WB (31 page)

Two of Gage's guards had been badly injured. My new favorite, Rosco, was in stable condition but it was doubtful that he would ever regain use of his left arm after it had been savagely bitten by one of Hugo's wolf men.

The night wasn't without it's tragedies. Hugo, plus eleven of his werewolves and four of his warlocks were dead. Aunt Celia bled to death and Laurent broke his thumb trying to defend Jerome and Morgan. Jerome was dead along with his younger brother Martin, a warlock I briefly met at the Council meeting in Seattle. Martin died racing across the clearing trying to reach his brother. Morgan said he was only twenty-one.

Hugo did plan an ambush for the Council members in Idaho. But he hadn't counted on the number of witches and warlocks that turned up for the fight or the involvement of several of the Idaho and Montana wolf packs. He also didn't know that one of his own people had turned over a blueprint of the facility to Morgan just days before the attack.

When the covens and wolf packs attacked, Hugo's men defended the compound, at first.

But within a couple of hours, when it became obvious that they were outnumbered and surrounded, they surrendered.

The breeding houses were a nightmare I was told. I saw Laurent and Gage shake their heads, too overcome with anger and disgust to tell me what they had seen and I looked to Morgan to find out what would happen to the women they rescued.

“The children will be placed with families in the covens, mine and Jerome's. Some of them have families, we will try to find them. But the women, they have suffered, many for WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 130

years, I don't know what to do with them. A home and counseling, I guess. Many of them were locked into underground cells, tortured and raped for years ….” Her voice trailed off. Her eyes were glossy with tears and her throat worked trying to suppress a sob.

“We will take care of them now and I will try to find their children for them, it's the least I can do,” her voice was hard and resolute.

Without another word she stood up and left the room. I didn't think Morgan would ever be my best friend but I liked and respected her. She was a strong woman.

I felt Gage's hand on my arm and I turned to him with a smile. My future was here with him. We would help Morgan with the rescued women and children. I would get to know my family and Gage would be there to guide me in using my powers.

All in all, things turned out different than I expected but better than I dared to hope.

WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 131

One year later ….

“Can you help me with these?”

Just as I had threaded the filmy white drapes onto one end of the valance, the other side would fall off. The problem was that the curtain rod was almost seven feet long, I had a hard time holding it steady while trying to slide the curtains on the ends. Gage gathered up the other end and slipped it on for me before reaching up with one hand to slide the pole onto the holder. I stepped down from my footstool and stood back a moment admiring the way the sunlight filtered through them, they were perfect.

I finished painting the room a warm candlelight yellow two days ago. The white curtains were a nice contrast for the soft paint. I had had to put five coats on the walls to cover up the orange paint, but it was worth the time and effort.

“I don't know why you covered the orange,” Gage said roughly.

I had been distracted lately. Studying paint chips and fabric samples in my quest to redecorate this room and he had become grumpy and impatient with my new obsession.

“Because I hate the color orange, that's why,” I said, holding a swatch of fabric up to the button back chair in the corner of the room. Velvet was nice, but I wasn't sure how sturdy it was.

Maybe leather or corduroy would be best I thought studying several swatches by holding them up against the wall.

My new rocking chair would arrive in a couple of days and I didn't want the fabrics to clash with each other. Gage was silent and I turned to him and saw an arrested expression on his face.

“But, Helene said orange was your favorite color ….”

“It probably was when I was three years old,” I smiled and gave his arm a squeeze to let him know I appreciated his effort to make me comfortable in his house. What other man would redo a room in his home in the most violent shades of orange for a woman he has never met?

So much had happened in the last year. I was more in love with Gage than ever and we were enjoying all the time alone at his country house.

We left the Torvannen house as soon as Rosco was able to travel. We were all surprised when he made a full recovery.

Helene went back to Paris and Laurent returned to his mysterious 'government' job. I heard from him about once a month. He never said where he was or what he was doing, but I was glad that he checked in because I worried about him.

Patty married a Captain Kirk lookalike and moved to Las Vegas. The couple were

expecting their first child and were fighting over whether to name the baby something Klingon or Vulcan. When I told Gage he laughed and said he thought they should choose something Borg instead.

Leah decided to go back to school to get a degree in Psychology. She hoped to provide couples counseling someday, a crazy idea I thought, but of course, I kept that to myself.

I heard from a friend in the mail room at Whitley, Small, et. al., that Lillian was being WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 132

investigated on charges of fraud and money laundering along with her oh-so-eligible fiancé, Martin.

It turned out that Martin's import export business was mostly importing drug money and filtering it through his family's defunct furniture business. Lillian was acting as his go between and they had both had all their assets seized when the D.E.A. busted them after a year long undercover operation.

She had been placed on administrative leave at the firm and the Oregon State Bar was conducting a separate investigation that was likely to culminate in her being disbarred. I can't say I didn't derive some small amount of pleasure from hearing what happened to Lillian. I'm not an angel after all. Obviously, I have to work on that.

Guy Small ran off with one of the bicycle messengers and no one had heard from him in months. Finding out he was gay and defied his father for the first time in his life made me almost like him.

My neighbors in St. Johns benefited from a mysterious new landlord who lowered

everyone's rent by fifty percent and fixed the elevator so that it would go all the way to the third floor and back again. I was delighted to hear that with the money they saved they were all able to afford taxi rides to appointments and shopping.

Gage and I settled into his house in England. We made frequent trips to London, a city I had grown to love, and we adopted a small, partially bald dog we found hiding in the barn.

Salty, we named him, spent most of the day following Harrison around the house, too lovelorn to understand that Harrison didn't like dogs. But I caught him feeding Salty pieces of bacon and cheese whenever he thought no one was looking.

I kept in contact with Morgan. She was as cheerless and serious as ever but together we had started a rescue service for young women who were in danger from predatory covens. The ten bedroom dower house on Gage's property had been turned into a women's shelter and Helene was splitting her time between her apartment in Paris and the shelter helping out with the women and children there.

I wasn't surprised when she decided to sell her apartment and move into the house to take over the running of it full time. She thought it would be a few months to get everything settled in France and then she could leave.

Gage and I still weren't married. We had a long talk after leaving Oregon and he assured me that as long as I would stay with him, he was content. Also, to my surprise, he said that if we never had children, he didn't mind. I loved him all the more for saying it especially after seeing his gentleness and longing when he held one of the little girls from the shelter on his lap and read her a bedtime story. He would make a great dad someday.

I was brought back to the present by Gage's impatient sigh. “When are you going to be done in here and what's the rush? I hear you've been working in here most of the day.”

I sighed as I looked at him over my shoulder, “Well, there really isn't any rush, I have almost six months to get this done. I just wanted to do it myself while I still could.”

I smiled as I watched him puzzle over my words. I rubbed my hands across my still flat belly and saw as his eyes widened in dawning realization.

“A baby?” He asked with a disbelieving expression, his eyes flashing from my face to my belly and back again.

I nodded proudly. With a whoop of glee he scooped me up into his arms and twirled me around once before setting me carefully back down. His hands slid gently over my abdomen and WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 133

an expression of joy filled his eyes.

“Are you feeling okay? Shouldn't you be lying down or at the doctor's office?” His face was anxious as he said this and I smiled.

“I feel fine.”

“Really,” I said firmly when he still looked worried.

“Marry me?” My head jerked up at his serious tone. With a delighted grin I watched as he knelt before me. With one hand on my belly and the other reaching for my hand, he waited for my answer. His face was strangely vulnerable as I met his gray eyes with my teary green ones.

“Yes, I will!”

And just like that, we were engaged, finally.

The End