Note:  This short is unbetaed so all mistakes are my own.

Disclaimer:  I don’t own the characters, make no profit, just have a little fun with them. 

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He wanted an explanation.  It couldn’t be that simple.  What could I tell him?  He wanted to know about the past, about her and me.  It was a simple request, but a complicated answer.

We’d met in a swirl of skirts and a bump – her rushing by and not looking where she was going, me trying to catch a coach to take me to the boarding house where I was staying.  Then I walked her home in a gentlemanly gesture; although I had an ulterior motive.

We’d gone to supper a couple of times and found that we were beginning to have stronger feelings for each other that we expected could come of just a short time.  The talk I had with her father was brief, nearly confrontational, and victorious – thanks to her mother siding with us.

Our trip to our new home after a brief honeymoon was long and filled with misgiving, worry, and hope.  I’d bought the place sight unseen – handled through correspondence with lawyers and the representative of the former owner – I wondered if that was a good plan on my part.  It was a daunting task restoring the house to its former state, much less building the future I had envisioned.  Then, the fight to keep what was mine caused me to make a decision I would come to regret.  How do I put into words what the loss of not just a wife, but a child, as well- one forever, the other until today, perhaps – had wrought?  Not to mention the harsh threats from Harlan that pushed me to make a painful decision.

How could I explain all that had happened, all that I’d dreamed of, hoped for, to this relative stranger standing in my home?  It was too complicated, so I decided that it should be relegated to another time – a time when thing were less worrisome, when the danger of losing the ranch to land pirates was past and I knew he would be staying.  I’ll give him a brief synopsis and, later, a full explanation.

Paula Richard

May 2010