“Yeah, Nick!” Rocco nodded quickly. He knew he was a dead man if he crossed Nick Castellano…and he wanted to live. “Yeah, sure, lots of flowers!”
The two figures walking along Thirty-eighth Street moved slowly. Snowflakes had begun to drift down, and the smaller figure moved in closer.
“Owen, are you very sorry about the fight?”
He looked up at the flakes, tracing their lazy path, not answering her for a moment. The flakes bit his lips, miniature fire, then melted. “Always liked snow,” he said through puffy lips. Then he put his arms around her. “No, Allie. I lost, and that’s that.”
“If it hadn’t been for Nick—” Allie began, then broke off, pushing the bad memories from her mind.
“He’s quite a fellow,” Owen murmured. “When the two of you came busting into my dressing room ten minutes before the fight, I thought I was seeing things!” Then he laughed softly. “And Rocco went to all that trouble for nothing. I had no chance to beat Jimmy Spears. He’s way out of my class.”
Allie said timidly, “Maybe next time—”
Owen held her tightly. “There’s not going to be a next time, Allie. I’ve fought my last bout.” He watched the joy erasing the worry lines in her face and smiled. “It’s all different, Allie. Everything seems so clean and new! If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never forget how Jesus came to me in that room and saved me.”
Allie dropped her head, leaning against his chest. She said nothing, but he knew what she was thinking. Putting his hand under her chin, he tilted it toward him. “Feel left out, don’t you, sweetheart?”
“Y–yes.”
“Sure you do. So did I when I was around Amos and Rose and Ma. But it won’t take you long to come in out of the cold. You’re ready to find the Lord. And I’ll be with you, Allie, all the way!”
“Will you, Owen?” Allie shook her head. “I’ve been so afraid.”
Owen held her tightly and kissed her. Her lips were warm, even in the cold, and he said, “I think God’s got something for me to do, Allie…and I think it’s the kind of job that requires a wife. So, first, you say yes to Jesus…and then say yes to me!”
Allie felt her heart lift, knowing he was promising her what she most longed for. She touched his face lightly. “I’m ready, Owen!”
He laughed, and the two of them held each other as the snowflakes swirled around them. Then they turned and moved down the street, seeming to meld into one figure as they walked toward the light.
HOPE TAKES FLIGHT
The story of the Stuart family continues in the next book of the American Century Series. As America teeters uncertainly between war and peace, the family reunites one more time in the calm-before-the-storm shelter of the Arkansas hills.
Then, in London, Lylah finds bittersweet love. She is swept into the vortex of wartime Europe while her brother Gavin joins the French Foreign Legion.
Gilbert Morris spent ten years as a pastor before becoming a professor of English at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and earning a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas. A prolific writer, he has had over twenty-five scholarly articles and two hundred poems published in various periodicals, and over the past years he has had more than 180 novels published. His family includes three grown children. He and his wife live in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
BOOKS BY GILBERT MORRIS
THE HOUSE OF WINSLOW SERIES
The Honorable Imposter
The Captive Bride
The Indentured Heart
The Gentle Rebel
The Saintly Buccaneer
The Holy Warrior
The Reluctant Bridegroom
The Last Confederate
The Dixie Widow
The Wounded Yankee
The Union Belle
The Final Adversary
The Crossed Sabres
The Valiant Gunman
The Gallant Outlaw
The Jeweled Spur
The Yukon Queen
The Rough Rider
The Iron Lady
The Silver Star
The Shadow Portrait
The White Hunter
The Flying Cavalier
The Glorious Prodigal
The Amazon Quest
The Golden Angel
The Heavenly Fugitive
The Fiery Ring
The Pilgrim Song
The Beloved Enemy
The Shining Badge
The Royal Handmaid
The Silent Harp
The Virtuous Woman
The Gypsy Moon
CHENEY DUVALL, M.D.[1]
The Stars for a Light
Shadow of the Mountains
A City Not Forsaken
Toward the Sunrising
Secret Place of Thunder
In the Twilight, in the Evening
Island of the Innocent
Driven With the Wind
CHENEY AND SHILOH: THE INHERITANCE[1]
Where Two Seas Met
The Moon by Night
There Is a Season
THE SPIRIT OF APPALACHIA[2]
Over the Misty Mountains
Beyond the Quiet Hills
Among the King’s Soldiers
Beneath the Mockingbird’s Wings
LIONS OF JUDAH
Heart of a Lion
No Woman So Fair
The Gate of Heaven
Till Shiloh Comes
By Way of the Wilderness
1with Lynn Morris
2with Aaron McCarver
A Bright Tomorrow Page 30
