"He'll be fine; you'll see," Candace crooned, rocking her as if she were a small child.
But Felicity heard the uncertainty in her voice and pulled away. "You're scared, too, aren't you?" she accused, terrified anew by the knowledge.
Candace smiled wanly. "Only because both my boys are out there and because they're fighting each other."
Both her boys? What on earth could she mean? Before Felicity could ask, the front door burst open.
"They're coming," a jubilant Cody reported.
"Is Mr. Logan all right?" Felicity demanded as both she and Candace surged to their feet.
"I can't tell for sure, but I counted six horses and six riders, so they must all be fine," Cody said. "They'll be here in another minute." With that he ran back outside. Candace and Felicity swiftly followed.
"Here, put this on," Candace ordered, placing a shawl around Felicity's shoulders. Felicity barely noticed, just as she had barely noticed the evening chill. Her shivering was from anticipation, not the cold.
Cody and Gus had lighted lanterns out in the yard, and Felicity strained to see the riders as they rode into the wavering brightness.
Josh climbed wearily from his saddle. "I'll take care of your horse, Mr. Logan," Cody said, but Josh only half heard him. His attention was focused on the front porch of the house. He could see Felicity silhouetted against the open door. Without conscious awareness, he handed his reins to Cody and headed toward her.
He knew the moment she recognized him. Her joyful cry carried across the ranch yard to him, and then she was running down the stairs in a flurry of skirts. His own pace quickened as he tried to close the enormous space between them. Never had it taken so long to cross the yard. By the time he reached her, he was almost running in his urgency to hold her close.
Felicity threw herself into his arms, clinging with all her strength. Only by physically touching him could she be certain he was truly here, truly all right. Drawing a ragged breath, she inhaled his musky, masculine scent. Convinced at last that he was safe, she lifted her face to ask one of the many questions she wanted answered, but his mouth came down on hers, silencing her quite effectively.
Josh drank in the taste and feel and smell of her, tempering the fierceness of his embrace with difficulty. He had a wild urge to crush her, to pull her into himself so they could never be separated again. Even when he had routed the rustlers and delivered them safely to jail, he could not forget the two who had evaded capture, two men who might yet wreak their vengeance on Felicity. But she was safe now. The relief he felt over that staggered him.
He trailed his lips across her cheek and buried his face in the softness of her hair, content to just absorb the sweetness of her for another moment.
"Mr. Josh?" Candace's voice cut into his happiness, reminding him of other, less pleasant matters. He lifted his gaze to where she stood just behind Felicity. She was cradling her injured hand protectively as if afraid he might somehow injure it again.
"He's alive," Josh said, reluctantly relinquishing his hold on his wife. "We'd better go inside."
Felicity tried to move away, but he did not release her completely. Keeping one arm possessively around her, he led her toward the house. She tried to read his expression in the shadows. "Who's alive? Who are you talking about?" she asked, but neither Josh nor Candace seemed to hear her question. For a minute she thought he might be annoyed with her for rushing out to meet him like that. She recalled that her father had always warned her against public displays of emotion, but then she also remembered that Joshua had been the one to kiss her, not the other way around. And he certainly didn't seem too eager to let her go, not from the tender way his hand was caressing her waist. She slipped her own arm around him and decided to wait until they were in the house to ask any more questions. From the tension vibrating between him and Candace, she might not need to ask any questions at all. Instead she would just listen.
When they were all inside, Josh carefully closed the door behind them.
"Did you talk to him? Did he say anything?" Candace asked, still cradling her bandaged hand.
"Why didn't you tell me who he was?" Josh asked, turning on her, his gray eyes stormy with anger.
"I did!" Candace insisted. "I told you he's my son!"
"Your son!" Felicity said, but they still did not hear her.
"You didn't tell me who his father was," Josh accused, planting his hands on his hips and approaching her menacingly.
"Oh no!" Candace cried, her voice a howl of agony. Felicity watched in horror as Candace's beautiful face crumpled and her magnificent body cringed before his wrath.
"Stop it!" Felicity screamed, throwing herself between the two antagonists. Glaring a warning at her husband, she led Candace's quivering body to the large wingbacked chair and forced her down into it. Only then did she realize that Candace was weeping, silently and shatteringly, the same way Felicity had wept for Joshua only moments before. Just as Candace had comforted her, she now comforted her friend, crooning the meaningless phrases of solace.
Then she turned back to Joshua, who still retained a measure of his fury. "What is this all about?" she demanded.
Her question seemed to wake him from some sort of trance. He stared at her for a second as if he had never seen her before, and then she watched the anger almost visibly drain from him. He sighed wearily, pulled off his battered Stetson, and ran one large hand over his face as if to wipe away the vestiges of some bad dream.
"One of the rustlers is Candace's son," he explained.
Candace made a choking sound at this, and Felicity patted her soothingly. "Her son? How…?"
But Josh anticipated her questions. "He was born before my parents married and brought Candace out here. They wouldn't let her bring him along, so he stayed behind on my grandparents' plantation. When my mother left us and went back to Virginia, she wanted Candace to go along, but she refused. My father gave Candace her freedom so she could stay here and take care of me." Josh recited the story woodenly, but his mind was racing, remembering arguments two decades old. His mother's voice screaming, "You don't care anything about the boy! You just want to take care of his father!" and Candace's heated reply, "And you don't care about either one of them!"
He shook off the memories and continued his story. "From what he said, my mother told him some ugly things about Candace, about how she didn't want him, that she preferred to stay here and raise me. He hates her. He hates both of us."
Felicity listened, comprehending only pieces of the story. "How did he get mixed up with Ortega's gang?"
Josh shrugged. "I guess he found out that Ortega robs me, and wanted to help." But he wasn't looking at Felicity. He was watching Candace. Her tremors had stilled. "Why didn't you tell me who he is?" he asked her again.
Candace slowly raised her head, managing to salvage some semblance of her usual dignity. "I didn't think he would tell you. I thought… maybe… there was a chance that even he didn't know…" That was foolish, of course, she realized. Hadn't he said something about having Logan's blood? "Who would have told him?" she wondered aloud.
Josh made a disgusted noise. "I don't suppose anybody had to tell him. His hair is as white as mine. As white as all the Logan men." Candace flinched and lowered her head again as a new sob shook her. "But as for telling him, I think my mother must have. She probably took great delight in it, too, from what he said."
"Tell him what?" Felicity asked, afraid that she already knew and hoping someone would tell her she had misunderstood.
Josh glanced back at her as if he were surprised to see her still standing there beside Candace. He gave that weary sigh again. "Candace's son is also my half-brother."
Felicity gasped at the pain reflected in his gray eyes. Every instinct cried out that she go to him to help ease the suffering she knew he was experiencing, but Candace needed her, too. Josh's statement set Candace to weeping anew. Felicity thought her heart would break at the sight of the invincible Candace shattered into a thousand pieces.