Comanche Rose (38 page)

"Thank you, Hap," she said softly.

"For what?"

"For everything—for Susannah—for being you."

At that moment, Spider had apparently finally had enough wooling, for he decided to make his escape, and leaped for the open door to the Sprengers' bedroom, where he disappeared under the bed. "Maaa-maaa!" Susannah called out, pointing.

"Better go get him—no telling what he can get into in there," Hap told Annie.

As soon as mother and child were gone from the room, he called Cora outside, where he conferred conspiratorially with her. When they came in, Cora picked up the broom, shooed Annie out of the bedroom, and joined Susannah on the floor to rout the cat. Alone in the parlor, Hap just stood there for a moment, smiling. Finally, he cleared his throat and sobered visibly.

"Reckon I've kinda got something I've been wanting to say to you, Annie," he began.

Her eyes widened at the serious tone in his voice, but she let him go on. He shifted his weight off his bad leg, then reached to take her hand.

"It wasn't right the way we got married, Annie."

She could almost feel her heart stop.

"I owed you better, but I didn't want to wait. I guess I was afraid if you got a chance to think about it, you might change your mind."

She had to bite her lip to still its trembling. "I'd have been a fool if I had," she managed to say.

"I guess now I'd like to think we've got something real to build on, that if you had the choice now, you'd do it all over again."

"Yes."

"I thought I was too old to love anybody like I love you, Annie—I thought life had kinda passed me by in that. But you taught me different, you know."

She could scarce swallow for the lump in her throat. "You don't have to say this, Hap."

"Yeah, I do. I love you more than life, Annie—and I'd like to do it right." His blue eyes intent on hers, he asked softly, "Would you marry me all over again, Annie Walker? Would you say the words in church?"

But the words echoing in her mind weren't the vows they'd exchanged in a dingy room in Baker's Gap. She'd heard them in her kitchen.
I'm what you need, Annie—I can be as mean and ornery as they are. And I've never been a coward. Anything I've ever said I'd do, I've done.

"Hap Walker, I love you more than my life," she whispered back. "You make me proud to be your wife."

"Is that a yes?"

For an answer, she stepped into his embrace and raised her face to his. As her lips touched his, she murmured, "Yes."

His arms tightened around her shoulders, drawing her closer. "Cora's finding you a dress," he whispered against her lips. "And the preacher's waiting for the word."

"Do you, Horace, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health?" the chaplain asked.

"I do." Hap's voice was strong, ringing out through the small chapel.

"Will you love and cherish, honor and keep her, forsaking all others, so long as you both shall live?"

"I will."

"And do you, Anne, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health?"

"I do," Annie whispered. Then, clearing the ache from her throat, she managed to repeat more loudly, "I do."

"Will you love and cherish, honor and obey him, forsaking all others, so long as you both shall live?"

"I will."

"Do you have the ring?" the chaplain asked Hap. Seeing that he did, he directed him, "Place it on the third finger of her left hand and repeat the words I say."

Sliding his father's ring from her hand, Hap palmed it, then replaced it with a beaded circle of gold. "With this ring I thee wed...."

His fingers were warm, strong, just like the man. As Annie looked up at the softly curling brown hair, the bright blue eyes, the straight nose, the solid chin, she felt the wonder of her love for him. Out of loss and despair, he'd single-handedly made a new life for her. And within her. Now she had everything to live for.