EPILOGUE
Carrying two blue enamel mugs of coffee,
Allie stepped out to the porch swing to enjoy the last peachy
fingers of the August sunset, and the view of a good-looking
horseman riding up to the front step.
“
How did you know that’s one of the
things I’m craving?” Jeff asked, climbing down from a sleek blood
bay gelding that matched the color of Allie’s hair. He tied its
reins to a railing post.
She laughed. “I’m getting the hang of you, I
think. How did your meeting with Eli go?”
“
Good. He’ll take corn and potatoes for
the store.”
A year after their ordeal, he was more
breathtakingly handsome than she would have ever dreamed the day he
appeared at her door with Will Mason. He had filled out with lean
muscle and sinew. His sandy hair was sunbleached from his days
outdoors, and his eyes sparkled with joy and health. He pulled off
his leather gloves and took a mug from her.
Settling beside her, he patted her thigh with
his free hand. Intimacy and understanding, to be able to touch and
be touched, seemed like never-ending miracles to her. They renewed
her spirit daily, and she felt like the luckiest woman on earth to
be loved by Jeff Hicks.
They sat in easy, companionable silence,
looking out at the rolling acres surrounding their new home. This
was Jeff’s land, which had stood empty and untended for years. Some
acres were under cultivation now, and the coming harvest would be a
good one. The house still smelled of fresh paint and wood, flowers
grew in wild profusion in the beds surrounding the foundation, and
it was just another symbol of their new beginning, separately and
together.
That new beginning had started the day
immediately following the trial. Judge Cavanaugh had performed a
simple but heartfelt ceremony for them in Will Mason’s office.
As if he now read her thoughts, he commented,
“It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since the trial. And
everything else. No more bad dreams?”
She smiled and squeezed his broad wrist where
it lay on her thigh. “No, not anymore. Not since the fire.”
Despite her happiness with Jeff, Allie had
been plagued by nightmares that made sleep a time of terror rather
than rest. Images of her mother had still haunted her.
Finally, after one especially difficult
night, Jeff had put Allie on the wagon seat next to him and driven
her to the Ford farm. With no one living on the property, it had
looked worse than ever. While she had watched, Jeff splashed two
five-gallon cans of kerosene around the barn walls. Then he’d
handed her a match.
“
Go ahead, Allie.” She’d climbed down
from the wagon, walked up to the barn, and struck the match on a
rock. Then she threw it onto a puddle of the fuel. Within minutes,
the entire structure had been engulfed in towering sheets of
white-edged flames. They had stayed and watched until the roof and
walls crashed in, and nothing was left but a huge pile of red
embers and blackened timbers.
With the burning of the barn, Allie was
finally at peace with her ghosts. She and Jeff later sold the
property to a newly-arrived Swedish family from Minnesota, who
didn’t mind building a new barn, or the fact that two graves
occupied a fenced space on the land.
With her foot on the porch flooring, Allie
gave a gentle push and set the swing into motion. “I’ve had a lot
of time to think about, well, everything. My mother was never right
again after Olivia was born, but I think that was only made worse
by my father. He really was an unsympathetic tyrant. And even
though Olivia was his favorite, he filled her head with poison and
resentment all her life, and encouraged her to depend solely on me.
She was as much a prisoner in that life as I was. In the end, she
got caught up in her own web of deceit. There was no one to step in
and smooth everything over, as I’d always done for her. Now she’s
paying for that.”
Jeff took a sip of coffee and nodded. “Maybe
she’s finally growing up.”
“
I hope so.” Allie gazed out at the
darkening blue sky, and noted a pair of swallows, winging their way
home in the twilight.
She’d seen Olivia just once in the past year.
It had been at Wickwire’s while Allie was shopping for curtain
material. Louise Pratt had tottered into the store, with Olivia
trailing behind and the old harpy barking orders at her. Allie
hadn’t spoken to Olivia, and her sister had stared through her as
if she weren’t there. She didn’t know if their breach would ever be
healed, but it didn’t matter now.
“
You know, I’m glad I built this house
with the front porch facing south,” he said, changing the subject,
and the timbre of his voice. “That way we can enjoy the sun and the
moon. It’s very romantic, don’t you think?” He set his coffee down
and put an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer.
“
Hmm, yes, it is. That reminds me—you
said the coffee was one of the things you’d been craving. What else
did you have in mind?”
Jeff lowered his head to sprinkle soft, slow
kisses along her neck. “I’ll bet you can guess.” He worked his way
up to her ear and ran his tongue along its outer edge. Delicious
shivers made goose bumps bloom all over her body. Turning her lips
toward his, she eagerly accepted his full, lush kiss. His tongue
moved slowly over the slick folds inside her mouth, making her moan
softly. His warm hand crept up her ribs, and he brushed the backs
of his fingers over her erect nipple where it pushed against the
bodice of her blouse. Emboldened, her own hand sought the hard,
full length of him straining against his fly buttons.
“
I think we’ve sat out here long
enough, don’t you?” he asked, taking tender little nips at her
mouth. “Unless, of course, you’d like to try it in the
swing.”
She laughed. “No, I don’t think so. It’s not
really long enough.”
He chuckled too. “I guess you’re right.” He
stood up and held out his hand to help her to her feet. Glancing at
the sky, he said, “Look Allie, there’s your moon coming up over
there.”
She followed his gaze to the eastern sky and
saw a huge moon climbing into the firmament, brighter than a lamp.
“Allie’s Moon? I like that better than Corn Moon, like the Farmer’s
Almanac calls it.”
“
All right, then. From now on, it’ll be
Allie’s Moon.”
Taking Jeff’s hand, she followed him into the
house, believing with all her heart that perhaps it truly was her
moon, after all.
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