Forced to Love (Historical Romance Collection) The Fires of Love & Hate

Chapter 4 Thirty Pieces of Silver

CHAPTER 4--THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER

Listening to Reverend Walker administer the ceremony, Laville became lost in her thoughts.  She didn’t like thinking about her marriage to John Anderson, but after the confrontation she had with her mother, her mind just wouldn’t put it to rest.  Memories of a year ago came crashing down like a raging river over a waterfall.  She hated to admit it, but her mother had been right, her marriage to John had been a tragedy.  Still, she refused to accept the blame for what happened to John Anderson’s parents, George and Emma.  If it was anyone’s fault, it was God’s.  After all, He let it happen. 

She watched her Pa, as he slowly turned and glared at her.  That hard disgruntled look that crossed his face was one she had seen far too many times in her life.  Glaring back at him with the same intensity, she thought to herself, “You didn’t win with me, Pa, and you’ll not win with Hattie either.”  Then, smiling in a certain way that she knew only he understood (a perfect smile, one that hid pure hate), she recalled, all too well, her distasteful ordeal with him over John Anderson.

Her brothers, John and Robert, came home one evening and told her that they had overheard a conversation in the livery stable in Gallatin, between their Pa and George Anderson.  They said they couldn’t believe what they had heard, as their Pa was planning to marry off Laville to George’s son, John.  The ‘thirty pieces of silver’ Newton wanted in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage was 300 acres of prime farmland that George owned.  It lay south of the Morran farm, and was some of the best in the county.  Newton insisted that it would be a fair trade.  “After all, George,” Newton said, “Laville is the most beautiful and most captivatin’ woman in the state.”

     It was well known to the people of Gallatin that George and Emma Anderson were among the wealthiest landowners in the County.  George had worked hard all his life and was an intelligent man.  His hard work and good investments had paid off, and he and Emma now had a great deal of money, a mercantile business in Gallatin, and plenty of land. 

     Unfortunately, Emma Anderson, a delicate woman, had lost several children in childbirth, their son John being the only child to survive infancy.  Because he was so cherished, he was given every advantage in life his well‑to‑do parents could afford, including the finest education in schools back East.  He and Abner Garland had actually at one time attended the same school.

     Though John had been pampered and often spoiled by his aging parents, he remained a good man.  He was kind, loving, and totally devoted to his parents, and as a son, he made every effort to make them proud of him, never doing anything to embarrass or hurt them.

     Laville, on the other hand, was extraordinarily beautiful, raven haired, olive skinned, and totally captivating.  Like Delilah of old, she was highly intelligent, cunning, deceitful, and would lie at the drop of a hat if it served her purpose.  As she grew into womanhood, she became sinfully provocative and manipulative, using her beauty to get what she wanted from the men around her.  Even though she had made her family’s life a living hell through her many escapades, when she was in trouble, they never failed to come to her aid. 

     John Anderson, like many other young men in Gallatin, had fallen in love with Laville.  As far as he was concerned, she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and no matter how many other girls showed interest in him, he had his heart set on Laville.  Because of his blind infatuation, he did everything in his power to win her heart, but alas, his efforts went unrewarded and his love unreturned. 

Laville found John attractive and fun to tease, but certainly not interesting enough to pursue.  She was holding out for the richest and most powerful man she could find, and would have considered Abner Garland herself, but she knew there was no way she could manipulate a man with as strong a will as his.  It wasn’t love she was looking for.  “Who needs it?” she thought.  An older man was what she wanted, one she could control with her sexual favors and still have affairs here and there if she wished.  Long ago she had decided that it wasn’t only money and position she wanted, but the power that great wealth could afford.  Laville, unlike her siblings, embodied every selfish characteristic her father possessed and absolutely none of the characteristics of her angel-like mother.