Epilogue
“I feel blessed,” Erin said. She sat in the shade of the porch of their home as she turned toward Daniel. “Blessed that things worked out between us. Blessed that we have the kind of friends we do, people who care about us and just want the best for the both of us.”
He nodded. “I feel the same way, Erin.”
Of course, she knew that even though she and Daniel were back at home together, she would strive, through her actions and words, to quietly reassure him that he could once more feel a complete and whole trust in her. Like he said, he had always known the reason why she had done what she had with the letters, but it was the how she had gone about it that disappointed him.
“I think that both of us realized what was most important, how much we mean to one another.”
He was right. The fire had put everything into perspective. She could have lost Daniel to the flames that had burned the trading post down to the ground. He could have lost her as well, and they both realized that.
So Daniel was starting over. Rebuilding the trading post. Every able-bodied man in Pond Hollow was helping their neighbors rebuild. Every week, a team of men headed into the hills with their wagons and cut timber. New framing went up throughout the town. Some businesses had been completely destroyed, while others had remained relatively unscathed.
The wooden portion of the jailhouse was gone, burnt to embers. The trading post was gone, as was Erin and her father’s former home. For the time being, Orson was staying with them, but he insisted that it wouldn’t be for long. It was a blessing that no one had died in the fire. There had been some injuries, some burns, and smoke inhalation, but no one had died.
Benny Gray had disappeared. Callie was gone. Erin felt sorry for her friend, but Callie was a grown woman and could make her own decisions, good or bad, just like Erin had. Erin and Daniel’s home had been spared, being on the outskirts of town, but other homes along Main Street had not fared so well. The Malcolm home, being constructed of mainly stone and brick, had been spared by the fire, but even so, black stains from the flames marred the formerly pristine red bricks. Erin had been surprised when Malcolm didn’t seem to be in a rush to repair the damage.
“It’s a reminder of what really matters,” he had said when asked about it. “I am the mayor. I will help the townspeople rebuild what they have lost before I worry about some exterior repairs.”
The heat and drought continued unabated, but everyone helped their neighbors and shared what they had. Reverend Mayhew was putting together a gathering at the church this evening so that people who could spare blankets, clothing, food stuffs, and other supplies would bring them to the church to disperse to those who had lost everything.
Daniel and Erin watched the birds and the occasional squirrel. She reached for Daniel’s hand. He took it, interlacing their fingers as he gave them a soft squeeze.
“You have everything ready to take over there?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes. I have some dresses and hats to donate and shoes.” She glanced at him with a smile. “And I put your corduroy winter coat in the box as well. You still have your flannel-lined coat, which should be good enough until winter comes. And I did the same with my winter jacket.” She felt herself growing emotional. “I can’t believe that Benny did that,” she murmured. “Why would he do that?”
Daniel stared off into the trees and shrugged. “I can’t understand it myself. Only someone without much of a soul would do something like that. We’re lucky the entire town didn’t burn down. As it was, I think we’ve been very fortunate that most of the injuries were relatively minor as opposed to what could’ve happened.”
She agreed. Though she had never been so terrified in her life as she had been the moment that the burning timbers of the trading post had nearly come down on top of her, only the skirt of her dress had been singed. She had awoken in Daniel’s arms, relieved beyond belief. She had given her thanks to God and continued to do so every day.
“Have you heard from her?”
She glanced at Daniel, at first not sure to whom he referred. “You mean Callie?” He nodded. “No. I’ve been worried about her, but Benny Gray is out of her life now.” She did feel bad about Callie. “But the only one who acted out of malice was Benny. I still can’t believe the moment I saw him entering your trading post—”
“Our trading post,” he reminded her.
She smiled softly. “Our trading post. And I know that Callie would never have encouraged him to do that. When I think about it, it still makes me so angry. So many people could’ve died or been seriously injured.”
“Maybe she’ll write to you one of these days.”
Erin wasn’t so sure. “I think she has left Pond Hollow for good and has shaken the dust of this town from her feet,” she commented, thinking of the phrase in the Bible. “I hope she finds what she’s looking for.”
“I talked to Uncle Nelson yesterday. He said there’s a warrant out for Benny. His sketch is now on dozens of posters, not just around here but in the major cities. I have a feeling it won’t be long before he’s caught.”
Erin glanced at him, concerned. “And if he is, what happens to her? Will she be charged as an accessory?”
Daniel shook his head. “It doesn’t seem likely. Plenty of people in town witnessed her arrival in town after the fire. Her confession to her father right there in front of everyone.” Erin still couldn’t believe that Callie had followed Benny in the first place.
“She’s made her bed. Now she has to sleep in it,” Daniel said. He turned to her and smiled. “But enough about Benny or Callie. We need to make sure, Erin, that from this moment forward, that we discuss our feelings, regardless of our fears. We have to be able to be honest and open with one another if we’re going to have a strong marriage. I don’t want a marriage like my parents had. I want a marriage where we’re partners in everything.”
“Agreed,” she said. She watched as Daniel leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes, a slight smile on his face. In the aftermath of not only the scandal but the fire, they’d been spending a lot of time together, not only mending the relationship but talking about how they would keep anything like that from ever happening again.
While she had always felt close to Daniel, the feeling had grown over the past few days. Every afternoon they went for a walk along the lakeshore. They talked about anything and everything. It had become a quiet, romantic ritual that served to help heal them both.
As the days passed, the town continued to pull together, sharing and providing for those who had nothing. It was wonderful. Ivy and Elsie came by often to visit with Erin.
Her father, though he no longer worked at the post office, had found that he was a good all-around handyman, and he took on any job that was offered with dignity and pride. He found himself pampered by many of the middle-aged and older women in town who constantly cooked for him, and a small cottage was being built for him near the site of their former home.
Things were getting back to normal in Pond Hollow. If only she—
A sound broke the stillness, distant yet audible. Daniel opened his eyes and stared at the treetops while Erin sat up straight, her head cocked slightly to one side, listening carefully. They both looked at each other at the same time.
“Was that…was that thunder?” she asked.
They walked from the porch, hand-in-hand, to the edge of the grove and looked out toward Mount Hood, where much to their amazement, they saw rain-swollen gray clouds building up around the mountain slopes. Erin started to laugh, almost giddy at the thought of rain. She turned to Daniel and saw him smiling as well.
In town, she saw people emerging from their stores and pausing along Main Street to gaze up at the mountain as well. The clouds were moving fast, rolling down the slopes, bringing with them a stiff breeze that caused the leaves to dance and the tops of the pine trees to tilt toward the south. The breeze brought with it the scent of rain.
Moments later, another roll of thunder traveled through the valley and then the cloud cover pooled downward, bringing with it heavy drops of rain, slow at first and then steadier as the clouds covered the valley. The rain fell. A good, steady rain. It seemed as if every inhabitant of Pond Hollow town proper emerged from inside their buildings, holding their arms out, laughing and clapping each other on the back, one older gentleman even breaking into a jig.
And then the clouds burst, rain poured forth, and no one cared how wet they got. Everyone was laughing, giddy, and relieved. Daniel and Erin stood side-by-side, arms around each other’s waists as they stood in the rain, letting it pelt them, turning the dry, dusty dirt beneath their feet damp, bringing with it the aroma of wet earth.
“Thank God,” she murmured.
“Yes, thank God,” Daniel agreed. “His blessings are endless. He has helped us to overcome many challenges, and though I know that we will face many more over the years, we can always count on our faith to help us stand tall and get through them.”
Suddenly, without warning, Daniel pulled her closer into his embrace and bent down and kissed her, not caring if anyone saw. Erin returned the kiss with equal fervor and affection, knowing that she and Daniel would be able to overcome any challenges that stood in their path. With their faith, with their love for each other, nothing was impossible, and she knew that now.
Finally, drenched yet incredibly happy, Daniel and Erin raced back to the house and inside. Just after they got through the door, Daniel once more swept Erin into his arms and kissed her.
“I love you, Erin Radisson,” he said quietly.
“And I love you, Daniel Radisson,” she said. She meant those words to the depths of her heart, to the very depths of her soul. “We have always belonged to one another,” she said. “I have a deep regret that I wasn’t brave enough to just tell you how I felt before I caused so much trouble.” She shook her head. “I wish that I had just ignored Callie’s idea and let the letters stand on their own merits.”
“It’s over now,” he said. “And just so you know, I never read any of them.”
“What?”
“I never read any of the other letters.”
She looked up at him, her chin resting against his chest. “You didn’t?”
He smiled down at her. “No, I didn’t. You know why?”
She shook her head.
“Because I knew that I always belonged to you, and you belonged to me. And I know that it’s partly my fault that I never felt confident or brave enough to tell you how I felt about you either. But going forward, we will, and we can speak freely and honestly, without hesitance.”
Once more, Erin’s heart was filled with a deep and abiding love for her husband. Her best friend. Her everything.
THE END
Can't get enough of Erin and Daniel? Then make sure to check out the Extended Epilogue to find out…
What will the birth of a baby entail for the bond between Erin and Daniel?
How is Orson Stokes going to overcome his deep sorrow as his dearest daughter leaves the house?
Now that their older sister has finally married, what will the future hold for the twins, Ivy and Elsie?
Click the link or enter it into your browser
(After reading the Extended Epilogue, turn the page to read the first chapters from “Faithful to Her Heart's Wish”, my Amazon Best-Selling novel!)
Faithful to Her Heart's Wish
Introduction
Imogen Brown has a comfortable life but her pure heart can’t rest while others are suffering. On a regular basis, she voluntarily helps families living at the nearby Tent City against the wishes of her own prejudiced father. When she falls in love with a young migrant, though, the chasm between loyalty and passion threatens to overwhelm her.
Does she have the courage to defy her father’s command for love?
Manny Ortega's ankle injury unexpectedly changes the course of his life, leaving him bedridden and unable to care for himself. To his fortune, a sudden ray of hope is found, when Imogen offers to nurse him. While he is getting better and better by her healing touch, he can no longer ignore the spark he feels for her. But when he finds out that she is the daughter of a wealthy and bigoted man, he is devastated.
Does he have what it takes to fight for his only chance at happiness in this hostile new world?
Will Imogen and Manny live up to their oaths of undying love? Will that prove enough to survive the disastrous storm and keep their hearts united?
Prologue
It was a hot, still night in California, with thunder rumbling in the distance and lightning crashing through the sky miles and miles away. Although the sun was down and the people should be sleeping, Imogen couldn’t even get a wink.
If it was her own fault, she wouldn’t have been as upset. But it wasn’t her fault. It was the noise coming from the saloon across the street and down the block. That was coupled with the loud ramblings and slurred warbling of the drunken cowboys outside the saloon, walking home or to wherever they would hang their hat for the night.
Imogen Brown was a young woman of twenty-four and enjoyed having a good time as much as any other person. But when there was so much disturbance, she couldn’t plug her ears with anything at all to keep the sound out; it was so much worse. All she wanted was to sleep. She had things to do and places to go the next day and didn’t want to be exhausted the whole time. Her father wouldn’t like seeing her that way either.
It wasn’t the first time, and unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last. Imogen missed when her hometown of Bryantsville, California, was just a small one-hotel town that never attracted much attention.
Now, it had grown to nearly two thousand people. It was almost frightening and would have been if Imogen wasn’t a bold, outgoing woman with a talkative nature. She was smart and friendly and got along with everyone.
Now there were people in Bryantsville she didn’t even know. The fact shamed her, but what could she do? There were just too many people moving.
Imogen slid out of her bed and walked to the window to look out over the main street. Her great-great-grandfather had helped establish this little town nearly 70 years ago at the beginning of the 19th century. By 1889, the town was much bigger than the dozen families that started it.
She was happy living with her father in one of the first mansion cottages established in Bryantsville. Her ancestors built the unique house right there on the main road. She couldn’t imagine what the other families must have thought, but she did find it quite amusing.
The house wasn’t much wider than the other shops and houses on the road at 30 feet, but the unique thing about Imogen’s home was how long it was. It stretched out 300 feet in length, cutting through the middle of what would have been an alleyway behind the shops built on that side of the road. Fortunately, there were only residences built to the right of Imogen and shops to the left.
Still, Imogen was aware that the length of the house was a constant irritant, a thorn in the side of the residents of Bryantsville. That’s why she thought the original residents probably had been irritated too.
She pressed her fingers to the bottom of the window and pushed it up so she could lean out. The first thing she did was lift her chin and close her eyes, breathing in the night’s cool, fresh air.
She heard raucous laughter, followed by hooting and whistling from a quad of men stumbling by holding each other up. One had been tilting his head back to drink from the bottle in his hand and spotted her.
“Girlie!” two of them shouted at the same time. They looked and pointed at each other and then burst out laughing, falling together. The one with the bottle in his hand tripped his way toward the front door of her house, and she leaned out further to yell at him.
“Go on home, you! My father won’t let you in here, and you aren’t welcome here! Go home to your family!”
Imogen stepped back and slammed her window down. She could still hear them out there screaming for her to come back and wished she’d never leaned out the window in the first place.
She dropped down on her bed and crossed her arms over her chest to sulk. She was wide awake. It wasn’t going to be a good day the next day.
It was bad enough she had to deal with a father who had a short temper and an authoritarian attitude. She didn’t need his berating because she would be yawning all day. He could sleep through this racket. It wasn’t Imogen’s fault that she was a light sleeper.
Sometimes she wondered if her mother had a calming effect on Jacob or if she’d had to deal with him the way he was like she did. She’d died in childbirth, taking with her the perfectly formed baby boy that would have been the perfect brother for ten-year-old Imogen.
She’d been taking care of her father’s household ever since, growing up the moment she lost her mother. She’d never be allowed to live a normal life or have a good childhood. She was working the day after it happened.
Imogen finally laid back down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Please, God, she prayed, help me sleep.