Jim considered what he might say to that, then decided on a shortened version of the truth. “It’s been a long, harrowing day, and I’m tired.”
“All right. We’ll speak agin tomorrow.”
Jim went back to find Ginny making her escape from what had to be an awkward situation for her.
“Sleep as late as you want, dear. Come down to the kitchen when you’re ready for breakfast and we’ll fix something up.”
“Thank you. Good night.” She smiled at Charlie, then turned to Sarah and held out her hand. “I’m very sorry we inconvenienced you, Ms. Sumner, and very glad you were willing to rescue us. Thank you so much.”
Sarah had risen in surprise. “You’re welcome.”
Ginny brushed past Jim, headed for the staircase. He caught her wrist. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
He followed her up the stairs with his eyes, then turned back to the den and found Charlie also leaving.
Mrs. Lauder turned to Sarah with a charming smile. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to stay overnight?”
Sarah hesitated, then shook her head. “Thank you, but I think I’d better not.”
“They’ll be closing the gates in ten minutes. Perhaps you’d like to come back tomorrow for lunch?”
Sarah turned from looking at Jim to looking at Mrs. Lauder. She smiled. “Yes, thank you. I’d like that very much.”
“Good! We start around eleven a.m. and it runs to two p.m. You’re very welcome to join us.”
“I’ll be here. See you tomorrow.” She waved to the room in general, then allowed herself to be escorted out.
* * *
Wednesday Night
Blue Ridge Homestead
Jim climbed the stairs, located Ginny’s room, and tapped on the door.
“Come in.”
She was already in bed, the only illumination coming from the reading lamp on the table beside her.
He closed the door and came over, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She put the book aside.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
Ginny shook her head. “I knew you’d had experience of women before you met me. I don’t need particulars.”
Jim frowned. “That is an exceptionally gracious and mature attitude.”
“I am exceptional. Perhaps you had noticed.”
“I had.” He bit his lower lip. “And now, having proven how mature we both are, tell me the truth. Are you all right?”
He watched the corner of her mouth twist.
“Do I have a choice? You didn’t plan this. I doubt if you would have told me about her, if the hijacker hadn’t forced your hand.”
“You have no need to be jealous, Ginny. She had her chance and we’ve both moved on.”
“I’m not jealous.”
He was taken aback at that. “You’re not? Then why do you look so unhappy?”
“Don’t you understand? She’s still in love with you.”
He nodded. “Yes. That much I got.”
“If you want—” She stopped, then swallowed, then continued. “If you decide to go back to her, or someone else, I won’t try to stop you.”
“Oh, Ginny!” He felt his heart constrict. He’d seen this coming, of course. He’d promised she could trust him, and here she was, faced with a woman he’d failed to mention, a woman he’d known well and had left behind. How was he to prove he wouldn’t do that to her?
“You realize I’m in very grave danger here, don’t you?”
She blinked. “What danger?”
“When she realizes I’m not going to change my mind, she’s quite likely to take her claws to my face. I may need you to protect me.”
She shook her head. “I can’t protect you, Jim. Not from that.”
He cast about for something else. “Would you be willing to fight for me?”
She frowned. “Like two dogs fighting over a bone?”
“I know where you can get a pair of dueling pistols.”
This brought a ghost of a smile to her face.
Jim moved up beside her and gathered her into his arms. “Ginny, I’m going to tell you again and I’m going to repeat myself as many times as it takes. I love you. I want to marry you and to spend the rest of my life with you and no one else.” He took a deep breath.
“I’m guilty of being young and inexperienced and wanting to have a college girlfriend. I probably said things to her I shouldn’t have.”
“Jim, you don’t have to explain.”
“I want to. I should have told you about Sarah long ago. I’m sorry.”
She sighed and put her head down on his shoulder. Her hair was thick, luxuriant, and smelled faintly of shampoo. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fragrance. He couldn’t remember ever doing that with Sarah.
“You’ll have to face her,” she said.
“I know.”
There was a period of silence during which Jim thought about all the things he and Sarah had said to one another before he left for Texas, then Ginny spoke.
“Thank you, for rescuing us from the hijacker.”
“Thank you for your help.”
“You’re lucky I understood you.”
“I knew you would.”
Another silence, then, “Jim, I need to sleep.”
“I know.” He kissed the top of her head, then climbed off the bed. What he wanted to do was crawl in with her, to hold her while she slept, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not tonight. He turned out the light, and made his way back to his own room, got into bed, tucked his hands behind his head, and stared into the darkness.
If he’d had any lingering doubts about Sarah, this emergency had given him a chance to put them to rest. It would be easier to remember her now, without remorse. It was a very lucky thing that, when he asked, she had said, “No.”
Now, if only he could figure out how to get Ginny to say, “Yes.”
* * *
Chapter 19
Thursday Morning
Blue Ridge Homestead
Ginny slept late the next day and woke feeling better. She called the Pittsburgh Homestead to ask about her talisman only to hear that the storm had grounded all deliveries and the talisman had not arrived. She asked them to call her when it did, then hung up, pushing her disappointment to the back of her mind.
She made her way to the kitchen and found Mrs. Lauder had hot eggs, sausage, potatoes, coffee, sourdough bread, oatmeal, and cinnamon rolls ready to go.
“This is absolutely delicious.” She smiled at the Matron. “Where are the men this morning?”
“Both of yours are helping to dig the van out of the mud.” Mrs. Lauder glanced at the clock. “They’ve been at it for two hours. I’m expecting them back any minute now.”
Ginny started to say that she didn’t have any claim to Charlie, then decided against it.
The storm had passed, moving further up the eastern seaboard, and was currently dumping rain and snow on New York and Boston. Here, the clouds had cleared, leaving behind a pale blue sky and a foot of fresh snow. The sun was out, too, anemic by Texas standards, but enough to make the pristine snow too white to look at.
“We’re very grateful for your help,” Ginny said.
“Heavens, child! That’s what we’re here for.” She fixed Ginny with a sharp eye. “But you know that.”
Ginny smiled. “I do.”
Mrs. Lauder took a sip of her coffee, then set it down. “Tell me about that other woman, Sarah.”
“I didn’t know she existed until last night.”
“I thought as much. Men!”
Ginny laughed. “He might have gotten around to telling me, eventually, and she was willing to rescue us, for his sake.”
“Humph.” Mrs. Lauder cocked her head sideways. “Well what about Jim, then? He’s your laird’s grandson, I gather?”
“Yes.”
Mrs. Lauder gave Ginny a look
that made it clear she was expected to pay for the mouthwatering breakfast in equally juicy gossip. She obliged with a summary of Jim’s background, his professional credentials, and his arrival in Texas leaving his Virginia connections behind.
“Wait a minute! He’s Jamie and Tibbie’s son? I thought he looked familiar! That was such a sad thing, both of them dying like that. I haven’t seen their boy in years. I understood he was in school at UVA.”
Ginny was startled, then scolded herself. Of course the Virginia Homesteaders would know all of their number. Hadn’t Jim said he’d gone to the dances here?
“I thought he grew up in Richmond?”
Mrs. Lauder nodded. “We all get together for the Games and Tartan Balls so there’s a lot of mixing.” She smiled. “He’s turned out rather nicely.”
Ginny smiled back. “Yes. He has.”
They were interrupted at that moment by the sound of arrival. Mrs. Lauder jumped up. “They’ll be wanting coffee.”
Ginny rose and lent a hand getting the half dozen cold, wet men dried off and warmed up. Jim cornered her in the kitchen, putting his arms around her and giving her a big hug.
“Ummm! What did I do to deserve that?” she asked.
“It’s on account.”
“On account of what?”
“On account of the fact that Sarah’s coming to lunch and I will have to pay attention to her.”
“You be nice to that poor girl, Jim.”
“I will. I promise. Up to, but not including proposing marriage and/or agreeing to name one of our children after her.”
“I plan to make myself scarce so you can have a heart to heart with her, but if she’s still here at dinner—” Ginny left the sentence unfinished.
Jim sighed. “I sincerely hope it doesn’t take that long.” He looked down into her face. “I don’t suppose you have any suggestions on what to say?”
Ginny sighed. “Tell her that love requires taking risks, with no guarantee of success, but a life without love is infinitely worse.”
“I will.” He held her close for a moment, then steered her over to the table and sat beside her, talking about the car.
“There’s damage to the undercarriage, and it needs a new front panel. Nothing that can’t be repaired here, but it will take time. And a thorough cleaning, of course.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“Leave it here and take another car north. We can come back this way, swap them out and take this one back to Dallas with us. Apparently we can have our choice. I’ve already seen the stables.”
“Horses?” Ginny grinned. “I’m not sure I can handle a stagecoach.”
He snorted. “No. A sweet collection of four wheel drive vehicles, all with snow tires and chains. If I had known, I could have called here last night, rather than bothering Sarah.”
“Oh! But then I wouldn’t have gotten to meet her! This way, I have something to use against you if you step out of line.”
Jim responded to this threat by throwing an arm around her waist and pulling her onto his lap, then kissing her thoroughly. Ginny was pretty sure he would have done it again, had not Mrs. Lauder entered at that moment, advanced upon him with determination, extricated Ginny, then put Jim to work on the lunch preparations while she interrogated him about life in Texas. Ginny made her escape upstairs, feeling flustered, but not altogether unhappy. He was a very good kisser.
* * *
Thursday Morning
Dallas, TX
It was gone. Detective Tran didn’t have to check twice. The flyer she had seen, the one about establishing a new identity, was no longer under the bed. Someone had removed it. She would not even be able to refer to it in her report, as it was fruit of the poisonous tree, obtained during an unlawful search. It would not matter. There would be more evidence. She was sure of it.
She walked back out into the main living area, watching the crime lab go over the house, collecting items, bagging them, leaving receipts on the kitchen table.
“Last thing he did was look up the lake. Before that, he copied some files onto a removable drive. We’ll know more when we get the computer back to the lab.”
Tran nodded.
“Detective.”
She turned to the speaker, one of the trainees.
“No evidence of flight. All his clothes are here. So are all the things you’d expect to see: toothbrush in the holder, pictures of his kids on the table, suitcases in the closet, nothing missing from the walls. The only weird thing is this.” He held up the device. “He left his phone.”
“Bag it.”
In addition to the house, they had his car, and keys, and wallet, one of his shoes, and the fishing gear. Everything except the man himself.
He might still be here, dead in a ditch, or wandering the streets, concussed and confused. It was possible, she supposed. They would know more when they finished going through his things.
* * *
Thursday Afternoon
Blue Ridge Homestead
Ginny was curled up on the den sofa, staring into the fire. They made a handsome couple, Jim and Sarah. What’s more, Sarah was intelligent and genuine and they had a history together. If he decided to go back to her, Ginny couldn’t complain. A man needs encouragement and she’d been afraid to commit, afraid of making a fool of herself again. She heard a step behind her and looked up. It was Charlie Monroe.
“Am I interrupting?”
Ginny forced a smile into place. “Not at all. Please join me.”
He sat down on the sofa. “I haven’t had a chance to thank you, for all you’ve done for me.”
It had been almost two weeks since the incident at the playground. Clean living and something positive to do had worked wonders on him. He looked better than he had in months. He brought his hands up and rubbed his face with them, pushing his hair back and ending with an impromptu cockscomb. It was clear he had something on his mind.
“What is it, Charlie?”
He licked his lips, then swallowed. “Am I supposed to repent? Are they going to make that a condition? Because I’m not sorry for what I’ve done. He had it coming.”
Ginny sat and looked at him for several minutes, trying to decide what she could say. Eventually, she took a breath and tried to answer him.
“Who lives and who dies is supposed to be something we leave to God.”
He frowned. “That’s what the preacher says, but that’s not how the world works.”
“No, it’s not.” Her brow furrowed. “You know Jim and I both work in a hospital.”
He nodded.
“If we left everything to God, no one would get medical care. There’d be no research, no surgery, not even pain killers. You could take the position we’re interfering in God’s will.”
He nodded.
Ginny continued. “You could argue the same for the law. Left to ourselves, humans are pretty brutal creatures. Over time we’ve developed codes of behavior, so we can coexist, but different cultures value different things, and there are always some who don’t play by the rules. So clashes occur." She took a breath.
“When something goes wrong, we look at what has gone before, hoping to find a solution. In your case the judicial system failed to control the drunk driver, so you fell back on an earlier version of the law, one in which the evil was eradicated, rather than incarcerated.”
Charlie nodded vigorously.
“The problem is, you acted without authority. That put you in the same category as the other lawbreaker.” She paused, then licked her lips.
“The Scots believe—still—that it’s more virtuous to do your own dirty work. It’s not politically correct to say that, but it’s a part of our history, especially in Texas. Which brings us back to your question.” Charlie’s eyes were on her, a clear intelligence in them that gave her hope for his future.
“Repenting is between you and God. The Halifax Homesteaders aren’t going to make you wear a scarlet letter, but neither will they tolerate an abus
e of their generosity. And they’re going to be watching. I won’t ask you to go against your conscience. You must do what you think is right. But you might consider this. You may be the only Texan they ever meet. It will be a chance to show them what we’re made of.”
He took a deep breath. “I’m gonna miss being a Texan.”
She smiled at him. “You’re never going to stop being a Texan, Charlie. You’re just going to have to stop bragging about it.”
* * *
Chapter 20
Thursday Afternoon
Blue Ridge Homestead
Jim paused at the door to the den, catching the tail end of Ginny and Charlie’s conversation. He coughed loudly, then entered the room and located the remote control for the television.
“Has either of you seen the news?”
“No. What’s up?” Ginny asked.
“Take a look.”
“—convict had escaped from a maximum security facility in Nashville, Tennessee. The other two convicts are still at large and with the discovery of this one, more than four hundred miles from Nashville, the search has been extended to include the states of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. The public is cautioned to avoid giving rides to strangers on the highway. Chet, you said they have footage showing the body dump?”
“Yes, Marsha, though it isn’t technically a body dump, since the man was found alive.”
Ginny and Charlie were both glued to the television. Jim sat down next to Ginny and watched the film clip again. It was difficult to see exactly what was going on. The lighting was poor and the snow kept getting in the way, but he could see enough.
“The footage shows two men getting out of a white van and carrying something into the shelter of the store front, then they both get into the van and drive off. Police were unable to read the license plate and the public is encouraged to call if they saw a vehicle matching this description in the vicinity of the Roanoke mall around five p.m. yesterday.”
“I understand the felon was restrained with duct tape, right Chet?”
“That’s right, Marsha. Apparently, someone didn’t want him getting loose. The police are examining the tape and the other materials found on the scene for forensic evidence in the hope of getting a lead on the men in the white van.”
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