The Vicky Series: Book 3: Living A Dream

Chapter 16-part 1

"Do you want to get rich as well?"

"You're very perceptive." He said after a thoughtful pause knowing she didn't believe that.

"You'd give up your nephew if I made your leaving a condition of his staying."

"I love him very much so yes, I would give him up. I don't' want to leave him any more than I wanted to leave Jeremy. But we both knew he would eventually leave us, didn't we?" he ended sadly.

"The hazards of war I suppose."

"You didn't know?" He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Vicky watched as he looked stunned, and then his face fell as though he'd betrayed a secret he'd sworn to keep.

"Know what?" she swallowed back the bile that welled in her throat.

Even the baby within her stirred as if sensing something very important was about to happen.

"Jeremy was dying of consumption. He moved to the newspaper when he began to suspect so as not to alarm you and your husband. Doc gave him a year and a half on the outside. That's when he joined up. Said if he was going to die he didn't' want to spend his last year sick in bed. He'd rather do something important with his life, something that made a difference."

Vicky felt as though all the air had been sucked out of the room. She gasped and nearly fell off the chair. Bo was kneeling next to her in a moment with a steadying hand on her arm. It was a damn good thing she was already sitting down.

"I'm really sorry you had to find out this way. I just figured he would have told you, as close as you were."

Her mouth opened and closed like a fish on the bank. Her mind raced trying to wrap itself around this new truth. She struggled all those months wondering why. Well she knew why but it wasn't reason enough to her. Damn it! She could have taken care of him! She could have...

He didn't want to spend his last years sick in bed. He'd rather be doing something that would be making a difference

She heard the words again and this time she understood them. Jeremy didn't want to wither up and a die a useless old man long before his time and confined to a bed getting only pity from those he loved. She smiled sadly as she breathed deeply to regain her composure.

"I just—" she caught herself and finished: "It's just so sad that he died before he knew what a difference he made for the U—for you...and for Little Quin and...."

How could she tell him the truth about Jeremy when he gave up so much to keep them safe? No, she could never tell. For the rest of the world, Jeremy would need to go on being the man that married her twin sister.

's mission, a truth she'd only learned herself a few days ago when a letter came from California. The letter was signed "Kelly" and no other names were mentioned. She claimed to be married to the man that Jeremy reported to. She wanted someone to know what a hero Jeremy was and since his mission was secret, no one ever would.

With the assistance of the information he provided the Union thwarted a plot to seize control of San Francisco, which was the first step to control of California and its gold. Jeremy also provided information the Union used to stop a steady shipment of illegal funds to the south. No one could ever say for certain but this woman felt that by saving California Jeremy saved the war effort.

Jeremy had often told Vicky of the difference California's gold made to the Union and so she knew what may have transpired if the south had managed to control California. Jeremy did indeed make a difference. She only wished he had known!