Susan Wiggs Great Chicago Fire Trilogy Complete Collection by SUSAN WIGGS

Author:SUSAN WIGGS [Wiggs, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488006449
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2016-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

TEN

There was nothing left to say, so Kathleen said nothing. She knew the jig was up. In fact, the masquerade had gone on longer than she’d had any right to expect. But letting go hurt more than she’d ever thought possible.

With surprisingly steady hands, she took the paper from him. At first, she actually did try to explain. Mrs. O’Leary is my mother.

Yet when she looked into his face and saw all her dreams reflected back at her, she could not speak. She had to commit these last moments to memory, for as soon as she spoke up, the interlude in the train car would be over.

But she would have her memories, would always remember him like this. Forever noble, forever handsome, forever perfect. He would never grow old in her eyes. He would never develop habits to annoy her. He would never raise his voice, lose his temper or take her for granted. He would always be the lover in the train car who had shown her a glimpse of paradise.

She wanted it to be enough. She prayed she could live on these memories for the rest of her life.

“Kate, love, are you all right?” he asked.

She nodded and set the paper aside. “I am, but…I must leave this place.”

“Maybe you’re right,” he said, going to the window. He propped his arm on the edge and faced away from her. Over his shoulder she could see refugees, dazed and confused, exiting the other train cars. “Did you ever consider that we could simply disappear?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, now that we’ve lost track of Father Michael and Bull, no one knows where we are. What if we were to go away?”

“Go where?”

“That’s the beauty of it. I don’t know. We could follow the sun and wind up in California. Or we could go to Canada, or take ship somewhere, letting the winds direct us. No one would ever know.”

She laughed briefly. “Whyever would we do a thing like that? It’s impossible.”

“Oh, it’s possible. Believe me, it is. An event like this fire—that just makes everything easy. Willingly or not, people will change their whole lives because of this fire. We could do it willingly, make our own choices, go our own way.”

“What would our families think? It would be beyond cruel to allow them to believe we had died.”

He was silent for a long time, as if he had not thought of that. Finally he said, “Never mind, it was a fanciful notion. I like your company. You make me too damned happy. I could spend all my days with you and you alone.”

He smiled, looking so appealing that suddenly, without thinking, she launched herself into his embrace. As his arms went around her and he pressed his lips to her temple, she shut her eyes against a burning regret. In just a few days, loving him and touching him had become as natural to her as breathing. It was said habits took years to develop, but in this case, the saying was wrong.

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