Felicity thought frantically. "Bellwood, I guess. There's no use to wake Grandfather or Aunt Isabel yet. Bellwood can go get Dr. Strong."

He gave her a reassuring pat and a hasty kiss before climbing out of the big bed in search of his clothes. He lit a gaslight and then hastily began to dress, recalling as he did so how he had forgotten that important detail the last time. At least he now knew that he could afford the extra few minutes required to make himself presentable. He only wished he did not know how many hours of agony stretched before her.

Felicity lay perfectly still, as if to do so would ward off the ferocity of the next contraction, but it came just the same, wrenching and writhing its way through her body. As she strained against it, she felt a gush of fluid between her legs, soaking her and the bedclothes.

"My… my water… broke," she managed to gasp when the pain subsided. He hastily snatched up some towels, threw back the bedclothes, and began to mop up the moisture as best he could. But distracted by something far more important, Felicity was only vaguely aware of his efforts. "Joshua, the baby's coming," she said in a voice that reflected her bewilderment.

"I know, honey," he soothed her. "I'll get the doctor and everything will be fine."

"No, Joshua," she corrected him urgently. "I mean, the baby is coming now!"

She knew he didn't believe her. She didn't believe it herself, but then another contraction started and she surrendered to the irresistible desire to push. It couldn't be, she knew that, and yet it was. She felt her body opening, spreading, and she lifted her knees to accommodate as she continued to bear down.

"Lissy, what are you…?" Joshua's voice seemed to come from far away. And then he said, "It's coming!" and she knew he had seen what she had sensed.

As the contraction subsided, Felicity fell back, panting and exhausted, but Joshua would not let her rest. "Just once more, Lissy. Come on, girl, you can do it!"

Of course she could do it, she thought with irritation. What was he yelling about? But before she could ask, her body convulsed again, propelling her child into its father's eager hands.

As one in a dream, Felicity stared at the writhing creature Joshua was holding up for her to see. The tiny, wrinkled face screwed up in outrage and then let out a bloodcurdling wail. It was the most beautiful sound Felicity had ever heard.

"Joshua! He's alive!" she cried, laughing and weeping at the same time.

"No, she's alive," he corrected, having noticed a detail Felicity had missed. He was laughing, too, and his eyes were also moist.

"Give her to me!" Felicity commanded, reaching for the infant.

Being very careful of the cord, Josh laid the baby on her mother's stomach so Felicity could touch her precious treasure. Only as he watched her lovingly stroke the tiny body did he begin to realize the magnitude of what had just happened.

The baby was born. Felicity was alive. The baby was alive. It was all over. Less than five minutes had passed since she had awakened him.

"My God," he murmured, and then he realized that he should probably be doing something. The doctor. He should probably get the doctor. He hastily pulled the bedclothes up to cover Felicity and the baby. "I'm going to send for the doctor. Will you be all right until I get back?" he asked.

Felicity smiled blissfully as she soothed her baby. "Of course," she said.

Josh hurried to the door, but when he threw it open, he almost collided with half the residents of the Maxwell mansion.

"What's going on?" Henry Maxwell demanded as he hastily tied the robe of his dressing gown. "I thought I heard a scream."

"I did hear a scream!" Isabel cried, clutching the lapels of her pink silk robe.

Bellwood, half-dressed, wrung his hands. "Sir, would you like me to…"

"Felicity had the baby," Josh announced to all of them. "It's a girl."

Isabel promptly fainted.


Dr. Strong shook his head as he packed his instruments away. "Did I happen to mention that second births are often easier than first births?" he asked with a quizzical grin.

Reluctantly, Felicity lifted her gaze from the sleeping infant that lay beside her in the bed. She nodded her reply to his question. Her eyes were dancing, but she managed not to grin back.

"Well, young lady, I want you to understand that they are rarely this much easier," he explained with mock sternness.

Felicity nodded again, very much aware that she had experienced a small miracle. This time she did not bother to hide her triumphant grin. Fondly, she returned her gaze to her new daughter. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"

"She's a fine, healthy baby," Dr. Strong demurred. "And that's quite a head of hair she has."

Felicity lovingly stroked the downy black hair her child had inherited from Joshua. "Dr. Strong?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Will I…" She hesitated, uncertain over exactly how to phrase the question. "Will all my children be born this easily now?"

Dr. Strong considered. "Well, sometimes there are complications that no one can foresee, but I think it is safe to predict that from now on your biggest worry will be staying close to the house during the last month of your confinement."

Before Felicity could respond, someone knocked on the bedroom door. "Come in," she called.

Joshua did so, a worried frown on his face. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything is just fine," Dr. Strong repeated. "And congratulations, Mr. Logan. I don't believe I had a chance to say that earlier in all the excitement."

"Thank you," Josh said, shaking Dr. Strong's hand. "And thank you for looking after her all these months."

"I did very little," Dr. Strong replied with a smile. "And I must say, I'm glad my services were not required here at the end. You and your wife handled everything beautifully."

After Josh and Felicity had thanked him yet again, Dr. Strong took his leave, promising to check back with them in the morning. When they were alone, Josh moved over next to the bed, where he could get another look at his new daughter.

"She's awfully little," he noticed, patting the small bottom.

"She's even bigger than Caleb Joshua was," Felicity said, growing solemn at the sad memory of her beautiful son.

For a moment they gazed at this living baby and remembered the one they had lost. Then Josh realized the importance of what she had said. "Did you say this baby is bigger?"

Felicity nodded, her eyes shining with the renewed hope Dr. Strong's prediction had given her. "Do you know what this means, Joshua? This means we have our life back!"

At his puzzled frown, she explained. "Don't you see? We don't have to be afraid anymore. We can love each other just like we did in the beginning, and we don't have to be afraid that I'll have a baby. I won't die, and we won't lose any more children, either. Oh, Joshua, do you understand? Our life will be just like it was before!"

But Josh stared down at her radiant expression and shook his head. "I don't want our life to be just like it was before, Lissy."

Felicity stared back at him in horror, her hope snuffed. Instinctively, she drew her child closer to her side as if to protect her from whatever awful thing Joshua was going to say. "What do you mean?" she asked warily.

Seeing Felicity's reaction, Josh hastened to reassure her, sitting down on the edge of the bed and reaching out to tenderly stroke her cheek. "What I mean is that I want things to be different for you. When I think back over our marriage, the only time I remember you being really happy was when you first came here, to Philadelphia."

"That's not true!" Felicity protested, but he shook his head.

"It is true. You were never sure of your place as my wife, and that's my fault. You tried so hard to please me, and I never told you how much you had succeeded. I never even told you how much I loved you. And then, when you lost the baby…"

"Don't, Joshua!" she cried, unwilling to let the memory of those awful days mar the joy of the future.

"And then you came here," he continued relentlessly. "You seemed to forget your unhappiness. You were like a different person here, but I got jealous. That's why I wanted to take you away, back home to Texas, where you'd be all mine again. Leaving you here was one of the hardest things I ever had to do."

Felicity felt her eyes fill with tears as she remembered her own bitterness over what she had considered his desertion. She reached up and clasped the hand that still rested by her face and placed a kiss on the roughened palm. "But we were happy when I came back home," she reminded him.

He smiled sadly at the memory. "For a very short while, but then we realized you were pregnant."

He did not need to explain. She remembered only too well the strained desperation she had felt during that time to continue the carefree charade. He, too, must have known the same desperation.

"Joshua, all that is over now. The reasons we were miserable no longer exist. I know you love me, and we don't have to be afraid anymore…"

"But that isn't enough," he insisted, and once more she listened with dread to what he wanted to tell her. "Like I said, the only times you've been really happy are when you were here… and when you're taking photographs. You've never said anything, but I know how much you love that work and how much it meant to you when your pictures were displayed. I… I'm starting to agree with your grandfather that you should have your own studio here and-"

"Are you saying I should live here, with Grandfather?" she asked in horror.

"No!" he hastily explained. "At least not all the time. But if it's that important to you, maybe you could spend part of the year here and part of the year with me…"

Felicity watched his silver eyes cloud with pain as he said these words, and for the first time she understood, really understood, what he was telling her. He believed that she preferred this life to the one they had in Texas and that the fame she had achieved was vitally important to her. The old Joshua would have feared such feelings and would have packed her off to Texas and kept her locked safely away from these temptations. But her new Joshua was willing to share her, was willing to let her have her life that was so alien to his own. This new Joshua was willing to risk losing her in order to give her what he believed would make her happy.

"Would you be with me while I was here?" she asked, testing her theory.

"As much as I could," he affirmed.

"You'd have to be away from the ranch," she reminded him, recalling his fierce devotion to the land, a love that ran so deep she had once actually believed he would leave her just to conduct a roundup.

"Other people can take care of the ranch," he said. "You're more important to me."

Once more tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them away. Now was not the time for weeping. This was the happiest moment in her life. "Joshua, you're more important to me than photography or Philadelphia. Don't you know that?" He looked as if he wanted to, but couldn't quite. "Joshua, listen to me! I do love photography, but I can be a photographer in Texas. I can't be your wife here in Philadelphia, without you, and I'd rather be your wife than anything else!"

His gray eyes searched her face for a long moment before he finally trusted himself to feel the surging joy her words produced. Reminding himself of her delicate condition, he resisted the urge to grab her up and crush her to him. Instead, he carefully leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her upturned mouth.

The kiss was long and infinitely sweet. When at last he lifted his lips from hers, he smiled. "You'll be the best photographer in Texas."

Felicity smiled back, easily reading the love and gratitude on his beloved face. "I'll settle for being a good photographer and a happy wife," she replied.


Josh trudged wearily up onto the ranch house porch. He hated coming home to an empty house, knowing Felicity and baby Claire would not be there to greet him. But as he stepped over the threshold into the front room, he sensed a change, as if the room were charged with some sort of electricity. Candace greeted him with a knowing smile.

"They're home," she reported, confirming what he had instinctively known. She motioned toward the bedroom door.

Inside the bedroom, he found Claire nursing happily at her mother's breast as the two females he loved most snuggled together in the rocking chair. Claire paused long enough to give her father a milky smile before returning to the task before her. Felicity reached out her free hand to him.