Caroline didn’t know where the next hours went. Guthrie came in from the carriage at some point, bringing the babies and the maid, but he was careful to keep himself out of the way. The other two husbands, Lily’s tall, imperious Caleb Halliday and Emma’s suavely handsome Steven Fairfax, arrived in good time as well.
“So,” Lily sighed, standing at the hearth with her back to the room, when the three girls were alone in the sumptuous upstairs chamber that had belonged to their mother, “this is where Mama was, all that while. I imagined her living in squalor, drinking her life away.”
Emma put her hands lightly on Lily’s shoulders. “Let’s agree to forgive her,” she said softly. “We’ve found each other at last, and we all have husbands we love and beautiful children. The past has made us suffer enough. I’m not going to give it another moment’s thought.”
Caroline stood at the vanity, holding a small photograph. She couldn’t remember posing for it, or even seeing it before the infamous day she and her sisters had boarded the orphan train, but there were three small, familiar faces gazing from behind the glass. Her own, Lily’s, and Emma’s.
“She loved us,” Caroline said. “She wanted to make amends. It’s enough.”
With nods of their heads, Lily and Emma agreed.
The next day, the three families gathered at the house Lily and her husband had taken, and Caroline was pleased with her sister’s choice—Caleb was a fine man, handsome and strong-willed enough to look after Lily properly. Emma’s Steven was not so tall as Caleb, but he was equally good-looking, with his brown hair and quick, discerning eyes, and he moved with an easy grace that Caroline admired.
After dinner, the husbands—two Rebels and a Yankee, Caroline thought with a smile—stood close to the parlor fire, drinking brandy and smoking cigars. Meanwhile, Caroline and Emma and Lily sat in three chairs pulled into a tight circle, still catching each other up on the myriad things that had happened since they’d been taken from the orphan train. The babies slept nearby in assorted baskets and boxes padded with cushions, carefully watched over by their nurses.
The hour grew late and still the sisters chattered, pausing now and then to weep at some memory, or just because the joy of finding each other again was so sweet. Caleb, Steven, and Guthrie went off to their appointed rooms and the babies awakened, wanting to be fed.
Caroline, Lily, and Emma talked on as they held their children to their breasts and then put them back to bed.
Dawn was breaking when Lily said sadly, “I can’t bear the thought of parting from you both. I wish we could all live in the same town, but Caleb and I have to get back to our homestead in time to plant.”
Emma nodded, her fiery hair glowing in the early morning light. “And Steven and Ïhave a life in New Orleans.”
Caroline thought of Bolton, and her lovely house, and the mine, and she knew she could return there in peace because she’d found the missing parts of herself—her sisters. “We can all get together once or twice a year, perhaps in San Francisco, or Denver.”
Emma and Lily nodded, looking happier.
“And we can exchange letters. The important thing is, we’re not lost from each other anymore. When I stop and think of you, I can say to myself, ‘Lily is here’ and ‘Emma is there.’” Her eyes filled again, but the tears were happy ones. “I love you so much,” she finished.
Lily and Emma gave a laughing sobs, and drew close, each putting an arm around Caroline’s waist, and all three sisters stood with their foreheads touching. Somewhere, far off in another part of the city where their adventure had begun so long before, a train whistle blew, offering a shrill benediction.
Linda Lael Miller is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty novels, including her bestsellers of romantic suspense, Don’t Look Now, Never Look Back, and One Last Look. There are more than 14 million copies of her books in print. Ms. Miller resides in Spokane, Washington.
Visit her website at www.lindalaelmiller.com.
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CAROLINE AND THE RAIDER Page 37
