Redemption

by Carolyn Davidson

  “In this, yes,” he told her. He tugged at her hand. “Come here, Alicia. I want to hold you properly and I can’t while you’re up there and I’m down here.”

  She obediently slid down two steps to rest beside him, and he settled next to her, his arm at her waist, his other hand tilting her face to his. “Will you say it again, please?” she asked, and he did not pretend ignorance, his answer coming readily.

  “I love you. I love everything about you. You’re the most important thing in the world to me, sweetheart.” He felt the pain of failure slice through him as he thought of the past.

  “I put my music ahead of everything else when Rena was alive. She took second place, and she allowed it. Because she loved me, I suspect.”

  “Ah, but she knew that you loved her in return,” Alicia said quietly.

  Jake nodded. “Yes, I did. But not as I should have.” He touched her lips with his, and the kiss was a promise. “Not as I love you. It’s as if I’ve learned what the word means, Alicia. As though I’ve changed.”

  “You have,” she stated flatly. “You’re a different man than you were. More of a man than the one I saw the first time I walked through that door.” She nodded toward the wide front door, and then frowned as a movement in the narrow glass panel caught her eye. “Someone’s outside,” she said quietly. “Let me go see who it is.”

  But the door opened before she could move, and Jason came in on a gust of wind, his gaze immediately shooting to where they sat on the staircase. “What are you doin’ there, Pa?” he asked in amazement. Then he looked more closely at Alicia. “Have you been crying, Mama?”

  It was the crowning touch, Jake thought, the final bit of the puzzle coming together. For though Jason had announced his intentions, the word had not passed his lips. He’d bypassed it in several ways, mostly by not using a title at all when he spoke to Alicia. Now his concern apparently overcame his reticence and he rushed to the stairway, climbing to where they sat, kneeling before Alicia.

  “Did my pa make you cry?” he asked belligerently. “Did he?”

  “Yes, I did,” Jake admitted. “But I’ve kissed it and made it better, son. She won’t be crying anymore.”

  Jason looked doubtfully at him and sought Alicia’s opinion on the matter. “I don’t like it when you cry, Mama. You won’t do it anymore, will you?”

  She shook her head, reaching to touch the dear, dark curls that needed the taming of her comb and scissors. “I won’t do it anymore,” she said, repeating his words.

  He looked up at her hopefully, and his smile was beguiling as he asked the question that was obviously foremost in his mind. “What are you cookin’ for supper?”

  Late spring—1881

  THE ARRIVAL OF SPRING brought about changes in the big house. A Saturday in May found a whole crew of men busily pounding nails, putting together a ramp that would add considerable ease to Jake’s life. He sat in the shade on the porch, watching, his coat draped over his shoulders to keep away the chill.

  Beyond the porch was sunlight, bright and strong, as was the woman who directed the proceedings. She was heavy with the child she would bear sometime within the next two weeks, if her calculations were correct. But her strength was formidable, and Jake smiled as he watched her supervising the building of his route to the future.

  He would need the mobility the ramp provided, for he would once more be occupying the office in town he’d given up four years ago. Cord was making arrangements for Jake’s transport and, understanding his brother’s need to help, Jake had only nodded his approval.

  He watched Alicia now as she approached the stairs and grasped the handrail. Her gaze touched on the fresh paint with which Jason had liberally coated the risers, and she smiled as if a particular memory had pleased her. Then, her eyes on Jake, she climbed toward him and bent to press her lips against his brow. Her words were audible only to his ears, but it was enough to send him into a state of readiness he’d planned for over the past months.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, looking up at her sparkling eyes.

  “I’m sure,” she said. “At least as sure as I can be. I’ve never done this before, you know. I’m thinking I need Rachel here, Jake.”

  He roared out his brother’s name, and Cord looked up in alarm. “What’s wrong?” he asked, long strides bringing him to the porch. His gaze touched Alicia. “Are you all right?” As if his keen gaze had caught the air of expectancy on her face, he nodded in answer to his own question. “You’ll be all right once things get under way, won’t you?”

  “Will you go and get Rachel?” Jake asked him.

  “I’ve done better than that already,” Cord replied. “I’ve asked her to be here for dinnertime to give Alicia a hand.”

  “She may be stuck with fixing dinner by herself,” Alicia said, wincing as if something had caught her unawares.

  “How far apart are your pains?” Cord asked quietly, his gaze narrowing on her.

  “They’re getting there,” she said agreeably. “Maybe five minutes.”

  Jake felt sweat break out on his forehead. “You need to be in bed,” he said roughly. “We need to call the doctor.”

  “In a bit,” she said blithely. “I’ve a ways to go.”

  “Alicia.” He spoke her name with the stubbornness he kept in store for just such an occasion. “We’re going into the house now, and Cord will send in Rachel when she gets here. This is not a matter up for discussion.”

  She shrugged and smiled in Cord’s direction. “This time I’ll let him win the argument,” she said.

  “I’ll send for the doctor,” Cord said. “Although I think she’s right. It won’t be anytime soon.”

  As it happened, they were both wrong, for it was just before dusk when Jake’s daughter was born. Dark hair and eyes gave her the appearance of a tiny sprite, and her howl of awakening could be heard throughout the house as she made her entry into the world.

  The bedroom was a hive of activity, with the doctor tending Alicia, Rachel washing the baby girl, and Jake swinging onto the bed to lift his wife in his arms, holding her close. She settled against his chest, weary, her features wan from the time of labor. But her eyes were bright, her mouth smiling as she looked toward the tiny bundle in Rachel’s arms.

  Then she transferred her attention toward Jake, and her whisper stilled the anxiety he’d been beset with over the past hours. “Thank you, Mr. McPherson, for my daughter. I think she looks like a tiny flower, don’t you?”

  He could only agree, nodding as she announced the name she’d chosen. “I’d like to call her Rose,” she said.

  Jake nodded. Whatever Alicia wanted, he was willing to bow to her wishes. At least for tonight.

  From the doorway, a worried voice begged entry and, as the doctor pulled the sheet up over Alicia, he called permission.

  “What are you doin’, Pa?” Jason asked. “Is Mama all right? I heard the baby crying, and Uncle Cord said I could ask to come in now.”

  “I’m hugging your mama,” Jake said, tackling the most important issue first. “And yes, you may come in and meet your sister, son. We’ve named her Rose. Does that please you?”

  Jason’s eyes sought out the tiny face as Rachel offered the baby for the boy’s inspection, and his eyes were wide as he took in the red face and the squalling infant. “She won’t bawl like that all the time, will she, Pa?” he asked anxiously.

  “No,” Jake assured him. “Only when she’s wet or hungry or wants to be held.” He grinned at the boy. “You were the same way, Jason. All babies are alike.”

  “Maybe I could hold her sometime,” the boy said wistfully.

  “Jason, come here,” Alicia said, patting the bed on the other side of her. She nodded at Rachel, and in moments the new baby girl was in the midst of a three-way hug, her mother’s arms cradling her as Jason bent to touch his lips to her head, Jake reinforcing Alicia’s hold on his daughter.

  “Wow, she smells like—” Jason wrinkled his nose. “Kinda sweet, an
d kinda different.”

  “That’s what all newborn babies smell like,” Rachel said. She looked with tenderness at Alicia. “Cherish it while it lasts, sister dear. The particular scent will wash off quickly, but you’ll never forget how marvelously sweet it is.”

  Jake thought Rachel looked just a bit wistful as she watched the three of them, then she turned aside as the doctor issued instructions for Alicia’s care.

  “I’ll be here for a day or so,” she assured him. “Then Jake will take over.”

  “I haven’t forgotten how to tend a baby,” he said stoutly. “And Alicia will need my guidance.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Some things never change,” she said flatly.

  His smile flashed and he agreed with her readily. “You’re right there, my dear. The most important things in life are steadfast and solid…unchanging in a changing world all around us.”

  “Like loving me, Jake?” she asked softly, and he nodded his reply.

  Then he underscored his meaning with the words she still needed to hear, even though they were a regular part of his vocabulary these days.

  “I love you, wife of mine,” he whispered.

  “I love you, too, Mama,” Jason whispered. “And Rose.” He slid from the bed and headed for the door. “I hafta go and tell Uncle Cord about the baby now. But I’ll be back right shortly.”

  “He’s going to need your attention while I’m busy with the baby, Jake. I fear he will run you ragged,” Alicia said with a smile.

  “I can handle it,” Jake told her. “I can handle anything these days, sweetheart.”

  Her laughter rang out, the sound of a woman pleased with herself, with the knowledge that her life was complete. With the confidence that she loved and was loved in return.

  NIGHT HAD FALLEN and the parlor was lit by a single lamp, shedding its glow over the form of mother and child. Alicia rocked gently to and fro, looking out the window, awaiting the surprise Jake had promised. She looked up as he rolled into the room, noting the look of peace he wore, the firmness of his jaw, the brilliance of dark eyes that flashed in her direction.

  “I wrote something for you, Alicia,” he said quietly. “I’d like to play it for you.”

  “You wrote a song for me?” She thought of the times when she’d heard his touch on the piano keys while she was in the yard, or arriving home, only to have the sound cease at her approach. Wisely, she’d allowed the secrecy he’d put in place, knowing that eventually he would come to this point.

  And yet, for him to have written a piece of music with her in mind was more than she’d expected.

  Jake smiled at her from across the room. “It has no words. Toby would call it real music, as opposed to songs with words.” He slid from his chair onto the piano bench and set the pedal in place near his right knee. His glance at her was fraught with a tension he could not hide. “I may not be very good at this. I’ve only practiced it a couple of times when you were out.”

  His fingers touched the keys, tentatively at first, then with a strength and purpose she could not mistake. It was the touch of a master, of a man whose talent superseded that of any other she’d heard at the keyboard. Her parents had taken her to concerts as a part of her education, but never in the fanciest concert hall had she heard the depth of feeling that was now brought to life from Jake’s gifted fingers.

  “What do you call it?” she asked, content for the moment to listen, wrapped up in the intricate harmony of notes he created.

  He glanced at her with an all-encompassing look and she felt the message he conveyed as if it were whispered aloud.

  “I call it simply ‘For Alicia,’” he said softly. “It speaks of all you are, sweetheart, of all you mean to me, of the love we share, the beauty you shed about you.”

  His head bent as his hands moved gracefully over the keys and the music he played sounded like a choir of angels in her ears.

  For Alicia.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-6176-4

  REDEMPTION

  Copyright © 2006 by Carolyn Davidson

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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