Enchanted Heart (41 page)

He stopped then and stepped in front of her, taking her face into his hands and saying with all the emotion in his heart, “It wasn’t your fault.”

He searched his heart for the words to tell her that although he was saddened by the loss of the first child that he had made with the woman that he loved with his very soul, he knew that she must feel the loss more deeply, more poignantly because she had already bonded with the baby. He was painfully aware that, for her, it was not only frustrating and heartbreaking to miscarry so many times after hoping against hope that this one would live. Marty, his breathtaking Marty, appeared as if she felt inadequate and less of a woman, as if she did not deserve to be loved by him. Watching her shrink from her normally vibrant personality to this shriveled shadow of her former self was what broke his heart the most. They could possibly conceive other babies, but to watch his wife lose her sanity over her body’s rejection of them petrified him. He kissed her then, reverently and passionately as he pulled her into his protective and loving arms, vowing to himself to make her feel cherished all of the days of her life, whether they were blessed with children or not.

He slowly released her as he kept his eyes staring into hers while he whispered, “There will be other babies. But always remember that I will love you whether we’re parents or not.”

He winked at her playfully before he promised, “And we will certainly keep practicing until we get it perfect!”

She laughed then as her mind relived the fervor that they had experienced just a few moments ago when they had ‘practiced’ in the hay and she felt that her love for this man would be forever infinite and ever-increasing, no matter what tragedy occurred, for they would face it together. With her heart soaring on wings of pure, abundant bliss, she wrapped her arms around him as they began to walk again.

Then, as if channeling his grandmother’s voice, Caid told her, “You know, Grammy always said that God, in all His infinite wisdom, has a plan for every one of His children and that their path may sometimes be shattered by tragedies. And those tragedies, while not forgotten and certainly not diminished by the passing of time, are ultimately replaced by unsurpassed joy.”

Seeing her smile up at him with the elation that he hoped was his doing, he added, “I’ve never been a religious sort of man but I do believe Grammy’s words to be true.”

Remembering that she had considered that very same concept on a day that seemed like so long ago while she had sat on her parents’ porch and held Baby Jake in her arms, she smiled up at him and said, “I’m glad that you have found your way back to my path.”

Caid breathed in the floral scent of her head before he kissed it lovingly and sighed, “So am I, Marty, my love. So am I.”

Epilogue

September, 1882

Marty stood with Caid on the edge of the rock where they had first affirmed their love for each other. This time, they did not take turns loudly repeating that proclamation, but silently whispered it to each other so that they could relive that moment of true belief in God’s ultimate plan. And even though His plan had not predestined for her or Greta to make it all the way to the San Saba River so that Papa’s dream could come true, she knew in her heart that their dream of love everlasting had, indeed, been bestowed upon her and her sister. They had both found their Promised Land in the adoration that reflected in the eyes of the men who had unexpectedly, if not miraculously, joined them in their path toward the fulfillment of that dream.

But this was a bittersweet trip for Marty and Caid, for they were on their way to what used to be the town of Ben Ficklin where Elsa and her family had settled. In the flood the month before, a wave of water had wiped out the town and sixty-five people had lost their lives. One of those lost was Jake, the same infant who had spurred Marty’s thoughts about how tragedy seemed to be renewed by the birth of children. Jake was fourteen when he had died, but he was still the same newborn that Marty remembered, for she had been so caught up in her own life, with her own family and the joy that came with it, that she had not taken the time to visit Elsa since that day that her cousin and her family had brought Caid back to her.

She had not ventured to visit the town that had applied for the honor of being chosen the county seat but when it was demolished, its hopes for that achievement were washed away with the wall of water that had destroyed it, proving without a doubt that Fate, in her fickle involvement in the lives into which she was entrusted, either sprinkled them with charm or inundated them with harm according to her ever-changing mood. The town’s rival, San Angelo the city that had sprung from the earth in 1867 on the other side of the San Saba river, was granted that honor and was now a thriving and flourishing metropolis. And if Fate will allow, the town would continue to do so, especially after the railroad would arrive, which was projected by land surveyors to be finished as soon as 1888.

Deep in her mind, she compared the relationship between the two cities to her own connection to Greta, her twin, who was virtually her mirror image. She realized that although they would always remain somewhat identical in appearance, their individualities as well as their destinies would forever be distinct and would be constantly changing with the jovial interjection and sometimes the intolerable invasion of Fate’s intervention.

At least they had both found love and for the time being, they were both overflowing with contentment. Thoughts of her sister, who lived across the stream that separated Greta’s home from Marty’s farm, her undying love for Buck and their son made her smile.

Then, sadness overtook Marty’s heart as she looked beyond the hills, the valleys and the plains toward their destination and she sighed when visions of Elsa’s stricken face crossed her mind. How sad to raise a child and to love him only to lose him to such a devastating tragedy, she mused. To watch him grow, to mentally plan his future as if he would follow that design, and hope that he would, someday, become legendary if not just happy with the person that he had evolved into. At the least, he would have made his mother proud. And then to lose him—what utter devastation that Elsa must feel. It was too much for Marty to comprehend.

She wiped away a tear and looked farther beyond the horizon, as if there was some magical answer lying just over the edge. But there was none.

She remembered when Mama had lost her son and how that loss had affected her. Even though Marty was very young, she still remembered her mother’s devastating pain, as if Mama had died along with her little boy. And Mama was never the same again, Marty recalled with the melancholy memory.

Then, she remembered the miscarriages that she had suffered and she was thankful that she had not been able to truly fall in love with those babies before losing them. She had been, as it turned out, spared that heartache by God’s omnipotent foresight when she had lost those children before their lives had begun. Thankfully, she had not loved them, formed their lives with her dreams or spent sleepless nights while they called to her for relief of their ailments or deliverance from their fears only to have them torn from her in a liquid nightmare, as Elsa had experienced.

She shook her head. She could not think of something so dire. She knew that she had to focus on her cousin’s tragic loss. Her own future was yet to be decided.

Caid took her into his arms and held her tightly, knowing that she would need his support during this heartbreaking trip. He whispered an endearing phrase that made her heart happy, if only for that moment. “I will always cherish you, my love,” his warm breath tickled into her ear.

She looked at him then, her heart filled with love for the man who always seemed to make her feel complete and she whispered, “I will always cherish you. And I will cherish our children as well.”

“We are truly blessed,” he said with a nod and a smile toward the two girls who leaned over the edge of the domed platform where they stood just a stone’s throw away from their parents.

“Yes, we are,” Marty said with a smile toward her daughters, for she felt truly blessed by Adelaide and Amelia.

Adelaide came to them almost two years after their wedding day, a thriving, healthy baby girl whom Marty had carried for nine blissful months without any complications. She was named after Mama, who had moved into their little farm house after Sven had passed away two years ago and after the larger house was built a few hundred yards from Marty and Caid’s first home.

Then, little Amelia was born four years ago after two more miscarriages and after Marty had all but given up on having any more children. This child was full of unabashed energy and elated giggles at the silliest things, which made her parents laugh along with her.

The girls made her complete, as did her husband, who stepped over to Addie, as she had been nicknamed, and took the girl’s hand into his. He coaxed her to yell something across the canyon, but she thought it ridiculously juvenile and stepped away from the edge.

Then, Caid bent down and lifted little Amelia into his arms and encouraged her, whispering into her ear an expression that she should scream.

Amelia reared back her tiny auburn head, stretched out her pudgy arms, balled up her minuscule fists and yelled in the loudest voice that her miniature body would allow, “I love you!”

To her amazement, the canyon answered in her little voice those same words, with great emphasis on the middle one, repeating that word over and over, “LOVE, love, love!”

The two adults embraced, clutching the child between them as they whispered in unison, “I love you!” while Addie turned her nose up in disgust at their childish antics.

They all walked together down the face of the Enchanted Rock while Amelia skipped ahead of them. But, her father caught up to her and grabbed her arm saying, “Careful there, Angel Face. You don’t want to fall down and get a crack the size of that one on your head.”

Amelia looked at the crack in the rock and shuddered, but she smiled and took her father’s hand and allowed him to lead her to the bottom of that giant protruding rock. She would, it was learned after blood tests, live a full and healthy life, for she was not only free of her mother’s inherited disorder, but she was not even a carrier.

Addie, it seemed, would carry on the trait to her children, but she did not show signs of it herself, so at least she would be healthy as well.

Seraphina, Greta’s first child, was also a carrier and seemed to have inherited her mother’s mild case of hemophilia. But, to everyone’s relief, Greta’s son, whom they had nicknamed Bucky, and later, when they learned that he had not inherited the dreaded disorder, they called him Lucky Bucky.

He would be a father, a grandfather and a beneficial branch on the everlasting family tree. And the new baby’s destiny, a child precariously teetering in a difficult pregnancy that kept Greta in bed at Buck’s insistence that she stay there despite her pleading with him to let her go to be with her cousin during her time of despair, remained questionable.

But, if Fate would permit it, their children would subsist and bring new generations into this blessed land, erasing the tragedies that had befallen those who had suffered, who had dreamed of freedom beyond their homeland and who had sacrificed all but their souls to possess that which had been promised to them by God Himself. And these descendents of Hans Hirsch and others who had come before them, and more who would come after them, would thrive in the hills of central Texas, a Promised Land toward which many were willing to make the treacherous journey and a paradise where they were all, until time ended their aspiring migration, dying to live.

Enchanted Heart © copyright 2011

Also by Brianna Lee McKenzie:

Catch a Shooting Star
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004APA3K8

Ripple Effect
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZK5QYC

All of my books are available at Amazon.com, Amazon.UK and Barnes & Noble for the Nook and can be downloaded to your Kindle, Nook, PC, smart phone or any other mobile device.

Find a link to all of my books and free sample chapters on my website:

http://briannaleemckenzie.blogspot.com/

Author’s Bio:

Brianna Lee McKenzie was born in Corpus Christi, Texas where she spent most of her childhood summers listening to Grandma Ruby tell stories of her adventurous life. Having nomadic parents, she never lived in any particular town for very long. Making friends was difficult in this situation, causing her to, at a young age, retreat into her own little world where the characters that she created were her companions. As she grew, she developed her ability to mentally visualize vivid scenes which she revisited later when she learned to take pen into hand. As an adult, she submitted several examples of her work to publishers, but was disappointed by rejection after rejection. But with encouragement from family and friends, she took that giant leap toward self-publishing. She has published three novels and is currently working on a fourth. Look for
Golden Dreams
to be available soon.

Brianna lives on a yacht on the Chesapeake Bay where she finds inspiration in the magnificent sunsets and the romantic gestures of her husband. Her ultimate goal is to make her family proud of her accomplishments. Selling books is just a blissful bi-product.

Special thanks to Karen Sitton, Carol Arnall and Tracy Williams

Learn more about the Texas Hill Country, German Immigration, and Hemophilia:

http://www.fbgtx.org/other/history.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/enchanted_rock/