'Til Death (A Rebel Ridge Novel) (30 page)

Before they could stop her, she launched herself at Fagan,
screaming at the top of her lungs.

“I spent my life trying to live down being kin to you. It’s not
my fault, it’s
yours!
I begged Marcus not to tell,
but he wouldn’t listen. He said it wasn’t right that they’d taken someone else’s
money because they were too lazy to work. I couldn’t let everyone know I came
from criminals. I didn’t want to be tarred by that brush.”

Lincoln had had enough. He shoved the wheelchair against the
backs of her legs. She fell into it with a plop as he turned her to face
him.

“You are a murderer, Lucy
White
—”
He used her maiden name just to insult her. “And you’re even worse than your
brothers. You keep talking about them dragging down your name and reputation,
but you’re as dirty as they are, right down to the bone. You’re a killer
and
a coward. You pointed the gun and let someone else
pull the trigger, then you blamed it on me—a
kid,
damn it! You were willing to sacrifice my life just so yours would stay
perfect.”

Linc’s fingers were curled into fists, and he was so mad he was
shaking.

“Detective, if you’re finished with me, I think I’m done
here.”

“We’re done here, too,” Kennedy said. “We’ve got everything on
video, loud and clear. Thank you for coming. Hell of a road they put you on. You
know the justice system. This will take a little time, but you’ll get your day
in court and a clean name to go with it. I’m making it my business to see that
your record is expunged and that you are completely vindicated.”

Too moved to speak, Lincoln nodded once, then walked out of the
room without looking back. The worst of his past was over.

He had a woman to see about the rest of his life.

Epilogue

A
fter three weeks in the hospital Meg had
come home to a house decorated for Christmas, and a man and dog waiting for her
on the front porch.

After that, they marked the winter off in increments.

* * *

The day Prince, Lucy and Fagan White were charged with
multiple counts of perjury, theft, arson and murder.

The day Meg took her first step without a walker.

The day Wesley Duggan testified in court and was jailed for
perjury. Lincoln’s first Christmas with Aunt Tildy and the Walker family.

Meg and Lincoln ringing in the New Year in his bed, making love
on a Storm at Sea.

The day Lincoln appeared in court, and was pronounced cleared
of all charges and his record expunged.

The day they were married in their old country church.

The day Lincoln showed her the blueprint for the house they
were going to build.

The night she and Lincoln made the baby she was carrying.

The day they leveled the grade to begin construction on their
new house.

* * *

By the time spring came to Rebel Ridge they were well
into the first year of their new life.

Meg often felt as if the past eighteen years she’d spent alone
had been to prepare her to truly appreciate the joy of the life that now lay
ahead. She and Lincoln had gotten a very late start on the life they’d planned
so many years ago, but as he said, they were wasting no time catching up.

The first time they’d gone to Dallas she’d been taken aback by
the size and the noise. They’d been numerous times since, and she was learning
to like hot Mexican food and cold beers.

They would be in their new house on the old Fox home place long
before snowfall—the new house with a room big enough for quilt looms and shelves
for fabrics, and a large cutting table to lay out her designs. It was to be next
to the nursery and across the hall from their bedroom.

Three vital rooms in her house that formed a triangle binding
her life as perfectly as the triangles she sewed into her quilts.

Only now and then were they reminded of how close they’d both
come to dying, but that just reinforced the fact that they had surely lived for
a reason.

As Meg’s belly grew bigger, the house grew closer and closer to
completion.

The night before they were set to move in, Linc took her up to
the building site.

She was standing on the wraparound porch and looking up into
the night sky with his arms around her shoulders, his chin resting on the crown
of her head.

“Look! A falling star!” she said, pointing toward the east and
the flash of light streaking across the blue-black sky.

“I saw one of those the first night I came back here,” he said.
“At the time, all it did was remind me of my fall from grace.”

“What do you think of now?” she asked.

Linc stroked the swell of her belly, then kissed the side of
her neck right below her ear.

“I think of how many nights we will stand on this porch looking
out onto this land like our people did before us, and watch stars burning out
that began falling long before we were born. I think of infinity, Margaret Ann,
because that’s what you are to me.”

Meg was so full of love for this man that she could hardly
speak. Her vision blurred as the star burned out above them, but she didn’t
care. There would be others, for as long as they lived, ’til death—and then
forever again, because theirs was a forever kind of love.

* * * * *

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ISBN: 9781460309704

Copyright © 2013 by Sharon Sala

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