Logan paused in the foyer, watching the women work. They chattered and laughed. Sarah looked up and saw him. The smile she gave made his mind go blank. He started for her, intending to take her down to their room, but Sid called again from his office.
Logan kissed Sarah's forehead and followed his father's summons. In the den, Sager closed the door after him. Logan looked from his brother to his father. “What is it?”
Sid motioned to the chairs in front of his desk. “It's time we had a talk about a few things.”
“What things?”
“What are your plans after the wedding?”
“What are you fishing for, Dad?”
“I want to know if you're home for good.”
Logan looked at his father, read in his carefully blank expression the truth that Logan's answer mattered. “No, I'm not. I've built a life outside the Circle Bar. I need to get back to it.”
“Logan, we want you to stay,” Sager said, filling the silence that followed Logan's announcement.
“You want me to stay to work your ranch, Sager? I'm not interested.”
Sid tossed a folded piece of paper to the edge of his desk. Neither he nor Sager said a word. Logan picked it up. It was Sid's will. “What is this? Have you been ill?”
“Read it,” Sid said.
The will was short. There were provisions for Sid's long-term household staff and ranch hands, and Sager got a generous financial settlement. But Logan had been willed the house and all the Circle Bar land. He read it twice, then checked the signatures. Sid's and his lawyer'sâdated nearly eight years ago.
“What is this?” he asked his father.
“I've been a damned fool, Logan. Sager convinced me to change my will shortly after he married Rachel. I thought what I had originally provided was fair, but Sager made me see things from a different perspective.”
Logan looked at Sager. The will was exactly the opposite of what it had been all those years ago, with the financial settlement originally going to Logan and the land to Sager.
“So you see, little brother, I've been working your land for you all these years.” Sager grinned at him. “We want you home.”
“If there's not enough room in the house for your family and your old man, we can build an apartment for me over the bunkhouse.”
Logan got out of his seat and paced once around the room. He looked at Sid and Sager, then shoved a hand through his hair. “Why would you do this?”
“Because you're part of this family. This is your legacy. And you belong here with us.” Sid got up and came around to lean against the front of his desk. “You're my son, Logan Taggert. I raised you. I sent you to college. I want you home.”
“I don't know what to say. I've built a business I need to continue to oversee.”
“I don't see why you can't do both,” Sid suggested. “Put a strong manager in charge of your trading posts. Step back a bit. Spend some time up here.”
“There's room for an alliance between our ranches and your posts. We can supply all the beef your posts can sell. And with the agencies filling up, we could use your help getting contracts for beef,” Sager added. “What do you say?”
“Let me talk it over with Sarah. I need to give it some thought.”
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Logan leaned against the archway leading to the dining room. Sarah looked up. Their eyes connected. Seeing the tension in him, the color washed from her face.
“Ladies, mind if I borrow Sarah for a bit?” he asked.
“Of course not. You two do what you need to do. I think we're close to a stopping point for today anyway,” Rachel told him.
He held the front door open for Sarah. They walked across the porch and out into the afternoon sun. She looked up at him as he looked down at her. Their gazes held for a moment.
“You're scaring me, Logan.”
They walked down the road a ways to the shade of an old cottonwood. He turned and drew Sarah's back against him. From where they stood, they had an excellent view of Sid's house.
Logan rested his chin on her head.
“Honey, how would you feel about staying here?”
“Staying here? Where are you going?”
“Nowhere. I'll be here, too. That was the deal, remember?”
She turned and looked up at him. “Live here?”
He watched her face, hoping beyond hope that her heart felt what his did. “Could you be happy here?”
“Yes. Could you?”
He nodded. “Sid and Sager want me to join their ranching operation. They want us to make our home here. I'm not closing the trading posts, so we'll still need to do some traveling, but this would be our main home.”
Tears welled in Sarah's eyes. She turned and looked at the house. “My home. Our home.” She swiped the tears from her cheeks. “I thought you said this would belong to your brother one day.”
“Sager had Sid change his will. It will be ours one dayâhopefully a very long time from now. They made room for us. I want to be here, Sarah, but only if you do, too.”
She nodded, words having simply failed her. He laughed and swung her around.
“Logan, be careful! Your ribs haven't healed yet.”
“I'm healed enough, honey.” He let her down slowly, keeping her body close to his. He bent his head, his gaze locked on hers. She tightened her arms around his neck, rising to meet him halfway. The kiss they shared was gentle, full of promise, full of joy.
They didn't immediately hear the distant rumble of a rider coming in fast. It was the sudden flurry of men hurrying toward them that triggered Logan's attention. A horse was thundering down the valley, charging toward them.
Sarah tensed. Even from this distance she could see it was an Indian. She straightened and sent a frenzied look around, caught up by the instinct to flee. Logan took hold of her arm. “Steady there. It's just Chayton.”
As their friend approached, they saw he rode with White Bird in front of him. Sarah looked to see if Laughs-Like-Water was following with their son, but didn't see any others. Hearing the rider, Sid came out of the house and several men from the bunkhouse approached with guns, standing across the drive, putting themselves between the Indian and where Logan stood with Sarah.
“He is a friend. Stand down.” Logan shouldered his way through the men as Chayton drew up in the drive. Sarah moved to stand beside Logan. For a moment, neither man spoke.
Chayton looked at Logan, then looked away. Pain ravaged his face. “Shadow Wolf, you have been like a brother to me,” he said in English, his gaze swinging back to Logan.
“As you have been to me.”
“I ask a favor.”
“Anything.”
Again, Chayton paused before speaking. “The scalp taker and his men attacked my village while we men were out hunting. They killed many, took many scalps. He killed Laughs-Like-Water and Little Hawk.”
Sarah gasped. “No, Chayton. No.” Sarah thought of them as they'd been at the camp a few weeks earlier. Little Hawk and White Bird playing chase with the younger apprentices, manning the spit over the roasting pit, holding a chocolate bar in their hands until it melted. She remembered the love Laughs-Like-Water had in her eyes when she looked at any of her family members. She'd been a force of nature.
“I am taking my people to Red Cloud's agency. When I go there, they will take my gun and my horse. In two years' time, they will take my daughter and send her to a school far away. I have lost everything. My home. My wife. My children.”
Logan put his hand on Chayton's knee. “Stay here with us.”
“I cannot leave my people. The favor I ask is that you continue to trade with my wife's apprentices. More than ever, they will need your support. It is her legacy I would have you honor.”
“Of course. I will come in the autumn with the materials they need to work through the winter.”
“Chaytonâ” Sarah came forward. “Chayton, leave White Bird with us. We will foster her. She will have the education the agency demands, but in the home of people who love her. And you can visit her anytime you like.”
Chayton's dark eyes studied her. He looked at Logan. “You would do this?”
“Gladly, my friend.”
“I don't know when I will be able to come back.”
“She will be safe with us. Come when you can.”
A muscle worked at the edge of Chayton's jaw. He picked up his daughter, standing her on his thigh, facing him. He lifted a necklace from his neck and draped it over hers.
“You are my heart, White Bird,” he said in Sioux. She put a tiny hand on his face as she frowned at him, her brows drawn together in tiny wrinkles. His nostrils flared with the effort of not weeping before strangers. He kissed her and hugged her tightly until she began to squirm, then he handed her down to Sarah. He and Logan exchanged a look.
Putting his heels to his horse, he rode away.
Epilogue
Logan watched White Bird come toward him, moving slowly, silently, between the rows of chairs. He gave her an encouraging smile, dropping to a crouch and motioning her forward. Her big, dark eyes monitored the assembly of white adults as if expecting them to transform at any moment into flesh-eating monsters. Every few steps, she stood still and sprinkled rose petals over the grass, checking the adults before stepping forward again. When she reached Logan's side, he gave her a big hug and told her in Sioux how proud he was of her before sending her to stand next to Rachel.
The women had transformed the side yard of the main house. Half of the space was arranged with several long tables, one for family and friends, one for the gaggle of children who had come with the adults, and the last for the ranch hands, all of whom were longtime workers at the Circle Bar or Sager's spread, the Crippled Horse. The other half of the area was given over to rows of chairs that led up to where Logan stood with Sager and the Reverend Adamson.
When Logan looked up after getting White Bird settled, Sarah was there, starting down the aisle on Sid's arm. She wore a beautiful gown of white brocade that hung in simple lines from her slim hips down. It hugged her ribs and curved enticingly up over her breasts. At the edge of the deep neckline, he could just make out part of her tattoo. He was glad she hadn't hidden it. He knew she'd done that for him.
Her hair was coiled and tucked in tiny braids over the crown of her head. A veil was draped over her hair and reached down to her shoulders, leaving her face uncovered. Her warm, brown eyes were shining with happiness. It was hard to reconcile the woman coming toward him with the woman he'd first met just a few months earlier.
Logan looked at his dad, who was bursting with pride as if she were his own daughter. In the month since their return, in addition to caring for Logan, sewing a new wardrobe, and dealing with frantic wedding preparations, she'd made time to oversee the arrangement of a suite of rooms for Sid on the ground floor of the house, ensuring he had his own drawing room off his bedroom. She'd ordered new furniture for him, making his space masculine and comfortableâsomething Logan's mother had never allowed and Sid hadn't sought for himself after her death. Sarah had given him a place where he could retreat should he want a little solitude.
She had also rearranged their quarters upstairs, switching out furniture from some of the other rooms, giving the space her own personal touch. She had revived a house that had long been dormant, waiting to be made a home.
Logan smiled at Sarah as Sid kissed her cheek and handed her over. She gave Rachel, her matron of honor, her bouquet to hold. This time, when the reverend asked her to place her hands in Logan's, she did not hesitate. The shade from the cottonwood trees overhead shifted. Light and shadows danced over her. She smiled up at him, her eyes filled with love. Heedless of the ceremony, Logan touched her cheek, stroking her skin with his thumb. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then forced himself to listen to the reverend as he and Sarah were married for the third time.
Logan was unsure how he made it through the ceremony and the feast that followed. He couldn't take his eyes from his wife. She laughed with his friends, danced with his brother and father, and charmed everyone who had gathered.
“Hard to believe Sarah's transformation, Logan,” Leah said as she brought him a cup of punch. “She was so broken when she first came to Defiance. Just look at her now. I think you may have saved her life.”
Logan smiled. “Maybe. But I know for sure she saved mine.”
Jace came over and clapped him on the shoulder. “I think you should get married at least once a year, Logan. I'm enjoying these celebrations.”
“Or we could just have a shindig at one of our ranches each year, once Audrey and Julian come in for the summer,” Leah suggested.
Jace smiled down at his wife, his warm gaze sweeping the new dress the ladies had made for Leah, a pale, lavender chiffon that complemented her dark coloring and violet eyes. “Would you do me the honor of giving me this dance, Mrs. Gage?”
“Yes, I believe I will, Mr. Gage.” Leah took his arm and let him lead her into the dance. Seeing them join the waltz, Audrey waved her fingers. Her husband, Julian, nodded to Jace before sweeping her away.
“Look at all of you. Grown and beautiful and settled,” Maddie sighed as she paused by Logan's side. “Your father says you'll be staying here. I'm happy about that.” They watched Sarah take a turn on the temporary dance platform with the sheriff. “Now there's a man who needs a wife,” Maddie said, tapping her chin pensively.
Logan laughed and shook his head. “Good luck with that!”
When the dance ended, Declan escorted Sarah back to Logan. He lifted his hat to thank her for the dance, then offered Maddie his arm and led her back toward the dance floor.
“Watch out for that one, Cal. She's making plans for you,” Logan warned.
The sheriff laughed. “Hold on there, Maddie. I got my life arranged just the way I like it.”
Maddie sent Logan and Sarah a wink. “Do you, now ... ?” Her voice faded as she and the sheriff walked away.
Logan drew Sarah into a hug. “I love you,” he said as he looked into her eyes.
“I love you.” She smiled and tightened her arms around his neck. “This has been a wonderful day. A big memory that's filling all the empty spaces inside me. Thank you.”
“Honey, I'm going to spend the rest of my life giving you big memories, so you better keep making room for more.”