Logan helped Andie into a chair. Gazing around the room, she said, “The night I nearly died, I came here. Well, my spirit or soul or whatever you want to call it came here.”
Ethan snorted. “Uh-huh.”
She scowled at him. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but at least show some respect for those who do.”
“Hey,” he said, lifting his broad shoulders in a halfhearted shrug. “You’re alive. That’s all I care about. You can talk to the spirit of Mickey Mouse for all I care, as long as you stay alive. Say, how’s Jericho’s recovery coming along?”
“Super,” she said. “He’ll be well enough to testify against Bostwick next month.”
“Mickey Mouse,” Nate snorted, then crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Ethan. “You are such a dick.”
Glaring at Nate, Ethan said, “Prick.”
“Boys!” Tabitha and Georgie waddled through the library door, arm in arm, both shaking their heads at their respective husbands’ childish behavior.
As they stood, Ethan and Nate grinned at each other. “They’ll never get it, will they, big brother?” Nate said.
Ethan settled into his chair. “Nope.”
As Tabby and Georgie took the chairs their husbands held for them, Andie crossed her hands in her lap.
“I knew the moment I saw her in this room that night, the moment she looked at me, that Emma Harte was my great-grandmother. It was just…there.”
Logan pulled up a chair next to Andie. “Who could have known that Emma Harte’s best friend, Mary Darling, would come looking for Emma, find the bairn, and take him to raise as her own. With so many records burned or lost that night, if Sean was ever officially adopted, there is no way to know.”
Andie nodded. “It’s what Emma was trying to tell me from the minute I entered this house. I had no idea that my Grandpa Jack Darling was really Sean Harte.”
“Yeah,” said Nate. “The baby’s name was Sean, which is the Irish equivalent of John. And somehow, Jack is a common nickname for John.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Pretty convoluted.”
“Yes.” Georgie sighed. “You’d think with all these freaking detectives in the family, somebody would have figured it out.” She set her palm on her swollen tummy. “Say, is there anything to eat in this place?”
Ethan set his own hand atop his wife’s and smiled into her eyes. “We’ll stop on the way home and get some pickles and ice cream, okay?”
She smiled back. “Okay.”
Tabitha made a choking sound and covered her mouth.
“You all right?” Nate asked.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “I weigh seventeen thousand pounds, have a belly the size of a PT Cruiser and a bladder with the liquid capacity of a dime. My ankles look like tree stumps, and I’m tired all the time, but I can’t sleep because your child keeps slamming me in the ribs with his fists!” She smiled over at Nate. Sweetly, she purred, “I’m good.”
Logan pursed his lips and looked at Andie. “Odd, don’t you think, that the surnames are both so…so…”
“Romantic?” she provided. “Instead of Darling, our name is really Harte? I don’t know. Maybe it was meant to be. I don’t know how all this stuff works. I only know that Emma needs to know the truth so she can go on to…to wherever she needs to go.”
Logan turned his chair to face her. “All right then, lass. Let’s help Emma on her way.”
Andie settled back in the chair and relaxed her shoulders and arms. When Logan began to speak, she closed her eyes and concentrated on his words.
“Emma Harte. If you can hear me, make yourself known…”
Andie felt a rush of energy fill her. Images began to take shape behind her lids. In the distance, a soft voice whispered…
Have you seen my babe? I set him in the corner to be safe, but he’s not there now. I need to find him—
I’ve seen him, Emma. He’s fine. He’s fine.
Oh, thank the Lord! I search the house top to bottom all the night and day, but every corner is empty, and I wonder what’s become of him. I miss him so, his sweet baby kisses, his bright eyes, so like his da’s…
He’s fine, Emma. He’s grown up and lived a full life, then moved on, as you must move on now.
But I can not! I’ve sinned and must be punished. Heaven is not for me, nor I for it.
What have you done, Emma?
Why, I’ve gone and kilt me husband, me Jacob! Shot him, I did, and he died just so in me arms. Dear Lord, and I loved him so! And miss him to the marrow of me bones!
Emma…you didn’t kill Jacob.
But I did! The pistol in his hand…I grab fer it to keep him and me own da from havin’ it out, but something makes it discharge, and I kill—
No. Your father shot Jacob, and the bullet passed through him and into you. You died only moments after Jacob did, but while his spirit went on, you stayed behind, filled with grief and remorse at what you thought you’d done.
I…I did not kill me Jacob?
Nae, Emma. It was your father what done it. You need to go on now. Jacob waits for you…and Seanie, too. And yer father who never forgave himself. He moved Jacob’s body to a shop where it would be found, then took his own life that night, Emma. In grief and guilt over what he’d done…
They’re…they’re waitin’ for me? I can see them? Me darlin’ Jacob and wee small son, and me da, too?
Aye, Emma. Release this life, let yourself drift away now. Let the burden you’ve carried all these years dissolve. Go to them…
Oh! I see it! There’s a cloud off in the distance, and it’s brilliant with light. And there are people there, walkin’ toward me. And I know them! Oh, Sweet Jesus…Jacob! He sees me, he’s coming toward me, so handsome in his uniform. He’s a smile on his face, and his hand is outstretched. And I take it! I can touch him, and…Oh! It’s Seanie there, too, all grown-up…and me da…and what do you think? There’s Mrs. Bernstein, bless her heart, smilin’ at me and wavin’ for me to come along. And look, there’s me darlin’ Mary, who I’ve missed so all these years!
Go Emma. Go now…and be at peace…
Jacob…Jacob, me own sweet love. Together now, together, just like you promised me on our weddin’ day. Together now…now and forever…
“So now and forever is it, lass?” Logan said through a soft smile. He took Andie’s hand, patted it. “Is that what you’ll be wanting from me?”
Across the room, Georgie and Tabitha were crying into handkerchiefs as their husbands tried to console them.
“So sad…” Tabby sobbed against Nate’s chest.
“How terrible…” Georgie choked in Ethan’s arms.
Nate and Ethan looked at each other over the tops of their wives’ heads, their own eyes rimmed with red. They both swallowed, then bent to murmur comforting words to the women they loved.
Andie watched them. I want that, she thought to herself. That’s what I want.
“Aye,” she said, turning to Logan. “Now and forever.”
Leaning forward, she placed her palm on his chest, and kissed him. He cupped the nape of her neck with his hand, and returned the kiss with more love and tenderness than she could have imagined possible.
When he broke the kiss, he gazed into her eyes. “You’ve helped me in more ways than I can possibly repay,” he said. “You’ve not only changed me, you’ve released me.”
She kissed him again. Together, they rose to their feet. Logan’s arms came around Andie, and she let herself melt into him. Placing her head on his shoulder, she whispered, “Say them, Logan. Say those seven magic words every girls longs to hear.”
“You want me to say, We’re having haggis for dinner tonight?”
She slapped at his chest. “Those aren’t magic words, laddie. Those are fighting words!”
Pulling back a bit, she smiled into his eyes. “Logan Macmillan,” she whispered. “There is love at me on you.”
His aquamarine eyes sparkled as he gazed down at her. A moment later, the
sparkle turned to smoke as he tugged her closer.
“Aye, lass. There is love at me on you, too. And there always will be. Now…and forever.”
About the Author
MARIANNE STILLINGS has loved stories with happy endings since she was three years old and her mother read her The Little Golden Book of The Ugly Duckling. Originally from California, these days she lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she’s the single mom of two fantastic daughters, and where she takes shelter from the rain by writing happy endings of her own.
Please visit Marianne at www.mariannestillings.com
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By Marianne Stillings
KILLER CHARMS
SATISFACTION
AROUSING SUSPICIONS
SIGHS MATTER
MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIE
THE DAMSEL IN THIS DRESS
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
KILLER CHARMS. Copyright © 2008 by Marianne Stillings. 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 JULY 2008 ISBN: 9780061982736
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