She glanced at her husband. "I thought you hated Yankees."

"Certain Yankees. This one turned out all right in the end."

"I see." Angelina peered at her husband closely. There was something different about him, a relaxed air in place of his usual tense readiness. She would have to explore this change further when they had the time.

Detaching herself from Charlie's embrace with reluctance, Angelina went to retrieve her carpetbag from the ground where she'd dropped it. When she turned around, Charlie and Drew had their heads together in deep discussion. She joined them.

"I'll stay here for a day," Drew was saying. "Then I'll go into Chihuahua and send someone out for them. You'll be long gone by then. By the time they're let loose, so will I."

Charlie nodded. He reached into his shirt and withdrew a creased-and-torn paper. He shoved it into the lawman's hand. "The dance hall I told you about. You take it. We won't be needing the thing."

Drew looked down at the paper in his hand, then up at Charlie. He nodded his thanks and stuffed the parchment into the pocket of his pants. The two men looked at each other for a moment, hesitancy in every movement. Then Charlie stiffly stuck out his hand. Drew clasped it and they shook, looking into each other's eyes for a long moment.

Angelina bit her lip against the catch in her throat. Not more than a month ago the two men had been mortal enemies. What had happened to make them forgive one another and become friends?

Charlie and Drew parted. "If you ever need a hand, you'll know where to find me," Drew told him.

Charlie nodded and turned away. Within minutes, Angelina and Charlie retrieved Gabe from his hiding place and rode away to the north.

Night fell and they made camp. They had ridden too hard and fast since leaving Drew and her brothers to have any kind of conversation. Though Angelina's curiosity was near to bursting, a need of a different kind took precedence over her questions.

No sooner had they made a fire and laid out the bedroll than she was in his arms. Impatient to feel his flesh against hers, she yanked his shirt open, spreading her palms across his chest, then lowering her lips to press kisses across the broad expanse.

"I never thought I'd see you again," she whispered between kisses.

"I know. But I'm here now. No more talk, Angelina. I need you too much."

With that statement, issued in a rough, urgent tone, he quickly stripped her clothes. His own garments

landed in the pile on top of hers.

He lay in the hollow between her legs, his hardness pressed against her pulsing center. Cradling her face,

he kissed her deeply. She moaned against his mouth, arching into him, clasping his taut buttocks and urging him closer.

"Please," she begged. "Don't wait. I want you inside me now. I need to know for sure I'm not dreaming.

That you're really here with me. That you're really alive."

With a single movement he came into her, filling her completely. The tears she had put off all afternoon flowed freely down her cheeks. He leaned down and kissed them away.

"Don't cry, Angel. Please. It tears me up when you do that."

"I'm all right." She smiled and blinked back the last of her tears, then reached up to cup his cheek in her

palm. "I was just so afraid that none of this was real. That I might wake up and be in the convent forever,

and you would still be dead."

Charlie smiled a wicked smile and pulled slowly out of her body; then he thrust into her once more. "I'm definitely alive and well." She reached out and pulled him back into her again. Charlie groaned. "Though you may kill me yet."

Then there were no more words for a long while, just the sound of lovers loving, making new promises

for a lifetime together and fulfilling the vows they had made not so very long ago.

The stars rose above them, clear and bright in the dark Mexican sky. Angelina and Charlie lay together, fingers linked, and watched the twinkling array.

"Why did you come back?" Angelina asked.

Charlie sighed. "I wasn't going to. Winston and I were on our way to sign on with a drive to Kansas."

"And?"

"And something he said made me realize the truth."

"What truth?"

"That I love you."

Angelina caught her breath in wonder and turned onto her side so she could see his face. She had known

he desired her. She had hoped she could teach him to love her. Eventually. Maybe years in the future. She had been willing to wait, to teach him with her patience and her love the joy of such an emotion. But now, with one sentence, he made all her careful plans unnecessary.

Angelina reached up and ran a finger over his lips. He kissed the tip, looking into her eyes, the love in his gaze reflecting her own.

"I also wondered if the one night we spent together made a child." He looked at her, a question in his eyes.

She sighed, all her disappointment evident in the small sound.

Charlie brushed his knuckle over her cheekbone. "Don't worry. We'll get it right yet." He smiled at her and she smiled back, hope lighting her heart. "I used to think you would be better off without me. I'm old, and I've never been anything more than an outlaw. But I realized that with you I'm more than I was. With you I can be something better."

Angelina nodded, hearing the beliefs she'd held in her heart put into words for the first time.

"And selfish bastard that I am, I decided to come and take you away from the convent. You don't belong there, Angelina. You belong with me."

He shifted so he rested on his side also, and they lay face-to-face, heart to heart. "You should have children. My children." He placed his large hand over her stomach, and she reached up to cover his fingers with her own. He looked deeply into her eyes. "I'll make you happy. You won't regret bein' my wife."

"I've never regretted being your wife. I never will."

"I'm sorry about the convent. I know that was your dream."

"Yes, it was my dream. The dream of a naive young girl who wanted nothing more than to get away from a father who had no use for her. I thought I could make a difference there, and I might have. But I've made a difference somewhere else-with you. I was right all along. You were my mission, Charlie. And I succeeded beyond every dream I ever had."

He smiled at her then, a true smile, one full of joy and promise that reached all the way to his eyes-a smile she never would have believed possible when she'd first met the cold, hard man with the beautiful face and the fathomless soul.

"I have somethin' for you," he said and reached over to pull an item from his discarded Levi's. He raised his hand into the air.

A red satin ribbon-stained, ripped, destroyed-dangled in front of Angelina's eyes. She sat up and snatched it away with a gasp.

"You stole my ribbon! And you ruined it!"

"Sorry." He tried to take the satin back, but she held it out of his reach. "I'll buy you another, though funds are gonna be pretty tight until I get a job somewhere."

Angelina froze. "Money." She gasped and jumped to her feet. Naked she ran around the fire and snatched up her carpetbag. Returning to the bedroll, she upended the bag. Clothes, bandages and money poured out, landing all over Charlie.

He sat up, staring at the pile of cash in his lap. "What's this?"

"My dowry." Angelina grinned. "You're my husband. The money belongs to you."

Charlie started to laugh. "When your father finds out I got this much of his money it'll give him apoplexy."

Plopping down next to Charlie, Angelina scooped up some of the bills and then let them flutter back down to rest on the bedroll. She looked up at Charlie, who continued to chuckle. The sound of his happiness caused joy to spark to life within her. "What are we going to do with it?"

"Ever consider bein' a rancher's wife?"

"I have now. Where?"

"How does Montana sound?"

Angelina took Charlie's hand. "To paraphrase a woman named Ruth, wherever you go, I go." She drew

him toward her and placed a soft kiss upon his lips. "Wherever you are is my home."

"I kinda like the sound of that."

"I thought you might."

They lay down upon their bed beneath the stars and fell asleep holding hands.

The angel came one last time.

"Will I ever see you again?" Angelina asked.

"Not in this life. But I'll be watching over you-over you, your husband and all your children. Be happy,

Angelina."

With a wave of his hand, the angel showed Angelina her future.

And it was good.

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