“I…will marry you.”
She held out her hand and, with his heart crashing happily around in his chest, he slipped the cherished ring on her finger.
“I marry you, too, Daddy.”
Braham pulled Charlotte into the curve of his arm and kissed her. The kiss moved like a warm blossoming light from the center of his heart to the center of forever.
Lincoln patted Braham and Charlotte’s cheeks. “I want to kiss Daddy, too.”
Charlotte smiled into Braham’s eyes. “Kiss your daddy, Lincoln. He’s finally come home.”
100
MacKlenna Farm, Lexington, Kentucky, Present Day
Late on Derby night, after everyone had gone to sleep, Elliott sat up in bed studying a family tree. Meredith had received a one-inch stack of documents from her research team a couple of days earlier, but with all the pre-Derby activities, he hadn’t had time to read even one page. Now, reveling in Stormy’s Sun’s Derby victory, Elliott was too hyped up to sleep. He removed his reading glasses and tapped a corner of the frame against the papers.
“If I read this correctly, Michael Mallory from Ulster married Lorna MacKlenna, who was James Thomas MacKlenna’s two-times great-aunt.”
Meredith pulled back the sheets on her side of the bed and climbed under the covers. “Yes, and Charlotte and Jack are direct descendants of Michael Mallory, who immigrated to America in 1613 and founded Mallory Plantation.”
“How am I related to Michael Mallory?”
Meredith rolled over on her side and propped up on her elbow. “I haven’t counted the generations, but Lorna is probably your twelve- or fifteen-times great-aunt.”
Elliott gave a small grunt of amusement. “That’s pretty far removed.”
“Almost to Adam and Eve.”
Elliott put his glasses back on and thumped through the pages again. “Didn’t I see a letter from a law firm in Edinburgh?”
“Keep looking. It’s in there.”
He tossed the pages on the floor next to the bed. “I’ll look later. Give me a synopsis.”
“Their client hired them to deliver the brooch, a family heirloom, to Charlotte. They won’t reveal the client’s identity. Sorry.” She rolled over, turned off her bedside light, and then fluffed her pillow. “It makes me wonder, though, if the person knew of the stone’s magic and wanted to get rid of it just as much as Charlotte did.”
“That would make sense.”
Meredith yawned. “The research budget is in the stack, too. The team in Scotland is plugging into a database the names of all MacKlenna family members and the families MacKlennas married into all the way back to the fourteen-hundreds. It’s going to cost you.”
“I’ll sell more Apple stock.”
“I know for a fact you’ve never sold one share of your Apple stock.”
Elliott rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed. “This time I might have to.” He patted Meredith’s hip affectionately. “I’m going to check on the boys.”
“They’re fine. They were so tired when they went to bed they shouldn’t wake up until late tomorrow morning. It was a big day for everybody.”
Elliott made a small sound of pleasure. “Especially Stormy’s Sun. The pressure will be on him now to win the Preakness and Belmont.”
“If he’s half the horse his sire is, there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll win it all.”
Elliott climbed out of bed and slipped on a pair of gym shorts. “Don’t fall asleep. I’ll be right back. I haven’t finished celebrating.”
Meredith yawned again. “I’ll be waiting. Oh, I forgot to ask. Did you talk to David? Is he okay with Braham’s sudden appearance?”
“David’s not the type to live with unrequited love. After Lincoln was born, he gave up hope.”
“I know he said it, but—”
“There’re few things in this world ye can believe without a doubt. One of them is the word of David McBain. He’s fine, Mer. Ye don’t have to worry.”
Elliott walked down the hall, smiling when he passed Charlotte’s bedroom and heard soft moans and the rhythmic squeak of the bed. She and Braham might not come up for air before the Preakness in two weeks. Braham had done well at the track earlier in the day. He knew horses. He had won a two-dollar Superfecta and the one-dollar Super High Five, but Jack had to collect the winnings of more than $165,000, since Braham had no identification. First thing Monday Elliott intended to create an identity for the lad, complete with college diplomas and a passport. Before they went to Baltimore for the Preakness, Braham would have all the documentation he needed to collect his winnings. And then there was a small matter of millions of dollars in buried gold needing to be converted into cash.
Elliott opened the door to the boys’ room and tiptoed in, sidestepping a Lego racetrack, but his bare foot landed squarely on one of a hundred Hot Wheels forming a long line around the track. Elliott cursed under his breath as he hobbled across the room.
Seven-year-old James Cullen and three-year-old Lincoln were sprawled on the bed crosswise, smelling of soap and freshly washed hair. Their pajama shirts were rucked up over their tummies. Elliott laughed silently. Careful not to wake them, he straightened the boys in the bed and pulled up the covers.
James Cullen shifted slightly and mumbled something, but then quickly lapsed into the deep breathing of sleep again. Elliott stood still for a moment, listening to the sounds of the night. Satisfied the boys were safe, he kissed their heads.
Stopping at the door on the way out, he glanced back into the room, remembering all the nights he had come up to check on Kit when she was small. He wouldn’t be kissing either of the boys if she hadn’t gone back in time. But her absence would always leave a hole in his heart.
“Wherever ye are, Kit,” Elliott whispered, “may God hold ye and these precious boys in the palm of His hand.”
The End
“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”
—Abraham Lincoln
* * *
Author’s Notes
This book could not have been written without the input, support, and encouragement from Carol Parrot and Ken Muse. Thank you very much!
Notes about events in the story:
• A Confederate surgeon did tend to General Ramseur’s wounds at Belle Grove Plantation, and General Custer sat at his bedside off and on during the night. No one told the general, though, that he had a daughter named Mary. Most of the wounded were buried at Belle Grove temporarily until they were removed and interred in their final resting places.
• The sequence and times of events in Richmond were altered slightly to accommodate the story, as were the conditions at Castle Thunder. It was a brutal place but my muse took it a step further in creating the dungeon scenes.
• General Benjamin F. Butler, commander of the Union Army of the James, referred to Elizabeth Van Lew as his “correspondent in Richmond,” and General Ulysses S. Grant considered her valuable enough to order personal protection for her when he entered Richmond. However, there is no indication that she ever met President Lincoln. After Grant was elected president, he nominated Elizabeth for the position of postmaster of Richmond, which Congress approved. The government paid her $5,000 for her service and several of the prisoners she had helped sent her money. Elizabeth died in 1900. The city condemned the mansion in 1911 and it was torn down the following year.
• The assassination attempt on Secretary Seward was a bloodbath. Lewis Powell’s wild rampage left five people seriously injured, but he didn’t kill anyone. Braham’s role in the events of April 14, 1865, is entirely fictional. Although I was tempted to let him overpower Powell, I didn’t want to further alter the real story.
• According to Carl Sandburg in Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years, Seward’s house did have a doorbell.
• Braham and Cullen’s legal maneuverings are products of my imagination, although the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 was an actual act of Congress. For those of you with
legal backgrounds, or like me, love legal thrillers, I decided not to include objections to Braham’s witness badgering. He wouldn’t have gotten away with it in today’s courtroom, but in a trial where defendants had almost no legal rights, I gave him some leeway.
• The tracking device David implanted in Charlotte’s hip is also a product of my imagination. Technology isn’t available for implanting a chip of that sort in a person.
• Everybody needs an Aunt Mimi! I don’t have one, but I have a sister Mimi, and she has created genealogy notebooks for all her siblings. The complicated MacKlenna Family trees are available on my website.
• As for time travel, altered memories, and the locations of the brooches at any given moment, I decided to let my muse take the story in a fun direction without worrying about time passing and snowballing effects.
• Will David ever get his HEA? Yes, stayed tuned!
Special thanks to my fantastic early readers: Joan Childs, Shirl Deems, Virginia Simpson Geffros, Jessica Hartwigsen, Tamara Logan, Ken Muse, Nancy Qualls, Theresa Snyder, and John Wickre, Ph.D., and an extra special thanks to my editor, Faith Freewoman, Demon for Details Manuscript Editing, who did an amazing job with a very long manuscript.
Bibliography
Agonito, Rosemary, Miss Lizzie’s War, The Double Life of Southern Belle Spy Elizabeth Van Lew, GPP, Guilford, Connecticut 2012
Cartmell, Donald, The Civil War Book of Lists, New Page Books 2001
Carr, Richard Wallace and Carr, Marie Pinak, The Willard Hotel, An Illustrated History, Dicmar Publishing 1986, 2005
Casstevens, Frances H., George W. Alexander and Castle Thunder, A Confederate Prison and Its Commandant¸ McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 2004
Cunningham, H.H., Doctors in Gray, The Confederate Medical Service, Louisiana State University Press 1958, 1986
Furgurson, Ernest B., Ashes of Glory, Richmond at War, Vintage Books 1996
Green, Carol C., Chimborazo, The Confederacy’s Largest Hospital, The University of Tennessee Press 2004
Hesseltine, William B., Civil War Prisons, Kent State University Press 1962
Hoehling, A.A. & Hoehling, Mary, The Last Days of the Confederacy, An Eyewitness Account of the Fall of Richmond, Capital City of the Confederate States, The Fairfax Press 1981
Kauffman, Michael W., American Brutus, John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York 2004
Lankford, Nelson, Richmond Burning, The Last Days of the Confederate Capital, Penguin Books 2002
Leech, Margaret, Reveille in Washington 1860-1865, Simon Publishing 2001
O’Toole, G.J.A, The Cosgrove Report, Grove Press New York 1979
Sandburg, Carl, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years, Volumes One & Two, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Sandburg, Carl, Abraham Lincoln, The War Years, Volume One, Two, Three, & Four, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Steele, Volney, M.D., Bleed, Blister, and Purge, Mountain Press Publishing Company 2005
Swanson, James, Manhunt, the 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, Harper Collins Publishing 2006
Varhola, Nichael J., Everyday Life During The Civil War, A Guide for Writers, Students and Historians, Writer’s Digest Books 1999
Varon, Elizabeth R., Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy, Oxford University Press 2003
Wyman, Donald Paul, The Chosen Path, Based on the Life of Elizabeth Van Lew, iUniverse, Inc., 2007
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Katherine Lowry Logan couples her psychology degree with lots of hands-on research when creating new settings and characters for her blockbuster Celtic Brooch series.
These cross-genre stories have elements of time travel, sci-fi, fantasy adventure, mystery, suspense, historical, and romance and focus on events in American history.
A few of her favorite research adventures include:
• attending the Battle of Cedar Creek reenactment and visiting Civil War sites in Richmond, Virginia (Sapphire Brooch),
• riding in a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, and visiting Bletchley Park and the beaches at Normandy (Emerald Brooch),
• research in Paris, France, and Florence, Italy, with an art lesson in Florence (Pearl Brooch),
• a tour of New York’s Yankee Stadium and several hours with their historian (Diamond Brooch),
• wine tours in Napa (The Last MacKlenna),
• and following the Oregon Trail for the first book in the series (Ruby Brooch).
Katherine is the mother of two daughters and grandmother of five—Charlotte, Lincoln, James Cullen, Henry, and Meredith. She is also a marathoner and lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her fluffy Goldendoodle, Maddie the Marauder.
Website * Facebook * Twitter
I’m A Runner (Runner’s World Magazine Interview)
If you would like to receive notification of future releases sign up today at KatherineLLogan.com or
send an email to [email protected] and put “New Release” in the subject line. And if you are on Facebook, join the Celtic Brooch Series for ongoing book and character discussions.
* * *
THE CELTIC BROOCH SERIES
THE RUBY BROOCH (Book 1)
Kitherina MacKlenna and Cullen Montgomery’s love story
THE LAST MACKLENNA (Book 2 – not a time travel story)
Meredith Montgomery and Elliott Fraser’s love story
THE SAPPHIRE BROOCH (Book 3)
Charlotte Mallory and Braham McCabe’s love story
THE EMERALD BROOCH (Book 4)
Kenzie Wallis-Manning and David McBain’s love story
THE BROKEN BROOCH (Book 5 – not a time travel story)
JL O’Grady and Kevin Allen’s love story
THE THREE BROOCHES (Book 6)
A reunion with Kit and Cullen Montgomery
THE DIAMOND BROOCH (Book 7)
Jack Mallory and Amy Spalding’s love story
THE AMBER BROOCH (Book 8)
Amber Kelly and Daniel Grant’s love story
Olivia Kelly and Connor O’Grady’s love story
THE PEARL BROOCH (Book 9)
Sophia Orsini and Pete Parrino’s love story
THE TOPAZ BROOCH (Book 10)
Wilhelmina “Billie” Penelope Malone and Rick O’Grady’s love story
THE SUNSTONE BROOCH (Book 11)
Ensley MacWilliam Andrews and Austin O’Grady
There are many more Brooch Books to come.
To read about the next few books, visit
www.katherinellogan.com/whats-next-2
Thank you for reading THE SAPPHIRRE BROOCH
I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Reviews help other readers find books.
I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.
The Sapphire Brooch Page 67