"Stay where you are, Chastity."
Morgan glanced fiercely at Reed. "Be quiet!"
"Don't go anywhere near him, Chastity." Reed looked into Chastity's eyes. He knew what was coming. He knew Morgan was waiting for just the right moment to kill him. He also knew that Morgan wanted Chastity to see him die so he could put fear into her heart.
He knew what he must do.
He took a step toward Chastity.
"Stay away from her, Farrell." Morgan advanced rapidly toward him. He raised his gun. "Take one more step and it'll be your last."
"I had enough of this, Morgan!" Speaking out unexpectedly, his wiry frame twitching with agitation, Walker spat out, "I ain't goin' to wait around all day while you get your kicks out of makin' Farrell squirm! Do what you got to do and get it over with! I want to get out of here!"
"What makes you think you can tell me what to do, Walker?" Livid, Morgan turned toward him. He leveled his gun. "I'm the boss here, remember?"
Walker refused to back down. His voice rising hotly, he responded, "Maybe that's the way it was, but I'm gettin' tired"
The angry confrontation continued, the words fading from Reed's mind as he glanced at the rifle sheathed on the saddle nearby. Walker was shouting, and the others were watching Morgan intently. He would never have a better chance.
Lurching toward the saddle, Reed grabbed for the rifle. Morgan turned to face him, raising his gun to fire just as Chastity leaped between them.
Gunfire echoed sharply!
Chastity's slim frame jerked with the rapid reports!
Reed called out her name, reaching out spontaneously to grasp Chastity close.
Clutching her against him, Reed watched, incredulity flaring as Morgan swayed, then crumpled to the ground.
Chastity turned in his arms, his shock rebounding in her slender frame as Morgan breathed a last, choked breath.
Looking up, Reed saw that Morgan's men were as incredulous as he.
Reed took a quick backward step, drawing Chastity with him as a stranger stepped out of the foliage nearby, a smoking gun in his hand. Squinting against the glare of sunset, he saw several others emerge behind him.
Indians.
The stranger approached to within a few feet of Reed. A big man dressed in buckskins, the dark hair that hung loose on his shoulders held in place by an Indian headband, the fellow looked at him with green eyes that boldly declared his mixed heritage. Those eyes flicked toward Chastity at the same moment that a young woman dressed in trail clothing appeared behind the man and walked toward Chastity.
Chastity gasped as the tall, slender woman approached. A new trembling beset her that bore no relation to the furor of the previous moments as gradual realization tingled along her skin.
The woman neared, and a shaft of sunlight glinted suddenly on the heart-shaped locket she wore around her neck.
Chastity went abruptly still. She stiffened when the young woman stripped off her hat to reveal delicate features that were almost angelic in composition and gleaming blond hair worn in a long braid down her back.
A sob escaped Chastity's throat. She remembered that hair. She
knew
that face.
Somehow frozen by the import of the moment, Chastity remained immobile, her gaze intent as the young woman's face twitched, as her lips worked laboriously, as her voice emerged at last in a hoarse whisper.
"Chastity… is it you?"
The moment blurring in sobs of joy, Chastity reached out with trembling arms. She felt the familiar warmth of the woman's embrace close around her, holding her tight. Years of
aching separation
slipped away as Chastity returned her embrace, hugging her with all her strength, emotions long held in check released in choked words that flowed from her lips in disjointed phrases of loving wonder.
Drawing back at last, Chastity stared into young woman's tear-streaked face, at the clear, light eyes so similar to her mother's that they tore at her heart. She saw the tremulous smile so like her own, and she felt an affinity that the long years between could not erase.
Her breath catching in her throat, Chastity turned back toward Reed. Her voice quavering, her happiness profound, she managed an exultant rasp.
"Reed, I would like you to meet my sister. Her name is Purity."
Chapter Thirteen
"Here, let me do that for you."
Reed turned Chastity toward the light, adjusting her shoulders so he might more easily see the chain of her locket that had become entangled in the bright wisps of hair at the nape of her neck. He was becoming more adept at the task. It was a practiced skill, the solitary area in which she had found him lacking.
Morning sunlight filtered through the window of the modest ranch-house bedroom. It was a comfortable room, despite its limited size. The dresser with its small mirror was adequate, and the large bed with a mattress as soft as down was divine.
A tremor of remembered rapture ran down Chastity's spine as she recalled the loving that had transpired in that bed during the dark hours of the previous night. She had given herself totally to Reed, and he had given himself to her in return, with a commitment that went beyond the ecstasy of the moment and the vows they had exchanged a week earlier. Because when all was said and done, she knew now that Reed and she were joined in ways that went beyond the spoken word. They had been singed by the flame of danger faced and conquered, they had been consumed by the fire of a mutual desire raging endlessly unbanked, and they had been fused as one by the blaze of a love so deep and true that it overwhelmed all the aching torments of the past.
Chastity looked up at Reed with a half smile. She recalled the curt, angry man who had stared at her from a bearded face that first day on the train. She recalled that she had truly believed she had never met a man as harsh and crude and totally devoid of the compassion she had sought in approaching him.
Yet, somehow, she had been unable to let him walk out of her life.
She could almost hear her dear aunts' voices now:
"You see, Harriet, I told you! You worried too much. Chastity is a strong and intelligent woman who is capable of sage decisions. I knew she would find her way."
"You knew she would find her way? I'm the one who knew she would find her way! I always said
her
independence would serve her well!''
"You didn't want her to travel west!"
"Neither did you!"
"You said she should never marry!"
"You wanted her to settle for second best!"
"You wanted her to work with the Bowery poor!"
"I did not!"
"You did so!"
"Your memory is as self-serving as always!"
"While you are ever obstinate!"
She was certain her aunts' affectionate bickering would now cease. As diverse as their points of view were, the one area where they were united was in their desire for her happiness.
Other shadows of the past had also lifted. Burned into her memory was the terror that Morgan had inflicted that last day. She remembered seeing Reed reach for the rifle at the same moment that Morgan turned toward him with his gun raised and ready to fire. She had instinctively jumped between them then, and she had gone rigid at the sound of rapid gunshots.
How could she have known that the young Indian who appeared so briefly in camp when Reed and she first entered Indian Territory had recognized her locket as similar to the one worn by Pale Wolf's woman? How could she have realized that young Indian would return to his village to report back to Pale Wolf? How could she have believed that Pale Wolf would come looking for her, that he would discover where Morgan's tracks crossed theirs, find Conchita's body, and then follow Morgan's trail directly to them?
Pale Wolf Cass Thomas a man from two worlds, was the man Purity loved, the same man who had fired the shot that had brought Morgan down. And with that shot, Purity had been restored to her.
In retrospect, it seemed so right that fate had linked the four of them in such an unlikely way. A bond had been forged between Reed and Pale Wolf that day which would forever warm her heart.
As for
herself
, her wound was healed and the scar had all but faded. She was healthy and strong again.
Morgan's men were in jail. The unidentifiable stolen cattle remained on Indian land, and the reward collected for Morgan and his men had been turned over to Pale Wolf's Kiowa tribe. Reed and she felt it was a more than fair exchange for their lives.
A wire had been sent to Ed Jenkins, reporting Morgan's demise. In that way, Reed had fulfilled his promise to the man who had sought justice in the death of his only son. Chastity hoped he found peace.
The bedroom where Reed and she now stood was in the Circle C ranch house. Raised on the Circle C by Stan Corrigan after he found her lying on the riverbank that fateful day so long ago, Purity had insisted that Reed and Chastity come there to be married. Their wedding day was beautiful, the event made complete by the addition of
"That's it. I untangled it."
Reed turned her back to face him, interrupting Chastity's wandering thoughts. He stared at her soberly as she reached up to touch his cheek. She supposed she would never become inured to the love in his eyes that melted her insideor the realization that this man was hers, as she was his, for the rest of their lives. She slid her fingers into his heavy, sun-streaked hair, loving the feel of it against her palm as she said softly, "You look so somber, Reed."
"I was just thinking…" The startling blue of his eyes held hers intently, touching her heart in a way only his gaze could as he continued, "If it wasn't for that little scrap of gold you wear around your neck and what it came to symbolize for you, you might never have felt determined to leave the East and come searching for your sisters. I might never have found you on that train."
Chastity could not suppress a smile.
"
I
found
you
, Reed."
"Yeah."
Reed drew her closer. His expression did not change. "When I think how close we came to missing each other…"
"I don't let myself think about what could've been, Reed. I only let myself think about what is."
His hard body pressed tightly to hers, Reed whispered, "I love what is, Chastity. For the longest time, I didn't believe I would ever be able to say those words again. The bitterness inside me was so great that it influenced everything I did, and the way I looked at everyone I saw. It pointed me in one direction alone, but that path changed the day you walked into my life, even if I refused to admit to it. You confused me. You challenged me. You made me angrier than any woman I had ever known, and when the fever passed and my mind cleared, I still couldn't decide whether you were an angel in disguise, or if you were just a fool."
Reed paused, his light eyes searching her face, "You were so gullible… so trusting. I was committed to finding Morgan and I told myself that I could make good use of your trust. I deceived you inadvertently at first. I continued that deceit because it was convenient, and by the time I was ready to admit to my true feelings, it was almost too late. I want to say it all now, so there'll never be any doubt in your mind. You swept aside the shadows of the past for me. You made me realize that I needed to put the darkness to rest in order to go on."
His sweet breath warm against her lips, Reed whispered, "You made me love what 'is' again, Chastity. I love that you're my wife. I love looking at the future knowing that you'll always be there beside me. And I love even more knowing that I'll be holding you in my arms every day for the rest of my life."
Reed's mouth touched hers. His kiss deepened, separating her lips and raising a familiar wealth of emotion that sent Chastity's senses soaring. Sliding her arms around his neck, she drew him closer, feeling the need build inside him as that same need rose within her as well. The hunger, the breathlessness, the pounding of her heart that would not
"Hey, up there. Are you coming down? We're waiting for you!"
The familiar feminine voice from below shattered the moment. Chastity felt Reed stiffen. She smiled inwardly as he drew back with obvious reluctance, his expression wry.
"It's your sisterthe impatient one."
"Bossy is more the word." Chastity's smile widened with warm indulgence. "That's what happens when you're the youngest, Reed. Your sisters never forget it."
Walking down the stairs arm in arm, Chastity smiled at the dark-haired beauty waiting below.
Honesty.
Exquisite Honesty, her black hair gleaming and the sapphire blue of her eyes more brilliant than any precious jewelshe was the oldest, the prettiest, the
bossiest,
and the one who had believed most strongly of all that they would someday be together again.