Journey's End
Page 19
Merrill was overcome by the kindness and generosity. Sliding her palms over the package and clutching it to her, she looked up at them. “It’s been so long since anyone but Casey has given me a gift.” A rare happening when she was the family disappointment. Then never after she broke with family tradition. “I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to be gracious in receiving.”
“Oh, hush!” Valentina, who knew her history and the tragedy of it, was on the verge of tenderhearted tears. “Just open it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Merrill said with a small smile and began to tear the paper from the thin, flat package. Except it wasn’t a package. When the last sticky bit of tape was dispensed with, and the last fluttering ribbon tossed away, she held a book. A book of photographs.
“Tynan’s photographs.”
“You were expecting Ansel Adams?” Another quip from Valentina to hide the threatening spill of emotions.
“Memories of Montana.” And beneath it in smaller script, “Fini Terre, A Journey’s End.” Merrill traced the graceful calligraphy of the title, deeply embedded in a costly leather binding that bore the imprint of a distinguished publishing house. Then opening it as if it held the treasure of her world, she paged slowly and carefully through it.
Though others had been added, the first were in the order she’d chosen on those quiet evenings of a Montana winter. Each picture was vibrant, each evocative, each with a small caption. And in each she could hear Tynan, speaking of the land he loved.
“It’s marvelous,” she whispered. A woefully inadequate description, but the best her reeling mind and aching heart could manage.
“Then you like it?” This from Rafe, whose expression was as touched as his wife’s.
“How could I not?” Merrill gripped the book as if she would never let it go.
“And the dedication?”
Paging to the front of the book, Merrill looked up at Val, a puzzled frown on her face. “There isn’t one.”
The woman with Ty’s eyes and Ty’s smile said gently. “Try the last page.”
The last page was a photograph. One Merrill had never seen before and had no idea it had been taken. She stood in profile, pensive and bittersweet. Tempest’s reins were in her hand, Shadow lay at her feet. And in the background the stark and magnificent mountains surrounding Fini Terre rose to touch the sky.
She remembered that time. The last ride on the mare that had taken her safely to Piegan’s Ridge and back again. Her last day with Ty.
The caption was a simple dedication.
“Merrill,” she read aloud. “For whom this book was created, in the hope...”
As her voice failed, another began. A familiar voice, a voice much loved. “In the hope that one day she will come back to us. To Montana. To Fini Terre. To me.”
The precious book tumbled to the floor. She was turning, seeking. First she saw Shadow, his coat rich and dark and healthy. His blue eyes blazing, a wolfs grin on his face.
Then Ty.
Eyes as blue and blazing as Shadow’s. And more handsome than she had ever seen him in formal Western attire.
Neither was aware when the Courtenays made their quiet exit. Nor of the music and laughter that was the celebration of a woman’s courage.
“You were Rafe’s business trip.” She blurted the only coherent thought that came to mind.
“You’ve been back from South America two weeks. I waited. When you didn’t come to me, I decided it was time I came to you. You’ve proven what you set out to prove. It’s time to come back to Montana, sweetheart.”
Her last doubt crumbled away. The nagging fear that what Tynan felt for her was only a temporary dream vanished. The restlessness within her eased.
A smile tilted one corner of his mouth. “Casey says that if we hurry, he can still show you what Spring is like in Wildflower Canyon.”
“I’d like that.”
“Then let’s go home, Short Bear.”
She smiled then, at the silly name, the beloved name. As Tynan always made her smile.
When he opened his arms she flew to him. And in his embrace, the perilous journey of Merrill Santiago came to an end.
There, on the Virginia shore of the Chesapeake, while Shadow danced around them like a puppy, with a kiss and a promise of the love he’d never spoken, he made her forever Tynan O’Hara’s woman.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-7194-4
JOURNEY’S END
Copyright © 1997 by BJ James
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