The ride home was nothing but a blur. Levi brought his horse up to the porch, vaulting off before the poor winded beast could come to a complete stop. Never had he ever ridden a horse so hard. His booted feet had barely hit the ground before he bounded up the steps. He pushed the front door so hard it banged into the wall, threatening to shatter the glass.
Without stopping, he took the stairs two and three at a time, then flew down the hall to their closed bedroom door. As he paused to take a breath, the memory of the day Ellie was born came flooding back to him. That was the day that he changed forever. Alicia had gone into labor during the night; he'd sent for the doctor, then gone back to bed in his room.
Dawn came and he got ready for a full day of work, not once during the day did Alicia or his child cross his mind. The sun was low on the horizon when he'd come home exhausted from a full day of hard work. As he walked from the barn to the house, he realized that Doc was gone and there was a faint cry of an infant coming from somewhere in the house.
His steps quickened as the squalls of an angry baby increased in volume as he entered the house. As Levi reached out and opened the door, dim light of a lone candle showed his wife lying on her side in the bed facing away from the door with a pillow over her head. Looking over to his right, he saw a tiny red faced baby in the cradle he'd bought.
His feet propelled him forward to the side of the cradle where his hands reached out to pick up the child. Instantly the baby quieted and began to root against his chest. He pulled the baby away from him and noticed the front of his shirt was wet. Fury instantly filled his body as he realized that Alicia had not changed or fed the baby at all. Levi laid the baby down on the bed and pulled the soaked blanket and diaper off.
Looking down, he realized that he had a daughter, a little girl. His heart melted. As quickly as he could, he changed her diaper. Thankfully, Alicia had them laid out on the dresser. Levi himself, had never changed a diaper before, but he'd watched their nanny change all of his siblings countless times. "Alicia, have you fed her at all? Alicia? Alicia?"
"What, for God sakes what!"
"Have you fed her?" He asked, trying to keep his voice gentle. The baby wasn't crying at the moment, but was still fussing.
"No! Are you kidding me? That's disgusting! Besides, I'm tired and want to sleep but all she's done is cry since I had her."
"Sit up and feed this baby now."
"No." She said as she pulled the covers over her head.
Levi walked over and sat down on the bed with his wife. It was the first time he'd been in the same bed with his wife since that night in the hotel room. "I'm only going to say this one time. Sit your sorry ass up and feed this baby or you'll wish you had. I'll get a goat as soon as I can, but until then you – will- feed – her. Do I make myself clear?"
Without saying anything, she sat up almost snatching the baby from his arms. "Alicia, I've never hit a woman before but so help me God, if you hurt that baby in any way, if anything at all happens to her, I'll kill you." She simply looked at him as the baby greedily began to suckle. "I think I'll name her Ellie Sinclair Matthews. Sinclair was my mother's maiden name."
"Fine, whatever."
The sound of a muffled cry of pain brought him back from his thoughts. Levi, opened the door to see his wife laying in the bed, her body covered in perspiration and wracked with pain, and still she smiled at him. Instantly, he was by her side, holding her hand. "What can I do for you?"
Hope simply shook her head as another pain gripped her body. "She's doing good and, Ellie is at my house with Sally." Levi looked up to see Grace Weston sitting in the rocking chair beside the fireplace.
"I don't know what we'd do without you Grace." He said as he gently sat his wife up and slid in behind her, letting her lean back against his chest.
"You can repay me in about six months." She said with a grin. Before anything else could be said Doc Baker walked into the bedroom with his trusty black medical bag and took over.
It seemed like it took forever to Levi, but according to Doc Baker, Hope was a natural when it came to delivering babies and did so in record time. Neither he nor Hope could keep the smiles from their faces as they looked down at their son, Mason, and daughter Emma. Both of them had downy soft black hair and slate blue eyes.
"Well they came a little earlier than I would have liked, but they both seem to be doing really well." Doc Baker said as he reached down, rubbing his finger down Emma's soft cheek. "They are simply adorable." He said smiling, then in seriousness, looked back up at the parents. "I know you don't feel like it right now Hope, but Levi, you don't need to touch her for at least four weeks." Levi nodded and even though Doc Baker had seen her in all her glory not half an hour ago, her face bloomed with color.
"I'll be back in a couple of days to check on the three of you."
A week later, Levi decided to tell his wife about the information he'd learned from Nigel Fenter. He walked into their room as Hope nursed Mason. Ellie sat beside Emma on the bed talking to her telling her all the things they were going to do when the baby was old enough. "Ellie sweetie, why don't you go down to the kitchen and help Claire."
She didn't want to, that was obvious, but she did. "Yes, sir."
Levi leaned down to gently press his lips to his wife's, then picked up his daughter, cuddling her in his arms. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before he took a deep breath. "Do you remember the man you saw in the diner that day?"
"I think so, why?"
"Hope, that man was Philip Huntington." Her brows drew together and he could tell she was thinking back to that day, trying to put a name with the face. When she didn't say anything he continued. "He was the man you were supposed to marry, the one you ran away from."
Her eyes widened with shock, then fear. "What are we going to do?"
"Well, right now we are going to enjoy our new babies." He paused for a minute then continued. "I hired a Pinkerton detective to go to Savannah and do a little discrete digging."
"Why would you do that?" Hope asked as she handed Mason to his father then took Emma and began to feed her.
"I was a little worried as well as curious after that day in the diner. And well, what I found out was disturbing." His eyes softened as he watched his wife, then reached out a free hand and gently cupped her face. God he loved this woman! "I don't know how to tell you this gently, so I'm just going to say it."
"Your father was murdered, and Philip is suspected of doing it, as well as several other murders. Women, mostly um – er – um, ladies of the evening were found as well. They were all strangled, and they all had black hair." God, he could not believe that he was talking to his wife about whores. Her eyes widened again, but she said nothing. "After he left Savannah on the train, they stopped finding women. Now they have stated to turn up along the rail line."
"I'm sorry about your father Hope. I'm so sorry to have to tell you all of this. This," he said waiving his free hand at their babies, "is supposed to be a time for celebration."
"This is a time for celebration. And, maybe this makes me a bad person, but I don't feel anything for my father. Nothing. You told me what I ran away from, and I've seen the scars on my back. I'm not glad of the things I must have gone through, but I'm thankful that they brought me to you. I wouldn't change anything, ever."
Hope lay in bed that night beside her husband, listening to the distant thunder roll as the storm brewing outside moved ever closer to the Triple L. She loved storms, always had. Lightning flashed, illuminating the room as fat drops of rain began to splatter against the window. Slowly her eyes began to close but as the lightning flashed outside, images of a heavyset man with white hair flashed through her mind.
This wasn't the first time it had happened, but these images were clearer and more detailed than previous ones. She kept her eyes closed, willing more images to come. Thunder boomed outside, rattling the windowpanes as rain beat against the side of the house as memories began to trickle slowly back to her. She remembered riding in a carriage, sitting across from the man in the diner. Philip Huntington. Maybe memories was the wrong word, she remembered the fear she felt in the presence of her father and Philip.
"What is it, love?" Levi asked as he rolled over gently kissing her ear.
"I remember, kind of."
ibri;mso-farVFF