Legacy (48 page)

'Sixty!'

'You can't talk it away, Catherine. You want money and land. The desire is in your blood. I've seen it all too often. I even saw it that first day when you came up here, when you were only fourteen!'

'But you loved me then, just the same! And I loved you!'

'And a fine job we did showing it once you'd finished being a schoolgirl and started being a woman! No, Catherine, you're only . . ."

'Damn you!' I flung myself at him, the tears hot and smarting in my eyes. I caught him around the shoulders and bore him down on to the grass beside me. 'You said you couldn't change! You said neither of us could change! Do I have to run back into your damned fire again? I'm not afraid anymore. Can't you see that?'

The tears overcame me then and I rested my head on his chest, the white shirt cool and smooth against my cheek. I could hear his heart, feel it under me. And from far away I heard the chimes of Father's clock toll noon.

Steven held me tightly until the last note from the clock had faded away in the mountain wind.

I raised my head and saw there were tears in his eyes. His voice came softly, his lips full and gentle. 'Come kiss me, then, my Catherine.'

Later, as he helped me on to his horse for the ride back to town, an idea seemed to occur to him.

'What sort of a house,' he asked, 'do you think we could build up here for fifty thousand dollars?'

The dream that had become so familiar was suddenly a vision in my mind. I was alone at the window of a house on Legacy. The house was mine, and I was alone, but I was looking out at someone. I was looking out at Steven, and then I was running to the door, flinging it open, welcoming him.

Welcoming him to a beautiful home with lights at each of the leaded-glass windows and a garden with tall fruit trees.

I said, 'Federal-style brick would do very well, I should imagine.'

THE END

Thank you for reading
Legacy
. If you enjoyed this book, please consider Dana Black’s
Conspiracy,
a high-stakes, romantic thriller, set in June, 1982.

Summary of
Conspiracy
:

Beautiful TV producer Sharon Foster is mingling with the stars and the high-rollers in Madrid for the final round of the World Cup Championship. So is the man she loves, US soccer goalie Keith Palermo. If they're lucky, Keith and his US soccer team will do well in the tournament, and Sharon's new American TV network will generate great ratings and revenues. If they're luckier still, Sharon and Keith will consummate their love.

But the lovers are about to be caught in a deadly conspiracy. Even now, in the remote hills of Utah, two American military guards lie brutally murdered. A crate of a lethal new nerve gas is missing and on its way to Madrid, carried by a tall, sandy-haired mercenary who will stop at nothing. Soon the eyes of the world will be on the great Madrid stadium, the cheering crowds, and an event so shocking that it could change the course of history.

Sharon and Keith find their lives intertwined with a colorful cast of characters, each immersed in their own personal dramas and crises. A glamorous network newswoman struggles with her faithless British rock-star lover - and with her taste for cocaine. A pretty teenage Russian gymnast hopes to defect to the West, to save the life of the unborn child she secretly carries. A powerful Russian spy, a wealthy US businessman, and an ambitious TV director all struggle to stay ahead of their competitors and their enemies.

But all their struggles may soon be over, for unless Sharon and Keith can discover and stop the World Cup conspiracy, the deadliest weapon in the world will be unleashed before a TV audience of billions - and America will be blamed.