“Wanting isn’t—”
“Enough,” Hunter interrupted. “Yes. I know that as well as you do. Better. Belinda taught me.”
Elyssa closed her eyes, unable to bear the memories in Hunter’s.
“Then you taught me something far more important,” Hunter said. “Love.”
“Just—” Elyssa’s voice broke.
“Just love,” Hunter said softly. “Your love for me. My love for you. The love we will have for our children.”
“Hunter—” Her voice broke again.
“I love you, Elyssa.”
Hunter said it again as he kissed her, then he said it again and again.
The truth of Hunter’s love swept over Elyssa like sunrise. With a broken sound she turned to him. Crying, laughing, Elyssa whispered her own love against Hunter’s lips and heard her words returned.
Then they simply held one another, healing each other, leaving the past behind.
Epilogue
Hunter and Elyssa stood next to Case in front of the ranch house and watched the preacher ride off toward Fort Halleck. Bill and the new Mrs. Moreland had already left for the B Bar, anxious to celebrate their own honeymoon.
The yard of the Ladder S was sunstruck and wild with autumn wind. Case’s horse stood with ears pricked and head high. He tugged eagerly at the reins, wanting to be as free as the wind.
“I’ll come by again as soon as Ab is taken care of,” Case said quietly.
Elyssa flinched. She was haunted by what Hunter had said only last week.
I can’t let my brother go against Ab Culpepper alone.
But Hunter was doing just that.
A husband’s first loyalty should be to his wife.
To Elyssa, who was now Hunter’s wife.
Tears stood in her eyes as she turned toward Case.
“Let the past go,” Elyssa said huskily. “Please. Make your home here with us.”
With a gentleness that still surprised Elyssa in a man whose eyes were so bleak, Case put one hand against her cheek.
“Don’t cry, Sassy,” Case said. “Hunter knows where his future is.”
“It could be yours, too,” Elyssa said.
Case’s thumb stole tears from Elyssa eyelashes. Then he turned and mounted his horse with the lithe rush of a cat leaping.
“Name your first boy after me,” Case said.
“Done,” Hunter said quietly. “Send word if you need me.”
Case nodded. Then he reined his horse around and headed southeast, toward the Spanish Bottoms.
“Wait!” Elyssa called.
Hunter put his arms around Elyssa and held her close.
“It won’t work, honey,” he said.
“But—”
“Case believes he doesn’t have anything else to live for except hunting down Ted and Emily’s killers,” Hunter said heavily.
Elyssa knew Hunter was right. She also knew the truth hurt him more than it did her.
“Would it—” Her voice broke.
Elyssa took a breath and forced the words past lips that wanted to remain silent.
“Would it be easier on you if you went with him?” she asked painfully.
Hunter’s eyes closed. He knew what the words cost Elyssa.
He knew, because they cost him just as much.
“I love you,” he said roughly, lifting her in his arms.
“Hunter?” Elyssa whispered.
“Case said if I went with him, it would be over his dead body. He meant it. You’re stuck with me, honey.”
Case William Maxwell was born the following year, when autumn turned the aspen leaves to fire. Like his father, the boy grew tall and lithe, with unflinching eyes. Like his mother, the boy had a deep feeling for the land and a gentle way with even the roughest horses.
There were other babies, too. Girls with wit and great determination. Boys with power and gentleness. Like their parents, the children thrived in the wild country at the foot of the Ruby Mountains.
At the end of the day, whether the hot winds of summer blew across the Ladder S or the wild storms of winter wrapped around the house, Hunter pulled his wife close, finding peace with her.
And each night Elyssa fell asleep with her autumn lover in her arms, knowing that all the seasons of love were theirs.
About the Author
ELIZABETH LOWELL’s acclaimed suspense novels include the New York Timesbestsellers The Color of Death, Die in Plain Sight, Moving Target, Running Scared, and four books featuring the Donovan family, Amber Beach, Jade Island, Pearl Cove, and Midnight in Ruby Bayou. Lowell has more than thirty million books in print. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym. Visit her website at www.elizabethlowell.com.
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Books by Elizabeth Lowell
DEATH IS FOREVER • ALWAYS TIME TO DIE
THE COLOR OF DEATH • DIE IN PLAIN SIGHT
RUNNING SCARED • MOVING TARGET
MIDNIGHT IN RUBY BAYOU • PEARL COVE
JADE ISLAND • AMBER BEACH
WINTER FIRE • AUTUMN LOVER
ENCHANTED • FORBIDDEN • UNTAMED
ONLY LOVE • ONLY YOU
ONLY MINE • ONLY HIS
EDEN BURNING • THIS TIME LOVE
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER • REMEMBER SUMMER
DESERT RAIN • WHERE THE HEART IS
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH • LOVER IN THE ROUGH
A WOMAN WITHOUT LIES • FORGET ME NOT
Credits
Cover design by Fredericka Ribes
Copyright
AUTUMN LOVER. Copyright © 1996 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition May 2006 ISBN 9780061762543
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-94906
ISBN: 0-380-76955-7
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