When The Heart Beckons Page 34

“I take it that is a yes?”

  “Yes!”

  He drew her down onto his lap on the grass and kissed her soundly for a very long time. After a while, they paused long enough for him to smile at her. “I have a present for you. Close your eyes.”

  She obeyed him and waited patiently as he opened her palm and then placed a small cool object in it.

  “Go ahead and look, Annabel.” She could hear the excitement beneath the deep, warm tones of his voice.

  For a moment she stared in shock at the brooch nestled in her palm. The gold and ruby rose brooch, with the pearls ... Mama’s brooch?

  “Look at the inscription on the back, sweetheart.” She did, her heart pounding with hope and disbelief. For S. Love forever, N.

  “Oh, my God. Cade, where did you find it? How ...”

  He told her then about Jonah E. Banks, and with trembling fingers she pinned the brooch onto her gown. Cade helped her fasten the clasp and for a moment they merely stared at each other in silence.

  * * *

  Savannah Brannigan watched them from beneath the leafy branches of the sycamore tree.

  A fine man, Annabel. You have chosen yourself a fine, handsome man ... just like your father.

  She drifted closer, filled with happiness as she saw the ardent expression on her daughter’s face, and the brooch which glowed with such rich warmth in the dazzle of the sun. At last, the brooch is restored to you, dearest. It is where it belongs. It will help keep you safe.

  She could go now, go forever. She felt a sadness tug at her, but also a spreading, blossoming relief. No more wandering. No more searching. She could have peace.

  Good-bye, dearest girl. Be happy, as I know you shall.

  And she reached out a slender, shimmery hand, just to say farewell ...

  * * *

  “Mama?” Annabel jumped up at the gossamer touch that feathered across her cheek. She glanced all around, her eyes wide, her heart pounding. She felt as she had that other time, when she’d been playing in the garden and had broken the statue. She’d had the surest feeling that her mother was there too.

  “Mama, is that you?”

  She heard nothing, but a warm certainty rushed over her and she touched the brooch impulsively. “Mama, I have the brooch. Cade got it back for me ... Mama ...”

  Good-bye.

  No words were spoken, and nothing moved in the garden, but Annabel felt the word imprint itself in her heart.

  “Good-bye, Mama,” she whispered, and then looked dazedly at Cade, expecting he would think her mad.

  But he was watching her seriously, a strange expression on his face.

  “You felt it, too?” she asked quickly.

  He nodded. “I felt something. But I couldn’t explain it if I tried.”

  She took a deep breath. “It was real. I know it was.” Suddenly her eyes darkened to a luminous gold-flecked green. “Cade, I wonder if anyone else has ever had such an experience. Surely we’re not the only ones ... it’s a mystery, isn’t it? Perhaps the greatest mystery of all ...”

  “Annabel,” he said hastily, wary of the rapt, purposeful expression crossing her face. “Some things are better left unexplained.”

  She raised her brows. “Some things, yes,” she agreed obliquely.

  Cade wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. He tucked her arm in his as they began to walk along the flower-bordered path. “Yes, such as how a beautiful and respectable, if somewhat nosy, private investigator such as you, could fall in love with a dissolute gunslinger like me ...”

  “Oh, that. “ Annabel said, strolling arm in arm with him back toward the house. “Well, that is something I’m going to spend every day of the rest of my life trying to figure out.”

  “And where do you plan to do all this figuring out? Where does the future Mrs. Cade McCallum wish to spend the rest of her life—or at least the first part of it?”

  She gazed at him and smiled, and suddenly he knew, incredibly, what she was going to say. His heart tightened with love for her, for this woman who had banished the loneliness and desolation from his life, who had brought him home to his family, fulfilled him, made him whole. This woman who gave so fully with all of her heart and soul, and who made him feel alive and loved and part of the human race once again.

  “The cabin?” Annabel whispered, her eyes hopeful on his. “The valley. Can we?”

  “We can.” He swept her against his chest and spoke against the velvety softness of her hair. “And if you think you can stand being holed up with me in the lonesome heart of the Arizona territory, we will.”

  And so they did.

  Epilogue

  One year later, on a spectacular summer evening, Annabel McCallum gave birth to her first child.

  The baby was born in the second-floor bedroom of the huge ranch house that overlooked the meadow. After Cade and Annabel had been married and had returned to the cabin to set up housekeeping, Cade had added on substantially to the tiny structure he’d built years ago. The house was now a handsome two-story building of rough-hewn logs and adobe, with a massive kitchen, two parlors, a good wood floor, and a pillared veranda that circled the entire building and afforded breathtaking views in every direction. There were also sheds, a bunkhouse and stable, and several other outbuildings, as well as corrals for the wild horses Cade caught and broke and sold. He owned some cattle, but not nearly as much as his father and Brett owned on their impressive Big M Ranch due south.

  Shortly after Cade and Annabel’s wedding, Ross McCallum had assembled the family and made a startling announcement. He was selling all of his business concerns, all except the Ruby Palace Hotel. He was tired of them, he said. With Boxer out of the way, things had started to turn around quickly for all of the McCallum holdings, but for some reason, Ross was dissatisfied.

  “Both of my sons have gone West, and damned if they haven’t fallen in love with the country,” he announced over dessert in the dining room. “I’m going to give the place a try myself. Boys, if you want to go partners with me, I’m planning to buy up some land not far from that cabin you’re going back to, Cade, right there near the town of Silver Junction. I’ve decided to start myself a little ranch. I believe it’s time for me to relax, and see if I can’t enjoy my later years in life. Besides,” he said, trying to appear offhand, “the doctor said it would be good for my heart to take it easy, get some fresh air, stop working so hard. So I’m going to oversee everything, of course, but I’ll hire me some good men to work the range and naturally you boys are both welcome to join the enterprise.”

  Brett had accepted the offer, only on the condition that he be allowed to buy in as a full partner using money he gained from his share of the McCallum businesses that were sold. Cade declined, wishing to remain independent, and more interested in horse ranching than in being a cattle baron.

  And Annabel had settled in joyfully to her new life as Mrs. Cade McCallum. In addition to planting a vegetable garden behind the house, and setting about furnishing her new home in the most comfortable and pleasant ways she could devise, she had begun work on the most challenging investigation ever. Her task: to discover and compare the experiences of others who had had encounters with “ghosts and other extraordinary occurrences.”

  Her plan was to write a book, thoroughly exploring the subject. With this in mind, she attacked the topic with the same curiosity and enthusiasm she would have used in any other investigation: doing research, interviewing everyone she met, writing to those people whom others described as having had such experiences. Meticulously and thoughtfully she wrote reports, compared information, and added bit by bit to her knowledge. By the time she went into labor she had over forty pages of notes compiled and was thoroughly fascinated with her topic.

  “I am trying to solve one of the greatest mysteries of all,” she wrote, just as her labor pains began. She set aside her pen and paper then and put her hands to her ripe, rounded belly.

  “But first I’m going to experience firsthand another of li
fe’s grand mysteries,” she told Cade as he helped her up the stairs to their bedroom.

  “I’d go through it for you if I could,” he said, looking far more rattled than she.

  “Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be possible, darling.”

  So, on the evening that Annabel gave birth to their child, with Ross and Brett both having been summoned by one of Cade’s ranch hands, the main parlor with its white lace curtains and cozy blue upholstered sofa and bright-pillowed chairs was full of McCallum men drinking whiskey, pacing, arguing, while Annabel struggled independently through the throes and joys of childbirth.

  Cade scarcely listened as his father and brother traded heated opinions about everything from the competing candidates for mayor in Silver Junction to the treatment of sick calves. He kept thinking about Annabel, upstairs with Dr. Willman, undergoing all manner of pain and torture.

  And the baby ... What if something happened to the baby?

  When Dr. Willman called down at exactly half past midnight that he could come up and see his wife and child, Cade bolted from the room and up the wide staircase two steps at a time.

  Only when he saw Annabel’s pale but glowing face smiling at him from the fluffy pile of bed pillows did he begin to breathe again. “You’re all right? The baby is all right?”

  “We couldn’t be better.” Her smile, though weak and tired, filled him with a devastating relief, and he sank down beside her and kissed her temple as the doctor slipped outside into the hall.

  Cade stared in awe at the tiny, red-faced creature lying across her chest, already trying to suckle at its mother’s breast.

  “Our baby.” He shook his head in wonder and disbelief. “All those years I was alone I never dreamed I would have anything so wonderful. I can’t quite figure out what I did to deserve both of you.”

  Before Annabel could answer, there was a pounding on the door.

  “Cade ... Annabel ... you’ll have plenty of time to be alone together. Right now I want to see my grandson. Open the door and give me a peek. One look and I swear I’ll go straight home to bed.”

  “Me, too,” Brett called out. “Uncles have certain rights, you know. Before long, this kid is going to be begging me to let him come on a cattle drive and I’ve got to see if he has what it takes.”

  “Go away,” Cade called, and kissed the baby’s tiny forehead.

  But the pounding continued.

  “Oh, you may as well let them in,” Annabel giggled. “They’ll never go away if you don’t—they’re McCallums after all.”

  “It’s about time,” Ross growled as Cade threw open the door. Annabel lifted the baby to her side, and pulled the sheet across her breasts as Ross and Brett stomped into the room. “We don’t mean to intrude, my dear, but we just wanted a quick look at the little fellow ...”

  “Lady,” Annabel corrected with a grin. “At the little lady.”

  “Lady?” Ross and Brett stared at her in shock.

  Cade grinned from ear to ear. Their stunned expressions drew an explosion of rumbling laughter from deep inside his chest.

  “Meet your granddaughter and your niece,” he announced elatedly. “In case you haven’t figured it out already, this little McCallum is a girl.”

  Annabel joined him in laughing out loud at their openmouthed astonishment. In typical McCallum fashion, neither one of them had apparently even entertained the notion that the child might be a girl.

  “And her name,” she added softly, stroking her daughter’s tiny wrinkled hand with one slender finger, “is Savannah Brannigan McCallum.”

  Whoops of joy could be heard echoing across the darkened meadow, up through the towering rocks that enclosed the valley, even up to the cloud-dotted heavens above, where another Savannah Brannigan smiled serenely down at the celebration below.

  But in the noisy bedroom, the baby roared her displeasure at the din.

  “Looks like she’s telling us all off already.” Cade put a hand to the shoulder of his father and his brother and hustled them toward the door. “You heard the lady. My daughter needs peace and quiet. And so does my wife.”

  “Come back tomorrow,” Annabel called softly as Cade closed the door on them and turned back to her with a rueful grin, shaking his head.

  “Here we thought we’d have this little valley all to ourselves and now we’ve got the two of them for neighbors.”

  “I’m glad that Savannah will have family nearby. And when Brett finds himself a wife and gets married, she’ll have a new aunt and, someday, cousins to play with.”

  “Not to mention future brothers and sisters,” her husband added, as he sat down beside her once again. He gazed in fascination at the tiny babe nestled in Annabel’s arms. Savannah’s eyes were closed now and she appeared to have gone to sleep. Cade kissed first her, and then her mother, his lips lingering tenderly on Annabel’s mouth.

  “Brothers and sisters,” Annabel murmured, her eyes glowing into his with love. “Oh, Cade, I do like the sound of that.”

  “Glad to hear it.” Cade leaned forward and kissed her again. “Because, Mrs. McCallum, after living alone for so long, I want to fill up this house with children who aren’t afraid to laugh and sing and play, and make plenty of noise, and always speak their minds.”

  “What a coincidence, Mr. McCallum.” She stroked his cheek and smiled into his eyes. “So do I.”

  And so they did.

  * * * * * * * * *

  For a complete list of my books, visit www.jillgregory.net

  Read on for excerpts from Cherished and Daisies in the Wind

  Cherished

  Aunt Katharine suddenly glanced over at her niece. “Juliana,” she said in a low tone. “I want you to renew your promise.”

  Juliana forced herself to meet the piercing gaze that stabbed at her across the aisle.

  “Ma’am?”

  “Promise me that you won’t attempt to locate those scoundrel brothers of yours while we’re in Denver.”

  Uncle Edward started, and turned his protuberant blue eyes upon her as well. Shorter than Aunt Kate by a good four inches, he was a fat, paunchy man with a face as round as a melon’s and a thatch of wiry graying hair he kept carefully combed back from his brow. He was not a particularly intelligent man, but he was a shrewd one, possessing a keen instinct for business, a fondness for good sherry, and a habit of studying his thumbs. Punishment from him had always been swift and firm when Juliana had misbehaved as a child: hours spent alone in her room without any supper—or a favorite toy or possession taken from her and never returned. But Aunt Kate’s retribution had been worse than anything Uncle Edward had ever done, for Aunt Kate did not forgive. She had a way of staring at you until you felt as big as a pin, and she would do it for weeks and weeks after the slightest infraction, treating you with withering contempt and ice-cold disdain until life in the Tobias house became totally unbearable. Those were the times when Juliana daydreamed about running off with Wade and Tommy, far, far from the great formal house in St. Louis, with its rules and orderliness, its somber-faced servants, its elaborate, silent meals, and most of all its austere mistress’s frosty displeasure.

  “Promise me, Juliana,” Aunt Kate insisted, exactly as if her niece were still a recalcitrant ten-year-old. “We must have your word.”

  “But ...” Juliana began, squirming uncomfortably in her seat.

  “No buts.” Uncle Edward pointed a finger at her. “Give us your word.”

  Outside, the Colorado prairie raced by. Inside the coach, her aunt and uncle both stared at her, Uncle Edward frowning, Aunt Kate glaring with that haughty, expectant look she wore whenever Maura was late bringing in tea.

  Juliana took a deep breath. “I promise.”

  They exchanged satisfied nods. Then they smiled at her.

  “That’s a good girl,” Aunt Kate approved. Uncle Edward went back to his sheaf of papers.

  What they didn’t know was that beneath the folds of her taffeta skirt, two fingers had been crosse
d when she issued her promise. It didn’t count, she told herself, untying the ribbons of her hat, and smoothing her hair. She was free to do as she pleased. And she would be pleased to make inquiries about the notorious Montgomery gang as soon as she arrived in Denver.

  She didn’t dare think what she would do if no one in Denver had heard of the Montgomery brothers and had no idea where they might be. Someone had to know something, and she would simply continue asking until she found the answers she sought.

  At just past six o’clock that evening the Kansas Pacific chugged into the Denver station and discharged its carloads of weary passengers. Juliana, stepping out into fresh, mountain-cooled air, took a deep breath, reveling in the pungent scent of pine. She hurried across the platform for a better view of the town. She saw wide, dusty streets lined with wood-fronted and adobe buildings, many of them saloons. Garishly painted signs proclaimed names like the LUCKY DOG, GOLD DUST, and STAR DIAMOND SALOON, the latter boasting of dancing girls and faro. Denver was larger than she’d expected; rougher, too. Not at all like staid, pretty, proper St. Louis. The streets were teeming with wagons, horses, pigs, and people going about their business, and the faint odor of manure in the air mingled strangely with the clear pine scent drifting down from the mountains rising beyond the town. Brown-faced, sunbonneted women in gingham dresses and men wearing guns and Stetsons filled the streets. Tumbleweed blew down the alleys, children skirmished in front of Dade’s General Store. She heard the neigh of horses, the clomp of a hundred pairs of boots on boardwalk, and the blare of tinny piano music and drunken shouts emanating from the Gold Dust Saloon, directly across from the depot.

  “What an ugly, squalid, dreadful place.” Katharine Tobias shuddered. “Edward, I thought you said Denver was a civilized town.”

  “It is, my dear, compared to most on the frontier.” Uncle Edward mopped his brow with a handkerchief, and peered up and down the street. “It seems Breen’s man is late coming to meet us. Well, let’s gather up the baggage and hope he arrives by the time we’ve assembled it all.”