"Not sick exactly," he said, lifting his steel-gray gaze to Richard again. "We had a little trouble with Ortega again, and I… I caught a bullet," he admitted reluctantly.

"Oh, Joshua!" Felicity cried. "Where were you hit?" She stepped back, examining him from head to toe as if she could see the wound right through his clothes.

"In the chest," he explained with equal reluctance.

With an anguished cry, she drew him to her again, as if she could somehow shield him from any further pain, and she felt a tremor go through his body. Whether it was caused by fatigue or fury, she could not tell, but she decided he had been standing long enough in any case. "Come in and sit down by the fire. You must be frozen after that ride from the station," she said, releasing him and leading him over to the settee where she and Richard had been sitting.

Richard stepped away as they approached. His face was still red, but now he looked more embarrassed than angry. Josh sat down with carefully concealed relief. Felicity saw it, but she knew Joshua would rather die than betray any weakness before Richard. She realized that she needed to be alone with her husband as soon as possible. "Richard, thank you for coming by to see me today. I'm so sorry you won't be able to join us for supper," she added, purposely using the wrong word because she knew the interpretation he would place on it.

Richard needed no subtle hints, however. "It has been my pleasure to care for you, but now I see that you no longer need that care, Cousin Felicity," he said stiffly. "I… I'm very happy for you," he added graciously, although his brown eyes were full of pain over his loss.

"Thank you," she replied, and those two words held a wealth of meaning. She gave him her hand. He carried it to his lips briefly, but before Josh could even react, Richard dropped her fingers, turned on his heel, and was gone.

Even before the door slid shut behind him, Felicity turned back to her husband, appalled at his appearance. But before she could speak, he said, "How are you?" He gestured toward her stomach.

"Oh, Joshua," she cried in frustration. "I'm perfectly fine. You're the one we have to worry about!" She took the seat beside him and reached out to stroke the beloved angles of his face. "What happened? Tell me everything."

He captured her hands and kissed each one fervently, not at all the way Richard had kissed her earlier. "Joshua," she whispered lovingly. "I don't think you kissed me hello."

For one second his gray eyes grew dark, and then his mouth came down on hers, scattering the last of her doubts.

Joshua loved her and he had come for her. Everything was going to be all right.

His kiss was long and sweet, a reconfirmation of the vows they had made to each other. When at last he pulled away, she murmured, "I love you," and he echoed her tender pledge.

"Now tell me everything," she insisted, taking his hands.

He frowned, obviously loath to do so, but after another moment of hesitation, he began. "The day I got back from taking you to the train, Ortega and his gang raided the ranch and kidnapped Candace…"

"Oh, dear heaven!"

"She's fine," Josh assured her. "They didn't hurt her. It was… it was you they really wanted."

"Me?"

Josh nodded grimly. "Of course. Ortega had decided that was the only way to really get revenge. But when you weren't there-and they tore the house apart looking for you-they deckled taking Candace was better than nothing. What they hadn't planned on was Jeremiah."

Felicity's eyes grew wide. "Jeremiah! He wasn't in on the kidnapping, was he?" she asked, unwilling to believe he could have agreed to such a thing after the way he had saved Joshua's life.

"No, he tried to warn us, but his horse went lame, and he couldn't get to the ranch in time. But he did help us find the place where they were holding Candace. He and I had this wonderful plan. We sneaked up into the camp. It was hidden way up in some rocks. I stayed in the shadows to cover him and Jeremiah walked right in. He was going to talk the rest of them into letting Candace go. What we hadn't figured on was what he would do if Ortega refused. Lucky for us, Grady got to thinking."

"We'd ordered him and the other men to stay down below and capture anybody who got away from us. After we left,. Grady realized that if the plan didn't work, Ortega would probably kill Candace and Jeremiah and me, so what good would it do if Grady and the others managed to get the rest of the gang? He and the other men followed me and Jeremiah up into the the hideout. I reckon it was the first time Grady ever disobeyed orders, but it's a good thing he did. Ortega wasn't about to listen to reason, so I had to shoot him before he killed Jeremiah and Candace. Unfortunately, he got me, too."

Felicity made a small, anguished sound and laid her palm reverently on her husband's chest. "Where?" she asked as tears threatened to fog her vision.

He moved her hand inside his suit coat to the left side of his chest, just above his heart, and she cried out again as she realized how close death had come. But then another thought intruded. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you send for me?" she asked, and in her mind she asked the unspeakable question, What if you had died and I wasn't there?

Josh lifted the hand that rested against his scar and brushed his lips across it before clasping it firmly in his own again. "I didn't want to put you in any danger."

"Danger! You were the one in danger!" she protested.

But he shook his head. "The trip back would have been too hard on you, and if you were upset, you might have…"

"It wouldn't have been too hard on me!" she objected.

But he ignored her. "And you needed to be here, where you could have Dr. Strong taking care of you."

"But you needed someone taking care of you, too!" she pointed out in exasperation.

"Candace and Blanche did a fine job of that," he said, and when she would have protested some more, he cut her off. "Lissy, I wanted you to be safe, where I wouldn't have to worry about you. And I didn't have any intention of dying." He smiled tenderly. "I had a promise to keep."

"Oh, Joshua," she cried in dismay. "Do you know what I thought when you didn't write?"

"I wrote to you this time," he insisted.

Felicity stared at him, picturing him propped in his sickbed, painfully penning the terse little notes that had made her think he did not care. Now she understood why they had been brief. Now she knew why he had made such a point of telling her how well he was, and why Blanche's letters had done the same. They were afraid she might suspect the truth. All that misunderstanding, all that misery over wondering whether he loved her, and all those weeks when he had lain weak and helpless when she could have been with him, helping to ease his suffering.

"Joshua Logan, I ought to take a stick to you!" she said, no longer bothering to fight the tears that sprang so readily to her eyes. He looked a little puzzled, but she was crying too hard to explain just now. There would be time for all that later. For now she would just hold him and thank God that he was safe.

Josh took her in his arms and cradled her gently against his chest. Her body felt cumbersome, weighed down as it was with the burden of his child, and he closed his eyes against the agony that thought caused. Thank God he had come in time to see her before the birth, before it might well be too late to tell her all the things he should have told her before she left Texas. For a while, as he had lain half-delirious from the fever and the pneumonia, he had feared his chance was gone, that he would never see her again. But his prayers had been answered. She was here, in his arms again.

"And what does your doctor say about the baby?" he asked, gently stroking the swell of his child.

Felicity brushed away the last of her tears and lifted her face to Joshua's. His silver eyes were clouded with the same emotions she herself felt over the knowledge of how close she had come to losing him. "Dr. Strong says the baby is big," she replied, managing a small smile. "But of course, you can see that for yourself."

Josh did not return her smile. "And?" he insisted.

"And he says that second births are much easier than first ones," she hurried to explain. "He has an instrument that can help with the delivery, too." But she could see he wasn't reassured. "I'm not going to die, Joshua," she said, her voice low and urgent. "I promise! And this baby isn't going to die, either; you'll see. I promise that, too, and we Logans keep our promises, don't we?"

Josh looked at her, taking in the diamond glitter of her sky-blue eyes and the shimmering gold of her hair and the fragile beauty of her face. In spite of the child she carried, she was still tiny and delicate, too small to be expected to endure the ordeal he knew lay ahead, the ordeal that was his fault. He loved her more than life itself. How could he bear it if she was unable to keep her promise? But even as the agony of that question tore at his heart, he forced himself to smile. "Yes, we Logans keep our promises."

Chapter Sixteen

Felicity soon realized that Joshua was not nearly as completely recovered as he wanted her to believe and that the long trip had been very difficult for him. After a brief visit with her grandfather, during which Henry Maxwell generously admitted he was glad Joshua had returned for her in spite of the fact that it meant she would eventually be leaving Philadelphia again, Felicity insisted Joshua take his supper in bed.

She wept again when she helped him undress and saw the angry scar from his wound, mute testimony to how close death had come. As they ate from trays in the privacy of their room, they talked for a while about superficial things. Felicity inquired about her loved ones back in Texas and about what had become of Jeremiah after they had successfully wiped out Ortega's gang once and for all. Josh explained that he had reported Jeremiah's death to the sheriff so his half-brother could live the rest of his life free of pursuit for a crime he had not committed. Although it would never be safe for him to return to their part of Texas, where he was known, he could now go wherever else he desired.

Joshua in turn inquired about her exhibit at the Exposition and the reaction to it. Felicity noticed that he no longer seemed quite as disturbed over the success of her work as he once had been, but she did not press the issue. Perhaps he was only being polite because he did not want to spoil their first night back together.

When Felicity judged that Joshua had reached the limit of his strength, she put out the lights and joined him in the big feather bed. They clung to each other, unbearably grateful for this simple pleasure when they considered that death had almost robbed them of it.

In spite of his fatigue, Josh lay awake long after Felicity dozed off. In the darkness he savored the feel and the scent of her body pressed up against his and the tiny movements of the child that lay between them. When he thought of the danger that still lurked, he repeated the prayer that had been answered the first time only in part. "Please, God."


Felicity awoke with a start, disoriented and momentarily confused by the weight that was pressing down upon her. When she tried to struggle free, Joshua muttered a sleepy protest, reminding her that after all these long months, she was no longer sleeping alone. A smile curved her lips as she determinedly lifted his arm from across her chest so she could shift to a more comfortable position. But no sooner had she shifted than a pain wrenched across her body, leaving her breathless and gasping and drenched in the cold sweat of terror.

It was starting! Just the way it had before! She was alone, in the dark, with the terrible, agonizing pain. Panic welled within her, and for a moment she feared that her heart might burst within her chest. But then the small voice of reason managed to make itself heard above the clamor of her fears. She wasn't alone! Joshua was here, and Dr. Strong was right next door. Hadn't the doctor said to summon him instantly, any time, day or night?

"Joshua," she called, shaking him gently, hating to wake him from the rest she knew he needed so badly. "Joshua, wake up!"

"Ussy?" he asked, instantly alert. "Is it the baby?"

"Yes," she said. "The pain just woke me."

Josh heard the tremor in her voice, and for an instant he felt the same terror he knew she was experiencing. It was too soon! He hadn't told her all the things he'd meant to about how much he loved her and how important she was to him and how sorry he was for having hurt her. But he could not think about all that now. He had to take care of her. "Everything will be fine," he promised. "Who should I call?"