Epilogue
Josiah dropped the last box on the floor and straightened, then looked around the room. It was a big space. Bare, but big.
Violet opened one of the windows and turned to smile at him. The morning sunlight was shining on her hair and she’d never looked so beautiful. Well, maybe she had last night with the moonlight shining on her naked limbs.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked
He let his gaze roam her figure from head to toe before grinning. “Nothing decent.”
She blushed prettily before looking around the room. “Are you sure about this?”
He nodded. “Yes. Positive.” He crossed the room to where she stood and looked out the window before turning to look out one of the others. He could see the entire town from either direction in this corner room.
He gave her a quick kiss before pushing a strand of her hair from her face. After their last encounter with Edwin, he hadn’t slept easy. The joy they should have had in sleeping in their own bed, in their own house, was tainted, and he couldn’t stop worrying.
The cabin was only a few minutes from the center of town but—it was too far away for his peace of mind. Even though Violet worked in the store most days, there would be times when she would be there alone, and the thought made him uneasy.
What if an old enemy came calling and found her there alone? What would he go home to? It was too much stress to even contemplate. He couldn’t go about his days worrying about her every second she wasn’t in town with him, so they’d made a new plan.
The large master bedroom Violet’s parents had shared in the Campbell house had been used for nothing other than storage for years. With a few days of work, they’d cleaned it out, storing everything in Violet’s old bedroom, then washed the walls and floor and started moving their things in.
The Campbell house was now the Campbell-Lincoln home. He wasn’t sure how he felt about imposing on Ewan and Daisy, but it was a compromise he was willing to make to ensure Violet’s safety and his peace of mind.
He gave the space another look. It was bigger than the room he’d lived in behind the jail, which was now in the possession of Clay Baxter. The kid no longer had to sleep in the drafty livery stable and when he’d offered the room to him, the boy had nearly cried before thanking him.
Living in an actual house had its advantages, though.
There was a proper kitchen and dining room.
A sitting room with a fireplace big enough to heat the entire room and he’d already spent one evening there with Violet’s entire family, just talking and enjoying each other's company and it had been one of the best spent evenings he’d had in years.
Being there felt like—home.
Violet wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head to his back. “You don’t look too sure about all of this.”
“It’s just new,” he said. “I’ll get used to it.” He looked over his shoulder. “The bed looks comfy.”
She giggled. “It is.” She let go of him and walked backwards across the room, stopping at the foot of the bed. “Want to break it in properly?”
He grinned and turned to face her. “What will your grandfather think?”
“He has selective hearing. He’ll ignore any sort of noise coming from this room.”
When she laid back on the bed, he crossed the room and put one knee on the mattress before laying on top of her, grabbing her leg and pulling it up over his hip.
He leaned down to kiss her thoroughly, leaning up enough to lift her skirts from between them. “Then, in that case, Mrs. Lincoln, it's only right we break this room in properly.” He reached for the button on his pants and grinned.
“That sounds like a fine idea to me, Marshal Lincoln.”