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Authors: The Outlaw's Bride

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BOOK: Liz Ireland
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Rose Ellen looked over at Amos, shaking her head. “Oh, Emma, I wish you’d told me what was happening!”

“Somehow we didn’t think you’d understand,” Lang explained.

Rose Ellen’s jaw dropped. “But of course I—” she exhaled and twisted her lips “—wouldn’t have. I’m sorry, Emma, I should have known something was wrong.” Her body stiffened at what she’d done. “How will I explain to William about his brother?”

Lang’s jaw tightened, and Emma knew that he was thinking about his own brother, and all the havoc Amos had wreaked. “Emma and I will explain how you saved our lives, Rose Ellen. We’re grateful to you.”

Saved their lives! Emma could still barely believe it. She hugged Lang tightly, daring to hope that this was the end of their problems, and the beginning of their future together. Together! What a wonderful word that was. She tilted her head up to Lang, and he bent and kissed her on the lips. For a moment she was absorbed in his warmth, and trouble fell away from her.

When Lang pulled away and cleared his throat, she looked over to see Rose Ellen gaping at them with tears in her eyes. Emma blushed. “I’m sorry, Rose Ellen…I must have been carried away….”

“Oh! I don’t mind that!”

Emma bit her lip worriedly, fearing Rose Ellen would crack up. “What is it, then?”

“My dress!” She dashed a tear from her eye, and Emma realized that Rose Ellen’s nerves were frayed a little. “
Look
at it!”

“I owe you a thousand dresses, Rose Ellen. You saved my life.”

Rose Ellen shook her head. “
I
saved the day?” She blinked in astonishment. “I did, didn’t I?”

Emma nodded. “You certainly did.”

Rose Ellen’s beautiful eyes were luminous with feeling. “Why, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever done something really useful! Now I see why you love nursing so, Emma. I feel almost tipsy with satisfaction. Just think,
I’m
practically a hero, just like you will be when you start that hospital of yours.”

Emma felt equal parts happiness at the prospect of going back to the life she’d hoped for, and worry at Rose Ellen’s joy over having accomplished a rather gruesome task. “But Rose Ellen, you killed a man.”

“Well, I’m not in any hurry to do
that
again. But I never knew I had that kind of spunk in me, Emma. Why, I can’t wait to tell Edward about how brave and heroic I’ve been. And all the folks back in Midday, and Galveston. Rose Ellen Colby Douglas—hero! Who would believe it?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Lang said. “We should get back to the others so we can get a good night’s sleep and head home tomorrow.”

Home
. Emma looked up at him and saw in his eyes the meaning he’d meant to convey with that simple word. Their home. The farm. Her heart brimmed with relief and happiness and love.

Epilogue

E
mma sat on the rocker on the porch and opened the letter that had arrived with the bundle Constance O’Hurlihy, in her new capacity as temporary postmistress, had delivered this morning, containing the book Rose Ellen had written. The loopy handwriting made her smile in recognition. She hadn’t realized until now how much she’d missed seeing it.

Dear Emma,

Here it is, my first opus—
The Vigilante Sister
. You might recognize a few characters in it, especially Ella, the sister who is abducted and rescued so heroically by Rosa Ann. (But don’t worry that others will draw comparisons to you; Ella is a very minor character.) My publisher says mine is the most exciting novel he’s read in years! I’m so happy, and have I already told you I’m at work on a new epic entitled
The Outlaw Upstairs?
Oh, I’m full of ideas! Really, I don’t know where I get them.

I’m sorry I haven’t had time to write letters, but I’ve been so busy. I have a literary salon each Friday. This week Annalise is going to present some drawings
and recite Tennyson. What a smart child! Edward says he is very proud of us both, and he is as attentive to me now as he was when we were newly married. But I suppose you know all about doting husbands. How lucky we both are!

Your loving sister,

Rose Ellen

“Good news?”

Emma had been so absorbed in Rose Ellen’s letter that she hadn’t heard Lang’s approach. She got up out of her rocking chair—not an easy task for someone eight months pregnant—and went to his side, thrilled to have a visit from him in the middle of the afternoon. Usually he and William were out doing repair work, especially now, after their first harvest was sold and there was plenty of preparing to do for the winter. And she was usually busy reading to their patients or helping Lorna in the kitchen. But happily, Joe Spears was her only patient. He’d fallen off a ladder at the store and broken his leg. And a steady stream of visitors this morning had managed the feat of talking the man into exhaustion.

She put her arms around Lang and sighed with contentment.

“Rose Ellen’s book arrived today.”

“Have you read any of it?”

Lang nuzzled the top of her head, and she squeezed him a little more tightly in return. “Parts.”

“What’s it about?”

She leaned back and raised an eyebrow at him. “Three guesses.”

He laughed. “Rose Ellen?”

“I believe she’s already hard at work on another one of the same topic.”

“At least she’ll never lack for inspiration.”

“It’s true. My sister finds herself endlessly fascinating.”

Lang sent her his most heart-stopping grin. After all these months, he never ceased to surprise her. Just when Emma was sure she knew every nuance of his smile, and the tilt of his head, and the timbre of his voice, he would look at her in a new way that would melt her insides as thoroughly as a candle in a forest blaze. Sometimes she wondered if there was any limit to the myriad ways a man could tempt a woman…but she hoped not!

“If I were a writer,” Lang said in a husky voice, “you would be my muse.”

Was it any wonder she loved him? She’d never expected a man would look at her with the searing intensity Lang regarded her with, especially when she felt as big as a heifer. But even now Lang treated her as if she were the most desirable woman in the world, and when he looked at her with those dark eyes of his, she at least felt like the most fortunate woman in the world. Sometimes she found it difficult to believe she had started this incredible year so down in the dumps and despairing for her future, which despite a few bumps along the way had turned out brighter than she could ever have imagined.

She tossed her head a little saucily. “If you were as good with words on paper as you are with flattering me, you would be a very successful author.”

He pulled her closer. “Maybe with your sister’s literary blood in the family now, our child will be a writer.”

Emma laughed, although talk of her child always filled her with joy, and anticipation. Sometimes it felt as if the little rascal would never come! “In that case, he or she might turn out to be a doctor, or a farmer.”

Lang smiled back. “Or an outlaw?” He could sometimes
refer to Amos now without so much sorrow as before.

She shook her head. “I’ve heard that particular trait skips a generation.”

“Good.”

Emma laughed, shaking her head. “Who knows? Maybe by the time our grandchildren are grown, we’ll be ready for a little excitement again. You’ll have to admit, being on the run brought us together quickly.”

The flickering heat in his eyes revealed that Lang, like Emma, was remembering that night in early spring when they’d made love under a canopy of stars. How long ago that was! In fact, sometimes it seemed almost like a dream, yet she clung to the memory, cherishing it as she did every moment with Lang. She’d told him then that she would never have any regrets, and she never would.

“I wouldn’t mind being out in the wilds again,” she said, then blushed, adding, “even sleeping out in the wilds.”

His dark brows arched up. “How about now?”

She looked across their cultivated fields glaring in the winter sunlight, then back at him with mild shock. “Good gracious, Lang, what are you suggesting?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Nothing you haven’t already thought of.”

She blushed to the roots of her hair, yet she couldn’t deny that when he moved a hand up her lower back, she felt a definite stirring of desire. “It’s very cold out here….”

“Mmm…” Lang continued to caress her, and gazed at her with such burning intimacy that she feared she’d never feel cold again. “But we could make a little fire up in the bedroom.”

“I’ll say!” Emma blurted out, then slapped her hand over her mouth to cover her smile.

Lang grinned back at her, then reached down and picked her up in one easy movement.

“Lang!” Emma cried. “What are you doing?”

“Speeding our trip upstairs.”

It was true that Emma wasn’t quite so fast as she had been. “But what if Lorna sees us? Or William?”

“They’ll understand.”

Emma shook her head as they progressed past the parlor toward the staircase. “And what if Joe sees us?”

Lang waggled his eyebrows in a way that was half seductive, half comical. “Then by tomorrow afternoon, all the world will know that Mr. Tupper enjoys ravishing his wife after lunch.”

Emma tossed back her head and laughed. “The world needs gossip, I guess.”

And for once, she would dearly enjoy being smack in the center of controversy.

ISBN: 978-1-4603-5925-9

THE OUTLAW’S BRIDE

Copyright © 2000 by Elizabeth Bass

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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