The boy started crying, hard, deep, from-his-gut sobs, and his family rallied around him. His brothers patted his back. The women hugged and cuddled and coddled; his father clapped him on the shoulder and made a couple of jokes that brought a fleeting smile to the boy’s face. Moments later, Emma arrived at Willow Hill, squealed with delight upon seeing her family, and a new round of hugging and embracing commenced.
Luke took a step back, mentally and physically, and studied the scene before him. This was the McBride family, complete and whole. It wasn’t simply a collection of eight individuals, but a single entity, strong and invincible. This was the reality Mari had tried to explain to him. The reality he’d not truly understood. Until now.
In his defense, how could he have? If he’d enjoyed this kind of unity within his family once upon a time, back before his father died and his mother married Brian, he couldn’t recall it. He and Janna loved each other, and he adored her children, but time and divisive forces—primarily Janna’s husband—had weakened the bond between them.
No, Luke’s family life hadn’t prepared him for dealing with Mari’s, and from the outside looking in, Luke couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy.
Mari was lucky. Damned lucky. No wonder she’d refused him. Witnessing this outpouring of emotion today, seeing firsthand the deep, unifying love and loyalty this family enjoyed, Luke could finally comprehend the sacrifice he’d asked her to make.
Mari loved him. Luke believed that. She wouldn’t have given herself to him otherwise. Yet, her love for her family was as much a part of her as the color of her hair or the blue of her eyes, and by asking her to marry him now, with family matters standing the way they currently did, he’d put her heart at odds with her soul.
However, this wasn’t a case of Montagues versus Capulets. He sure as hell wasn’t any Romeo. In this love story—and it was, by God, a love story—the heroine stood solidly with her family and a true hero would expect nothing less.
That didn’t mean the hero had to give up, however. The hero had to figure a way to make it work.
Winning Mari’s heart wasn’t enough. Luke would have to win her family, too.
Talk about a tough row to hoe. Trace McBride hadn’t liked him sniffing about his daughter months ago. Now he’d done a helluva lot more than sniff. Add that to the baggage he’d be forced to tote because of Rory’s and Murphy’s sins against Kat and Mari—hell, he’d be lucky if McBride didn’t take his head off.
It didn’t matter, though. Luke might be going away, but he wasn’t going anywhere, so to speak. He’d found the woman he wanted for his own, the woman he’d waited for all his life. He wouldn’t let a little thing like family stand in the way.
He’d win them over. One way or another, he’d rally them to his cause. Luke knew how to turn on the charm when he wanted.
Besides, he had a secret weapon, one that even an overprotective father could not defeat. Luke loved Mari, truly, deeply and completely, and she returned that love. And because the McBrides loved her, too, eventually, once they could see past their anger into his heart, they would give Mari and Luke their blessing. It was only a matter of time…and proper planning.
Luke gave the family one last look, then edged nearer the door. He wouldn’t say goodbye, after all. He’d be back, sooner rather than later. It shouldn’t take too long to get Rory’s situation settled. If luck and train schedules were on his side, he’d return to Fort Worth within a week.
THE MCBRIDE menaces had been sent to their rooms.
They chose to congregate in Emma’s bedroom. Kat lay upon her sister’s bed, exhausted. Emma sat beside her youngest sister, gently stroking her hair. Mari stood at the window overlooking the backyard and watched her father swing his ax, splitting enough firewood to last them through two winters. “He’ll be so sore tomorrow he won’t be able to lift his coffee cup,” she mused.
Emma looked at Mari. “I’ve never seen him in such a temper.”
“He hates me,” Kat declared, her voice thin and weak.
“No.” Mari shook her head. “He hates what happened. You can’t fault him for that.”
“Did either of you notice how he kept clenching his fist, over and over, while you were telling your stories?” Emma asked. “It was the only part of him that moved.”
“I wanted to die when he left the room without speaking, but Mama said he’s furious at the situation and at Rory, not at me.” Kat reached for her handkerchief and blew her nose. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through.”
Emma and Mari shared a look. As uncomfortable as the tale-telling had been, it had been a walk in the park compared to other family events in recent months—the gathering on the front porch the night of the fire and Kat’s memorial service, to name two.
Once the initial excitement of Kat’s return waned, their mother had correctly read Mari’s hesitation to provide any explanations in front of her younger siblings. Jenny sent the boys on a series of errands, and together, Mari and Kat had relayed the story to their parents.
Part of the story, anyway. Mari did her best to brush over the time line of her part of the tale. Nor did she mention her brush with evil à la Finn Murphy. She certainly didn’t let on that she’d given both her heart and her virginity to Luke Garrett while on the trail. That was nobody’s business but hers. And Luke’s.
Luke. Thinking about him, Mari’s heart caught. He’d slipped away when she wasn’t looking. He’d not given her a chance to say goodbye. Mari shifted her focus from her father to the horizon. Was he gone? She’d heard the evening train whistle blow a short time ago. Had Luke been aboard when the iron horse pulled from the station?
She expected so. Better for them all that he got Rory Callahan out of town before Trace decided to go hunting for him. The last thing this family needed was for her father to commit murder.
Below her, he swung his ax hard, and an oak stump split in two.
Mari’s heart felt something like that stump. One half held her love for Luke; the other, her love for her family. Was she being strong or weak to put her family’s needs before her own? Just what did she owe the McBrides? What did she owe Luke? What did she owe herself?
She was so confused.
Maybe eventually she’d see her way clear of the muddle. Right now, she’d continue to take one step, one crisis at a time.
“I’m tired of crying,” Kat said, sighing heavily as she sat up. “It’s all I’ve been doing for the past two days. I need to stop.”
Mari offered her a reassuring smile, sat beside her, and gave her a hug. “You will. Mama and Papa know the story now. The hardest part is over.”
Kat placed a protective hand on her stomach. Her sisters observed the movement. No one spoke the obvious thought, that the most difficult time for Kat lay ahead.
“How can everything change so fast?” Kat mused. “I was worried about the Dickersons, but still, I was happy. He was so sweet to me. Kind and gentle and loving. How could he fool me so completely?”
Emma took a seat on her other side. Solemnly, she said, “I think, Kat, that men like Rory Callahan— charming liars—are not all that uncommon.”
A note in her voice gave Mari pause. “Why do you say that, Emma?”
She shrugged.
“Evil, wicked men aren’t that uncommon, either,” Kat observed. “Mari, why didn’t you tell Mama and Papa about getting kidnapped?”
“Kidnapped!” Emma exclaimed.
Kat nodded. “By Rory’s brother-in-law. She got away by whacking him with a cactus. In the privates.”
Emma gawked at Mari, who rose from the bed and began to pace the room as she answered. “Thanks, Kat. Did it ever occur to you that if I’d wanted anyone to know about that particular adventure, I’d have mentioned it? How did you find out anyway?”
“Remember that first day when Luke put Rory in jail, and I took to my bed? I woke up thinking—hoping—that maybe it was all a mistake. You were asleep in your room, so I went looking for Rory. Luke
was in the jailhouse shouting at him, telling him all the awful things he was responsible for, and that’s when I heard about Finn Murphy. I can’t believe there’s still another black-sheep brother in that family. Was it awful, Mari? Were you frightened to death?”
“Wait just one minute.” Emma rose from the bed, folded her arms, and gave Mari her severe schoolteacher frown. “You will tell me the entire story. Begin at the beginning.”
Mari truly didn’t want to revisit the incident, but since Kat had opened her big mouth, she didn’t see a way to avoid it. Besides, a little sharing on her part might goad Emma into explaining her remark about charming, lying men. “All right. Promise you won’t say anything to Papa?”
“Fairy’s promise,” Emma agreed, using the vow of their childhood.
Mari gave her sisters a full account of the incident with Finn Murphy, up to the point where Luke rendezvoused with the Texas Rangers. Though she’d trust her sisters with her own life, Luke’s true vocation was his secret to tell.
“Thank goodness this man’s been arrested,” Emma said. “I’d worry about you, otherwise. I fear he’d come looking for revenge.”
“I think there’s cause to worry,” Kat said, “except the one to keep an eye on is Luke. He watches you, Mari.”
She tried to act surprised. “What?”
“He’s attracted to you. Every time I turned around he was staring at you. Surely you noticed.”
“Well…”
“A couple of times you looked back,” Kat accused. To Emma, she said, “I was a little worried. It’s Mari’s turn, I’m afraid.”
“My turn for what?”
Kat lifted her hand to the emerald pendant she wore around her neck. “I realized it yesterday. First Emma lost dear Casey, then I tangled with the likes of Rory Callahan. Mari is probably next. Heaven knows if she fell for an outlaw like Luke Garrett, it couldn’t help but be a disaster. It’s our destiny.”
“What are you talking about?” Mari demanded, annoyed and maybe just a little afraid.
Kat held up her hand, palm out. “It’s our Bad Luck Love Lines. Judging on what’s happened up until now, that Roslin woman was right. We’re destined to be unlucky in love.”
The three sisters sighed together, then shared a moment of silence until Emma pinned Mari with a pointed look and said, “What? No disparaging comment? No protest that the Curse of Clan McBride is all hogwash? No declaration that Roslin of Strathardle was nothing more than a charlatan?”
“No. No protest.” Mari’s stomach did a flip as the shadowy idea that had been flitting through her mind in recent days finally took form. “But sisters, I’ve been thinking. What if I was wrong? What if the curse is real?”
Kat rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that what I’ve been saying all along? And just how stupid does that make me? I went and fell in love when I should have known the relationship was doomed from the start. But no, I thought the love Rory and I shared was like Papa and Mama’s, like Uncle Tye and Aunt Claire’s. I thought that our elopement and the Dickerson problem would be the bad luck struggles we’d have to overcome to be happy.” Tearing up, she laughed with a sob in her voice. “How silly was that?”
“Not silly,” Emma told her. “I believe in the curse, but I also believe in the examples Papa and Uncle Tye have set for us. Just because Casey’s death means the three of us can’t end the curse forever, I don’t see a reason to think that true love is beyond reach for us.”
“What if,” Mari said in a tentative voice. “What if ending the curse is still possible?”
Emma frowned. “My husband will not rise from the dead like Kat, Maribeth. He died in my arms.”
“I know, Em. But what if…well…remember what the Scotswoman said? ‘When, in any one generation of McBrides, three sisters, three daughters marked with the sign of Ariel, find love to prove the claim of Ariel and accomplish their assigned task, the curse will be broken for all time.’ Now, the claim of Ariel was that the love she and her McBride shared was powerful, vigilant and true, and that no trial or challenge would change it. Well, it doesn’t say anything about it being a first love or an only love.”
Mari waited a moment to let her point sink in. Emma shook her head. “I’ll never love another man.”
“Never say never, Em,” Kat said. “I never thought I’d end up in my current predicament.” Addressing Mari, she asked, “So you think we get second chances?”
“Well…” She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. It’s just an idea, and it only has merit if she wasn’t a fake, and then a person has to believe in that sort of thing. I’m not sure I do.”
“I do,” Kat declared. “The McBride family history is filled with instances of bad luck in love.”
Emma wrinkled her nose. “Casey Tate was the love of my life.”
Mari offered Emma an encouraging smile. “He was the love of your youth. You’ve still a lot of life to live, Em. Maybe you’ll meet someone somewhere down the road who will offer another chance to break the curse. Maybe we all will.”
Maybe I already have.
“Not me,” Kat said. “I’m done with men.”
“You’re not even twenty yet, Kat. You’re the one who just said never say never.”
“And for once in our lives, you’re the one being dreamy instead of realistic. Think about it, Mari. Not long after Christmas, I’ll have a child to care for. A child I’ll be responsible for. All by myself. Even if I wanted a man in my life—which I don’t and won’t— what man would want me?”
“A smart one,” Emma said. “And you won’t be alone. You’ll have your family with you every step of the way.”
Mari blinked, then silently repeated her sister’s words. You won’t be alone. You’ll have your family.
It’s true. She’d have all her family. Not just Mari and Emma.
She’ll still need me, but not quite as much. Not quite as much.
Again, conversation waned as the three sisters privately considered their own thoughts. Emma crossed to the bedroom window and watched her father swing his ax. Kat absently rubbed her hand over her stomach, then stretched out on the bed once again. Mari sat in the rocker beside the fireplace, then put forth the rest of her idea. “It’s the necklaces. If there is anything to this curse at all, then I think our necklaces are the key.”
“She told us to wear them all the time,” Emma said, still facing the window. “May I point out, Mari, that you seldom wear yours?”
“I’ve changed. Remember about the task we’re supposed to accomplish? I think our necklaces will have something to do with that, and it’s possible the task might connect us with the men we’re supposed to love.”
Emma glanced back over her shoulder, then slowly turned all the way around. “You think Kat’s…um…adventure was somehow related to her task?”
Kat propped herself up on her elbow. “Mari. Surely you don’t still think Rory is the man for me.”
“No.” Mari drew a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I didn’t think about this before, but I wonder…well…what if the task was mine. What if my task was to find you?”
Kat pursed her lips. Emma’s expression was thoughtful.
Mari continued. “Maybe I’m supposed to be the one who finds the love that is powerful, vigilant and true in all of this. Maybe instead of me being the last to find the love that will help break the curse, I’m the first.”
Her sisters considered the idea a moment, then shared a look of alarm. Kat shot up straight. “Oh, my God. What a disaster. You went and fell in love with Luke Garrett, didn’t you, Maribeth?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LUKE’S TRIP TO GALVESTON began on a sour note. Though he was able to place a pair of Rangers on the Dickersons’ trail with relative ease, arranging private security for Mari and Kat proved more difficult than he expected. Plenty of men wanted to act as bodyguards for the McBride women. It took Luke longer than anticipated to find a couple of men he trusted not to take advantage of the situation. As a re
sult, he and Rory damned near missed the train.
Then, at the first stop in Dallas, Rory created a diversion and attempted to run off. Luke grabbed him just before he disappeared into the crowd milling about the station. Rory spent the time until the second stop arguing the case that it’d be a bad idea for him to return to Galveston, and when Luke wasn’t convinced, Rory attempted to jump from the train as it pulled away from the platform. Luke lost what was left of his patience. He kept his brother handcuffed the rest of the trip.
They arrived in Galveston at the end of a long, uncomfortable night. As the train pulled into the station, Luke was greeted with the promise of a pink dawn in the east where a sliver of sun peeked above the gray waters of the Gulf of Mexico. He nudged his brother awake. “We’re here.”
Rory stretched and groaned. “What time is it?”
“Early.” Too early, Luke thought, to go knocking on Melissa Callahan’s door. Maybe they’d stop at a restaurant and get breakfast first. His brother would be glad for the reprieve.
Rory was in no hurry to return to his wife. That didn’t surprise Luke, although Rory’s ambivalence regarding his new son left Luke mystified. If he were ever blessed with children, he wanted to be in on all the action.
It wasn’t hard to picture himself in a well-appointed parlor, pacing the floor, staring anxiously toward the staircase that led to the bedroom where Mari lay giving birth. Her mother would come to the landing and call his name. He’d look up to see the blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. A little girl, the image of her mama, maybe with his brown eyes. He’d dash up the stairs, meet his daughter, then greet his wife, looking tired but beautiful, glowing with joy in their bed.
On second thought, maybe it wasn’t too early to go by Melissa’s. The sooner his business here started, the sooner it’d be done. The sooner he could get back to Fort Worth and the woman he wanted for his own.
Luke unlocked Rory’s handcuffs but kept him close as they traversed city streets already bustling with activity despite the early hour. The aroma of baking bread floated on air heavy with the scent of salt, and sparked the brothers’ hunger. Wagons clattered over brick-lined streets, and voices called hellos and questioned weather predictions for the day. Hot with no rain appeared to be the consensus. No surprise there, Luke thought. Fall weather wouldn’t reach this far south for another six weeks.
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