’Ring pulled Maddie away from him. “We have to talk,” he said.
Maddie was afraid of talk. When they kissed or made love, everything between them was fine. It was only when they talked that they got into trouble.
“Later,” she whispered, kissing him again.
“No,” he said firmly, then he dismounted and lifted his arms for her. When she was on the ground, he held her at arm’s length. “I want to say this now, while I still can, because I’m not sure that I’ll have enough courage to say it again.”
“Courage?” Maddie’s heart began to pound. “Courage to tell me what?”
He moved away from her, his back to her. “Courage to say that you were right,” he said softly.
Maddie blinked at the back of him, then walked to stand before him. “Right about what?”
“Well…maybe you were right about several things.” He looked at her and she saw that there were dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t been doing any more sleeping than she had. “I started to Desperate. I had every intention of taking Yovington back to stand trial, but I kept hearing you say that I was after revenge.”
He looked away. “I guess I’ve lived too much of my life alone.” He smiled at that. “Alone in a family of nine kids. I don’t know how I managed it, but I did.”
He looked back at her. “You were right when you said that I’ve always done what I wanted. My family never tried to stop me from doing anything I wanted. I don’t guess I did learn the meaning of compromise.”
She went to him and put her hand on his chest. “What happened on the way to Desperate?”
“I realized that for once in my life I might not get what I wanted. Toby says that I’ve been spoiled, that Montgomery money has always been able to buy anything and I wouldn’t know how to cope without that money. I thought he had no idea what he was talking about. Money doesn’t help you when you’re being shot at by a bunch of Indians.”
He looked down at her and caressed her cheek. “When I left you, I thought you were just having a tantrum. That seemed reasonable to think, considering that you’re a woman and an opera singer. I thought I’d go get Yovington and then take you back to Warbrooke and everything would be just as I planned it to be.”
He paused and took a breath. “It was Jamie who made me realize that what I wanted might not be.”
“What did he do?”
“He said that he was going to miss your singing. Then Toby said that he was going to miss the caterwaulin’ too. I laughed at them, said that they’d be able to hear you all they wanted when we got home.” ’Ring paused. “Jamie said, ‘Not this time, brother. This time you lost.’ Until that moment I don’t guess I’d thought that anything you’d said to me was anything more than a little-girl fit.”
He took her hands in his and he held them so tightly that he hurt, but she didn’t protest. “I didn’t sleep that night. I just lay awake, thinking about life without you. I couldn’t imagine it. I tried to tell myself that if you wouldn’t come to live with me that that was your loss and that I’d find another woman, but it wasn’t any use. It took me years to find you, and I’m not going to let you go.”
He started to draw her into his arms, but she stepped out of his reach. “Tell me everything. What did you do about Yovington?”
He smiled at her and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t think my family will ever let me hear the last of this, but I did what you said.”
“What I said?”
“I turned Yovington over to the army. Jamie and Toby and I lit out for Fort Breck, told Colonel Harrison everything, and he took soldiers after Yovington. I insisted that my name be kept out of it and that the colonel take all the credit, so maybe ol’ Harrison will get a medal or something.”
“And forgive you for making his life miserable?”
“I hope so. I have another year to go before I get out of the army.”
“And then what?” she asked.
He took his time before answering, and Maddie sensed that what he was about to say was difficult for him. “I thought about what you said about being in a cage, and I tried to understand what you were saying. My talent seems to be in running a business the size of Warbrooke Shipping, but what if my father were some rich man who had to do nothing for his money and, to indulge me, he bought a business for me to run? I’d never know if I was any good or not.” He smiled. “It’s a great feeling to successfully negotiate a deal, to know that because of your brains and planning that you’ve won. I guess it must be like that when you sing for people who have come of their own free will to hear you, not because they owe your husband’s company a favor.”
He took a deep breath, and when he spoke, she knew that he meant what he said. “I cannot ask you to give that up. I will go wherever you go. I will follow you around the world as long as you can sing,” he said softly.
She looked at him for a while before she spoke. “And what will you do while I’m singing? Manage the props?”
“Maybe I can look into Warbrooke Shipping interests in other parts of the world. You ever sing in Hong Kong?”
Maddie was afraid to move. This was what she had wanted. He did love her. Her. Not a woman he’d created in his mind, but her, Maddie. And he also loved LaReina, a woman who had something to do in her life besides be there for her husband whenever he needed her. He loved what she was and who she was and he was willing to give as well as take.
She gave him a smile, trying to hold back her tears of happiness. “You know, I was thinking. Maybe I could sing around the world in the winter and I could spend the summers in Maine with you, and sing in that theater you plan to build for me.”