A Cry at Midnight

by Chancellor, Victoria

  She sure didn't mind watching Jackson split logs he dragged in from her uncle's wooded acreage. He'd put on a little weight since arriving six months ago--all muscle. Working hard all day would have upset most wealthy landowners who arrived penniless in another century, but not her husband. He'd taken to manual labor as if he'd been born to exercise and train horses, fix up their cozy house, and care for the small garden he insisted every family should have.

  Oh, and making love. He was quite good at that too, she thought with a widening smile as he walked up the fieldstone path to the front door.

  "Hi," she said softly as she opened the door for him. He smelled of sunshine and horses, with a tang of autumn. "Rose is napping."

  Jackson Bondurant smiled suggestively, bringing Randi close for a hug. "In that case, would you like to lie down yourself?"

  "I have class tonight."

  "Not for another," he paused and checked the modern wristwatch her parents had given him for Father's Day, "three hours."

  "Aren't you hungry?"

  "Just for you," he said, lowering his head and kissing her so thoroughly that her knees went weak.

  She molded her arms around his back, pulling him closer, reveling in the solid feel of bone and muscle and warm flesh. At times like this, she still got misty-eyed. What a wonder that of all the people who had ever lived, she and Jackson had found each other. Time had been no barrier to their love.

  He pulled back, his finger gently touching the corner of her eye and coming away damp. "Remembering again?" he whispered.

  "Only good memories."

  "The very best," he agreed.

  She kissed him, lingering long enough to savor the taste and feel of him once more. When she pulled back, she looked into his dark eyes and asked, "Do you ever regret losing the plantation?"

  "If I had to give up a hundred Black Willow Groves to have you and Rose, the answer would still be no. What I lost was only wood and dirt. What I gained was the world."

  "Oh, Jackson, that is so sweet," she whispered, throwing her arms around him and hugging his close once more. She pushed away from his shoulders, although he held her tight at the waist. "But you don't mind my sketches survived, and they built the museum?"

  "Of course not. Although I do find it amusing that you never thought those sketches were yours when you saw them in the history book." The lines around his eyes crinkled in amusement.

  "How could I? I hadn't drawn them yet when I went back in time."

  Jackson laughed. "I know, but allow me the irony of knowing my wife helped create the replica of the house she traveled back in time to see."

  "Oh, no. I traveled in time for you and Rose, not for some old house."

  He swatted her on the bottom. "You still have to get in the last word, don't you?"

  "Absolutely!"

  They walked into the house. Jackson picked up the mail which had been delivered earlier that day. "What's this?"

  "Oh, I almost forgot. It's a letter from Barbara Lebeau. I tracked her down on the Internet in computer lab at school. She's Samson Lebeau's great-great-granddaughter."

  "Amazing," Jackson said, examining the Philadelphia postmarked envelope with awe. "Just think. If Lebeau had lost his wife and daughter now, there's a very good chance he could have found them quickly. After almost losing you, I understand the pain he must have gone through all those years."

  "But he ended up a happy man, according to the letter. Barbara never met him, of course, but she knew her great-grandfather, and he remembered his father very well."

  "So Lebeau married . . ."

  "Yes, and you'll never believe who."

  "Who?"

  "Suzette. And they had seven children."

  "Really?" Jackson chuckled and shook his head. "The rascal."

  "He moved many of your former slaves to the north before the war. Some of them were involved in the Underground Railroad."

  "What's that?"

  "It was the way slaves escaped to the north, house to house, traveling with the help of sympathetic people of all color."

  "I have a feeling that if you had stayed in the past, that's exactly what you would have been doing." Jackson settled into his chair, then held out his arms for her to snuggle close.

  "And you probably would have gladly helped. I'm still surprised you made provisions to give the land to Lebeau in your will, and that you'd freed so many of the people even before you knew you were going to leave."

  Jackson shrugged. "I did what was right, and what would have made you happy, had you stayed in the past."

  "I knew you were a good man. You obviously lived in the wrong time."

  "I'm in the right place now," he said with a smile. "I'm glad Lebeau's life turned out happier, and I'm going to read that letter very carefully while you're at school tonight."

  Randi settled on his lap, snuggling close. "Oh? And what are you going to do until then?"

  "Show my wife," he said, punctuating his words with kisses on her brow and cheeks, "how happy I am that she fell through a dollhouse and into my life."

  The End