A Gown of Spanish Lace (36 page)

He stopped and looked at her longingly.

Ariana slowly shook her head. “You said you wouldn’t come until—” She stopped and licked her lips. “I’m sorry,” she continued in a shaky voice. “I…I’m not ready…”

He moved forward then and placed his hands on her arms. “You don’t need to be,” he hurried to say. “This book. It gives the whole story. We are
not
brother and sister. Our parents—two totally different families.”

Ariana drew back and looked at him with wide, startled eyes. She could not speak.

“Honest!” he continued. “Our mothers—our families—were not the same. It’s all in here.”

She was in a total daze.

“You’re sure?” she managed to whisper.

“I’m sure. Honest.”

And then she was in his arms, weeping against the pocket that had held the small diary with its precious secret.

“I can’t believe—” she began, but her tears stopped the words.

“It’s true—it’s true. Our mothers’ prayers have—kept us—fer…fer some special reason. I…I feel thet. I’m not sure jest what—yet. But we’ll find it. We are free to serve Him—together—now. Honest.”

His arms tightened around her and he lowered his face to bury it in her hair.

“Mama’s book said it, too,” he whispered. “Thet special verse of yers—’Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.’ She said it, too.”

Ariana lifted a smiling but still tear-stained face to Laramie, and he drew her closer and bent his head to kiss her moistened cheek.

Two hearts lifted in deep thankfulness to God. They were not brother and sister. They would soon be husband and wife.