LEGEND Read online

  “Yes, with all my heart.”

  “No second thoughts? Not even about . . . about . . .”

  He didn’t seem able to say the words, but she knew whom he meant. “About Cole?”

  After kissing her, he nodded.

  “I’m glad I saw him as a boy, as now that’s the way I’ll always remember him.” With her arms about his neck, she put her head down on his shoulder. “I’m sure now. I’m sure that you’re the man I want, the man I have loved for many years.”

  He didn’t ask her what she meant by that, for he knew that he’d find out, because from now on they had a lifetime together. “Come, habibbi,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

  “Yes,” she answered, then took his hand, and they started down the mountain together.

  Epilogue

  NEITHER SHE NOR TARIK WERE PREPARED FOR WHAT GREETED them in Legend as they walked through the trees. The falling down old houses had been repaired, and in place of the derelict town they had left the day before was a pretty little tourist town with restaurants and gift shops. Each of the buildings had been renovated in a style that was very like what it would have been in 1873. And, as far as they could tell, an attempt had been made to re-create Cole’s dream town.

  Hand in hand, she and Tarik walked into the town in silence, their eyes wide as they looked at all the things that had changed. The sign over what had once been a battered old building that only Cole could think of as a library said that it was now the Historical Society. The church had beautiful stained-glass windows in it, and the Jordan homestead was a museum. At the crossroads they could see three hotels that had been fabricated out of several buildings.

  And everywhere there were tourists, mostly families with children, all of them shouting, “Come and see this. Look at this. Dad! You’re not going to believe this!”

  “It’s a museum town,” Kady said in wonder, looking at a reproduction general store, and next to was it a gambling saloon with a man outside who was wearing a satin vest.

  “A fantasy museum,” Tarik said in amusement, for this town was as much a fantasy as Cole’s town had been. There were no streets lined with brothels, no drunken miners staggering about, no streets that were deep in mud and horse manure.

  “I wonder if they would know in there what happened to Cole’s family,” Kady said, looking toward the Historical Society building.

  “And I wonder what my financial situation is,” Tarik said with such a frown that Kady laughed.

  “If the history of the Jordans has changed so much, you may no longer be wealthy. Maybe you’ll have to get a job like the rest of us.”

  Tarik did not laugh. “I think I’ll make a few calls. I’ll meet you back here in an hour.” With that he gave her a quick kiss and headed toward the first hotel.

  Kady immediately went to the old library building, but when she saw a sign that said there was a tour of the Jordan homestead every fifteen minutes, she went up the road toward the house.

  When she met Tarik an hour later, she had much to tell him, that Cole had married a Miss Kathryn de Long, one of the greatest chefs of the nineteenth century, and she had put on a feast that was still talked about over a hundred years later.

  As Kady sat down across from Tarik, at a table with a red and white checked cloth, she spread out the half a dozen booklets she had purchased about the Legend of today. “But these can wait,” she said. “So tell me, are you still rich?”

  He gave her a crooked grin. “We are doing quite well, thank you. What did you find out?”

  “I’d rather hear what you found out. What happened to Wendell?”

  “Uncle Hannibal still lives here. Seems he owns half the attractions and he’s well liked by the people who work here. He has a son, Luke, who is an attorney in Denver and handles all the legal work for Legend.” Tarik leaned toward her. “But he has no daughter, and never had one.” He leaned back. “Your turn.”

  She told him of Kathryn de Long and her brilliant cooking. “And . . .” she said, drawing out her words to prolong the drama, “wait until I tell you about the rest of your Jordan family.” She pushed a booklet toward him that bore the title of “Jordan” on the front cover. “There’s a family tree in the back.”

  After a moment of reading, Tarik looked up at her. “Interesting.”

  “Yes, very. But—” Pausing, she turned to the family sitting at the next table. “Could you tell me if the Lost Maiden Mine has been found?”

  “Not that I ever heard of,” the man said, then looked at his wife. “What about you, hon?”

  After the question had been asked of half the people in the little restaurant and all the staff, and everyone said that no it had not been found, Kady turned back to Tarik. “I think Cole found it,” she whispered to him.

  “What do you know about the Lost Maiden Mine that you haven’t told me?”

  “Before I went to Legend the first time, it was found by a rock formation that looked like an old man’s face and—”

  “What?!” Tarik nearly shouted, then calmed himself. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

  “Don’t you have enough money?” she asked in disgust.

  Tarik ignored her question. “What do you think Uncle Hannibal was up here trying to find?”

  “I have no idea. Was he looking for—”

  She broke off, as Tarik was furiously flipping through the guidebooks, and he stopped at a page in one about the mines. Turning the booklet upside down, he shoved it toward her. There in the background of a photo of the Amaryllis Mine (obviously renamed by Cole) was a rock formation that was shaped like an old man’s face.

  Tarik leaned back in his chair and drank deeply from the glass of water that had been set before him. “I assume you told Cole where to find the mine,” he said, and Kady nodded.

  “I told him that if he had trouble, he should look near that rock.” She was waiting to see what Tarik would say to this. For all that she knew she loved him, she didn’t know all the facets of his personality. Would he be angry that she’d had such a big secret and had given it to someone else?

  But Tarik reached across the table and took Kady’s hand. “I don’t think all this would be here if it weren’t for you. I don’t mean just what you did to keep Ruth from shutting the place down, but the money also. Your Cole must have needed that money, and from what my people in New York told me and from what I see here, he used it wisely.”

  “Yes, I think he did. And I think he was happy. One of the books says that the name Legend comes from it being a place of legendary beauty. Better than the truth, don’t you think?”

  “Perhaps. But I like the truth better. Shall we get married in this town? It seems that I still own most of it.”

  She laughed. “Yes. Let’s get married here.”

  “And what do you want for a wedding gift?” he asked with teasing eyes.

  “A free hand with that kitchen and garden of yours in Connecticut and a couple of kids and a honeymoon in Paris with a trip to Dehillerin to buy copper pots and—”

  Tarik was laughing. “Your wish is my command, habibbi. Now, what do you want for lunch?”

  Obediently, she looked down at the menu, but she didn’t see it. Thank you, Ruth, she thought. Thank you and Cole and all the people of Legend. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for you. Thank you.

  DAZZLING SHORT STORY IN THIS FALL’S MOST ANTICIPATED ROMANCE COLLECTION

  FROM POCKET BOOKS

  JUDE DEVERAUX is the author of nineteen New York Times bestsellers. She began writing in 1976 and to date there are more than 30 million copies of her books in print. Her marvelous novels include Sweetbriar, Twin of Ice, Twin of Fire, and the magnificent James River trilogy: Counterfeit Lady, Lost Lady, and River Lady. In The Velvet Promise, Highland Velvet, Velvet Song, and Velvet Angel, Jude Deveraux created the unforgettable Montgomery family, who fought for love and honor from Scotland’s fierce Highlands to the royal courts of medieval England. With The Maiden, The Taming, The Conquest,