Page 127 of The Enchanted Land

Adam spent the morning playing with his ranch. The men of the ranch had spent some of their evenings carving new pieces. Now it was too big to carry inside at night. Seth had built a canopy over it, to protect it from the rain.

Morgan paid special attention to the cleaning of Seth’s room and then spent two hours working with Roselle on a delicious picnic lunch.

When everything was ready, she and Adam went to their special place near the river. Seth was not there, so she spread the quilt and sat down with Adam. She recited nursery rhymes to him, illustrating them on the slate board she often packed.

“How’re my wife and son?” He looked at Morgan innocently when she frowned at him. He was becoming far too possessive. Morgan immediately opened the picnic basket.

“Brioches!Morgan, you don’t know how often I used to think about these little rolls. In California, I ate some of the worst food imaginable. Jessy cooked for me for a while. I don’t know how I survived it. Jessy would take a skillet and throw in some eggs with a generous helping of eggshells.” He demonstrated with hand gestures. “When some of the eggs were still mostly raw and some were so hard you couldn’t tell them from the skillet, she’d serve them to you. Now don’t ask me by what magic Jessy was able to use one skillet and get the eggs to come out at opposite degrees of doneness. I was always too smart to ask.”

Morgan was laughing helplessly.

“Wait, I haven’t told you about the biscuits. They were so chewy that you put your fingers between your teeth, like this, and stretched them as long as your arm could reach. Now, explain that. No one dared ask about those biscuits. They were such a marvel that we rather looked forward to them.”

Morgan held her stomach as she laughed. She could just imagine Jessy making biscuits like that. She’d had a taste or two of Jessy’s cooking. She’d love to send a recipe for those biscuits to Jean-Paul.

As Morgan laughed, Adam held his slate to his father and said, “Horse.”

Seth wrote on the slate:Seth loves Morgan with all his heart. He handed the slate to her. She looked into his eyes and saw that what he wrote was true. She wiped the laughter tears from her eyes, erased the slate, and drew Adam’s horse.

“I have to get back to work now. Kiss me goodbye? On the cheek?”

She laughed at him for playing the same tricks as Adam did when he wanted something. “All right, I’ll kiss your cheek.” She stood up and leaned toward him, and as they both knew they would, they clung to one another. When their lips met, there was no resistance from Morgan.

“You won’t forget me?” He smiled down into her half-closed eyes. He turned to Adam. “A hug for your daddy, son?” Adam ran to his father’s arms and Seth tossed the boy into the air and then rubbed the stubble of his whiskers in Adam’s neck. The child screamed with delight. Seth left them both, waving.

When they returned to the house, Adam took his nap and Morgan undressed and lay on her bed. When had she realized she still loved Seth? Maybe when she’d seen the slate and knew he could be trusted completely. Yes, this time he could be believed and trusted.

What about what he had done, that horrible night in San Francisco? Somehow, the memory wasn’t so clear anymore. Now there were memories of Seth playing with Adam, Seth comforting her after a bad dream. She didn’t know if he had changed, if maybe some little thing might still set him into a jealous rage. She didn’t care.

She would let the future take care of itself. She had him near her, and that’s where she wanted him to stay. If he wanted her, then she was his.

Dinner was pleasant and Morgan relaxed and enjoyed the freedom that admitting her love for Seth had bestowed on her.

Afterward, they drankcafé au laitin the courtyard. Seth sat on a stone bench and put his arm across the back. Morgan watched him closely, hoping he’d ask her to join him. It seemed that for weeks she had fought his aggression, and now he left her alone! He finally patted the seat beside him and looked at her questioningly. She tried to keep calm, to walk toward him sedately and not run into his arms.

They sat quietly together. Morgan realized she felt safe, at home here beside Seth. She had never felt that way in San Francisco or even on the Colter ranch. For some reason she thought of Jake, of the way he had been so angry with her for always eating. She laughed.

“Share it with me?”

“What?”

“What were you thinking about that made you laugh?”

“Jake and the way he used to get so mad at me.”

“Why would Jake ever get mad at you? I wrote them all when I came here, so they’d know I was still alive. I’m afraid I didn’t tell anyone where I was when I was in California. But tell me, what made Jake mad? Maybe that you’d even speak to me after the way I acted at Montoya’s party? I guess he knew we’d … ah … spoken.” His eyes twinkled.

“That was part of the problem. You see, when I was carrying Adam, I ate.”

“I don’t understand. How could Jake be upset about that?”

“When I say I ate, I mean I ateconstantly, for six months. I ate anything Lupita cooked.”

Seth laughed softly. “I’ve been doing that for years.”

“That’s what I mean. I ate as much as you and it made me the same size as you.”

Seth smiled in disbelief.

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