Laughing out loud at the image in my head, I realized Nell was staring at me.
"Have you not been listening?" she asked.
"Sorry. I have. It just hit me you were telling me this for a particular reason."
Nell pursed her lips. "I don't care for this either."
"Yeah. I mean, he's a total stranger and according to your tradition, I have to not only marry him but sleep with him."
Nell eyed me.
"It doesn't strike you as a strange custom?" I prodded.
"Not at all. The bloodline and inheritance must be passed to someone. Legitimate children are the best way to ensure a family's legacy."
"So you don't think love should trump a legacy?"
"Maybe among those with nothing to pass down."
I laughed at the inadvertently saucy response. I looked around at the hills of blonde grasses, not quite processing how serious my situation was. I was itching to text Carter again.
"Oh." Nell's gasp was followed by her wrenching the horses to a halt before we reached the barn.
I caught myself against the front of the wagon. Nell bolted out of the carriage and up the stairs to join a frowning servant I had seen around the house. She was waving frantically at me.
"Miss Josie, come now!" Nell shouted over her shoulder and hurried inside.
Not John. A similar sense of urgency hit me, and I dropped any attempt to be graceful and sprinted, passing Nell before she reached the top of the stairs. My pace slowed when I slid to a halt in front of John's door.
The doctor was present, hands clasped and expression grave. John's rattling breathing reached me at the door. He appeared even frailer than earlier, his pallor that of the near dead.
"Father," I said, entering.
His eyes fluttered open. They were glazed, unfocused. White film covered them. "J… Josie?" He reached out towards the sound of my voice.
I dropped onto the bed beside him. "I'm here, Father."
He offered a faint smile and closed his eyes.
"Miss Josephine, he will not survive the night," Doctor Green said quietly.
"He has to," I replied. "He has to see me get married. Right, Father?"
John tried to chuckle.
Nell entered, wringing her hands.
I shifted to breathe better after my sprint only to realize my chest was in a vise brought on by emotion. It wasn't the corset choking me this time.
"Nell … we must see my … Josie wed tonight," John wheezed.
"Father, don't worry about that right now," I urged. "Your health is far more important."
"He's right," the doctor said. "If you are to keep your inheritance, a husband will need to be in place before John's death."