Billy lifted his hands to still the murmers washing through the crowd.
“As marshal, I declare that since I can’t arrest everyone, I won’t arrest anyone.” A cheer went up. “Let it be acknowledged by all that the ghostly spirit has finally passed on to his reward.”
Matt knew he shouldn’t be grinning, but he had passed to his reward, right here on earth. With Emma tucked here under his good arm, with Lucy on the mend and Red likely cured from his recklessness, he had everything he could ever want.
He was a rich man without money.
“One more thing needs to be made clear from the start. Most especially to you, Pendragon,” Billy declared, crossing his arms over his chest. A wink of sunlight glanced off his badge. “Best look up at me while I’m speaking, just so we all know you understand. I’m not a lawman who can be bought. If you want something done in town it had better be legal and gone about like everyone else does. No more threats, no more scaring folks off their land.”
If Matt had ever heard more cheering in one day he couldn’t recall.
Billy sat on the step beside Pendragon and spoke in a low tone. “We all expect you to be a model neighbor. A body never knows when The Ghost might be resurrected.”
* * *
Land sakes! What did a woman have to do to get her husband to listen to doctor’s orders and rest? Dance naked at the foot of the bed?
Home could not come soon enough.
They should have remained in Dodge for another day, but Matt was not proving to be the most restful of patients. Only a wifely scowl had convinced him that she would be the one to drive the wagon home.
Emma licked the prairie dust from her lips. She jiggled the reins of the rented team and glanced sideways at Matt. He sat tall even with the pain in his shoulder, watching the golden land dim with the sunset.
A bird dipped low over her land singing to the departing day. Matt’s land, too. He had earned his place here. Mercy, if he hadn’t spilled his blood to protect it and those who lived here.
Without him, nothing on this 160 acres would mean a thing.
“What are you smiling about, darlin’?”
“Going home is against doctor’s orders.”
“Doc Brown worries too much.”
“Good thing you’ve got me to keep you in line.” Emma laughed, feeling the joy of it to her toes and back. “Don’t look so stricken, Matt. I’ll take such loving care of you that you won’t even notice that wound.”
And she knew that Matt would take loving care of her, as well. For the rest of their days there would be the two of them, watching over each other and tending the land.
In just one summer Matt had turned her notions of happiness upside down. On that first ride to her land she hadn’t understood that a home was not just walls sticking up out of the earth. He had shown her that home was made of the souls living and laughing inside it.
While the blessings of home and hearth went bone deep, the blessings of family filled her soul.
Just now lights came into view, shining like a beacon across the darkening prairie.
The wheels of the buggy creaked across Suede land, bringing them closer to home. From behind, the rising moon illuminated the way.
From a hundred yards off she spotted Red and Lucy through the parlor window, sitting in the rocking chair together beside the fireplace. They were both laughing, watching Princess and Fluffy cavorting over the furniture.
Smoke curled out of the chimney, light against the now fully dark sky.
“We’re home,” she murmured.
Matt grinned at her and gave her a kiss.
Then he began to sing.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt of My Fair Concubine by Jeannie Lin!
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Chapter One
China, Tang Dynasty—AD 824
Fei Long faced the last room at the end of the narrow hallway, unsheathed his sword and kicked the door open.
A feminine shriek pierced the air along with the frantic shuffle of feet as he strode through the entrance. The boarding room was a small one set above the