He ate in silence for a time, then Tom said, “I suppose you think we owe you an apology.”
Forking up a bite of ham, Daniel fixed his gaze on the man across from him, chewed, and waited.
“But you can hardly blame us for not believing you,” Tom went on, his face showing color. “Hell, it still doesn’t make any sense.”
Daniel agreed. And realizing it would probably kill Tom to say the words, he took pity and changed the subject. “How long have I been here?”
“Three days. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.”
Daniel’s surprise must have shown.
“You were fevered.” Harvey explained that once Doc removed the bullet, Lacy kept applying poultices to draw out the infection until finally the fever broke yesterday. “You owe her your life.”
Daniel met her eyes, and what he saw in them made his mind leap to all sorts of possibilities. “I’ll be sure to thank her. Properly.” Rewarded with a blush, he turned back to Harvey. “What about my horse?”
“In the barn.”
“He staying there?”
“When he feels like it. Your dog prefers Hannah’s room.”
A cry came from behind the house.
Lacy grinned. “She must have realized you’re awake. She’s been very worried about you. I’d better get the eggs before she breaks them.”
As soon as Lacy left the room, Daniel looked across at her brothers. “Just so you know, I’m marrying your sister.”
Tom showed no reaction.
Harvey did. “You asking or telling?”
“Asking her. Telling you.”
Pushing aside his coffee cup, Tom sat back and studied Daniel. He made an offhand gesture at the knickknacks on the shelves and the pictures on the walls. “She won’t come cheap. How you plan to support her?”
“I’ve got money.”
Harvey snorted. “From what? Far as we know, you don’t earn a wage. You rob a bank or something?”
“I worked for the railroads a while back.”
“And now?”
Daniel shrugged. “And now I make furniture.”
“What kind of furniture?”
“The kind rich folks pay a lot for.”
“Rich folks? Around here?”
“Around the country.” Daniel leveled his gaze at the brothers. “And what do you do? When you’re not living with your sister, that is.”
The barb hit home. “We used to work at a lumber mill up north,” Harvey defended. “But after Hannah went missing, Lacy needed us here.”
“That was brotherly of you,” Daniel allowed. “But she won’t be needing you much longer.”
“The hell you say.”
“Relax, Harvey,” Tom cut in before Daniel said something he might regret. “She’s kicking us out after the first, anyway.”
“She is?”
If Daniel hadn’t been so sore, he might have danced a jig across the floor. “I guess my plans can wait until then.”
“What plans?” Lacy asked, coming into the room with Hannah in her arms. “If you’re talking about courting,” she said, rubbing noses with her daughter, “we’ve decided against it, haven’t we, sweetie?”
Hannah giggled.
Harvey snickered.
Daniel felt like his heart had dropped into his stomach.
Lacy set her wiggling daughter onto the floor. Immediately the child ran to Daniel and climbed into his lap, unmindful of his groan when she bumped his bandaged side.
“Yes, Hannah and I have decided to forgo the courtship,” Lacy went on as she began clearing the table, “and get married now.”
Daniel choked on a piece of potato.
“Now?” her brothers said in unison.
“Since we’re in love with him, we think that would be best, don’t you? But he’ll have to ask us first, of course.”
Tom and Harvey gaped at her.
Daniel’s heart bounced back into place. “You love me?”
“Of course.” She gave a saucy grin he didn’t remember ever seeing on her face before. It perked him up all over. “I don’t let just any man recuperate in my bed.” Turning back to her brothers, she went on: “Hannah can be my bridesmaid, and unless Daniel has objections, you can be best man, Tom. Harvey can give me away. How’s that?”
Harvey gawked from one to the other. “You’re serious?”
“I am.”
Daniel was too stunned to respond. The part of him capable of thought couldn’t believe she could love a scarred, damaged recluse when she could have any man she wanted. But the part of him that didn’t think at all, didn’t care. Gratitude, pity, loneliness, his bank account—it didn’t matter what brought her to him, as long as she came.
“I accept,” he said, overwhelmed by such an onslaught of emotion the word caught in his throat. “All that about your brothers, too.” He would even let them live in the house if that’s what she wanted. For a while, anyway.
“I believe you’re supposed to ask me. Not the other way around.”
“Do I have to go down on my knees?”
“Maybe later.”
“Jesus, Sis.”
“Will you marry me, Lacy Ellis?” A sharp elbow dug into his stomach. “And you, too, Hannah Ellis?” he quickly added.
“I’d be honored, Daniel Hobart.”
“Me, too. What’s honored mean, Mama?”
Daniel’s heart pounded so hard he grew dizzy again. “When?”
“Hannah and I thought Christmas evening would be best. Something small, here at the house. How does that sound?”
Daniel thought it sounded grand.
***
The next morning, dawn was barely peeking through the lace curtains by the bed when Daniel awoke to a little girl’s knee poking into his side and the woman of his latest lurid dream smiling down at him. Only she was fully dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed, rather than on top of him.
“Morning,” she said, reaching out to brush the hair from his forehead. Her skin was soft and smooth against his, and the love he saw in her beautiful eyes made him wonder if he was still dreaming.
To find out, he pulled her down onto his chest and kissed her until they both ran out of air. “You know I love you, don’t you, Lacy Ellis?” he whispered against her lips. “And have, even before I knew your name.”
“I do, Daniel Hobart,” she whispered. “And I’m so grateful for it.”
He noticed she didn’t say the words back, and that troubled him.
At a sound from her daughter, she reluctantly pulled out of his arms. But Hannah just sighed and snuggled closer. Luckily, she was on his good side.
“I’m sorry she snuck in again,” Lacy said. “She’s done that every morning since you brought her back. I think she’s afraid to let you out of her sight.”
Daniel stroked the small blonde head beside his chest. He felt the same way. There was something about this child . . . a bond between them he didn’t understand. But it was as familiar to him as the beat of his pulse, and as necessary as the air he breathed. “I guess you know she’s talking again.”
“Another miracle.” Lacy smiled at the sleeping child. “I asked her why she went to you for help instead of us, and she said because you called her.”
“I did?”
“Apparently she’d had a bad dream and was crying, and you called ‘Is anybody there?’ I don’t understand it, but it seems to make sense to her.”
Daniel remembered those terrifying minutes under the snow. He had no explanation for it, either, but it was no longer important that he did. Somehow, in some way, they had found each other, and that was enough explanation for him.
“Well.” Lacy gave his arm a pat. “I have a wedding to plan and less than two days to do it. We’ve invited Doctor Halstead to join us for Christmas dinner and the ceremony. My brothers couldn’t get a turkey, so he’s bringing chickens.”
“Not my chickens?” Daniel asked in alarm. “They’re for laying, not eating.”
“Th
ere’s a difference?”
“But I’ve named them. They’re like . . . friends.”
“They’re chickens, Daniel.”
“Still . . . ”
She laughed. “All right. I’ll send my brothers out again.”
She started to rise, but he put a hand on her hip to keep her beside him. Something had been troubling him ever since he’d asked her to marry him and she’d so quickly agreed. At the time, he hadn’t cared why. But now, he had doubts. “You sure about this marriage, Lacy? You’re not just feeling grateful?”
“Ninny.” She punched his shoulder. “Of course I’m grateful. You brought my daughter back to me. But I’m marrying you because I love you.”
Ah . . . there they were. The words he’d been waiting to hear.
“And because I need new furniture,” she added with that saucy grin. “My brothers tell me you’re practically famous for that.”
Daniel let his fingers drift up to brush her breast. A nice plump breast that filled his hand perfectly. “I am pretty good with my hands.”
“Are you?”
She acted unmoved, but he felt her heartbeat quicken beneath his palm. It made him desperate for more of her. Leaning up, he grabbed her face in both hands and pressed his open mouth to hers, putting into the kiss every sweaty, heart-pounding emotion he’d ever felt for this woman, awake or asleep.
When he finally ran out of air, he slumped back, gratified by the dazed expression on her face. “I need a favor,” he said once he caught his breath.
“Oh?” She took a deep breath, which brought down some of the color in her cheeks. “Now would be the time to ask, I suppose.”
“Is there any way you can get your family to stay at my cabin after the ceremony, rather than here?” When he saw her tense and glance at her daughter, he quickly added, “Just your brothers. Not Hannah. She stays with us.” He didn’t ever want Hannah thinking they didn’t want her, or would give her away.
Lacy relaxed. “I’ll tell them.”
“Maybe today they could go out there with me. There’s something for Hannah I need to get. We’ll need a wagon.”
“A wagon? Intriguing. But what about something for me? I need a new bureau.”
Daniel stifled his laugh so he wouldn’t wake the child by his side. “Oh, I’ll definitely have something for you. But it won’t be a bureau.”
“Then I’ll make certain my brothers are away when you give it to me.” The look in her eyes told Daniel she was as eager for it as he was.
Which set both his body and mind in motion. He sat up. “Maybe I should carry Hannah back to her own room, and we—”
“Later. You rest now.”
And before he could grab her again, she rose and walked from the room.
***
That afternoon, Daniel rented the sleigh from the livery, let Hannah hang bells all over it and put a bow in Merlin’s mane, then, with Roscoe leading and the Jackson brothers following, drove out to the cabin.
It was a beautiful evening, so clear and crisp the mountains looked like they’d been cut out and pasted against the turquoise sky. Roscoe and Merlin were in fine form, kicking up snow at a fast clip, obviously as delighted as he was to be out after being cooped up for the last few days.
The blizzard that had chased Daniel and Hannah into New Hope had almost buried his little cabin. It already had an abandoned feel to it. Daniel had no illusions that Lacy would give up the house in town to live out here. Which was fine with him. As long as they were all together, he didn’t care where.
While Harvey and Tom carried his furniture wood and woodworking tools from the barn, he stripped the house of the things he would take back to Lacy’s. Books, mostly. His carving knives and extra rifle ammunition. The few clothes he hadn’t taken with him when he’d gone after Hannah.
And, of course, Hannah’s dollhouse.
Not much to show for eight months living here.
Still, after bolting the door, he paused to look around one last time.
It was a lonely place. But peaceful, too. He had come here to heal and come to grips with the changes in his life. Now more changes loomed ahead, and a future as ripe with joy and promise as any he could have ever dreamed.
A second chance.
Another miracle.
It was after dusk when they rode into New Hope. They waited until after supper and Hannah was asleep before bringing the dollhouse inside and setting it on a low table beside the hearth in the front parlor. The upstairs windows no longer bothered him, the balusters no longer reminded him of bared teeth. It was just a dollhouse awaiting a child’s touch to bring it to life.
It was like the pieces of the dollhouse and the pieces of his life were all meshing together at the same time. For the first time in years, he felt truly at peace, as if he had finally come home. A fanciful notion. But it had been a fanciful few weeks.
His wedding day dawned clear and bright. For the first time in days, Daniel awoke without bony knees in his back. Dressing quickly before Hannah came down, he went into the parlor and found Lacy sitting in the rocker beside the dollhouse, nursing a cup of tea.
“Will you build me a house like that?” she asked. “Only bigger.”
An image of Maryellen standing before Harvest House, with Billy in her arms, flashed through his mind. Then just as quickly faded away. “I’ll build you a better one. With a bureau.”
Bending beside her chair, he tipped her head up and kissed her. She tasted like mint and smelled of apples and cinnamon. “You’ve been baking.”
“I have.”
Pulling her from the chair and into his arms, he kissed her properly.
She rose to meet him, her round soft breasts pressed against his chest, her arms reaching up to pull him down for a deeper kiss. He could feel the flutter of her heart against his own, and it filled the emptiness inside him. “I love you, Lacy.”
“Because I bake?”
“That, too. Hannah up?”
“Not yet.”
“Want to go to my room for a minute?”
“A minute?”
“An hour then.”
“You can’t wait until this evening?”
“I can’t wait another heartbeat.”
She laughed and, stepping back, smoothed a hand over her hair. “You’ll have to. She’s on her way.”
Daniel cocked his good ear and heard the rapid footfalls of running feet on the stairs.
“Brace yourselves,” Tom warned as he and Harvey came out of the kitchen with steaming coffee cups.
Roscoe came first, his nails clicking a rapid tattoo on the plank floor. Then Hannah came round the corner, saw the dollhouse, and skidded to a stop. Her eyes were as round as bright blue-green buttons.
Daniel felt his scar pull as he grinned at her. “Merry Christmas, Hannah.”
“Oh,” she breathed, her voice soft with wonder. “You finished it.”
His smile faltered. How did she know he’d been working on it? “You knew about the dollhouse?”
“I had a dream about it. Then the lady came and woke me up. Is it for me?”
“It is.”
“I’ve wanted one forever. How did you know?”
“Just a feeling. I get them sometimes.”
“Me, too.” A smile that stole his heart away, then she was tearing across the floor to peek through every window and open every door.
Daniel bent his head beside Lacy’s. “Did you understand any of that?” he asked in a whisper.
“She’s always had vivid dreams.”
“I’d say hers were a bit more than vivid.”
“Don’t think about it,” Tom advised. “It’s better that way.”
Tipping her head against Daniel’s chest, Lacy started to cry. “Oh, Daniel, look what you’ve done. She’s home. She’s finally home.”
His own eyes burning, Daniel pulled her closer and rested his scarred cheek against her silky hair. There was no name for what he was feeling. No words to express the joy
coursing through him. No way to explain the forces that had brought three lost people together in a way he would never understand.
But he didn’t question it.
Like Doc said . . . this was the season for miracles.
Read on for a special excerpt from Kaki Warner’s next historical romance
BEHIND HIS BLUE EYES
Available August 2013 from Berkley Sensation
Chapter 1
February 1871, Baltimore
“Another letter came today.”
Audra looked up, her mind still caught on whether to use further or farther—she always confused the two no matter how many times she consulted Butler’s English Usage Manual. “From whom?”
“That place in Colorado Territory.” Winnie set a travel-worn envelope beside the stack of scribbled pages on Audra’s desk, her disdain apparent in the pinch of her full lips. “Sounds like a right dismal place, you ask me.”
Audra checked that the letter had, indeed, come from Heartbreak Creek then dropped the missive, unopened, into the overflowing waste bin beside her desk. “Has Father eaten?”
Winnie nodded, the white cap pinned atop her tight black curls bobbing with the motion. “Had a good lunch. Hardly spilled a drop.”
Motion drew Audra’s eye and she looked out the front window to see a black closed carriage stop before the rented house she shared with her father, Winnie and Winnie’s husband, Curtis. Four figures stepped out. Men.
“Oh, God.” She jumped to her feet. Did they know? Had they found out what she had done? Frantically, she gathered the notes piled on the desk and shoved them into the desk drawer.
“What’s wrong?” Winnie asked.
“It’s Father’s colleagues. Help me hide all this.” Racing to the bookcase, she stuffed books and notepads into the lower cabinet, while Winnie crammed down the wads of paper in the waste bin and shoved it under the desk.
“What do they want?”
“Maybe they found out about Father.” Audra slammed the cabinet door and looked breathlessly around. Her heart pounded so hard she thought she might faint. “Where are Father and Curtis?”
“Last I saw, headed to the stable to pet the cats.”
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