Ten years…had it really been that long? Audra Barkley Breckenridge was still the golden blonde haired beauty everyone had known. She sat in her buggy and looked at the grand home that still stood on the land she'd called home for years. Her eyes fell to the young boy that sat beside her; he looked so much like his father. Black hair and eyes that melted any heart that looked at them. She then sighed. She'd turned her back on everything she knew and took the greatest risk she'd could to save the farmers' land. How was she too know that by the end of their first trip together, which actually took a year, Scott would give her his ring and marry her to spare her reputation among those who had never known her?
Scott, the name made Audra sigh. He'd turned out to be a good enough man who had never treated her badly and had always provided well for her. Only, to say it was a marriage that had blossomed into a love so grand as to make people envious would be a lie. Still, he was good and kind to her and, when he loved her; he loved her with all he had…only that was it. Her mother had been right; men like him had wandering eyes which never could be tamed. It was a heartache she'd had to bear after she realized he had a mistress. Again, Audra sighed. She would have left him only, she had not only taken vows before a priest; the deal she'd made for the farmers still stood…she was Scott's for as long as he wanted her.
With her eyes still on her son, Thomas Scott, Audra couldn't help but smile. Her eight year old son had made life worth living when she had to learn to live with the fact that she'd made a choice and had to live with the consequences; right or wrong. He'd also been something to hold onto when she and Scott lost their daughter, who had been three years younger than Thomas. But, Audra had wept bittersweet tears the day Scott had been accidentally shot by his hunting companion and died. She'd lost a good enough companion; still, his death freed her to go home… a home that her family had reminded her more than once in the past ten years she was free to return to anytime she wanted.
Audra might have continued thinking of Scott, of the first time he laid her down in the train car and had taken her, making her his. She might have continued thinking of the all good things they'd shared through years, and, in spite of the unhappy times, there had been a good amount of positive things only the front door opened and she saw the faces she'd longed to see for years; her mother, her brothers and their families.
"Audra!" Victoria cried out and ran to her daughter who had climbed down from the buggy the moment the door to the Barkley mansion had begun to open. "Thomas!" Victoria embraced both her daughter and grandson, then stepped aside as the rest of the family welcome their golden girl home, home she'd not willingly leave again.