She was shaking. She had to sit down. He saw her lips and her limbs tremble, and he came around to her and helped her over to the porch. He gave her a sip of water, and she nodded her thanks.
"The war… is really over?"
"Really over." He smiled. "I hear tell that Colonel Slater and his men came in here yesterday. Yep, I hear tell they cut down Zeke Moreau and his bloody bushwhackers. That must have been a fine piece of work, yes, ma'am. I'd have liked to have been here. No doubt the Union commanders — and the law — will hear about it." He smiled at her again. " 'Course, Slater's men are gone, I take it?"
Kristin nodded. "Yes… they're gone."
"You his wife?"
"I'm his wife."
"Someone ought to tell him that the war is over. 'Course, they should warn him that he needs to take care. Some people still don't take kindly to a few of his exploits. Once with Quantrill, you know, and then there was Kansas…" He shrugged. "If you should happen to see him, Mrs. Slater, you might warn him to lie low for a while. Ride on to Texas, maybe. Fitz had a brother, and he's sure to make an outcry. But tell him that he has to remember — the war is over. It will all come right. You hear? Tell him Kurt Taylor said so."
Kristin nodded.
"Thanks for the water. That's mighty good water."
"You're welcome, sir. Mighty welcome."
Kristin stood and waited. She waited until the Union officer in his blue uniform had disappeared on the dusty Missouri horizon.
Then she turned and screamed, "Cole! Cole!"
She tore up the stairs. He was up. He had been watching her and the officer from the window. Kristin threw herself at him, sending him flying across the room.
"It's over, it's over! The war is over! Lee has surrendered! Oh, there are still troops that haven't surrendered yet, but they're saying it's over! Oh, Cole!" She caught his face between her hands, and she kissed him. She kissed his throat and his shoulders, and she was so alive and vibrant that even though he had been worried and wary he had to laugh.
"Kristin, Kristin, it can't be that easy —"
"No, it isn't that easy," she said solemnly, and she told him what the man had said. "His name was Kurt Taylor, and he said you should head for Texas."
"I will," Cole said.
Kristin corrected him. "We will."
"We will?" he asked her, arching a brow. "I do seem to recall that there was once a woman who would not leave this ranch. She sold her honor to a disreputable rebel in order to stay right here on this property."
Kristin smiled at him. She had never felt so de-liciously alive and sensual and vibrant and aware of all the world around her. It was spring — and the war was over. Over.
"It isn't my ranch. I was just holding on to it for Matthew, and Matthew is here now. You see, it's time to move on, anyway. And I consider that my honor was sold for a fair price. It was rather useless, you see, while my son — he's just magnificent. And —"
"And?"
"Well, there is this other minor thing. I fell desperately in love with that disreputable rebel. Even when I wanted to hang him myself, I was very much in love."
"Very much?"
"Incredibly, inestimably, most desperately in love."
"Really?" He laced his fingers through hers and bent his head and kissed her. She felt a shudder rake through him, and she sought his eyes.
"Cole?"
"We really have a future."
"Yes!"
"We can watch Gabriel grow, and we can have more children. And I can hold them when they are little tiny infants —"
"And you can change their little bottoms, too," Kristin informed him sweetly.
He smiled, and he kissed her again, and she let out a sweet, shuddering sigh. "Cole?"
"My love?"
She smiled, slowly, lazily, sensuously. "If you go to Texas, I will follow you wherever you may lead. But for the moment…"
"Yes?"
"We've never made love in peacetime before. Never," she told him with very wide eyes. "We've never made love in peacetime, whispering that we love one another!"
He threw back his head and laughed, and his eyes sizzled, silver and mercury, into hers, and she thought that he would always be her cavalier, the tall, dark stranger with the plumed hat who had stepped into her life like a hero, taking her from darkness into light. They weren't clear of the darkness yet. There would be pain. There would be time to mourn Pete, who had always been her friend, always at her side. There would be time to mourn Major Emery, who had been their friend, too, noble and caring, until the very end.
For now, though, they had one another.
Cole grinned wickedly. "Then," he said, "we must make love at peace, and whisper that we love one another. Kristin!"
"Yes?"
He came close against her lips, his mouth a breath away from hers.
"I love you!" he whispered fervently. "I love you, I love you, I love you!"
And though they were at peace they soared into the sweetest tempest, and through it all they never ceased to whisper the words.
The sun entered their room, and a new day had truly dawned.
Cole stroked his wife's beautiful hair, luxuriating in the sweet satisfaction she brought him. He stared at the ceiling, at the new light of day.
It would take the country a long time to heal, he knew. A long, long time. A long time to unite.
But she had brought healing to him, and his heart was united with hers now. "A new age," he murmured.
"What?"
"I said I love you!" Cole lied, and he turned to her again.
The war wouldn't end as easily as Kristin thought. Life was never as easy as that. But they did have a future.
And Texas could wait just a little while longer.
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Dark Stranger sb-4 Page 27
