Slowly he lowered her feet to the floor and stood cradling her face in both his hands. “Don’t you have to play tonight?”
“Mm-hm,” she murmured, sliding a kiss along his jaw. “That’s why I got the motor car.”
“So you could fiddle on Friday nights?” he asked, not caring that he made no sense.
She reared back. “Oh, Mr. Pepper, there are many, many ways to fiddle on Friday night.” She twined her fingers into the curls at the back of his neck, and her face suddenly turned softly serious. Her eyes spoke even before she said a word. “I have to play, Jess, I need to play. It’s who I am. You know that, don’t you?”
He nodded.
“But...I...”
He saw in her eyes what she wanted to say, and he could easily have spoken the words for her, but instead he waited. It seemed the most important thing in the world to hear her say it.
“Addie. Darlin’.” He kissed her nose and willed her the courage to say what he needed to hear.
“Oh, Jess, when you’re not with me I can’t even think about picking up my violin. I just want you...here...in my arms, and me in yours, because I...” she dropped her eyes, and when she raised them again he knew she finally understood what her heart had been trying so hard to tell her. “Oh, Jess, my fingers just refuse to remember a thing. It’s like I’m all thumbs. Everything I ever knew just flies out the window. And then I think how much I love you, and the music’s just suddenly...there. I love you, Jess. I—”
Hearing the words seemed to solve the riddle of his earlier agitation. She loved him. And he loved her. He had given her the freedom to go where she needed and she had given him the Packard that would bring her home to him.
“I love you, Addie darlin’,” he whispered, and her answering kiss nearly brought him to his knees. She’d solved the problem of how they would be together in this new world they were forging. It birthed a vision he hadn’t even allowed himself to contemplate, and his breathing found its rhythm with hers.
They kissed and turned and traversed the space of the small living room in a way that only lovers can, and fell into the large overstuffed chair Jess had bought knowing it would fit them both perfectly.
And it did.
“You’re ruinin’ me, darlin’,” he breathed.
“I’m what!”
“You’re ruinin’ me. For furniture.”
She grinned and gently clapped both hands to his cheeks. There was a motor car sitting out there in the middle of the road and a horse expecting his supper, and a column to be written and it would all just kindly wait. He would sit here forever with his face between her fingers and his heart in her hands. Here. With her eyes inches from his telling him he was finally home.
“Yup. Ruinin’ me.”
“Oh, Jess,” she sighed and brought her lips like fluttering wings to brush his cheek with her lingering words. She nipped his earlobe, then paused, delighted at his sudden intake of breath. She ran her tongue lightly around the ruddy rim of his ear, and relished his chuckling gasp.
And then with devilish delight, she blew a long, gentle breath into his ear. He shuddered, and her fingers darted upward to cradle his cheek as he welcomed her home.
“Ohhhh, Jess. Fiddle-dee-dee.”
Epilogue
Jess let go of Addie’s hand.
“No! Aren’t you coming with me?” Her startled eyes grew wider as he shook his head.
He handed her the violin he’d already stowed backstage. Her fingers trembled, the amethyst ring shimmering in the worklights. She’d had no time to contemplate how to handle this moment, because this had been his surprise.
It hadn’t been easy, either. They didn’t let just anybody walk out on the stage at Carnegie Hall. But when he’d finally worked his way high enough up the ranks, he’d come across the man whose dear friend had not been able to stop raving about the new young violin professor he’d just hired.
And that’s all it had taken.
Earlier tonight she had laid the world at his feet by answering yes to the question he’d finally found the courage to ask. He thought he knew every light that danced in her eyes, but when she answered him, a whole new kind of luminescence radiated from them.
Addie walked a few hesitant steps, and stopped, turning to search the nearest seats of the lowest balcony that swept almost to the stage’s proscenium, just as Jess stepped in to take his seat there.
He smiled. Nodded.
She brought the fingers of her right hand to her lips, her eyebrows crinkling upward on the crest of a sob.
Jess brought his hands together, the clap echoing musically across the four tiers of balcony and lush, red main floor. He clapped again, and she moved the tiniest bit. He kept up his slow, steady applause until Addie reached the place that she innately sensed was centerstage.
The silence stretched as she lowered her head. His heart thundered, waiting for the music, waiting for the notes she would weave that would usher in their new life. He knew it would be the music of the gods, and still he was unprepared.
She stood there. Breathing. Then, head still bowed, she raised her violin to its home beneath her chin. And with every vibrant note she’d ever explored, with all the sweet strength she’d ever conjured, and with every strain of loving Jess had planted within her, Addie played.
About the Author
Bailey Bristol is an author of both historical and contemporary suspense. Family bonds, enduring love, menacing villains and unforgettable characters are prominent in her stories set in unlikely places.
The Samaritan Files Trilogy follows her debut novel, LOVE WILL FOLLOW, published in February 2011.
Bailey Bristol is the pen name of Mary Schwaner, an accomplished coloratura soprano, graphic artist, and IT geek.
The Samaritan Files Trilogy
Book One
The Devil’s Dime
Corruption and greed set the scene for this vividly drawn tale of danger, heartbreak, unexpected love and family found. Investigative reporter Jess Pepper discovers he is falling in love with violinist Addie Magee just as his newspaper column places her father in mortal danger. Set in 1890’s New York City.
Book Two
THE GILDED CAGE
A tattered file reveals a clue Jess is unwilling to accept—one that shatters everything he ever knew about the mother who abandoned him. When he refuses to pursue the lead, Addie takes it upon herself to reunite mother and son—and nearly pays for it with her life. Set in 1890’s New York City. Due out May 2012.
Book Three
STEAL ME, SWEET THIEF
Addie’s dream of playing at Carnegie Hall is interrupted when she is the prime suspect in a backstage murder. As Jess races to save her from the clutches of a madman, their wedding date comes...and goes. Set in 1890’s New York City.
Due out October 2012.
Dedication
For my Grandmother Genevieve,
a violinist of great renown in the 1920’s.
Your courage in stepping alone into your future
has inspired me my entire life. I feel your wings!
Also by Bailey Bristol
LOVE WILL FOLLOW
With immense gratitude to
Bryn Baxter, Linda Hoegemeyer
Clarice Carlson Orr and Vicki Woodburn
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
THE DEVIL’S DIME
Book One: The SAMARITAN FILES Trilogy
Copyright © 2011 by Bailey Bristol
First ebook edition
ISBN 978-1-937216-17-7
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used in the context of another work of fiction without written permission of the author or Prairie Muse Publishing.
Contact [email protected]
Cover art by Prairie Muse utilizing art by
© Konradbak | © Herzlinde Vancura | www.dreamstime.com
www.prairiemuse.com
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