Dorothy Garlock - [Tucker Family]
Page 27
But peace… and joy had come with Owen…
Owen and she married the following spring in a simple ceremony at Sawyer’s church, an occasion that prompted a welcome visit from her family. Unfortunately, her grandmother had not felt well enough to attend, but Rachel and Mason Tucker came, along with Charlotte’s sister, Christina. Charlotte and Owen expected the weather to be tumultuous, much like their courtship and the adversity they had faced, but when a gorgeous day dawned they considered it an omen, predicting a glorious future.
They moved to a house closer to the school, one that needed a little fixing up, but they enjoyed doing the work together; Owen repaired the columns on their porch and Charlotte came along behind, applying a fresh coat of paint. Slowly, they built something to be proud of.
In other places, lives needed to be rebuilt.
When the tornado rampaged through the Oklahoma countryside, lives had been forever altered. John Grant was fortunate in that his ranch was spared any significant damage; a couple of outlying buildings had been destroyed, a large amount of fence had been felled, and roads and creeks had been choked with debris. Immediately, the men of the Grant Ranch set about repairing and restoring.
But for others, the damage was beyond fixing. Carter Herrick’s ranch had been directly in the line of the tornado’s path and had paid a tremendous price. Practically every structure had been annihilated, scattered over an area of many miles. Fortunately, most of the men and women who worked there had managed to find shelter before the storm arrived, all except Carter Herrick himself; he was found dead in the wreckage.
When Owen learned of Carter’s death, his reaction had been muted. Charlotte had expected him to feel cheated that he hadn’t been able to confront the man who had raped his mother and sent her life into a spiral, the man who was his father, but Owen had surprised her.
“Good,” he’d said when he learned of Carter’s death, but nothing more.
The relationship between Owen and John Grant had improved in the time since the revelation of the true identity of Owen’s father. Owen continued to work on the ranch beside John and Hale, and Charlotte was happy to see them laughing together, in a way becoming the family her husband had always needed.
Del’s betrayal had undeniably wounded John. Though he never requested that Del go to the sheriff and confess to what he had done in the service of Carter Herrick, living with his guilt was more than Del could bear to accept. One night, while all of the ranch slept, he packed up his belongings and left, never to be seen again. His responsibilities were given to Hale, who then passed more and more of his duties on to Owen. Charlotte worried about the war, about the likelihood that the United States could be dragged into it and the nation’s men sent off to fight, but if it were to happen, she knew Owen would do his duty. Her father had gone to Europe and returned, although it had taken years. Owen might need to go as well.
Charlotte hurried into the kitchen and checked the turkey; it was a golden brown as it cooked in its succulent juices. She smiled broadly; she desperately wanted tonight to be as special as she hoped.
This was to be the first night out for Hannah and Hale as a married couple. After a courtship that seemed to go on forever, much to Owen’s sister’s consternation, Hale had finally summoned enough courage to ask his beloved Hannah to be his bride.
“What took you so long?” she asked in place of a simple “yes.”
Their wedding had been quite the sight, Hale perspiring and stuttering over his pledge to love and honor, so uncomfortable it looked as if he were being forced into matrimony against his will. Hannah smiled through it all, confident in Hale’s undying love.
As the other person whose life had been irreversibly changed the day of the tornado, Sarah Beck had managed to do well. Though she had lost her father in the cataclysmic weather, she had moved forward with her head held high, and a few weeks later she gave birth to a boy just as she had always predicted, and named him Ethan. Charlotte had continued teaching Sarah’s lessons, now in her room in the ranch’s main house, and she had shown real improvement; there was even talk that she would go to public high school in the following year. Amelia had taken a particularly strong liking to the girl and their closeness had created a sense of family among the two of them and John. Though Caroline had been taken from him, in Owen and Hannah, John had discovered what it meant to be a parent.
“This better be enough wood,” Owen said as he burst in the back door with an armload of cut oak.
“If it isn’t, you can just go out and get some more.”
“Next year, I’m going to show you how to swing an axe,” he grumbled, but kissed Charlotte on the cheek as he went past.
While Owen lit a fire in their wood stove, Charlotte found herself reflecting on the one person in her family she wished were with her for Christmas. Her sister, Christina, was finally old enough to leave their home in Carlson and to set out on her own. Charlotte remembered what it was like for herself, the excitement of a new beginning, the nervousness of a train ride into the unknown, and prayed that her little sister would find as much happiness as she had.
Owen came up behind her and laced his arms around her; even after their year together, Charlotte never tired of the feeling.
“Have I told you lately that I love you?” he whispered in her ear.
“A time or two,” she teased. “But tell me again.”
“You better watch out, Mrs. Wallace, or Santa won’t bring you any presents.”
“I’ve already got just what I wanted.”
“And what was that?” He kissed the side of her face.
“You, my love,” she whispered.
Contents
Front Cover Image
Welcome
Dedication
Secrets
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Epilogue
Books by Dorothy Garlock
Copyright
BOOKS BY DOROTHY GARLOCK
After the Parade
Almost Eden
Annie Lash
Dreamkeepers
Dream River
The Edge of Town
Forever Victoria
A Gentle Giving
Glorious Dawn
High on a Hill
Homeplace
Hope’s Highway
Larkspur
Leaving Whiskey Bend
The Listening Sky
Lonesome River
Love and Cherish
Loveseekers
Midnight Blue
The Moon Looked Down
More than Memory
Mother Road
Nightrose
On Tall Pine Lake
A Place Called Rainwater
Promisegivers
Restless Wind
Ribbon in the Sky
River Rising
River of Tomorrow
The Searching Hearts
Sins of Summer
Song of the Road
Stay a Little Longer
Sweetwater
Tenderness
This Loving Land
Train from Marietta
Waywar
d Wind
A Week from Sunday
Wild Sweet Wilderness
Will You Still Be Mine?
Wind of Promise
Wishmakers
With Heart
With Hope
With Song
Yesteryear
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Dorothy Garlock
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First eBook Edition: March 2011
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ISBN: 978-0-4465-7444-0