me, when you've had the marriage contract ready all along."

"All right, no more sulking. I said I'd marry you this year, and I will. I'll write my name on this contract right now."

I bent at once to pick it up,

but Jason got to it first and had it in his hand.

Just as he was about to open the contract, a voice outside suddenly called for him.

"Jason, what are you dawdling for? Laurel says there's a mouse in the house, she's crying scared, she wants you over there!"

In the moment he turned his head,

Jason had already unfolded the contract.

The name "Roderick Sanchez" glinted in the sunlight,

but Jason, with his mind only on Laurel, never noticed.

He lifted his hand to shade his eyes from the glare, casually folded the contract again, and tossed it onto the coffee table in front of him.

"Constance..."

He turned to look at me, his face all worry.

"Something urgent's come up with Laurel, I have to go. I'll sign this contract when I'm back, after I've dealt with it. You just wait at home like a good girl for me to marry you."

"It's already this late anyway, so there's no need to rush."

Jason jogged off out the door,

and when he reached the yard, he suddenly stopped, turned, and looked at me.

"Constance, look, you're already past the age. About the bride-price we discussed before, maybe?"

I stared at those bright, clear eyes I'd longed for through my entire youth,

and in a single instant, I was simply tired of them.

So I answered him flatly,

"There's no need."

A flicker of triumph crossed Jason's face, the look of a man whose scheme had paid off, and he smiled.

"Good, Constance. You've always been the sensible one."

"Don't worry. Once you're married in, I'll treat you right."

Jason left with his buddies, all of them laughing and talking,

their chatter drifting into the courtyard.

"Jason, you're really something. You just wore Constance down a few hours and saved the whole bride-price!"

"Jason, you've got nerve. Weren't you afraid she'd get hurt and actually marry someone else?"

His voice carried into the courtyard on the cool morning breeze.

"Afraid of what?"

"Everyone in town knows Constance only ever thinks about me."

"Besides, once she's past the age, she's the kind of woman even the dogs in town turn their noses up at. Other than me, what man here would take her?"

He waved a hand as he spoke.

"All right, enough about Constance. She doesn't matter."

"Hurry up and tell me, how's Laurel Simmons doing? I just fixed up her house earlier this year, so how could there be rats in it? She must be scared out of her mind!"

A boundless bitterness rose from somewhere deep and filled my chest.

Yes,

I didn't matter.

But it didn't matter anymore. Jason, you don't matter to me anymore either.

When a woman in town married,

she had to climb to the mountain shrine at the summit and pray for an early pregnancy.

It was something you were supposed to do together with your husband,

but I worried the Sanchez family in the city had no such custom.

Agreeing to the marriage at the last minute, right before the wedding date, was already trouble enough for him.

So I gathered up my whole dowry and went up the mountain alone.

The moment I reached the shrine, I saw two familiar backs.

Laurel was kneeling on the ground, her shoulders rising and falling, weeping bitterly.

"I don't want to pray to the mountain god for a child, Jason. He doesn't treat me well"

"You saw it yourself. On our wedding day, he wouldn't even prepare a decent veil for me"

Jason looked at her with his eyes full of heartache, at a complete loss for what to do,

and then, at last,

he dropped to his knees before the mountain god with a heavy thud.

In this town, a man was allowed to kneel only twice in his whole life.

Once, to pray for his parents' blessing,

and once, to pray to spend his life with the one he loved.

Three years ago, the day Jason and I confessed our feelings, I pulled him to this very shrine,

wanting to kneel with him and pray to the mountain god that we'd be together for life.

Jason hemmed and hawed and never would.

In three years, we came here countless times, and countless times he found an excuse.

But today, just like that, he knelt without a second's hesitation.

"Laurel, it's all right. I'll always treat you well. For the rest of my life."

"But you're married now"

"What does being married have to do with anything?!"

Jason suddenly grew agitated.

"Even married, I'll treat you exactly the same. The moment Constance dares say a single word against it, I'll divorce her on the spot!"

As he spoke, Jason seized Laurel's shoulders and pulled her into his arms.

In the gap as he turned, Laurel's eyes met mine,

and those soft, tear-brimmed eyes, when they looked at me, held nothing but triumph

"Constance, you came?"

Jason's head snapped around,

and the instant he saw me,

his whole body went rigid.

But the next second he stepped in front of Laurel, shielding her, and the look he gave me was the look you give an enemy.

"Constance, what are you doing here?!"

I took a step forward, my voice flat.

"What do you think? Praying for fertility."

The words had barely left me when Laurel began to cry behind him.

"Jason, see? I should have known. The moment you marry, you won't be able to spare a thought for me. Look, the wedding isn't even done and she's already chased me all the way up here to glare at me"

The look Jason turned on me changed in an instant.

"Constance, are you ever going to stop?!"

"I said I'd marry you, so I'll marry you. What are you following me here for?!"

"Can't you see Laurel's upset? Let me tell you something. Even after we're married, you'll have no say in how good I am to her!"

"I don't care."

I stepped around him, walked up to the mountain shrine, and with my back to Jason I said quietly,

"Because my husband isn't you."

Clutching the red wedding veil my mother had embroidered for me by hand, I knelt slowly before the shrine, pressed my palms together, and prayed in earnest.

But before my forehead could even touch the cushion, two large hands clamped down hard on my shoulders.

"Constance, what is that supposed to mean?!"

"What do you think it means"

Laurel cut in ahead of me, her voice thick with tears.

"She's just angry about what you said before. She just doesn't want you being good to me"

"Jason, I'm the one who doesn't belong here. It hurts so much"

The hands on my shoulders tightened, as if to crush the bone.

"Constance, why are you always so snide with Laurel?!"

"Get up! Apologize to Laurel!"

The prayer to the mountain shrine couldn't be stopped. Gripping the red veil in my hands, I fought to wrench my shoulders free of him. Jason lost his temper and shoved me forward, hard. My head hit the iron corner of the table by the cushion with a loud crack. Warmth spread across the top of my head. I gritted my teeth and finished the prayer.

I stood, stepped past Jason, and headed for the door. But I'd taken only two steps when he seized my wrist, his voice angrier than before.

"I told you to apologize to Laurel. Are you deaf?!"

I turned my head slowly to look at him.

"I did nothing wrong. I won't apologize."

"Jason, I wasn't being snide, and I'm not marrying you. So whoever you're good to, whoever you kneel to the mountain god for, none of it has anything to do with me."

"Let go of me."

Something uncertain flickered in his eyes, and in that moment of distraction his grip loosened. I shook him off and turned to leave.

Then Laurel suddenly stepped in front of me, eyes brimming with tears, her voice all wounded grievance.

"Constance, these little tricks of yours only work on Jason. Anyone can see it. You're using the marriage as a threat on purpose, just to push him away from me!"

"You've looked down on me since we were children! Fine, I'm not lucky enough to marry Jason. But did you have to corner me like this?!"

"You know perfectly well I didn't even have a proper veil on my wedding day, and today of all days you come up here with the veil your mother embroidered for you. What are you trying to do? You just want to hurt me, don't you?!"

"Fine. I'm the one who doesn't belong. I'm just in the way for even being alive!"

With that, Laurel suddenly threw herself against the wall behind her.

She put no force into it at all. Her head met the wall without so much as a sound. And yet she crumpled straight to the ground, clutching her head, moaning in pain.

Jason lunged forward two steps and swept Laurel into his arms.

His eyes were frantic.

"Laurel, are you all right?"

"Jason, don't worry about me. Just take Constance home and live your life with her..."

Laurel's tears poured down her face.

Jason lifted her up gently, then turned on me like a beast gone mad and charged.

"Constance, won't you be happy until you've driven Laurel to her death?!"

As he spoke, his gaze landed on the veil in my hands.

His brow tightened.

"You did this to spite Laurel on purpose!"

His grip clamped down, and he ripped the veil out of my hands and ran straight for the altar where the incense burned.

The instant I understood what he meant to do, I lost all composure.

That veil had taken my mother three years to embroider, one stitch at a time.

Woven into it was thread my late grandmother had twisted by her own hands.

In it was my mother's heart, every drop of it, paid out through fingers she had pricked countless times.

A scrap of cloth no bigger than a span, and yet it brimmed with the blessings of everyone I loved. There was only one like it in all the world...

I threw myself toward Jason like a madwoman.

"Jason, don't!"

In the very moment I lunged, Laurel suddenly stuck out a foot.

I crashed straight to the floor.

My head struck the incense table and knocked it over.

Scalding ash rained over me, and the little sparks scorched through my outer garment in an instant and seared into my flesh.

Jason just watched me with cold eyes.

He threw my veil into the fire.

I bit back the pain stabbing through me, scrambled up, and rushed for the brazier.

But Jason kicked it clear out of the shrine.

He looked down at me, his voice cold as if it had been quenched in ice.

"Constance, you're my woman, so you'll do as I, Jason, say."

"For the rest of this long life, whatever Laurel doesn't have, you don't get to have either."

"She'll have it."

A deep man's voice rang out beyond the mountain shrine.

Jason and I turned at once toward the sound.

It was Roderick Sanchez.

The back of his hand was burned raw and red, and he came toward me slowly, my veil clutched tight in his grip...