Page 87 of Fairest of Heart

“Is fine,” he growled as he lifted her off her feet.

She laughed, her joy too powerful to contain.

Titus loosened his hold just enough for her to slide down and find the ground with her feet. Then his hand came up to her face. He stroked her cheek. Brushed back stray tendrils of hair. Cupped her jaw. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her, and she didn’t want him to. She’d longed for his touch every day since he’d left. Her eyes slid closed as she tried to absorb the perfection of the moment.

“It’s over, Pen,” he murmured in a rough voice.

Her eyes fluttered open and met his heated gaze.

“Madame LaBelle is in custody. The US Marshals are overseeing her trial and incarceration since her thieving crossed several state lines, so the Rangers are no longer involved. They put me in charge of returning the items taken from the Diamond D, though. Some of the cash had been spent, but most of what she took from Doc and the others is in my saddlebag ready to be returned.”

“Oh, I’m so glad.” Those dear men had been through enough on her account.

“You might be called to testify about her visit to the Diamond D and the poisoning,” Titus cautioned, “but you don’t have to worry. I’ll be by your side through it all. I promise.”

Penelope fit her hand to his jaw, the smooth skin attesting to a recent shave. “We’ll deal with that when it comes,” she said, echoing Jeb’s recent admonition. “Right now, I just want to welcome home the man I love.”

His gaze darkened, giving her only a heartbeat to comprehend his intent before his mouth captured hers.

She grabbed his arm for purchase as the power of his kiss washed over her. This was no gentle meeting of lips. Hunger radiated from him. Hunger and desire. Yet when his thumb caressed her cheek, she felt a tender adoration in his touch that brought tears to her eyes.

Raising up on her toes, she met his ardency with her own, tangling her fingers in the thick hair at his nape. This was where she belonged. With this man. Forever.

After a long moment, Titus softened his kiss, then finally pulled his lips from hers. As if unwilling to sever their connection completely, he rested his forehead against hers.

“I love you, Pen.” The quiet words soaked into her heart like a gentle rain upon a sun-scorched garden. They soothed and replenished and brought forth an abundance of joy she’d never imagined possible.

She might have started life alone and abandoned on the steps of a girls’ school in Chicago, but God had written this man into her story at just the right moment, and no matter what hardships their future might hold, their ever after would be happy indeed.

Epilogue

SPRING 1893

Titus stood in front of the mantle of his new parlor, shifting from foot to foot, unable to settle.

“Easy, Sergeant,” Captain Bill McDonald murmured in a low voice from his position at his side. “Your mama sees you fidgeting like that and she’s liable to bolt the door to keep you from makin’ a run for the hills.”

As if anything could move him from this spot. The last few months had been sweet torture. Courting Penelope, learning everything he could about her—her past, her dreams for the future, her taste in furniture.

A grin twitched his lips as Titus shifted his gaze to his mother, sitting in the front row, dabbing a lacy handkerchief to her eye. She’d despaired of him ever taking a bride, and now that the day she’d longed for had arrived, she couldn’t seem to stop crying. Happy tears, she’d assured him when he’d caught her wiping streaks from her face that morning in the kitchen. Apparently, cakes held peculiar emotional sway over those possessing strong maternal instincts. Mother had been cooking with Edith Johnson all morning, but icing that cake had sent both ladies rummaging in apron pockets for handkerchiefs.

He’d sent Edith a train ticket, secretly arranging for her to arrive two weeks prior to the wedding to assist with all the preparations. Pen’s delight in reuniting with the woman who raised her had been worth every cent. Not to mention that with both of them in the kitchen, the men of the Diamond D had been eating better than ever. It was a miracle he still fit into his dress trousers.

Titus turned his gaze across the aisle to wink at the white-haired woman adorned in a plain gray dress. She flushed pink to match the tiny nosegay of flowers pinned to her bodice, a nosegay given to her from the man seated at her side, a grump of a fellow who seemed to have taken quite a shine to Miss Johnson.

Who knew where love might strike next?

Exhaling an amused breath, Titus scanned the rest of the crowd packed into his parlor. Kitchen chairs, desk chairs, and benches had been brought in from the Diamond D’s main house as well as being pilfered from the store of new goods filling the house he and Penelope would occupy together for the first time tonight.

Nope. Don’t go thinking about the wedding night just yet, partner. Gotta get through the ceremony first.

Stretching his neck away from his shrinking collar, Titus turned his attention to counting guests. The geezer gang from the Diamond D had all been spit-shined and polished, dressed in their Sunday best. A half-dozen of his Ranger buddies stood at the back, jawing with each other and casting him the occasional knowing look, which didn’t help his nerves in the slightest.

John McHenry had made the trip, bringing a gift from Victor Chapman, who had sent his regrets. Titus still marveled at the way Providence had crossed their paths with Chapman at just the right moment. Meeting the man at the Elitch Theatre in Denver had provided resources that Titus and McHenry could not have accessed on their own. Chapman’s railroad connections had placed Narcissa in Boulder, and his skillful distraction of the actress while they searched her room had provided the evidence they’d needed to convict her.

Mildred had taken a couple of days off from her new job at a dress shop in Denver to attend. She’d brought Penelope an entire trousseau of hand-stitched linens along with a set of underthings that Titus probably should know nothing about, but after solving a mystery involving a jewel-stuffed corset, there were very few topics he and Penelope didn’t feel comfortable discussing.

Titus finally shifted his gaze to the one man in the room who meant more to him than any other. His dad met his eye and nodded approval, making Titus’s chest swell with pride. Neither of them could have guessed he’d find a real Penelope when they’d discussed the Odyssey all those years ago. How the Lord must’ve smiled at the irony, knowing what Titus’s future held.