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The hot sun felt good. Ryder had come to value summer heat. He supposed it was simply a factor of old age. Didn’t all old people value heat? Didn’t sunlight lessen the pain of joints and muscles?
He sank his fingers into the warm sand, grabbing a handful. He let the sand sift through his fingers. The beach had become a favorite relief from the plantation. How long would he be able to enjoy it? He hoped long enough to see his grandchildren turn into young men and women.
There was no guarantee of that.
Every year, Ryder felt the toll of years spent turning the old plantation into a thriving farm. Every year, he watched his children grow into adults who married and produced children of their own. It was a satisfying life, even if it did slow him down.
The broad Atlantic stretched out before him. He savored the illusion of the ocean, its horizon appearing higher than the beach. Yet, the water didn’t flood him.
Odd.
Like the waves that ran up onto the sand over and over. they never stopped. Sometimes they grew or shrank, but they didn’t stop. He had never learned a good explanation for that.
Rose and Jacob were in the water, acquainting their children with the dangers and benefits of the waves. There was a time Ryder would have joined them, but he had outgrown those antics. The last time he attempted to play in the water his shoulder acted up something fierce. The shoulder reminded him of Langston and his railroad.
Ryder had spent years trying to forget the killing, trying to forget his years in the wilderness as the Hermit of Red Rock Canyon.
Had he really been the Hermit?
His memories had turned fuzzy. What was once clear was now cloudy. Those memories belonged to another man, a legend mothers told their children in order to keep them from exploring too far from town.
He was glad to allow the legend to fade into the distant past.
“What you thinking so hard on?”
Annie sat down beside him. Ryder allowed that she was more spry, more energetic. He couldn’t say why. It just was.
“Just letting memories march through my head.”
“Oh? What sort of memories? How you saved cows from the swamp?”
“No, I was considering how you appeared the first time I saw you.”
“Oh my, remembering that should make you run off to Atlanta or Savannah. As I recall, I was barefoot and in a nightdress. Hair a mess, feet shredded by rocks, scared half to death. I’m still surprised that you took me in.”
“I didn’t want to, remember? I was fixing to send you back to town when we ran into that gang. I’ll be truthful. I never expected that you would ever become my wife. I never imagined that you would become my refuge from the trials and tribulations that would befall me.”
“Are you happy you didn’t send me back?”
He wrapped an arm around her. “Happier than I deserve. You?”
“I have to admit that I never saw this coming. Mountains were what I gazed on back there. I was alone and half angry and as stubborn as an old mule. I never contemplated marrying the Hermit.”
“We’ve come a long way, Annie. We’ve managed to raise a family and build a future for them. I don’t think anyone can fault us.”
“We ain’t done, Ryder. We got some years to go, some wisdom to pass along. And we got time to hold onto each other. That’s the best of all.”
He looked over the waves that never stopped.
That was when he noticed the woman wading through the sand.
No, it wasn’t a woman.
It was a ghost.
Morgan’s ghost.
He blinked and squinted. The woman was Morgan, a young Morgan, the Morgan he had married.
But it couldn’t be the woman he had married. She would be his age by now, and she would no longer look like his bride.
That meant Morgan was dead. Her ghost was marching through the sand. Her ghost…
Morgan stopped next to him.
“Am I dead?” Ryder asked.
“What?”
“I don’t recall dying, but it’s the only way I can see you.”
“She ain’t dead, and neither are you.”
Ryder turned to the voice. Annie stood to one side.
“You can see her?” Ryder asked.
“She ain’t the wife who left you. She’s your daughter.”
“Daughter? Not Morgan?”
The woman knelt in the sand and smiled. “I’m Jane, your granddaughter.”
Ryder stared, a bit confused. “Jane. You’re Jane. You look just like your grandmother. But how did you find me?”
Annie sat beside Ryder and took his hand. “That was my doing. I sent a letter and asked if she could come.”
“Why?”
“We’re both getting old, and, well, I figured it was time for you to reunite with your ex-wife and family.”
“You don’t think someone will come after us?”
Annie shook her head. “Ain’t no one gonna bother folks as old as us.”
Ryder reached out, and Jane took his hand. “Can you tell me what happened to your grandmother?”
“I don’t remember leaving you. I wasn’t yet born. Morgan was my grandmother, and she died two years ago. My mother, your daughter, remembered you. She would have come with me, but she’s got the croup something awful. Traveling would kill her.”
“Your aunt? I had a second daughter.”
“She’s dead. Cholera got her. She’s buried next to Grandma Morgan.”
Tears came to Ryder’s eyes. He couldn’t help it. He was overwhelmed with emotion. Decades before he had closed the door to Morgan and his children. It was the price he paid for killing Langston and running off with Annie.
Now, that door had been breached. The pain he had walled off flooded his mind. He had gone back in time, and it hurt.
“I’m sorry,” Ryder whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
Jane squeezed his hand. “No need to say nothing. We all thought you was dead. We didn’t miss out because we didn’t expect nothing. Can you understand that? We couldn’t expect no help from a ghost.”
She reached over and wiped away his tears. He found that he could no longer speak. Her arrival left him speechless.
“Give him a minute,” Annie said. “I suppose I should have warned him.”
Jane nodded. “I got questions, but those can wait. I suppose you want to know about us. I’ll start by telling you that we done just fine. Grandma Morgan found grandpa Silas, and they married. They had a ranch near Denver. That’s where my ma grew up. She married Barnabas, my father. I ain’t married yet, but I’m fixing to.”
Ryder listened as Jane walked him through the family tree, from Morgan and Silas to her brother Leo. Ryder knew he wouldn’t remember it all, but that didn’t matter. He held Jane’s hand and listened. Wonderment filled his head as she chronicled the ups and downs of the family he had left behind.
He was ashamed when she spoke of hardships.
He felt joy at their successes.
He wished more than once that he had been there to help.
The sun was headed down in the west when Jane finished.
“We got to go, Ryder.”
“So soon? I ain’t told her about the Hermit of Red Rock Canyon. I ain’t spoke about your sham marriage to Langston or that gunslinger what almost ended me.”
“Jane is coming home with us. You’ll have plenty of time to relate the past.”
“And I want to hear all of it, grandpa. Believe it or not, but we heard talk about the Hermit even down in Denver. You’re famous.”
“I ain’t famous. I didn’t do nothing that would make me famous. Just what had to be done.”
Annie and Jane helped Ryder to his feet, as the sitting had left him cramped and weakened.
“Before I tell you anything, I got to explain why I never sent word or nothing.”
“That can wait, Ryder.” Annie took his arm. “You got time to relate all that.”
“No, I want to say something now, and this place is as good as any.”
He looked into Jane’s blue eyes, Morgan’s eyes. It was as if he had just returned from the cavalry.
“I done some bad things back in my day. I ain’t gonna go past that. You got no need to know. I will tell you that I took to the bottle. I don’t know what your grandma Morgan revealed, but I’m guessing she didn’t paint too dark a picture. I’m certain it was better than the truth.”
Ryder took a deep breath and forced himself to focus on Jane.
“I fled to Red Rock Canyon because I wasn’t fit to live nowhere else. I stayed sober out there, living as a hermit. I would have died out there if it weren’t for Annie and a powerful storm that drove her to my cabin.”
“It was a hut,” Annie offered.
Ryder chuckled. “You be right about that. I called it a cabin cause I didn’t want to admit it was a hut. I’ll leave it to Annie to tell you all about the railroad king and what we done that made us run off to Georgia.”
He put his hands on Jane’s shoulders. “Much of what you’re gonna hear ain’t pretty. That’s fact. I can’t change none of it. I reckon you won’t think so high of me once you’re made aware. Before you run off ashamed of your grandpa, I got to thank you for coming all this way to speak to me. I don’t deserve it. But I’m damned happy you’re here.”
Tears sparkled in Jane’s eyes. She looked so much like her grandmother that Ryder could hardly maintain his composure.
With as little gasp, she hugged him.
For a moment, he didn’t know quite what to do. Then, he hugged her back. It was as hug he had never anticipated. He had resigned himself to never experiencing a hug from the family he had forsaken.
He had lived a good life, but it was never a complete life. The part Jane represented had been lopped off. She had restored it. He was not just the Hermit of Red Rock Canyon. He was Ryder Walker, former cavalry rider, husband of Morgan or a spell, husband of Annie to the last.
Ryder didn’t want to let Jane go, but he knew he would get more hugs before she left for her home. He held her at arm’s length.
“You ready?”
“Yes, grandpa, I’m ready.”
With Jane on one arm and Annie on the other, Ryder started up the beach for the wagon that had brought him to the ocean. Long shadows stretched toward the waves, reminding him that his life had come full circle.
A good life.
A full life.
A life he could leave behind without regret.
Jane would fill the gap that had bothered him for so many years. In its place would be the memories she would provide. He hoped she stayed with them for a month or two or three.
His feet felt the warm sand. The salt breeze ruffled his hair.
He had found a contentment he never dreamed possible.
OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Grit and Glory on the Frontier", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Hello there, I really hope you liked my new western adventure story and the extended epilogue! I would be very happy to read your thoughts below.
Loved it!
Glad to hear that Charles! I’m very pleased you did!
I really enjoyed this story. And I was really surprised and happy that the gunfighter and the rich Railroad guy met their end. The Ryder and Annie got to be happy together. But when the granddaughter Jane shows up,my heart was filled with joy. Thank you for sharing this story with me.
Thank you, William, I’m trilled that you loved this! So glad it made you happy.