“What is it?” Tessa asked.
“Could I go outside for a little while? I’ve been inside so long.” Coalie managed a decent whine.
“As long as you stay close,” Tessa told him. “And come when I call.”
“Okay.” Coalie jumped down from the bed.
“Don’t forget,” Tessa said.
“I won’t,” Coalie assured her. He waved good-bye and raced out of the room like a shot.
As soon as he was gone, Tessa stopped packing and leaned on the bedpost. “I want you to find someone for me.”
“Who?”
“A baby girl. Her name is Lily Catherine Alexander. Her mother was Caroline Millen.”
“Christ!” Lee whistled. “Finding a needle in a haystack might be easier.”
“I know,” Tessa said, “but David doesn’t want a needle in a haystack. He wants a family. He wants Lily Catherine.”
“And you intend to give David what he wants.”
“Exactly,” Tessa confirmed. “It’s my way of repaying him. A life for a life.”
* * *
“Coalie, what happened?” Mary whispered, reaching out to grab hold of the boy’s shirt as he went racing past her.
“He asked Tessa to marry him,” Coalie whispered back, wriggling in her grip like a worm on a fishing hook.
“He what?” She looked at Coalie. He looked at her. “We’d better find David,” she said, lowering the boy to his feet.
“Where’d you think I was goin’ afor you stopped me?”
Unable to hide her grin, Mary smoothed his cowlick. “Clever boy, aren’t you?”
Nodding his enthusiastic agreement, Coalie flung open the front door and darted into the street. Mary waited until he was halfway to the courthouse before closing the door with a satisfying slam.
* * *
Coalie ran through the courthouse hollering, “David! David!”
David opened the door to the judge’s chambers and stepped into the hall. “Here I am.”
Coalie was panting, nearly out of breath. “You gotta come quick!”
David’s heart raced as he remembered the first time he’d heard those words. The memory of Tessa being paraded down the street dressed in bloodstained blue satin flashed through his mind. He’d spent the past hour talking to Judge Emory about the possibility and legality of buying Coalie’s Chicago work contract. He’d managed to convince the judge that he planned to marry Tessa and give Coalie a loving home.
To his amazement, David found Judge Emory had a real soft spot for children. He’d also found himself telling the judge the truth about the Washington scandal, even asked Judge Emory to make inquiries about Lily Catherine on his behalf. All David wanted was to get home to Tessa. He had a romantic evening all planned. The diamond and sapphire ring he’d bought for Tessa at the jeweler’s was burning a hole in his pocket. He couldn’t let anything happen to her now.
Mary burst through the doors of the courthouse right behind Coalie, gasping for air. “David, you’d better come quick!”
“Mary, what is it? Has something happened to Tessa?”
Mary nodded. “He happened to her,” she managed. “I knew I should’ve shot him when I had the chance!”
“Lee?” There could be only one man Mary wished she’d shot.