Vengeance for the Innocent – Extended Epilogue

Samara stepped down from the buggy, making sure to hold onto the side so she didn’t fall. She would be having her first child in three months and in the meantime, she was continuing the house calls Dr. Anderson was sending her on.

It had been three years since Davis was shot and Titus went after the bandits that had done it. The ranch was thriving. Samara and Titus had enjoyed nearly two years of marriage and were ecstatic that they would soon be welcoming their first child.

Samara walked to the steps of the porch and looked up. In a few months, she wouldn’t be able to go up steps like that without help. She was already so big she thought she might be having twins. But Dr. Anderson had only heard one heartbeat, so if there was another child in there, he or she was hiding well.

She ascended the stairs slowly, relieved when she reached the top.

The door opened as she walked toward it and a young girl of six came running out, beaming at Samara. She grabbed Samara’s hand and tugged gently.

“You’re here, you’re here!” the girl, whose name was Lily, cried out enthusiastically.

“Yes, I’m here. Is everything okay?”

“I want you to see Mandy. You have to come and see Mandy.”

Samara laughed. “Well, that’s what I’m here for, dear. To check on your little baby sister. She’s doing all right?”

“She’s so big now! I can’t believe she’s so big! And Momma is so happy to have her here! And she’s happy that I am helping. I’m being good and helping!”

“That’s wonderful, Lily. Take me to your momma and Mandy. I’m ready to check her out and make sure she is doing well.”

“She is! Oh, she is!” Lily jumped up and down, clapping her hands and then grabbing Samara’s again. “And Momma has a special surprise for you, too!”

“She does? And what would that be?”

Lily laughed delightedly. “I can’t tell you or it wouldn’t be a surprise. I don’t want to ruin it for Momma.”

Samara was amused by the little girl. Lily led her through the foyer and into the parlor, where mother and child were stretched out together on a settee. Belinda looked exhausted. Mandy, her eight-month-old baby girl, was lying on Belinda’s chest, fast asleep.

Belinda turned just her head to give Samara a smile. “Hello, dear,” she said in a soft voice. She sat up, gathering the baby in her arms so Mandy wouldn’t slip off and fall to the floor. She smiled warmly at Samara, who sat on the side of the settee that had opened up when Belinda took her legs down. She leaned forward and held her hands out to take the baby.

“How has she been doing?” she asked as Belinda transferred the baby to her.

“She’s an absolute delight. She’s very quiet and hardly ever cries. But when she wants something, she lets us know.”

“I’ve been a good helper, haven’t I, Momma?”

Belinda turned her smile to her older daughter. “You certainly have, my dear.” She looked at Samara. “I’ve been blessed with two precious girls, Sam. Lily has been such a good little helper.”

Samara did a quick examination of the baby, feeling for any problems with her bones, fingers, and toes, listening to her little heartbeat, checking for any bruising, rash, or injuries. The little baby was in perfect shape, as far as she could tell.

And nothing she did woke the baby for more than a narrow, slit-eyed glance at Samara before she closed her eyes and began lightly snoring.

“She is definitely a precious baby,” Samara said, handing the little girl gently back to her mother.

Belinda took Mandy, stood up and, holding the baby to her chest, turned to the bassinet at the foot of the settee. She lowered the baby in and tucked the soft blanket around the girl.

“She is fine, Belinda. She’s as healthy as she can be.”

“That’s wonderful. See how good you’ve done, Lily? We’ve got a perfect little Mandy here, don’t we?”

“Yes, Momma!” Lily exclaimed, a little too loudly. She clapped both hands over her mouth and dropped her eyes to the bassinet.

Belinda just shook her head and sat back down, beckoning for Lily to come to her and squeeze her small self between her mother and the armrest.

“So I hear you have some kind of surprise for me?” she asked.

Belinda looked down at Lily, smiling. “Did you tell her?”

“No, Momma, I didn’t tell her.”

“She didn’t mention what it is. Just that you have a surprise.”

Belinda returned her eyes to Samara. “Yes, I wanted to do a test to see whether you’re having a boy or a girl. Do you want to know?”

Samara laughed. “Of course, I want to know. We have to start preparing clothes for the child soon and decorating the nursery, don’t we? But how can you tell?”

Belinda stood up and went to the cupboard on the other side of the bassinet. She pulled open a drawer and took out a small spool of string. She cut off a length of it and pulled the wedding ring from her finger.

“If I hold this ring over your tummy and it starts moving, we can tell what you will have. It worked for both of my pregnancies. I bet it will work for you, too.”

Samara raised her eyebrows. It sounded intriguing. No one else had offered to do any tests to see if they could determine her baby’s gender. She didn’t mind giving it a try and told Belinda so.

“Stretch out here on the settee. Get up, Lily, darling. There you go. You stand over there. Sam, you go ahead and lay on your back here. Yes, that’s right.”

Samara moved a little slowly, maneuvering herself so she could be comfortable with her large belly in front of her.

“Lay back. Yes. Are you comfortable?”

Samara looked up at her friend, who had her lift up so Belinda could slide a pillow under her head. “Yes, I’m quite comfortable, thank you.”

“Okay, lay your hands to the sides there. Yes, that’s perfect. Okay, here we go.”

For the next five minutes, Belinda stood over Samara, holding the ring on the end of the string just above her tummy.

“I don’t think it’s going to move,” Samara said.

“Shh. Just be patient.”

After a few more minutes passed, Samara was astonished to see the ring begin to move. She looked up at Belinda, whose face shone with an expression of delight as the ring swung back and forth from left to right, like a pendulum on a clock.

“Oh! Oh!” Lily cried out. Once again, she covered her mouth with her hands. “Sorry, Momma.”

Belinda captured the ring and stood up straight. “It looks like you’re going to have a boy, Sam! I can’t wait till you have your child so we can see if the test worked.”

Samara blinked rapidly, pushing herself to sit up. “So it wouldn’t be prudent to start buying boy clothes and getting boy decorations?”

Belinda dropped to the end of the settee when Samara pulled her legs down. “I would, if I were you. This test has been accurate nine out of ten times for me. And I’m sure if you were to have a girl after buying all boy things, you can exchange them at the store. They won’t make you keep what you can’t use.”

Samara nodded. “I guess you’re right.” She was excited to think her first child would be a boy. She knew Titus would be happy about that, too. “I’m going to trust the test and get boy stuff.”

“Do you know what name you will give him?”

Samara pushed herself to her feet, resting one hand on her protruding belly. “Yes, we’ve decided on Nicholas Xavier Hanover.”

“Oh, I like that very much!” Belinda grinned wide.

“I would love to stay but I have to get back to the ranch. We’re having a special dinner for Davis. You know he’s purchased the old Bennington property a few miles from Triple-H?”

“I heard about that. Please give him my congratulations.”

“I’ll do that. It was lovely, as always, to see the three of you. Please tell Edward I said hello when he comes home.”

“We’ll do that.”

Belinda and Lily walked to the door with Samara and waved at her as she went down to the buggy and left the property.

She had to stop in town to get more supplies for their dinner. In the last year, Davis and Kara had discovered a fondness for each other that went beyond friendship. They had been courting the last six months, but Davis had confided in Samara that he wouldn’t propose to Kara until he had his own ranch up and running. She encouraged him to tell Kara that so that she would know he wasn’t simply leading her on or taking advantage of her to fill his need for companionship.

He had fully recovered from his gunshot wound and was as strong as ever. He enjoyed showing off the scars from the through and through, often pulling the left side of his shirt down to show someone he’d just befriended with. Kara pretended she hated it when he did that, but she’d told Samara in secret that she enjoyed his showing the scar off because he was with her and it made the other ladies jealous.

She and Samara had laughed about that for a while.

Samara rode the buggy into town slowly, not wanting to rush anything. The rough road under the wooden wheels was often bumpy and it jogged her uncomfortably, especially if she was going too fast.

Just as she passed the beautiful wooden sign her husband and his father had helped make, she heard a gunshot ring out. She gasped and stared ahead of her down the street, narrowing her eyes and focusing. She could see some people gathered in the middle of the road far away from her.

She slapped the reins to get the horses to move faster, hoping the ride wouldn’t be too rough and painful.

She lifted herself slightly off the bench seat so she wasn’t constantly bouncing. Her legs quickly grew tired of the stance and she sat back down, but as she got closer and realized what she was seeing, she was too stunned to realize the road was jostling her this way and that.

She pulled the buggy to a stop when she was close to the scene. Her eyes were wide as she climbed down and ran toward the men standing in a staggered circle around Dr. Anderson, who was pointing a gun at a man on the ground. The man was bleeding from his leg.

“You’re a coward,” Dr. Anderson said. “And you won’t be getting away with anyone else’s money, you hear me?”

Dr. Anderson looked at Samara as she pushed past a couple of the men to get to the doctor.

“Oh my goodness,” she exclaimed, kneeling down next to the man, who was a stranger to her. If she didn’t know him, he had to be visiting Remy. She looked over her shoulder at Dr. Anderson. “What happened here? Why did you shoot him?”

“Several good reasons,” the doctor replied in a cool voice, “the least of which is that he called me old. I’m not that old. Not too old to shoot you where you stand.”

Samara didn’t think calling the doctor old merited a gunshot wound to the man’s leg. She shook her head when a few of the men around them chuckled.

“There must be another reason, Doctor. I know you wouldn’t just shoot a man for insulting you. You’re a healer, not a killer.”

Dr. Anderson smiled at her warmly and she could see the amusement on his face. “My dear girl, I may be a healer but if the situation warrants a little injury, that’s just how it is. Fortunately for this man, you came along to treat him and keep him from dying today. I wouldn’t help me myself. I’m the one who shot him. I have no interest in treating him.”

“Doctor, please, at least tell me what he did to make you shoot him.”

Dr. Anderson took a few steps closer to the man on the ground and roughly went through his pockets until he pulled out a wad of paper bills. “He stole this from the supply shop. They can’t afford to be losing money, not right now. They’re trying to expand and build and grow.”

He shook the stack of money in front of the thief’s face, taunting him. “Thought you could get away with someone else’s hard-earned money, did you? Not on my watch, sonny. I’m glad I was the one who saw you and not someone else. Next time maybe you’ll hand it back over, regardless of how old the man is you’re confronting.”

“Bah!” The thief didn’t sound convincing.

Dr. Anderson looked up and around him till he spotted a deputy in the crowd. “Well, come on, Tyler. You can take this scum to jail now.”

“But you got the money back!” the thief exclaimed. “I ain’t gotta go to jail.”

“Oh, you will be going to jail,” the doctor said as the deputy came closer.

“Wait a minute, Ty,” Samara said as she quickly wrapped a bandage from the bag she’d brought with her around the thief’s leg. “The bullet is still in there, Dr. Anderson. We need to get it out before it causes an infection.”

“If you want to take him to the clinic,” the doctor said, his eyes on the deputy, “you can go right ahead. I’m sure Samara will be right there to dig out the bullet. Then, you can take him to jail.”

Samara finished wrapping the man’s leg and helped the thief to his feet. He put one arm around her shoulders, but the deputy disentangled him and made him rely on his help instead of Samara’s.

She was relieved to have him off her. He was foul-smelling and she didn’t like the way he smiled at her. She wasn’t standing up for him or taking care of him because she had any fondness for him at all. She did it because that was her job, and she was proud of her skills. Plus, no man should have to suffer with a bullet in their body unless it couldn’t be removed. She was confident he would be fine once she was done.

She followed Tyler to the clinic, leaving the doctor to go to the saloon for a drink to relax. She almost wished she could have one of those herself.

Before she got to the clinic and went inside, her heart fluttered in her chest to see Titus riding up on Journey.

She beamed at him.

“Samara, my love!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing in town? Are you buying me surprise presents?”

Samara laughed delightedly, watching her husband dismount and tie the horse to the hitching rail. Since the first day of their marriage, Samara had made every trip to town special by buying a new gift for the ranch or for her husband specifically. She knew what he was interested in and always looked for things she thought he would love.

“I might be,” she said. “And what are you doing here?”

He grinned. “I just might be here to do the same thing as you.”

He put his arms around her waist and leaned down to kiss her softly.

“Guess what I found out today?” Samara said after their passionate greeting. He raised his eyebrows and gave her a curious look.

“What would that be?”

“You don’t want to guess?”

He laughed. “I’ve never had special powers a day in my life. Tell me what you’ve found out.”

Samara’s smile matched his. “Belinda did a test. She says we’re going to have a boy.”

Titus stared at her for a moment. She could tell he was trying to process the information and decide whether or not he believed in the “test.” Finally, he pulled in a deep breath and held it for a moment, pressing his lips together. He squeezed his eyes shut, his face scrunching into a ball.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?” Samara was concerned for a moment. It looked like he was about to explode.

“I am so happy!” Titus cried out, throwing his arms up in the air. “I wish I could pick you up and spin you around, but…” His eyes dropped to her belly.

She laughed, wishing he could do that, too. She loved it. It was one of her favorite things her husband did to show his affection for her.

“As long as you start doing that again after the baby is born, I’m fine with it,” she said, tilting her head to the side and gazing at his handsome face. She’d never thought her dreams would come true to the extent they had.

Samara had sold her house and given half the profit to Davis to help him cover a portion of his real-estate fees. She certainly didn’t need her own home when Triple-H ranch was so huge.

“Are you happy, my love?” Titus asked, pulling her as close to him as he could manage.

“I’m happy. I have to go in and dig a bullet out of that man’s leg but, yes, in general, I’m happy.”

Titus laughed. “Good. I want you to be happy even when you have to dig a bullet out of someone’s leg. As long as you know I’m right here to support you in anything you have to do. Even that.”

Samara laughed with him. “I know you are, Titus. And I love you for it. I love you for a lot of reasons.”

When Titus leaned to kiss her again, Samara closed her eyes and thanked God for sending her a man who would always protect her, love her, and support her.

Even when she had to dig bullets out of people.

THE END

---

Readers who read this book also liked