Lacy (49 page)

Cole got up and lifted her, tenderly, into his
arms. He couldn't take his eyes from her face. "Lacy," he whispered,
and bent to kiss her with reverence and wonder.

She kissed him back, aware somewhere in the back
of her mind that Turk had gone off grinning to share the news with the rest of
the world. Lacy didn't mind. She could hardly contain her own joy. And Cole's
was overwhelming.

Their son was born seven months later. Marion's death had been the only shadow on their delight, but the birth of the child took
some of the edge off their keen mourning. They named him Jude Everett
Whitehall. Two years later, another son was born, and he was called James. Two
miracles, their mother and father related when they were old enough to under
stand. Their joy was complete.

James never married. He became a doctor and
opened a practice in San Antonio. Jude married a young debutante named
Marguerite and produced two sons, Jason Everett Whitehall and Duncan Whitehall.
Turk's daughter Mary married a Texas rancher with a huge property of his own.
Casa Verde passed eventually to Turk's nephew and namesake, Jude Whitehall. The
younger man moved there with his family and lived very happily for many years.
Ben became a bestselling novelist and made a mint. He and Faye bought property
in San Antonio and treated their daughter Teresa, whom everyone called Tess, to
the Grand Tour when she came of age. The Great Depression wiped out Cole's
investments, but Lacy had kept out of the market, so the ranch prospered even
then and grew to enormous size and fame.

Turk and Katy had a long and happy life
together. When she was eventually widowed, a wealthy financier named Blake
Wardell from Chicago appeared out of nowhere to comfort Katy and Mary Elizabeth
and tie up all the loose ends. The community around Victoria was scandalized
when less than six months later, Katy married the Chicago philanthropist—with
no protest whatsoever from her radiant daughter Mary—and went off to live in
Chicago. Mary surprised everyone by studying medicine and following in her
cousin James's foot-

steps. She became the first woman doctor in
Spanish Flats and eventually married a neighboring rancher with her doting
stepfather to give her away.

All that, however, lay far in the future as Cole
carried Lacy back toward the ranch house. He had yet to hold his first child in
his arms.

"So long ago," Lacy said softly.

He searched her eyes. "What was?"he
asked, smiling tenderly.

She smiled back. "I was thinking of the first
time I saw you, sitting on horseback when the car drove up at the steps. I
think I loved you then, you know. You were every dream I ever had." The
smile faded. "You still are. You're everything!"

He had to catch his breath and get rid of the
lump in his throat before he could speak. "No, little one," he
whispered. "You are." He bent and kissed her softly. "You're the
world and everything in it. I'll love you until I die, Lacy. And forever
after."

She snuggled closer and closed her eyes as his
long strides took them to the house. The sun was just going down in the
afternoon sky. Lacy watched the lazy red patterns in the clouds before Cole
stepped up onto the porch. Another day past. But now every new one would be
complete in itself, every minute would take on new meaning, new joy. She clung
to Cole with her heart in her eyes.

"It's only begun!" she whispered.
"Cole, we've got all the tomorrows there are!"

He nodded. "All the tomorrows there are, my
darling."

He carried her into the house, to the uproarious
congratulations and laughter of the rest of the family. Love filled the very
walls that day—and all the days that came after.