“What do you mean?” His dark eyes narrowed on her.
“I mean just what I said.” She straightened the items on the polished mahogany of the mantel. “For years, everyone has told me the plantation is too much for a woman to manage by herself. With the slaves, I was able to keep things going, but now that I’ll have to pay workers, it is simply beyond my means.”
She glanced at him and found his full attention on her. She moved to the window to keep him from seeing her nervousness. “At first I thought about going to Oregon to visit my family. Samuel’s never met his cousins and his half-sister. I’d love to see Adella Rose again. But”—she gathered the nerve to turn and look at him and found he wore an odd little smile—“what I truly want is—”
“Oregon, hmm? That’s certainly a far piece from Texas.”
“It is, but—”
“You’re a stubborn woman, Natalie Langford Ellis.”
She looked at him, hurt by the rebuke. “How can you say such a thing when I’m willing to give up everything?”
“You don’t have to.” He stood, waited a moment to steady himself, then walked to her.
“Yes, I do,” she whispered, trembling. “It’s the only way to have what I truly want.”
A slight frown tugged his brow. “Are we talking about the plantations? Or something else?”
Her heart beat so hard, she was certain he could hear it. Looking up into his dear face, her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want the plantations if it means losing you. I know I was foolish to trust Alexander. I should have listened to you. I wouldn’t blame you if you left Rose Hill and never looked back. But the truth is … I love you, Levi.” The last words came out in a sob.
When a tear slid down her face, he wiped it away. “My beautiful Natalie.”
Hope surged through her. “Can you forgive me?”
“For what?” He smoothed her cheek with his thumb. “You leased your land to a man who fooled many people with his lies and fancy clothes. You fought to keep the plantations going against all odds. You love your son to distraction and want nothing but the best for his future.” He lifted her hand and kissed a dried blister on her palm. “You haven’t shied away from hard work, and you’ve earned the respect and friendship of your former slaves by treating them like the human beings they are.”
His eyes caressed her face for a long moment. “You, Natalie, are the woman I love. I want to be your husband and Samuel’s father. I’m not going back to Pennsylvania. You and Samuel are most important.”
The words were everything she’d longed to hear. “I love you, Levi.” She touched his bearded cheek. “But Texas isn’t your home. You belong in Pennsylvania with your family. And so do Samuel and I.”
He captured her hand and held it against his chest, his heartbeat beneath her fingers. “You’d give up everything? What about Samuel’s inheritance? His future?”
She nodded, her eyes filling with joyful tears. “Our future is with you.”
The words were no more out of her mouth than his lips descended upon hers, his beard tickling her in the most delicious way. He placed his hand on the back of her head and pulled her close to his body. She wrapped her arms around his waist, lost in the warm sensations flooding every inch of her. Oh, how she loved this man.
She never wanted to let him go.
“Tell me about Penns’a’vaina again, Papa Co’nel.”
Seated on the porch swing with the two most important men in her life, Natalie met Levi’s gaze, a look so full of love in his eyes, her heart nearly burst with happiness. Together, they’d told Samuel their news before supper. He’d asked dozens of questions about Pennsylvania, about Levi’s family, and about whether or not Ebenezer would be allowed to come with them to their new home. One question had brought tears to her eyes—when Samuel had shyly asked Levi if he could call him Papa. Levi, she suspected, had held back a few tears of his own when he’d nodded and said he’d be proud to be Samuel’s papa.
Now Samuel sat between them on the swing, bouncing from her lap to Levi’s, chattering about his new cousins and his new grandparents and anything else his four-year-old mind could drum up.
“Pennsylvania isn’t as big as Texas, but there are lots of trees and streams and lakes. I have a secret fishing hole I’ll take you to not far from my brother’s place.”
The two exchanged a smile that warmed Natalie’s heart.
Samuel bounded off the swing and hurried down the steps to where Moses was teaching Isaac how to whittle a whistle. The boys were soon tussling in the grass with Ebenezer.
“It shore is gonna be quiet around here without that chile,” Harriet said from her place on a wicker chair. Carolina and Corporal Banks sat on the sofa while Lottie stood near the rail with Jude Liberty in her arms, swaying the wee one to sleep.
Natalie nodded, realizing how dear each of them had become to her. “He will certainly miss Isaac.”
“Guess Samuel gonna need him a brother,” Carolina said, grinning.
Levi’s smile broadened as Natalie’s face grew warm at the bold suggestion. “That sounds like a good plan.” He grew serious. “It’s still hard to imagine I’ll be out of the army soon.”
Corporal Banks had delivered a message a short time ago from General Granger informing Levi the end of his service had been hastened due to his injury. He and Banks both would go home in a matter of weeks.
“Are you terribly disappointed?” Natalie asked.
“No.” He reached across the empty space Samuel had occupied to take her hand. “My time as a colonel has come to an end. Now
