MURDOCK'S LAST STAND

by Beverly Barton

  "I'd tell you that this isn't your war and they can win it without you, but you wouldn't listen, would you?" She gazed directly into his eyes and knew she had assessed the situation correctly.

  "I have to do this. Please, Catherine, try to understand."

  "I do understand," she told him. "I understand you."

  "You'd better go. O'Brien's waiting for you."

  Willing herself not to cry, not go all sentimental on him, she forced a smile. "Take care of yourself. Don't you dare get yourself killed." Her voice cracked. "Do you hear me, Aloysius Murdock!"

  He hauled her into his arms and kissed her until she couldn't breathe, then he shoved her gently from him.

  "Don't forget our fantasy, Cat. I never will." While she still had the strength to leave him, she turned and walked away. He stood ramrod stiff and watched her board the helicopter. O'Brien would take good care of her. He'd make all the arrangements to get her and Lanny back to the States. Back to Huntington, Tennessee where she belonged.

  Lieutenant Vargas walked up beside Murdock. "You will miss your woman, but you will see her again. Soon. The war can't last much longer."

  "Catherine's better off without me." Once she's back home, she'll realize that he wasn't the type of guy who could fit into her world. For a while, she'll fantasize about what they shared and then she'll meet someone else. Some guy who can be the kind of husband she wants, the kind of man who'll be a good father to her children. And he knew it was highly unlikely that man would be Aloysius Devlin Murdock.

  * * *

  Catherine set the round oak table in the kitchen, where she and her father shared most of their meals, with her everyday earthenware. The oven timer dinged, letting her know the meat loaf was done. As she lifted the pan from the oven, she breathed in the delicious smell. A month ago, just a whiff of any kind of meat sent her straight to the bathroom. Her morning sickness had begun at six weeks and ended promptly at twelve weeks. She and Lanny had been quite a pair during those first few weeks back in Tennessee. He recovering slowly from years of brutality and starvation as well as the tuberculosis the doctors were treating. And she was tormented by vicious bouts of morning sickness.

  She smiled as she recalled what Lanny had said when he'd figured out that she was pregnant. "Damn that Murdock! He'd better not go getting himself killed down there in Zaraza, because I want the satisfaction of blowing his brains out myself."

  Catherine placed the meat loaf on a serving platter, then slid the pan of yeast rolls into the oven and lowered the temperature. As she took the pot of potatoes from the stove eye, she remembered the day she'd realized she was carrying Murdock's child. Exactly three weeks after she'd said goodbye to him at the airstrip. She'd known even before she'd bought the home test kit.

  While she creamed the potatoes with a hand mixer, she wondered where Murdock was and what he was doing. The war in Zaraza had officially ended nearly a month ago, but neither she nor Lanny had heard a word from him. Against her wishes, Lanny had contacted the Dundee agency and been told that Murdock hadn't returned to Atlanta. Where was he? And why hadn't he at least called her father?

  She knew he wasn't dead. If he were dead, she'd feel it, deep down inside. In her very soul.

  Glancing out the window as she dropped the mixer blades into the soapy dishwater, she noticed a snowflake swirling in the wind. One lonely little snowflake.

  "Can I help you with anything?" Lanny asked as he entered the kitchen.

  "No, thank you, Daddy. Supper's almost ready."

  "Looks like we're fixing to get a snow, doesn't it?"

  "I believe we are." She spooned the potatoes into a serving bowl. "But it is February in northeast Tennessee. We're due a good snow about now."

  Catherine heard a car drive up, then two doors slamming. But from the kitchen windows she couldn't see the front of the driveway where their guests had parked.

  "Now who could that be right here at supper time," Lanny said. "You finish on up and I'll go see who it is. You didn't invite anybody to supper, did you?"

  "No, I didn't invite anyone for supper. Whoever it is, be polite," she advised. Sometimes her father overplayed his role as father-protector and was unduly rude to people he thought took advantage of his daughter's good nature.

  Well, maybe Lanny's rudeness would get rid of their uninvited guests and they could enjoy their meal. She'd found that lately, her appetite had increased tremendously. And even though her tummy was only slightly swollen, she felt as if she'd gained twenty pounds. In reality, she'd gained eight.

  She placed the meat loaf and potatoes on the table, then poured the green peas into a bowl and set them beside the platter. Just as she picked up a pot holder so she could check on the rolls, Lanny swung open the kitchen door.

  "There's somebody here who wants to see you," Lanny said.

  Catherine dropped the pot holder on the counter, turned and then gasped when she saw who stood in the doorway with Lanny.

  "Benita!"

  Catherine and Benita started racing toward each other and met in the center of the big kitchen. Catherine dropped to her knees, grabbed the child and hugged her close. Shoving her back a few inches, Catherine grabbed Benita's shoulders and then spread kisses all over her face.

  "How did you get here? Who brought you? Oh, Benita, Benita! My sweet, precious little girl."

  "I come to live with you, Mama," Benita said in heavily accented English.

  Tears welled up in Catherine's eyes. "Oh, yes, darling, yes."

  Lanny cleared his throat. "You've got another visitor." He inclined his head toward the living room.

  Catherine rose to her feet, but kept Benita's little hand clasped in hers. "Another visitor?"

  "Yeah, the guy who brought Benita to you is waiting in there."

  "Murdock?" she asked.

  "Sí, mi padre," Benita said.

  Lanny smiled at Benita and then spoke to her in Spanish. "I'm your grandfather. Your new mama's father."

  Benita returned his smile. "Sí, mi abuelo."

  Lanny took Benita's hand from Catherine's and led the child toward the windows overlooking the backyard. "How about you and I watch it snow?" he asked her in Spanish. "You've never seen snow before have you, sweetheart?"

  Catherine hesitated. What would she say to Murdock? Had he come here only to deliver Benita? She laid her hand protectively over her belly. He had a right to know about his child, didn't he?

  "Go on out there," Lanny said. "And put the poor guy out of his misery."

  "Tell Benita that I'm just going in the living room to talk to Murdock."

  "Benita's fine," Lanny said. "The snow fascinates her. Stop stalling and get your behind out there and talk to your baby's father."

  Squaring her shoulders and tilting up her chin, Catherine marched out of the kitchen, down the corridor and into the living room. Murdock stood in front of the fireplace, warming his hands, his back to her.

  As if he sensed her presence, he turned and faced her. Instantly, she went weak in the knees and butterflies rioted in her tummy. Nothing had changed. Just looking at him aroused every feminine instinct within her. He was so big, so rugged, so powerfully male in every sense of the word. He was muy hombre. Much a man. Her man. She wanted to run to him, to throw her arms around him as she'd done Benita, but she couldn't move. All she could do was stand there and stare at him.

  "Hello, Catherine."

  "Hello." She smoothed her hand over her baggy blue sweater that hung down to midthigh. Damn, she didn't have on any makeup and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Would he notice that she'd gained some weight, that her once flat stomach now had a discernible little pooch?

  "You look good," he said.

  "So do you." Good enough to eat, she thought. Oh, Murdock if you don't take me in your arms and kiss me soon, I think I'll die.

  "Lanny looks great." Murdock shifted his feet, but made no move forward. "He told me that he's feeling good, too."

  Catherine nodded. "How did you g
et Benita out of Zaraza?"

  Murdock shrugged his massive shoulders. "After the war ended, I went back to Celendin to find her, but she'd been shipped out, along with Father Galtero and the other orphans. Vincente Sabino helped me find her and arranged for me to be made her temporary legal guardian. Then I got in touch with Rick Burdett and he pulled a few strings. Took awhile to get things ironed out so I could bring her to the States. But she's here now, with you. And there's nothing to prevent you from adopting her."

  "How can I ever thank you?" Tears lodged in her throat.

  "Well ... I've got something in mind," he said.

  "Yes?"

  "Lanny tells me that you haven't been dating anybody since... There isn't anyone else, is there, Cat?"

  "Actually, there is someone else," she said. "But not another man."

  "I don't understand."

  "It doesn't matter right now. What is it that I can do to repay you for bringing Benita to me?"

  "You can invite me to supper."

  "Invite you to—?"

  "Yeah, honey. Invite me to supper tonight and every night for the next fifty years."

  "The next fifty years?" Catherine's heartbeat thundered in her ears.

  "Of course, if I move in here with you, you'd have to marry me. We wouldn't want to set a bad example for Benita, would we?"

  "Are you asking me to marry you?" She took several hesitant steps toward him, her heart so full it was about to burst from her chest.

  "Yeah, I am, if you'll have me."

  He held open his arms and Catherine flew into them. He lifted her off her feet and into his embrace. His head descended as he slid her down his big, hard body. Their lips met in a frenzied kiss. Suddenly, he ended the kiss and set her away from him.

  "Stand right there," he said.

  "Right here?" she asked teasingly, happiness bubbling up inside her like an overflowing fountain.

  He grabbled in his jacket pocket, then pulled out his closed fist and dropped down on one knee. "Catherine Price, I love you. And if you're willing to take a chance on a rough-as-a-cob, old SOB like me, I promise you that I'll spend the rest of my life making every fantasy you ever had come true." He held up an emerald-cut diamond. "It's an antique ring. Jeweler said it's about a hundred years old. The minute I saw it, I knew it was the one for you."

  "Get up off your knees." She laughed, recalling the night she'd sworn she would bring the big man to his knees. She had accomplished that goal in a way she'd never dreamed possible.

  Murdock rose to his feet, then reached out for her hand. She offered him her left hand and he promptly slid the diamond onto her ring finger.

  "You haven't given me an answer," he said.

  "If I give it enough thought, I can probably come up with a dozen good reasons why I shouldn't marry you." She danced her fingers up the front of his shirt. "But I can think of two very good reasons why I should."

  "And what are those two reasons?" He draped his arm around her waist and pulled her up against him.

  "The most important reason in the world—I love you."

  His broad smile deepened the faint lines around his mouth and at the corners of his eyes. "And what's the other reason?"

  She laced her fingers through his, then pulled his hand between their bodies and laid it flat over her belly. "I think a woman should be married to the father of her baby."

  "What?" His mouth fell open. He stood there, slack-jawed, his eyes glazed over and his breathing erratic.

  "I'm four months pregnant," she told him.

  "Damn! Damn!" He swept her up in his arms. "We're going to have a baby?"

  "I'm very happy about being pregnant. I hope you are, too."

  "Happy? Cat, I'm the happiest man in the world." Lanny and Benita stood in the doorway, both of them smiling as they watched a family in the making. Their family.

  Murdock sat down on the sofa, Catherine in his lap and held out one hand to Benita. Lanny gave the child a gentle shove and she went running. After shifting all of Catherine's weight to one leg, Murdock hoisted Benita onto the other.

  "I've resigned from Dundee's," Murdock said. "A family man doesn't need to be in the cloak-and-dagger business."

  "So what are you going to do?" Catherine asked.

  "Well, I thought Lanny and I might go into the cattle business." Murdock chuckled. "I remember we used to talk about that when we retired we'd buy us a farm and raise cattle."

  "Think living a nice, quiet bucolic life would suit two former soldiers?" Catherine grinned.

  Murdock winked at Lanny. "What do you think, bubba?"

  "I think I like the idea." Grinning from ear to ear, Lanny shook his head. "Who'd have ever thought two old war horses like us could get so damned lucky?"

  Catherine tsk-tsked. "The first thing you two old warhorses are going to have to do is clean up your language. We have a little girl who's going to be repeating everything she hears. And I certainly don't want my baby's first word to be something vulgar."

  "No cussing, no heavy drinking and what do you want to bet she's not going to let you fool around with other women?" Lanny burst into laughter.

  Murdock wrapped his arms around his two best girls. "It's a small price to pay for admission into heaven."

  * * *

  Epilogue

  « ^

  Murdock wheeled the baby stroller across the sidewalk that led to the amphitheater at Huntington Academy, the private school their ten-year-old daughter Benita attended. Four-year-old Devlin was already pre-enrolled, as was eighteen-month-old Mae Beth. With his hand in his grandfather's, Devlin stopped along the way to pick up a handful of rocks. Catherine paused to retie the bow in Benita's black curls. She caught Murdock staring at her, with a besotted look on his face, as he eased the stroller to a stop.

  Ah, life just didn't get any better than this, she thought. A springtime Sunday afternoon in Tennessee, with nature brimming over with new life all around them and an outdoor concert in the campus's amphitheater.

  Of course before the concert was half over, Lanny would fall asleep and she'd have to discreetly nudge her father in the ribs a few times. Mae Beth would no doubt need a major diaper change right in the middle of Catherine's favorite concerto. And within thirty minutes Devlin would be squirming and whining. That's when Murdock would suggest they might want to leave early and go on home.

  This Sunday outing would end as many others had this spring. With Murdock, Lanny and Devlin eating popcorn and drinking colas while they watched a baseball game on TV, Catherine would gather her two girls up in the backyard swing and read to them until Mae Beth dozed off to sleep. Then she and Benita would discuss clothes and boys, Benita's favorite two topics of late. And just before sunset, Catherine would make homemade ice cream and Lanny would say, as he did each time, that this was the best batch yet.

  And later that night, when the children and Lanny were nestled snugly in their own rooms, she and Murdock would lie together in their king-size bed upstairs. And during those precious moments alone, they would learn anew that, for them, fantasy and reality were one and the same.

  Catherine finished tying the bow in Benita's hair, then turned to her husband. "Why don't we skip the concert this Sunday? I think I'd like to go home and sit in the swing for a while."

  "That's a good idea," Lanny said. "There's a game on TV I'd like to watch and maybe after a while, you could make some ice cream. Make the cherry this time. It's mine and Dev's favorite, isn't it?" He ruffled his grandson's dark hair.

  "Yeah, Pops. Cherry's my very best favorite."

  Lanny took Benita and Devlin by the hands and walked on ahead of Murdock and Catherine.

  "You don't mind missing the concert, do you?" she asked her husband.

  He stopped, leaned over and kissed her on the lips. She giggled, then glanced around to see if anyone was watching. "Why, Aloysius Murdock, what will people think, your kissing me like that in broad daylight in the middle of the Huntington campus?"

  "They'll t
hink I'm a man who's crazy in love with his wife and is counting the hours until we can put our brood to bed and spend an hour or two setting the sheets on fire."

  Catherine's laughter carried on the warm May breeze. Ah, yes, life most certainly didn't get any better than this.

  * * * * *