Two years later
“Sisi, my pet, will you hand me the blanket?”
Myrna held her hand out for the snowy white cloth. Like the doting little aunt she’d become, Sisi picked it up from the ground where it had slipped and tucked the folds around her niece, fussing over her.
“Hello, Lila Jane,” Sisi cooed when the baby sleepily opened her eyes, a shade between her mother’s green and her father’s blue. Myrna hid a smile to recall her conversation of two months ago. Lila had been his grandmother’s name, and Dalton’s mother had expressed delight that they’d chosen it. Lila was Dalton’s wish, but Jane had been Myrna’s choice.
“Someone in your family?” Dalton had inquired.
“You might say that.” She wondered what he would say if he learned she had named their child after a fictional heroine, the novel now a favorite. In part she had done so because she shared many traits that Jane Eyre possessed, along with her triumph to gain the love of the master of the household whom she had come to cherish—and tonight, perhaps during their nightly stroll, she might tell him why. She giggled to think of what he would say if she admitted how she once compared him to the formidable Mr. Rochester.
The months leading up to their spring wedding had been a blur for Myrna. Mother Freed had shown delight to gain Myrna as her daughter-in-law, and Myrna deemed it only proper that she confess her family’s scandal. To Myrna’s relief, Dalton’s mother had been reassuring, as well as insistent that no prospective daughter-in-law of hers would stay at a public boardinghouse. So Myrna had remained at Eagle’s Landing.
Overnight, Mother Freed became a strict if devoted chaperone with two eager aides. It was rare that Dalton stole a kiss that Myrna was only too happy to give, before his mother or one or both girls would appear. Their moments alone grew rare and brief, the reason a source of much shared amusement between them. Her nightly strolls with Dalton were restricted to daytime with both girls in attendance and resumed only after their sweet chapel wedding.
Myrna had wished to keep the ceremony simple, but Mother Freed wanted to invite the entire town. They reached a compromise and invited all the quaint chapel could hold. At the ensuing party, many others from all over the county arrived at the manor to wish them well, including Giselle, who warmly took Myrna’s hands in hers and wished her every happiness. Myrna had been uncertain how she would respond to meeting Dalton’s former fiancée, but at the sincere kindness in the woman’s dark eyes, she felt reassured. Since then, she and Giselle had become friends.
Myrna and her new husband had honeymooned in Europe, exploring its many ancient castles and indulging in the legend and lore.
A month after their return, Myrna’s shy announcement of a baby sent the household into a flurry of excitement, and the maids prepared a room for the nursery, close to the master bedchamber. Most surprising to Myrna, the lock on the old playroom disappeared, the room still consigned to storage but no longer forbidden, and to the little girls’ delight, the replica dollhouse of Eagle’s Landing appeared on Christmas morning in their play area.
“It’s what Alyssa would have wanted,” Dalton said quietly to Myrna while watching their young charges play together, a bittersweet smile on his face.
So much healing had occurred in the more than two years since Myrna arrived. She had learned that trust, even justly deserved, took time to cultivate and must be nurtured, each opportunity golden, never to be taken for granted or ignored. Since their daughter had come to bless their lives, the ghostly weeping was never again heard by the maids late in the night, the owner of the creaking rocker too content to dote on her granddaughter to dwell on past losses.
“Dalton,” Sisi squealed, breaking into Myrna’s thoughts. She watched her sister run across the lawn to him to be scooped up into his embrace. “Lila Jane smiled today!”
“Did she?” He carried his little sister-in-law to where Myrna sat in the shade of the summer’s afternoon.
“Uh-huh. She must be happy to be here.”
“Did you doubt it?” he teased.
“No, this is the best place ever!”
Myrna’s heart gave a little jump as it always did to see him, then another when their eyes met and held in that intimate manner that made her breathless. Life with Dalton had indeed exceeded her fondest dreams and trounced all her old qualms.
“And how are my other two girls?” He set Sisi on the ground and bent to kiss Myrna’s temple then brushed his finger along the baby’s cheek.
Before she could assure him they were well, they heard the sound of a foot being stomped.
“What about me?” Rebecca insisted with a pout. “Am I no longer one of your girls?”
Dalton chuckled, he and Myrna sharing an amused glance at Rebecca’s customary dramatics, before he whirled and scooped up their niece causing her to squeal and giggle a protest when he tickled her ribs.
“You most certainly are, young miss! Don’t you forget it.”
Reassured, Rebecca smiled and took Sisi’s hand once he set her down. The two ran toward the pond.
“Don’t stay away long,” Myrna called out. “Dinner is in less than an hour.”
“We won’t,” Rebecca called back. “We just want to see the baby ducks!”
Dalton retraced his steps to Myrna’s side. “Which means I shall likely have to fetch them within the hour.”
Myrna smiled in agreement. “How did things go in town?”
“Tonight, during our stroll, we can talk about the day’s affairs,” he said, lowering his body so that their eyes were level. He slipped his hand against her head, cradling it and turning her face toward him. “To find ourselves alone after having missed your presence all day and eagerly counting the minutes when I may again return to you, I cannot help but take advantage of this moment.”
With that he kissed her, gentle and slow but no less passionate, and she returned his affection with as much fervor that a woman holding a sleeping infant could possess.
“I am fortunate to have taken the train that night two years ago, instead of the one earlier in the day as I intended,” he said once he pulled back to look into her eyes.
“What prevented you?” she asked at this previously unknown morsel of information.
“I overslept,” he admitted with a sheepish grin.
She giggled at that. Dalton was no cheerful greeter of the dawn. She discovered that juicy tidbit the morning after they were wed and often enjoyed devising methods to rouse him, some loving, some mischievous, even tickling his ribs as he’d done with Rebecca—her every attempt always ending with success and with her in his arms.
“Please don’t tell me I owe this moment and every one we have shared to your slothfulness to greet the sunrise?” she mused in mock chastisement but knew she owed their meeting to a far worthier source.
He laughed, his eyes sparkling with mirth. “It behooves me to say it, but alas, it is so.”
“There are far worse traits, I suppose.” She grinned. “No matter. I love you for all that you are, Dalton Freed.”
She could never express such words enough.
“As I shall always love you, my dearest Myrna.”
And she would never tire of hearing such words.
Each day she thanked God for bringing them together, that in the loss of tragedy she found the miracle of happiness. In all storms they since faced, they had done so together. They struggled, they learned, and always they loved, and Myrna truly felt as if she soared with the eagles at Eagle’s Landing.
Or perhaps it was her unwavering faith that made her so lighthearted?
* * * * *