She felt a surge of nostalgia for the previous year. She smiled, remembering all the hustle and bustle when Captain Slater had come with his Miss McCahy. Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe she and Papa shouldn't have forced the two to enter into marriage.
People had a right to make up their own minds.
She hoped things had worked out. Captain Slater and Miss McCahy had been the perfect couple. A handsome, dashing hero and a damsel in distress. But she hadn't heard from the two of them in a while, not since the letter at Christmas…
Martha started, hearing a fierce pounding at the door. She hurried over as fast as she could, muttering to herself. "People should have more courtesy. Why, I have half a mind not to open the door. Stopping this late along the way…"
But she threw open the door anyway.
For a moment, she just stared, stunned.
"Martha, may we come in?" Shannon Slater asked her. She looked like an angel on the porch, in her light blue trav-eling dress with a white lace collar. She held a big, blanketed bundle in her arms, and she stood next to her husband. He was as dashing as ever. His Confederate gray was gone, and he wore a well-tailored dark frock coat and a stovepipe hat. He was carrying a valise and held a squirming bundle as well.
Shannon didn't wait for an answer. Smiling, she stepped into the house, pressing her bundle into Martha's arms. "We are awfully late, aren't we? I'm so sorry. It's much harder traveling with the children."
"Children?" Martha sputtered at last.
"This one is Beau. And this—" she smiled, pulling back the blanket on Malachi's bundle "—is Nadine."
"Oh!" Martha said at last. "Oh, twins!"
"Twins," Malachi agreed, and he pressed his bundle, too, into Martha's arms.
"Twins!" Martha repeated, as if she could think of nothing else to say.
Malachi winked at Shannon, enjoying the woman's flustered pleasure. "This is our wedding anniversary, you know, Martha."
"Yes," Shannon said, stripping away her gloves. "So we've come back, eager for our honeymoon suite."
"Your honeymoon suite—of course!"
Beau gurgled. Martha laughed with delight. "Oh, he is precious!"
"Well, you see, Shannon's brother Matthew and Iris were married last week—"
"No!" Martha gasped.
"Oh, yes. We were all just wonderfully pleased. But they're setting up housekeeping now."
"And we've done what we can to pull the McCahy ranch together," Malachi said.
"So," Shannon continued, "Cole has gone to Texas with Kristin and Gabe and Jamie and Samson and Delilah."
"We're going to join them down that way, too," Malachi said.
"Malachi has been offered a job as sheriff in a little town west of Houston," Shannon said.
"Cole is ranching, and Jamie is—believe it or not—scouting for the cavalry."
"Oh, how wonderful!" Martha said. She looked from one of the squirming babies to the other. "Oh! They're just both so beautiful."
Malachi pinched Martha's cheek. "We're so glad that you like them, Martha."
"Like them? Why, captain, I love them!"
Shannon smiled sweetly and kissed Martha's cheek. "Good." She laughed mischieviously. "Because we're going to sneak up to our honeymoon retreat."
"Oh, of course!" Martha giggled. "You two go right ahead."
Malachi swept Shannon off her feet, striding to the stairs. "Oh, we'd like to baptize them tomorrow, if we could. If you and Mr. Haywood wouldn't mind. And we want you and Mr. Haywood to be the godparents."
"Oh!" Martha would have clapped like a child except that her arms were full of squirming babies. She looked at them more closely. They both had soft ringlets of gold and immense blue eyes. Nadine was going to be a beauty like her mother, and Beau would be as handsome as his sire. "My godchildren!" Martha cried. She turned around quickly. "We won't mind. We won't mind at all."
She wasn't sure that Malachi and Shannon heard her. Their eyes were locked with one another's as he carried her up the stairs. She was glorious, with her hair streaming over his arms, and he was wonderful in his dark coat, tall and striking. It was so romantic, the way he held her.
"Of course, of course!" Martha repeated.
Shannon had heard her. She looked over her husband's shoulder and winked. Martha waved. A second later the door—now repaired—closed at the top of the stairs.
"Oh, my!" Martha said. "Papa! Papa, wake up, Mr. Hay-wood. We've responsibilities tonight!"
She sat down with her two little bundles.
And she smiled. She had been right—she had been ever so right. They were the perfect couple, and it was just like a fairy tale…
Ending happily ever after!