Then she saw his white shirt. He was coming across the yard. She stepped off the porch. He stopped and held his arms wide. It was all the invitation she needed. She ran to him. Her arms went around his neck as he desperately hugged her to him, lifting her off her feet.

“Ah, sweetheart,” he said between kisses. “Ah, sweetheart.” It was all he could say. She was softer and sweeter than he remembered. His lips caressed her mouth gently, tenderly, for a long time. Then he drew back to look at her. “Nothing has changed? You still love me?”

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?” She cupped his cheeks with her palm.

“After all that’s happened …I was worried that you might have a doubt about me and wonder if, after I left you, I went looking for him.”

“If you had brought me home at ten, I still wouldn’t have believed that you did that terrible thing.”

“Even knowing what you know about his not being my father and that I had always hated him?”

“Out of respect for what he did for your mother, you never, never would have killed him.”

“You have that much faith in me?”

“And much more.”

“I’ve never told anyone about Walter and my mother, but I wanted you to know.”

“No one outside the family knows about Joy.”

“Sweetheart.” His lips moved against her temple when he spoke. “All this time you thought Walter had done that to you?”

“He was the logical one. Papa thought so, too, but I told him no. I was afraid he would kill him or be killed. Are you sure it doesn’t make you think less … of me? I’d be in disgrace if it ever becomes known, and poor little Joy would suffer the stigma of being a …a—”

“Don’t say it.” He put his fingers over her lips. “You and Joy, too, are very dear to me. I hope to give her a lot of little brothers and sisters.”

For a minute Julie couldn’t speak. He was the man she had dreamed about, a man who would love her and who would accept her child. Tears came, but she blinked them away.

“Will you ever tell her?” he asked gently.

“I don’t know.” Arm in arm, they walked toward the porch. “I saved you some supper.”

“I can’t think of eating when I have you here in my arms.” He stopped and pressed gentle kisses to her face. “I thought about this today while I was waiting in the locked room at the courthouse.”

“I thought about you, too. This has been a day to remember … or try to forget.” She laughed happily.

“Joe and Jack told me about Mrs. Stuart’s husband coming for her. How did Jethro take it?”

“At first I wasn’t sure. He walked out into the woods, and when he came back, he went to his room. Jill and I had it ready for him. He didn’t come out until suppertime, then he said the strangest thing. I said that we were celebrating because you were out of that locked room, and he said we had something else to celebrate, but we wouldn’t talk about it. After that he acted like his old self. He and Jill are playing cards with the boys.” Julie stepped up onto the porch, turned and put her arms around his neck.

“You’re the one who started the detective checking on her, weren’t you? You knew Mr. Stuart was coming.”

“I
thought
he was coming. From the beginning, I suspected that there was something fishy about her. She didn’t really want to disappear. If she had, she wouldn’t have used her real name. The Pinkerton man said he thought that she was waiting for her husband to find her.”

“She couldn’t have married Papa, but we didn’t know that.”

“She has an unbalanced mind. Let’s forget about her.”

Their lips met in joint seeking. This time the kiss was deep and long. Her lips parted under the pressure of his and she felt the lightning touch of his tongue on her lips. One of his hands shaped itself over her breast, the other flattened against her buttocks and held her tightly against him.

“Someday soon, I’m going to touch you and kiss you anytime I want to,” he said breathlessly. “I’ll never get enough of you.”

“I don’t deserve you,” she whispered.

“Yes, you do, and I deserve you, darling girl. I must have done something right, for God to bring me back here to meet you.”

She moved her head to look into his face. Her hand covered the one shaped to her breast.

“I feel in my heart”—she pressed his palm more firmly against her breast—“that I’ve always known you.” She brought her lips to his and kissed him with such sweetness that he felt a swell of love and joy wash over him.

“Julie, my sweet Julie. It’s going to be hard waiting to take you home as my wife.”

“For me, too.” Her voice came against lips that were kissing hers. Finally she drew back, took a deep breath and asked, “What time is the service in the morning? Papa said we’ll all be there except for Joy and Jason.”

“You’ll probably be the only ones there besides me. Walter didn’t do anything to endear himself to his neighbors or the people in town. That’s why I welcomed the suggestion from Reverend Meadows that we hold a graveside service.”

“We’ll be there with you. You won’t be alone.” Her arms slipped from around his neck, and she smoothed her hair and poked loose strands back into the bun at the nape of her neck. “Come in and eat—that is, if you can stand the teasing from Joe and Jack.”

The minute they stepped in the door, Joy slid off Jethro’s lap and ran to Evan.

“Evan, I’m not goin’ to ask for ice cream. Julie said it ain’t nice. She saved you some pie.”

Evan scooped her up in his arms. “Well, I guess you’d better mind Julie.”

Joy planted kisses on his cheeks and he tickled her ribs before setting her on her feet.

While he ate from the plate of food Julie set before him, the card game came to an end. Jethro and the boys lingered to talk to him. Julie took Joy up to bed.

When she came back down to the kitchen, the men were talking about the thing that was on everyone’s mind: who had killed Walter Johnson.

“The thing that puzzles me,” Evan was saying, “is who has a car that looks like mine from the back?”

“Could it have been someone who came to Spring Lake from out of town and got into a fight with him?” Jethro asked.

“That’s a possibility. How could Walter have gotten way out there? His horse was tied up downtown.”

“The marshal and Appleby are both good men. If the killer can be found, they’ll find him.”

“Walter was not a good man,” Evan said. “But he didn’t deserve to die like that. He was foulmouthed, but I’ve never heard of him actually hurting anyone except another drunk.”

“He was good to his animals, I’ll say that for him,” Jethro said. “They were always fed and watered.” Jethro got up from the table. “You’d better get to bed, Jill.”

“What about school tomorrow?”

“Jason will go. You and Jack can go after the service.”

Joe got reluctantly to his feet and smacked his brother on the back.

“Come on, Babe Ruth. I suppose we’ll be run out of the kitchen every night from now on, so we might as well get used to it.”

“Ain’t fair,” Jack complained. “We got to go to bed just ’cause they want to … court. Papa, make ’em go out on the porch.” His bright blue eyes flashed over his sister’s flushed face.

“It’s too cold out there,” Jethro said sternly, but he was smiling.

“They didn’t seem to mind a while ago,” Jack grumbled.

“Dumbbell,” Jill said with disgust. “Remember when you wanted to get rid of me so you could be with Ruby May? She said you kissed her.”

“Why, that little tattletale!” Jack glanced at his father to see his reaction, then bolted up the stairs.

“Up to bed with you …tattletale.” Jethro chuckled and went to his room.

In the quiet kitchen, Evan and Julie looked at each other and smiled.

“I like being here,” he said. “This is family life that I’ve not known.”

“I like having you here. We’re very plain people. I worry that we’re too countrified for you. That …I am.”

He reached for her hand. “Never,” he said staunchly. “You’re honest, innocent, unaffected. You and your family are what you are …not something you pretend to be. You accepted me for me, without judging me by Walter.”

For a long quiet moment they gazed at each other.

“I never dreamed that I would fall so desperately in love. There is so much sweetness in you that I want to pull you into my heart and hold you there and keep you safe from hurt.” He watched her face with anxious eyes.

“I love you.”

“I never heard those words until you said them.” He pulled her to her feet and held her as if she were about to be snatched away from him. “And I’ve never said them until I said them to you. I love you, too.”

“I’m glad. So … glad.”

Chapter 27

I
T WAS A SURPRISING TURNOUT
for a man so hated and feared. A group of twenty people attended the graveside service for Walter Johnson. Besides the Jones family, Roy and Thad Taylor and their father were there and also Ruth and Wilbur Humphrey and their older children. Mr. Oakley, the grocer, and his wife stood at the grave site. Eudora Meadows came with her brother, the Reverend Meadows.

Evan stood alone at the head of the coffin. Julie, wearing her dark cotton dress and small black hat, wanted to go to him but didn’t think it would be proper.

The eulogy given by the preacher was short. He said Walter Johnson had lived in this area for almost thirty years and that he was a good farmer and always paid his bills. After that there was not much he could say except for a few words about the Creator. In a sweet soprano voice, Miss Meadows led the singing of “The Old Rugged Cross.”

Joe, Jack, Jethro and Thad Taylor grasped the ropes that lowered the coffin into the ground. Evan threw in a handful of soil, then the grave was quickly filled with rich black dirt. When it was over, Evan shook hands with every person there and thanked them all for coming.

Eudora, friendly as always, hugged Jill and spoke to each member of the family, then turned her attention to Jack.

“What’s this I hear about you playing on the baseball team? The youngest player, I was told, is the best hitter.”

Jack grinned his bashful grin. “I …I don’t know about that.”

“I’m proud of you, Jack. When you’re playing in Chicago or New York, I’ll be able to say that I had that boy in my Sunday school class.”

“How is your mother, Eudora?” Julie asked.

“She’s about the same, thank you.”

“Are you coming to the ball game, Miss Meadows?” Jill asked, then barged on ahead. “Oh, do come. We’re all going. Evan’s going to take a picture of Jack in his team shirt. We can come by for you if you don’t have a way of getting there. Can’t we, Papa?”

“Maybe Miss Meadows doesn’t want to go, Jill.” Jethro looked uncomfortable.

“If I come, my brother will bring me.”

“You’ll sit with us, won’t you? All of us there for Jack will sit together so we can yell when he hits a home run.”

“A home run against the league players?” Jack threw up his hands. “Sis, you’re daydreaming.”

“You’ll hit a homer or I’ll beat you up, Jack.” Jill gave her brother a saucy grin.

Evan had made the rounds and now came to stand beside Julie. He took her hand and pulled it into the crook of his arm, wanting all those present to see that she was special to him.

Jethro fell in step beside Eudora. “We’ll be glad to come take you to the ball game, Miss Meadows.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jones. I can find my way there.” Large brown eyes smiled up at him. “I may impose on your generosity to get home.”

“I’ll be glad to oblige.”

“I must say hello to Joy before I go.” Eudora went to the car, where Joy was standing up in the seat twisting the steering wheel.