When The Heart Beckons (45 page)

She frowned. “Mr. Perkins said he loved me
more than anything in this world. And Mr. Reed said ...”

He seized her by the shoulders. “Not one
more word about them,” he threatened. “Or I’ll have to show you how
much I love you here and now.”

“Really?” She drew in a deep breath and
gazed at him hopefully. “Promise?”

Cade laughed, but he was beginning to feel a
little desperate. Then he remembered something. He went down on one
knee before her. “I know I’m doing this part right,” he
muttered.

“Oh, you’re doing just fine,” she assured
him, her fingers closing tightly around his. “I didn’t mean to
discourage you ... only to encourage you ...”

“Annabel.” There was desperation in the look
he threw her. “I don’t know how to be ... romantic. I’ve lived
alone for so long, and spent most of my time riding or fighting or
shooting ... Hell, I don’t know the first thing about being ... you
know ... gentle.”

“Yes.” She caressed his cheek. “You do.”

Cade only shook his head, his dark bronzed
face filled with doubt. “I don’t know how to be a ... a husband.
How to love a woman the way she should be loved. I’ve never tried
any of this before, and to tell you the truth, I’m more scared of
all this than of meeting ten desperadoes without any ammunition in
my guns. If I’m rotten at this ... this marriage thing you’re the
one who’s going to suffer.”

Annabel’s eyes, brimming with laughter
before, now grew wide and somber with a loving compassion that
flowed through her like rustling silk. “The only one who is
suffering is you, my darling Cade,” she whispered back, and sank to
her knees beside him, so that they both knelt facing each other in
the soft fragrant grass. “Don’t you know how wonderful you are, how
kind and, yes,
gentle
, and special? I feel safer, more
protected and loved with you than I’ve ever felt before ... ever,”
she cried fiercely. “I’d rather be in a cave with you, or out on a
mountaintop under the stars, than in the grandest castle in all of
Europe. You’re the man I want, the man I need. I’m not afraid of
you; I told you that once and it’s true. Why, I’ve never met a man
easier to twist around my little finger and—”

“Wait a minute,” he ordered sternly. “I’m
not sure I like the sound of that.”

“Well, if you don’t want to hear what I have
to say, you’d best just go ahead and finish asking me what you’re
planning to ask me and then you can kiss me and it’ll all be
settled between us.”

“You sure talk more than any woman I ever
met.”

She was unbuttoning the top button of his
shirt as she answered him, a smile playing around the corners of
her mouth. “It bothers you, darling?”

“No, it doesn’t bother me. Kind of ...
soothes me, matter of fact. I guess that means it’ll be kind of
soothing having you around for the rest of my life.”

“Well, you won’t if you don’t pluck up your
courage, Cade McCallum, and just ask me ...”

Suddenly, he tugged her back up and plopped
her onto the bench, then dropped once more to one knee. “We’re
doing this right, damn it, so it’s official. I don’t want you
telling me later that I didn’t do it right, that Mr. Perkins’s
proposal was much more impressive.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she murmured.
“That would hurt your feelings, and I would never—”

“Annabel, there’s a time to talk and a time
to be quiet. This is a time to be quiet.”

“Yes, Cade,” she said faintly, suddenly awed
by the determination upon his face. Here in this garden, surrounded
by graceful statuary, flowers, pear trees, and little singing
bluebirds that whisked above the silver pond, she thought he had
never looked so rugged, so devastatingly handsome, and suddenly the
lighthearted mood left her and she realized she couldn’t speak a
word if she tried.

“Annabel,” Cade said, holding both her hands
in his and gazing deeply, intently into her eyes. “Will you do me
the great and incomparable honor of becoming my beloved wife?”

Tears formed behind her eyelids. She opened
her mouth to answer, but the words caught in her throat. As the
tears began to pool in her eyes, she managed to nod vehemently, and
threw her arms around his neck.

“I take it that is a yes?”

“Yes!”

He drew her down onto his lap on the grass
and kissed her soundly for a very long time. After a while, they
paused long enough for him to smile at her. “I have a present for
you. Close your eyes.”

She obeyed him and waited patiently as he
opened her palm and then placed a small cool object in it.

“Go ahead and look, Annabel.” She could hear
the excitement beneath the deep, warm tones of his voice.

For a moment she stared in shock at the
brooch nestled in her palm. The gold and ruby rose brooch, with the
pearls ...
Mama’s
brooch?

“Look at the inscription on the back,
sweetheart.” She did, her heart pounding with hope and disbelief.
For S. Love forever, N.

“Oh, my God. Cade, where did you find it?
How ...”

He told her then about Jonah E. Banks, and
with trembling fingers she pinned the brooch onto her gown. Cade
helped her fasten the clasp and for a moment they merely stared at
each other in silence.

* * *

Savannah Brannigan watched them from beneath
the leafy branches of the sycamore tree.

A fine man, Annabel. You have chosen
yourself a fine, handsome man ... just like your father.

She drifted closer, filled with happiness as
she saw the ardent expression on her daughter’s face, and the
brooch which glowed with such rich warmth in the dazzle of the sun.
At last, the brooch is restored to you, dearest. It is where it
belongs. It will help keep you safe.

She could go now, go forever. She felt a
sadness tug at her, but also a spreading, blossoming relief. No
more wandering. No more searching. She could have peace.

Good-bye, dearest girl. Be happy, as I
know you shall.

And she reached out a slender, shimmery
hand, just to say farewell ...

* * *

“Mama?” Annabel jumped up at the gossamer
touch that feathered across her cheek. She glanced all around, her
eyes wide, her heart pounding. She felt as she had that other time,
when she’d been playing in the garden and had broken the statue.
She’d had the surest feeling that her mother was there too.

“Mama, is that you?”

She heard nothing, but a warm certainty
rushed over her and she touched the brooch impulsively. “Mama, I
have the brooch. Cade got it back for me ... Mama ...”

Good-bye.

No words were spoken, and nothing moved in
the garden, but Annabel felt the word imprint itself in her
heart.

“Good-bye, Mama,” she whispered, and then
looked dazedly at Cade, expecting he would think her mad.

But he was watching her seriously, a strange
expression on his face.

“You felt it, too?” she asked quickly.

He nodded. “I felt something. But I couldn’t
explain it if I tried.”

She took a deep breath. “It was real. I know
it was.” Suddenly her eyes darkened to a luminous gold-flecked
green. “Cade, I wonder if anyone else has ever had such an
experience. Surely we’re not the only ones ... it’s a mystery,
isn’t it? Perhaps the greatest mystery of all ...”

“Annabel,” he said hastily, wary of the
rapt, purposeful expression crossing her face. “Some things are
better left unexplained.”

She raised her brows. “Some things, yes,”
she agreed obliquely.

Cade wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that.
He tucked her arm in his as they began to walk along the
flower-bordered path. “Yes, such as how a beautiful and
respectable, if somewhat nosy, private investigator such as you,
could fall in love with a dissolute gunslinger like me ...”

“Oh, that. “ Annabel said, strolling arm in
arm with him back toward the house. “Well, that is something I’m
going to spend every day of the rest of my life trying to figure
out.”

“And where do you plan to do all this
figuring out? Where does the future Mrs. Cade McCallum wish to
spend the rest of her life—or at least the first part of it?”

She gazed at him and smiled, and suddenly he
knew, incredibly, what she was going to say. His heart tightened
with love for her, for this woman who had banished the loneliness
and desolation from his life, who had brought him home to his
family, fulfilled him, made him whole. This woman who gave so fully
with all of her heart and soul, and who made him feel alive and
loved and part of the human race once again.

“The cabin?” Annabel whispered, her eyes
hopeful on his. “The valley. Can we?”

“We can.” He swept her against his chest and
spoke against the velvety softness of her hair. “And if you think
you can stand being holed up with me in the lonesome heart of the
Arizona territory, we will.”

And so they did.

O
ne year later, on
a spectacular summer evening, Annabel McCallum gave birth to her
first child.

The baby was born in the second-floor
bedroom of the huge ranch house that overlooked the meadow. After
Cade and Annabel had been married and had returned to the cabin to
set up housekeeping, Cade had added on substantially to the tiny
structure he’d built years ago. The house was now a handsome
two-story building of rough-hewn logs and adobe, with a massive
kitchen, two parlors, a good wood floor, and a pillared veranda
that circled the entire building and afforded breathtaking views in
every direction. There were also sheds, a bunkhouse and stable, and
several other outbuildings, as well as corrals for the wild horses
Cade caught and broke and sold. He owned some cattle, but not
nearly as much as his father and Brett owned on their impressive
Big M Ranch due south.

Shortly after Cade and Annabel’s wedding,
Ross McCallum had assembled the family and made a startling
announcement. He was selling all of his business concerns, all
except the Ruby Palace Hotel. He was tired of them, he said. With
Boxer out of the way, things had started to turn around quickly for
all of the McCallum holdings, but for some reason, Ross was
dissatisfied.

“Both of my sons have gone West, and damned
if they haven’t fallen in love with the country,” he announced over
dessert in the dining room. “I’m going to give the place a try
myself. Boys, if you want to go partners with me, I’m planning to
buy up some land not far from that cabin you’re going back to,
Cade, right there near the town of Silver Junction. I’ve decided to
start myself a little ranch. I believe it’s time for me to relax,
and see if I can’t enjoy my later years in life. Besides,” he said,
trying to appear offhand, “the doctor said it would be good for my
heart to take it easy, get some fresh air, stop working so hard. So
I’m going to oversee everything, of course, but I’ll hire me some
good men to work the range and naturally you boys are both welcome
to join the enterprise.”

Brett had accepted the offer, only on the
condition that he be allowed to buy in as a full partner using
money he gained from his share of the McCallum businesses that were
sold. Cade declined, wishing to remain independent, and more
interested in horse ranching than in being a cattle baron.

And Annabel had settled in joyfully to her
new life as Mrs. Cade McCallum. In addition to planting a vegetable
garden behind the house, and setting about furnishing her new home
in the most comfortable and pleasant ways she could devise, she had
begun work on the most challenging investigation ever. Her task: to
discover and compare the experiences of others who had had
encounters with “ghosts and other extraordinary occurrences.”

Her plan was to write a book, thoroughly
exploring the subject. With this in mind, she attacked the topic
with the same curiosity and enthusiasm she would have used in any
other investigation: doing research, interviewing everyone she met,
writing to those people whom others described as having had such
experiences. Meticulously and thoughtfully she wrote reports,
compared information, and added bit by bit to her knowledge. By the
time she went into labor she had over forty pages of notes compiled
and was thoroughly fascinated with her topic.

“I am trying to solve one of the greatest
mysteries of all,” she wrote, just as her labor pains began. She
set aside her pen and paper then and put her hands to her ripe,
rounded belly.

“But first I’m going to experience firsthand
another of life’s grand mysteries,” she told Cade as he helped her
up the stairs to their bedroom.

“I’d go through it for you if I could,” he
said, looking far more rattled than she.

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be
possible, darling.”

So, on the evening that Annabel gave birth
to their child, with Ross and Brett both having been summoned by
one of Cade’s ranch hands, the main parlor with its white lace
curtains and cozy blue upholstered sofa and bright-pillowed chairs
was full of McCallum men drinking whiskey, pacing, arguing, while
Annabel struggled independently through the throes and joys of
childbirth.

Cade scarcely listened as his father and
brother traded heated opinions about everything from the competing
candidates for mayor in Silver Junction to the treatment of sick
calves. He kept thinking about Annabel, upstairs with Dr. Willman,
undergoing all manner of pain and torture.

And the baby ... What if something happened
to the baby?

When Dr. Willman called down at exactly half
past midnight that he could come up and see his wife and child,
Cade bolted from the room and up the wide staircase two steps at a
time.

Only when he saw Annabel’s pale but glowing
face smiling at him from the fluffy pile of bed pillows did he
begin to breathe again. “You’re all right? The baby is all
right?”