Elizabeth Lane (30 page)

A
year of seasons had come and gone. It was spring once more in Miner’s Gulch. A time of renewing life.

In the creek bottom where the willows hung pale with catkins, red-winged blackbirds called and scolded, their colors flashing against the water. Mountain streams gurgled with the sound of melting snow. Graceful Vs of migrating geese etched the wide blue dome of the sky.

Sunlight blanketed the land with gold. It sparked points of diamond fire on the snow-crested peaks and stirred wild bees to wakefulness in their hollows. It glittered through a glass prism that hung in a bedroom window, casting rainbows on the wide bed where Sarah lay damp, exhausted and happy beyond words.

Varina leaned over her, her face wreathed in smiles. “Here she is, Sarah. Here’s your little girl,” she whispered, placing the tiny, squirming bundle in Sarah’s arms. “Just look at her! Isn’t she beautiful?”

“Oh!” Sarah’s heart burst as she gathered her baby close. Her eyes examined the crinkled rosebud face, the perfect hands with their exquisite little fingernails. “And wouldn’t you know it?” she said with a laugh. “Red hair!”

“She’s a Cole, all right!” Varina grinned as she tidied the room. “And she’ll probably be just as stubborn as the rest of us!”

“Donovan—he’s got to see her! Find him, Varina!”

“That won’t be hard. He’s right outside, pacing a hole in the carpet.” Varina opened the bedroom door so abruptly that her brother almost tumbled across the threshold. Recovering, he crossed the room in three long strides to gather Sarah in his arms.

“She’s…beautiful,” he whispered huskily, gazing at his daughter. “What shall we call her?”

Sarah kissed the spot where his chestnut hair curled in front of his ear. “I’ve been playing with names for months.” She laughed softly. “But as soon as I saw her red hair, I knew what her name had to be. Varina Faye Cole. Do you like it?”

“I like it.” He made himself comfortable on the bed beside her as Varina wisely tiptoed from the room. “She’s going to be the prettiest girl in Colorado.”

“And the smartest.” Sarah snuggled against his shoulder and closed her eyes, basking in the most perfect bliss she had ever known. The life she had all but lost was so good now, every part of it, that sometimes she wondered if it was all a dream.

Even the town was doing well. The gold ore, while not an El Dorado, had made many citizens, including Varina, comfortably well-off. Donovan had bought out MacIntyre’s livery stable and gone into the freighting business, employing a fleet of wagons to haul ore from the mines to the smelter in Central City. The enterprise was prospering, and Donovan’s cheerful manner told Sarah her husband was more than content.

She could only wish as much for MacIntyre and Zoe. They had taken her share of Smitty’s cash and left together for California to start a new life. Sarah remembered them often, but reason told her, sadly, that she would never hear from them again.

Amos Satterlee, too, was gone. The Cahills had purchased his store and planned to build a new bank alongside it, on the site of the burned saloon.

A smile flickered across Sarah’s lips as she thought about Faye. The single claim she’d saved had yielded a vein of pure gold. Faye Margaret Swenson was now the wealthiest person in town. With Greta and George as her partners, she had bought the vacant hotel, renovated it inside and out, and was now doing a thriving business.

The baby stirred and whimpered in Sarah’s arms. She brushed her lips over its velvety head, feeling the tenderness in Donovan’s gaze. “So, what are you thinking?” she whispered in his ear.

“That you’re wonderful. That our daughter is wonderful. And that I’m the luckiest man alive.”

“Mmm…” She nuzzled his whiskers. “I’m thinking about your sister. I wish she’d say yes to Jamie Trenoweth. I’d like seeing them as happy as we are.”

“Oh, she will, I think, sooner or later. Jamie’s a fine man, and her children adore him. But you know Varina. She has her own way of doing things.”

Sarah smoothed the baby’s russet hair. “And do you think our little Varina will be like her?” she asked with a smile.

Donovan’s arms tightened around his wife and child. “Time will tell, love,” he whispered. “Time will tell.”

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