Letters From The Grave
Page 20
“You know I would love to help you build this place again, even if it did take a lifetime,” she breathed.
“Does that mean you…?”
“I think it does…”
“Then I think I would like to kiss you right about now,” he said, his voice softening as he bent his head towards her.
Emma lifted her lips to his. It was the kiss she had been waiting for, for the last four years. It was everything she dreamed it would be and even more, as she felt the spirit of Doran from the past shiver through her body.
“Did you feel that?” Doran asked, as their lips parted.
“I think I did,” she breathed. “I think Doran and Emma of the past approve.”
“So do I,” Doran smiled, and this time he grabbed her into his arms and kissed her with more passion.
Emma was floating up out of her body as the kiss progressed, and she was certain that she could see Doran beside her, both of them looking down on themselves as they kissed. It was like finding a long, lost, dead lover, she thought. And she knew both of them had.
When the kiss finally came to an end, Emma was out of breath, and could only cling to Doran as they stood there at the opening of the secret room.
Finally, she pulled away. Doran turned on the flashlight and proceeded down the stairs, as Emma followed.
Whatever was down there, had been covered with tarps, the tarps covered in dust and cobwebs.
“I think we have hit the jackpot,” Doran whispered.
They were both standing at the bottom of the stairs, and Doran had his arm around Emma’s waist.
“You want to help me pull the tarps off?”
Emma merely nodded.
By the time they had finished uncovering everything, they both knew that what was there was priceless.
“There is only one problem,” Doran said. “I can’t sell any of this to get the money to build the plantation again. It belongs inside the plantation where it was before it was put here.”
“I think he mentioned something about hiding gold as well,” Emma told him. “And you can always borrow against all of this, and pay it back as you can afford it. That, added with what you have saved up, may be enough to do it.”
“I know what is here, and you are right. There was gold listed on that inventory that was in the bottom of the box. That gold is probably worth a lot more today, than it was back then, especially if it is in coin. I’ll bet it is in mint condition. For now, let’s cover this all back up and close the door. It’s not going anywhere and you and I are the only ones who know it is here. We’ll just leave it, and put the roof back on the church and keep the door locked. When the time comes, I’ll find the gold, and later we can put all this stuff back in the plantation house, once it is built again.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Emma giggled.
“I figure we should take some time to get to know each other and introduce each other to our parents. My father died during the Second World War. There is only my mother now, since grandpa died.”
“You know, we are actually distant cousins. My great, great, grandfather, was your great, great, grandmother’s brother. You remained on the Foster side of the family, and I ended up on the Harrison side of the family.”
“Doesn’t bother me in the least,” Doran laughed.
“My father will be ecstatic! He loves family history and looked up the history of both of our families.”
“When we refurbish this church, I think it would be cool if we hung your paintings of Doran and Emma’s gravestones here. Your artwork is fantastic! It always gave me the chills when I looked at those paintings, especially when I knew you looked so much like Emma.”
“Sal told me you looked like the man in my painting, so I knew you looked like Doran,” Emma admitted.
“That’s why I could never let you see me. Then you would know who I was. I was already starting to mess things up, just by contacting you and buying your paintings, only I couldn’t let anyone else buy them.”
“Because of you, I actually ended up with an art career,” Emma said. “Thank you!”
“I think you are the one who should be thanked. If you had never found the gravestone and answered that letter, none of this would have ever happened. We may have never met. You would have married David and no telling what I would do. I don’t think I would have found the family riches and they would just rot away under the church, even if I did rebuild the plantation.”
“I suppose fate must have had a hand in all of this,” Emma said.
“Yeah, thank our lucky stars this all happened the way it did.”
“Do you think after this life, we will be able to meet again?”
“I sure hope so. You know, when I get the roof on this church, we should get married here. It was where Doran and Emma was married, you know.”
“I think I would like that very much,” Emma whispered.
“I have something for you,” Doran said. “It is something else that was saved before the house was burned down. Before Emma died, she had taken off her engagement and wedding rings because her fingers were swelling up while she was pregnant with Matthew. Doran’s mother set the rings aside, and when she died, they never put them back on her, because they wouldn’t fit. They were put in the box with your letters, for me to give to you when we finally met. Doran knew you would meet me, and we would eventually get married. He wanted you to have a little part of him and Emma too, when we ended up getting married. He made his mother promise to hand the box of letters down through the family so I would be able to find you when the time came.” Doran brought the ring from his pocket. “This will make it official,” he murmured and he took her hand and placed the engagement ring on her finger. “Now we know we have been married before and we will stay married for eternity, for many lifetimes to come.”
Emma didn’t have much time to study the ring. Doran already had her in his embrace and was smothering her lips with his, and she let him.
EPILOGUE
Emma took the blindfold off, her eyes widening as she looked before her. Doran had not allowed her to return to the plantation until he had finished building it. He had found the gold that Doran had put for safekeeping under the church. The church had been refurbished, and when it was finished, Doran and Emma were married there. She insisted on designing her wedding dress after the one the original Emma had worn on her wedding day, and Doran dressed in the same kind of suit that Doran was wearing in the photograph he had sent Emma through time and space.
Now she stood before the plantation, restored to its former glory. Doran had already started farming the land, the way his great, great, grandfather had, and his father before him. The barn had been rebuilt and it looked like a picture-post-card, as the blindfold fell from Emma’s eyes.
“Happy third anniversary,” Doran whispered in her ear and then gave her a kiss. “Now you can raise our children the way they were meant to be raised,” he told her.
“Emma looked over her shoulder at the nanny who was holding their two-year-old Matthew, trying to keep him from squirming out of her arms.
“You can let him down,” Emma called to Debby. “He is anxious to see his new home!”
The toddler ran ahead, and the rest of them followed him through the doors, as Doran opened them.
“I want to take you into the parlor,” Doran said, as he carried her over the threshold.
When he put her down, she could see the fireplace, and the memory of her nineteenth birthday back in the 1800’s flashed through her mind. She recognized the fireplace. There on the mantle, sat the snow globe, and on either side of it, was a framed photograph. One was the wedding picture of Doran and Emma of the past, and the other was the wedding picture of Doran and Emma of the future. They were both in identical frames, and because each couple wore the same clothes in both photographs, no one could tell which one was of the past or which one was of the future. Their lives had melded together as one, and they knew it would be like that into eternity.
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THE END