A Forbidden Fondness of The Heart – Extended Epilogue

---

OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!

Grab my new series, "Courageous Hearts of the West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!

---

Three Years Later

“What time did you say everyone will be here?” Frank asked.

Clara moved their baby daughter to her shoulder and began to pat her back. “In a few hours.”

Frank moved close and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “How is Debra doing?”

“She’s doing fine,” Clara responded, and allowed Frank to take his daughter. “Where is Cody?”

“With William,” Frank responded. She nodded, not at all surprised that their two-year-old son was with her brother. Whenever William came to visit the ranch, which was quite often, Cody followed him around as much as he could.

“I want to check on that new horse before everyone gets here,” Frank said. “She is still acting a bit skittish.”

Clara nodded and began to nurse Debra as Frank left the house. Once her daughter was busy eating, she leaned back in her chair and allowed herself a few minutes to think over the last three years since her wedding to the love of her life. She gave a small laugh as she remembered their first deep conversation they’d had the evening they became man and wife. They were both sure that life would be perfect and if they had any problems, they would be minor. If they worked together, they would be able to overcome and handle everything that came their way. And of course, their love would conquer everything.

Life hadn’t been perfect, but they did learn how to weather the trials together. During their first year of marriage, their area of Kansas -and in fact, most of the state – had suffered a bad drought. After six full months of no rain, Frank had been very concerned that they were going to lose much of their cattle, especially when their water sources began to dry up. He spent hours driving their wagon to the river to fill up barrels of water every day so that their cattle could have enough to drink.

Then the worst that could happen did. One fall morning, a huge plague of grasshoppers attacked their ranch. Clara still remembers the morning that they appeared. The sky had been clear and blue. Clara had been working in her vegetable garden watering the plants and pulling some weeds. It was then she noticed that the sun become dim and she looked up eagerly, expecting to see some rain clouds. Instead, what she saw was a swarm of grasshoppers that soon landed on their land. Two hours later, the swarm had moved on to destroy some other ranch, but not before they ate almost every blade of grass and plant that they could. Even the clothes that she had washed and hung on the line that morning had been attacked by the grasshoppers.

Clara had been distraught. She had been newly pregnant, and Frank hadn’t let her help fight the insects. He sent her inside the house while he and the other men started small fires in an attempt to kill some of the grasshoppers and stop them from eating everything, but to no avail.

When it was over, she really believed that they were going to lose everything. There was no grass for the cattle. What little water was left had gone bad because grasshoppers had fallen into the river or the open barrels and drowned. But Frank had a plan. He had set money aside for a crisis like this one. Because he had been so prepared, he had been able to sell what cattle could, and then purchase feed for the rest. It took two years for the ranch to recover from that awful plague, but they were now doing even better than before. Clara had learned that Frank had a good head on his shoulders, and she was grateful that she had a husband that she could trust to make good decisions and take care of his family.

Now, it was the fourth of July and she and Frank had invited their family to come and celebrate Independence Day, the birth of their great nation. Agnes still worked for them and was now busy in the kitchen frying up chicken pieces. Clara had been busy for days baking cookies, cakes and pastries. Their family and friends would be arriving in only a few hours.

She was jerked out of her memories as Debra laid her head back, indicating that she had a full tummy and had fallen asleep. She carefully stood and laid her daughter into a small cradle that Frank had built for their babies, and breathed a sigh of relief when Debra didn’t stir. Debra always seemed to have a difficult time falling asleep on her own, and then staying asleep.

After making sure the light blanket covered Debra, she made her way into the kitchen.

“Did you have a good time last night?” Clara asked Agnes as she began to pull out ingredients to make a large pan of biscuits. She hid a smile as a flush spread across the older woman’s face.

“Your father knows how to treat a woman well,” Agnes said as she turned away to turn the frying chicken.

“What did you do?”

“Edward took me to the café for dinner, and then we played checkers with William,” Agnes answered, but her face was still flushed.

Because of Agnes’ obvious embarrassment, Clara changed the subject and kept herself busy mixing up the dough. Her father and Agnes had become close over the last year, with his childrens’ blessings. Clara was happy for her father and glad that he had been able to finally move on from her mother’s death. She hadn’t wanted her father to be alone for the rest of his life and hoped that they would soon make their relationship more permanent. Agnes had become like a mother to her and she was eager to have the older woman join their family.

“Hello, where is everyone?”

Clara dropped her knife on the counter and went to greet her sister.

“It’s so good to see you,” she said as they hugged each other. “Where is your new little one?”

Emma laughed. “Harry has her.”

Clara gave Emma another hug. “You can use the guest room if you want to put her down for a nap,” she offered, although she didn’t think her sister would take her up on it.

Emma had her first child a few months before Debra was born. She had miscarried her first child just a few weeks after Clara’s wedding and then had a hard time carrying another baby. After four miscarriages, she had given up ever being a mother, and for months had been inconsolable with grief. Clara had been worried about her and convinced her to give her body a rest for a year before trying again for a baby. Surprisingly, it had been her father who was able to help Emma out of her depression. He had learned a lot about dealing with grief because of his wife’s death. He had also agreed with Clara that Emma should take a break before trying again, if that was what she chose to do.

“I think that all of these pregnancies have been very hard on your body, Emma. Take a break. After a year try again,” Clara remembered her father saying during one visit.

It had taken a few conversations, but Emma had finally agreed. A year later, she again became pregnant and this time she had been able to carry her daughter to term.

Because it had taken so many years and heartache to give birth to her daughter, whom they had named Sarah after Harry’s mother, Emma had a difficult time letting the baby out of her sight.

“When Harry can let her go, you can lay her in the cradle with Debra,” Clara suggested. “That way you can check on her whenever you wish.”

Emma smiled gratefully. “I’ll do that.”

Both women became busy as they finished up the last of the preparations for their party. Just as Clara slipped the large pan of biscuits in the oven to cook, Cody burst into the house with William behind him.

“Mama, we’re hungry,” Cody announced seriously.

Clara smiled at the two boys. They looked so much alike with their sandy hair and blue eyes, one would think that they were brothers instead of uncle and nephew. William was now eleven years old and was doing well in school, although he still didn’t have a love for learning. Frank had talked to him one day and informed him that if he would do his best to get good grades and learn what he could, when he turned twelve, he would hire him to work on the ranch during the summer months. William had eagerly agreed and began counting the months until his next birthday. William thrived being outside and spent every spare moment he could on the ranch. In fact, even though he still lived with their father, he had his own room at her house and stayed overnight frequently.

Clara gave both boys a handful of cookies and sent them back outside again. The last thing they needed was two eager boys underfoot while they women finished up the meal they would be serving that day.

When the sun was high in the sky, wagons began to arrive. Penny and Greg appeared, their two rambunctious boys with them. Emma had made a few friends in Westbend and had invited them to come. Their father arrived and immediately sought out Agnes in the kitchen. Soon over thirty people had come out from town to celebrate the holiday.

Frank had set up large planks of wood to be used as tables behind the house. Short logs were set up around the makeshift tables for chairs, along with whatever chairs their guests thought to bring. Debra had woken up, so she carried her daughter in her arms as she walked around the yard and greeted their guests. They had invited everyone who attended church with them, and quite a few people had come. She was happy to have so many people come and hoped that this would become a tradition in years to come.

Soon one of the tables was heavy with food. The minister, Mr. Jones, gave a prayer of thanks over the food and for the wonderful country they lived in.

Emma made her famous lemonade and kept the pitchers full. Everyone who came also brought food, so there was plenty to enjoy.

After lunch was over, the adults sat around in the shade of some tall trees while the children ran around, playing a game of tag. William was in the middle of them all and she had to chuckle as Cody did his best to stay next to his favorite person.

Ashes was also running around, trying to herd some of the children into a corner of the yard. Frank finally called the dog to his side and gave him a command to stay, in an effort to keep the dog out of the way of running feet. Clara patted the dog as he panted heavily beside her. Edward had allowed William to claim Ashes as his own and he had lived with them in town for almost a year. But then William had brought the dog back to the ranch.

“Ashes is a ranch dog. He’s not happy being in a house all day long while I’m at school,” William explained. “I’m here often enough that I can still see Ashes whenever I want.”

By late afternoon, people began to leave since most of them had evening chores to do. Within an hour only Emma and Harry were left, along with their father and William. Cody had fallen asleep, his head in her lap. Frank had Debra tucked in the crook of his large arm. Clara listened as her family talked about how enjoyable the day had been.

Edward suddenly stood up and cleared his throat. Everyone grew quiet and waited to see what Edward was going to say. Instead of speaking, he took Agnes’ hand and pulled her to her feet. “We have an announcement to make.”

Clara immediately knew what her father was going to say. She exchanged a glance with Emma and they smiled at each other. Sure enough, Edward’s next words confirmed her suspicions.

“I’m sure that you are all aware that I have been spending much of my time with this lovely lady,” Edward said.

“Oh, you go on,” Agnes said as her face flushed, but Clara could tell that she was pleased with Edward’s words.

“I wanted to let you all know that I have asked her to marry me last night, and she said yes.”

“Really?” Clara squealed as she leaped to her feet. She quickly gave her father and then Agnes a hug. “Congratulations.”

“Yes, this is wonderful news,” Emma added. “Welcome to the family.”

Everyone began talking at once. Agnes showed off her ring that she had kept on a string around her neck but tucked under her dress all day long until Edward was able to break the news to the family. They discussed their plans for their future. They wanted to marry before winter set in, to which Clara agreed. Agnes planned to move to town. Neither Agnes nor Edward wanted a large wedding. Clara was very happy for both of them. She already loved Agnes and was thrilled that she would soon have a stepmother.

There were enough leftovers to have dinner before Emma and Harry, then Edward and William left for their homes. Frank went out to do his nightly check on things while Clara put both children to bed. When they were asleep, she went into the parlor, where she spent most of her evenings, and began to write up plans for a quilt she wanted to make for her father’s and Agnes’ wedding gift. She heard the front door open and then close and Frank soon joined her.

“This has been a perfect day,” Clara said as Frank made himself comfortable in a nearby chair. “I think that we should host a fourth of July celebration every year.”

“I like that idea,” Frank agreed. “But let’s talk about something else for a moment.”

“Okay,” Clara said as she set the paper she had been drawing on aside, noting the seriousness of Frank’s voice.

He looked at the painting that hung about the fireplace for a long moment. Clara didn’t say anything, but she knew that he absolutely loved this gift she had given him. Over the last few years, Clara had painted a few other landscapes to display in their house, but this one was his favorite. She wondered if what he had in mind to talk about, although he didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Do you know why I love that painting so much?” Frank asked, finally breaking the silence between them.

“I don’t think that you ever told me why, besides the fact that I painted it for you.”

“Well, there is that, but there is another reason.” Frank moved the paper she set aside on the sofa and sat in its place. “I’m sure you know that we are doing well financially.”

Clara nodded. She really didn’t know how much money they had, but she was aware that Frank made smart decisions with their money.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been to that particular valley,” Frank said as he gave a nod towards the painting. “But I’m sure that you remember that its very close to our land.”

Clara nodded, puzzlement in her eyes. She wondered where this conversation was going. She had been asking Frank to take her to the valley for the last few weeks, but for some reason he acted reluctant to take her.

“There is a piece of land between ours and that valley that is owned by the Larsons,” Clara commented.

“That’s right. Did you know that Mr. Larson wants to sell that section of land?”

Clara shook her head.

“He offered it to me for a good price. So I decided to purchase it. I also decided that now would be a good time to buy the land in that valley.”

Clara stared at her husband for a long moment before his words registered. “Really?”

Frank nodded. “I remember how much you love that valley. You loved it so much, that you painted it. And I love it just as much.” He picked up one of her hands and kissed the back of it. “It was when I fell in love with you.”

“Really?” Clara asked again. “But we had been barely seeing each other at that point.”

“Yes, you are right. Because of that, I didn’t tell you that I loved you until months later. I was afraid it wasn’t appropriate to tell you so soon after Emma and I…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but Clara knew what he meant. His engagement to her sister had ended only a few weeks earlier.

“We really own that land?” Clara asked with a laugh. It was the most beautiful part of Kansas that she knew of.

“Yes,” Frank laughed with her.

“What are we going to do with it?” she asked. “Are you going to put cattle on it?”

He shrugged, but she could tell that he had some ideas. “This ranch will be passed down to Cody and maybe to other sons that we have. Someday, I promise you that I will build you a new home that will be nestled in that valley.”

“That sounds perfect,” Clara answered as she leaned back in his arms.

Her eyes went to the painting and looked at one particular part of it. She could almost see a small home in the middle of the valley, with trees surrounding it would be a perfect place. A small creek flowed nearby. She loved Frank’s idea, but she had to admit to herself, she had no desire to hurry the future along. She was eager to spend every moment with him. She wanted to see what children might be added to their family. She was eager to see her father married to Agnes and that both of them had someone to spend their golden years with. She didn’t know what was going to happen in their lives, but she did know that she was content with Frank at her side.

Readers who read this book also liked

---

OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!

Grab my new series, "Courageous Hearts of the West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!

---