Out of Splinters and Ashes
Page 25
He gauged the little runner, the fragile power he didn’t want thrown off course again. Details about the mock wedding and the daughter that resulted might be too much. He’d save it for later when her finish lines were clear again.
“Your grandfather thought Amabile was dead after the explosion, and my grandmother knew nothing about what had happened to him. Much later, when she was well enough, she found an address for him here in New York and sent him the one thing she believed he could look into and come back to her. The mirror.
“Your grandmother received it. She was actually right all along when she said your grandfather was different. He was. And the mirror seemed like a piece of the puzzle he’d never told her. He couldn’t because of McCoy’s threats, and the guilt your grandfather carried. Tracking the sender, your grandmother eventually put a literary name on the mirror and began to seek out my grandmother’s books. It took time, but she found Amabile, and they told what she had suspected and feared.
“By the time the army came around, something she didn’t expect, she began to figure out what no one else did, except for Randall—the mirror was part of another plot, too. She removed the back and found the list. McCoy had it put there and used your grandfather to carry it to my grandmother, telling him to pretend to woo her so she’d hold on to it, and then the German army would steal it from her. Roughly, if they had to. Your grandfather figured that out and ran to save her, but failed.
“Your grandmother held onto the mirror, waiting until she was sure she could use it as her final blow to your grandfather. The army investigation baffled her at first, but then she realized it doubled her chances for revenge because of the list. Except it didn’t have your grandfather’s name on it. It had McCoy’s. If she’d held onto it, your grandfather would have ended up court martialed.”
“But she didn’t.” Cate stared at him. “She could have, but she…”
“Took all of the pain on herself instead, even after being told how deep his relationship had gone with my grandmother. Your grandmother turned in the list knowing it would help him, even though she had to sit there and be publicly disgraced.”
“She forgave him? After seeing what I saw in his face in his room before the trial, and everything else she found out today, she forgave him?” She looked at Dietrich. “My mother won’t believe this. For all her efforts to fix our family, she never understood this one thing. None of us did…until Grandma.”
Dietrich lowered into the seat beside her, reached for her hand, and pried the handkerchief free. He waved it in front of her face. “Your grandmother.” The white came close. “And your grandfather. He loved two enemies, and she loved one. They both faced that today and they both let go.”
“But the seventh lily…he still had it, I think…”
Dietrich dropped the handkerchief and took Cate in his arms. She was so small. The little runner. “The seventh lily won’t go to waste. It survived your grandfather’s splinters and the ashes of my Oma’s mirror for a reason.” Like Monika had. “That lily is ours now, and it comes with a promise.” He drew her closer. “Do you like Germany?”
He didn’t wait for her answer. He never heard what she said. He buried what felt and sounded like a yes deep in an enemy’s kiss.
A word about the author…
Colleen L Donnelly put her science education to use for years, and then put it behind her to pursue other passions. Her first love is writing and her second is hunting—hunting for that next good story, hunting for shed antlers or mushrooms in the woods, hunting for the next good author to read.
An avid believer in work hard/play hard, Colleen splits her time between indoors and out, always busy at something.
Find her at: http://www.colleenldonnelly.com/
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