Hope said, “How awful!”
“Simmons is an awful man,” Dan responded. His eyes narrowed and he added, “Ironic isn’t it? Tippitt’s father is trying to avenge his son’s death, and bribing the actual murderer.”
Cody licked his lips. The news had caught him hard. He felt as if he had been hit in the stomach, and lost all ability to talk.
Hope saw his problem, came over, and put her hand on his arm. “It’s all true, Cody. If we could have gotten to you, if we had known where you were, we would have told you. But, God has brought you here now.”
Dan said, “You’ll have to go in and go through the formality. But, the judge says all we’ll have to do is a little paperwork and you’ll be a free man.”
Suddenly, Laurie said, “No, he won’t be free.” They all stared at her in surprise, and she moved over closer to Cody and took his arm. “He won’t be free. He’ll belong to me.”
Cody suddenly grinned and took her in his arms. “That’s right. But you’ll belong to me, too.” A great sense of joy swept over him, and the heavy burden that had kept him in a state of doubt suddenly lifted. “It’s almost like being saved again,” he cried out. And then, ignoring his parents, he kissed Laurie soundly. She clung to him, and then stepped back, her face red with embarrassment.
Hope came to her at once and said, “I couldn’t think of a better woman for my boy to have.”
Dan stepped forward then for a kiss, saying, “Amen.”
Cody said, “I’ve got to wire Sam, and you’ve got to get hold of Mac. They’ll have to come to the wedding.”
“Not so fast,” Laurie said. “You’ll have to do more courting than that. I’m going home, and you’ll have to come there and face my father.” An impish light came to her fine, dark eyes, and she said, “He’ll be interested about that long trip we made together, alone without a chaperone. I expect he might have a shotgun waiting for you.”
Cody blinked in surprise, then came to her and took her hands. “I don’t care what he has, as long as I have you, Laurie.”
The two were so lost in each other that Dan and Hope caught each other’s glance and moved silently outside on the porch.
“They’re so happy it almost hurts to look at them, doesn’t it, Dan?”
Hope turned, and he took her in his arms. Her voice was muffled as she buried her face against him, saying, “I’m so happy.” Then she lifted her eyes to him, and her lips trembled. “God never fails, does He?”
“Never,” Dan said, and he looked back toward the house that held the young couple. “He never has, and He never will.”
GILBERT MORRIS spent ten years as a pastor before becoming Professor of English at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and earning a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas. During the summers of 1984 and 1985, he did postgraduate work at the University of London. A prolific writer, he has had over 25 scholarly articles and 200 poems published in various periodicals, and over the past years has had more than 70 novels published. His family includes three grown children, and he and his wife live in Texas.
The Jeweled Spur Page 30