Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and the real world's back there somewhere! There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.

After Zondra had told her story to Ben, she'd also shared it with Sarah, Hattie and the others, so while there had been many tears of anguish over what had happened to her and her mother, their views on Roan Montgomery had certainly improved. Roan had been apprehensive when Hattie headed straight for him as soon as he walked off the Elana, so he had the surprise of his life when she wrapped her arms around him, kissing him on the cheek and saying in a broken voice "Thank you Uncle Roan!" (she had actually called him that since she met him back when she was living with her aunt).

Roan looked at her as if she were crazy, saying. "Not to complain, my Dear, but I was under the impression that you were still angry with me for not keeping my mouth shut with your aunt?"

She smiled "I still am a bit about that, but since then we've heard what you did for Zondra, and that outweighs your loose mouth, so you're forgiven."

He looked at her in shock. "She told you about that? I was sure that she'd take that secret to her grave, to save herself the pain of opening those wounds!"

Hattie darted a look at Zondra and Ben and lowered her voice. "Ben was suggesting that they bring her family over, because he wanted to make her wedding as good as it could be for her, but that just made her explode. When sthemhe'd settled down enough she had to tell him just why she wouldn't have any family there. After she finished telling him her story though, Ben pointed out to her that from what she'd told him, you had become family for her, and that was why they came to get you."

They were both distracted by their recollections of Zondra's story and how horrible it had been for her, so they didn't realise that she and Ben had come over until they were interrupted by Zondra saying. "Well that makes this simpler. Roan, you are the closest thing I have to a father, so we wanted to ask if you would give me away at the wedding?"

Between being caught out like that and what Zondra had asked him, Roan was dumbstruck, but he managed to recover enough to say that if she was sure that that was what she wanted, he would of course be honoured and delighted to give her away. That got him another kiss on the cheek from Zondra.

On the way up to the house, Johanna's grandparents were coming to understand Ben and Zondra's laughter about Johanna having another girl her age around, as Johanna was excitedly introducing them to dozens of teenaged Chinese, Mexican, white, black and Indian girls, and more than a few of them were around her own age. Her grandparents were settled into their rooms in the big house to recover from the trip and excitement while Ben and Zondra sat Johanna down to explain what they had in mind, if she agreed. Her agreement and delight with the idea of her father marrying Zondra was made abundantly obvious by the way she'd leapt on Zondra and wrapped her arms around her neck so tightly that she was almost throttling Johnher.

Ben and Zondra left Johanna at the big house while they went to see Father Maurice about marrying them. They were a little worried about the fact that Ben wasn't Catholic, but the entire family had developed a connection with Father Maurice since he came down with the girls from San Francisco, so they were hoping that he would be prepared to overlook that omission and marry them anyway.

Father Maurice had been the priest attached to the convent in Sacramento where the girls were being looked after while the team was in New Orleans. When the time came for the girls to move to Los Angeles, he and the Mother Superior had agreed that these poor girls needed him more than the convent did, so he came to Los Angeles with them, only to find that he had a community of over two hundred to look after, and that kept expanding over the next year or two.

The reason Ben and Zondra wanted to see him that night was to find out whether he would marry them and if so, how soon he could perform the ceremony. Father Maurice had already married over twenty of the girls and christened several of the babies born at the hacienda in the chapel there, as well as marrying half a dozen other young couples from the hacienda's village, so they were hoping that the only issue would be working it into his schedule.

As confessor and/or confidant for the girls, Father Maurice understood why only about a dozen of the girls' marriages he'd presided over so far would ever have them living as man and wife, as the main point for most of them was to provide a veneer of respectability for the unwed mothers and other girls and even in time, only about a third of them would be able to go that far. The men of the hacienda were better than most, but after what these girls had gone through, most of them couldn't trust any man enough to be comfortable being close to or being touched by them. Chuck was the primary exception to this, along with John, Joshua, Joseph and some of the older men who were safe father figures for them, as well as the half dozen like Bill and Weed who didn't desire women at all. They'd had official records created to show that most of the girls who couldn't find anyone they felt safe enough to marry were young widows (using the names of men with no family to speak of who'd been killed around the country), though they had to alter their ages on those records for many of them to show that they'd been old enough to marry, and most of the Chinese and Indian girls used the English names they'd come to be known by and were being passed off as Mexicans to hide them from anyone who might be looking for them. With Jane's help, people on Los Angeles believed that the people of the hacienda were a group who had been looking for somewhere to settle since they fled New Orleans in the war, and Father Maurice actually helped foster that impression as he added to the French speaking face of the community.

On the scales of right and wrong, the error of Ben's church was definitely outweighed by the good things that the Father had seen him be part of in his book (rescuing all those Chinese and other girls and bringing them here to give them a new life was quite a big thing in Father Maurice's book, and that was far from the only good thing he'd seen these people do), so he had no trouble agreeing to wed the pair. He was saddened to hear that Ben's first wife had died, but happy to hear of his daughter being recovered, and that she'd have a family with him again.

With those questions out of the way, he said that he would marry them as soon as they were ready. The wedding had been a foregone conclusion to most of them, so the ladies in the village (as the houses around the big house were called) had already made up Zondra's wedding dress, and had almost finished Sarah, Mei and Johanna's dresses as well. Ben's, Chuck's, Tom's and Weed's suits had been made and everything was ready for the chapel, so all they'd been waiting to do the final touches was to get the date. They agreed on the day after tomorrow for the wedding, so the next day was spent making the final touches to the dresses and the chapel, and they had the wedding the following morning.

The wedding went off perfectly, and Father Maurice was enjoying himself at the dinner in the courtyard afterwards. The courtyard in the big house was the only 'proper' example of the hacienda courtyard that he'd had the opportunity to experience, and he couldn't believe how cool and peaceful it was with the splashing water from the fountains, the atmosphere was so relaxed that after a few glasses of the excellent (but rather potent) cognac that they were serving, he loosened up enough to allow himself to have a dig at John.

"Monsieur Casey, it appears that you are lagging behind all of your friends, when are you going to wed your lovely lady and start a family?"

John's reaction surprised everyone. "Well Father, we were going to talk to you about that once Ben and Zondra were married..."

Those who heard looked from John and Mei's embarrassment to Ellie (as their resident doctor), to see her and her sister-in-law smiling at each other mysteriously, which confirmed their suspicions (that the only reason for there to be any hurry for them to get married would be that Mei was in fact pregnant). They were actually impressed that Chuck was managing to keep a straight face, as there was no way that his wife and sister would know about this without him knowing too.

The good father was feeling rather mellow, and so was happy to grant absolution for them having relations out of wedlock (especially as almost half the couples he'd married had had the same head start on their families). He could still concentrate well enough to understand that they wanted to have the wedding once John's daughter and Uncle arrived, and word had just been sent to them.

He was concerned about the mention of him having a daughter though, reminding John that the church did not approve of divorce or children born out of wedlock, but John managed to dance around that. "Oh no father, there was no divorce, you see my daughter has been living with my wife's family since the death of…..." That slight misdirection of the truth (as the 'marriage' of Alexander Coburn and Kathleen McHugh had indeed been indeed finished by the 'death' of Alexander Coburn) was enough to appease the good father, and they made the necessary arrangements before Father Maurice was helped back to the priory to sleep off the cognac.

Once the good father was gone, the others descended on John and Mei, demanding answers. John tersely told them that they'd only just had it confirmed that Mei was expecting, and they'd already sent telegrams to both Kathleen and Andre. He and Mei would be going along on the trip to take Johanna's grandparents and 'Uncle Roan' home, and then would continue on up to Connecticut to collect Kathleen and Alex, picking up Andre as they came through St Louis on the way back.

Hattie looked at John and said "Johnny, you know..." and he nodded resignedly "Yes, I'm well aware that Alex, and probably Oncle Andre, will be begging to stay until after the babies are born once they're here, but I'll just have to get them to see sense when they get here."

She shook her head with a smile at that and stretched up to kiss him on the cheek. "Oh Johnny, you don't really believe that you have any hope of saying 'no' to Alex, do you? I seriously doubt that you'll EVER be able to say 'no' to your little girl. Heaven help you if Mei's baby is a girl, too!"

He just shook his head, not bothering to answer, and she left with a delighted laugh.

The morning after Zondra and Ben's wedding, John went to the priory to confirm that Father Maurice had been sober enough to remember that he'd agreed to marry Mei and him in just over two weeks. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the Father had already written it in the book, and showed him the date that he'd marked off for their wedding.

John thanked him, and they discussed a few of the things that they hadn't covered before. Yes, John was a Catholic (courtesy of his mother), though it had been a while since he'd been to mass. No, Mei wasn't, she was Lutheran (she'd had enough to do with the Lutheran missionaries in China to fake that convincingly, so long as Father Maurice wasn't an expert on the Lutheran church). He had no qualms in confirming that neither he nor Mei had ever been divorced, as that at least was the absolute truth.

With those details out of the way, John had to give confession (an edited account), just as Zondra had had to do, and promise to do penance for his transgressions, and with that Father Maurice was happy that they were ready to proceed with the wedding.

Their guests spent the rest of that day with Ben, Zondra and Johanna, and then they were saying goodbye and boarding the Elana to head back up the coast to San Francisco, and hence catch the train home. With Roan on board, Joseph once again had Scottie keep their speed down to what would be regarded as a fast boat, but not so fast that he would feel compelled to nose about. Joseph felt a little guilt about doing this, considering that Roan was almost family, but that 'almost' was a key factor. They still didn't know whether they could trust him to keep their secrets, so they couldn't afford to let him see anything that might harm them if he didn't. At least now he had John to discuss this with, and John agreed that he wanted to trust Roan, but wasn't sure whether they could yet.

They had a Pullman's Hotel car waiting for them at Oakland Station for the trip back, and on their way east again, Johanna's grandparents asked John how he'd become part of this life. The troopers along for the trip were more than a little surprised about how frank and open the Colonel was being, but presumed that this was planned because Miss Mei didn't seem too worried about it.

Roan was obviously quite interested in what John was saying about how he'd been a different man, one he was only finding his way back to now, before his wife had been taken by Indians and he had been abandoned and left for dead while out on a patrol before the war. The majority of the story that John told was the truth, how Alex Coburn had swapped lives with John Casey and was buried up in the Utah Territory after he'd found that prospector dead, how he'd started the war as part of the Confederate Army, but gave himself up and changed sides after an incident involving Chuck, and how he'd discovered almost by accident nearly twelve years later that his 'wife' had in fact survived and been rescued, and that he had a daughter.

He finished the story with the tale of how they'd tracked down his 'wife' and daughter, only to find that she'd remarried, believing him dead. It was only after she married the snake that she found out that the man was a crook who then proceeded to steal everything from them, so the family had helped her get a divorce from him and then set her and Alex up with a new life, hidden away from him and the nefarious types that he was involved with.

The women were crying by the end of his story, but Bill caught the Colonel watching Roan Montgomery and cottoned onto the fact that the real purpose of this had largely been to measure just how much the man could be trusted. If any of this got out, they'd have the answer to that!

There were tearful goodbyes when they left Johanna's grandparents in Todd River, and from there they proceeded on to Washington to drop Roan off.

John and Roan had more discussions along the way to Washington, but these had been more verbal fencing than doing anything to clear the air, so just before they reached Washington Roan suggested that they step out onto the observation deck for a cigar. Once they were out there, and presumably safe from being overheard, Roan dropped his habitual facade of a charming buffoon to address John man to man.

"May I call you John, or do you still not trust me enough to allow that familiarity?"

John merely nodded his acceptance, so Roan went on.

"John, I know that you and some of the others have doubts about me, and in particular my integrity and motivation. I will concede that when it comes to most women my motives are often questionable, but when it comes to the family that you and two of the very small number of people who mean anything to me in this world belong to they aren't. What do I need to do to convince you that I can be trusted? Because to be honest, being cut off from Harriet and Zondra would be a great blow to me, especially with Harriet's baby being due so soon, and I sense that you are the person I need to convince that I can be trusted to be allowed into your family."

"Will you allow me to present my case?" John nodded again.

"Firstly, you can investigate with everything in your team's considerable repertoire, but I can assure you that you will not find any genuine evidence of anything about any of your people having come from me, because I do not do anything against those I care about."

"Case in point, I have been aware that you were, or rather are, the infamous Confederate assassin known as the Bear all along. We actually crossed paths more than once down there in the war, and given the number of times we met while I was working undercover in the Confederacy, I must say that I was rather surprised that you didn't recognise me. Your methods haven't changed that much since then by the way." That made John take a closer look at him and nod thoughtfully, as while he hadn't seen it before, he did recognise him now.

"I presume that Sarah's connection with you from the Confederacy was what convinced Charles agree to work with you after you'd almost killed him? I was, of course, one of her many admirers down there, but even I wouldn't have tried to charm her if I'd know how young she really was. She was incredible even then, the way she fooled all of us with her act of being several years older than she actually was, even you I dare say?" John nodded again.

"Alexander Coburn's record and background were also known to me, except for what you told Johanna's grandparents on the train about how you changed from Alex Coburn to John Casey and about your wife and daughter as there are no records of most of that, as I expect you know. As a matter of interest, did you deal with your father and brothers down in New Orleans yourself?"

John shook his head. "No, Chuck and Sarah wouldn't let me have that on my conscience, so they did it."

Roan nodded. "John, if you check you will find confirmation that I crossed paths with both you and Sarah several times down south in the war, but I have never said a thing about either of you. This was not for political wrangling, it was partly because of what you've been doing since the war, but more because of the big part you have played in both Harriet and Zondra's lives, especially Harriet's. I've known both of them since they were just girls, and I feel responsible for them because of the role I had in getting them into this life, but more to the point I truly care for and about the both of them. Please do not cut me out of their lives, out of their family."

He looked out over the countryside for a while before turning back to John. "Professionally, I was originally a lawyer myself, but like Harriet I found that that life lacked something, so I have been a law man and intelligence officer for over a quarter of a century now. I was a Deputy Marshal in the east coast cities up until the war, but when the war started I was asked to join Allan Pinkerton and others in forming the Union Intelligence Service. I was active in the Intelligence Service throughout the war and after the war I was transferred into the United States Secret Service. While my professional life has earned me a respectable degree of distinction however, my personal life has been a mess, little more than an endless line of meaningless conquests, one after the other. I do love Harriet's Aunt Carina John, and someone else whom I wronged in the past, but I love Harriet and Zondra as the daughters I never had. That was why I have been trying to keep an eye on your group, to assure myself that they're all right. Even there I failed though, because I failed to identify the risk to Harriet from Daniel Shaw, and I lost track of Zondra when I took over the Secret Service so she got caught up in that business down in New Orleans."

He snorted. "Worrying about them was a large part of why I stupidly told Carina about Harriet's work, and your group too, because her aunt loves and worries about her, so I was trying to reassure her that Harriet would be all right, and talking about her somehow made both of us feel closer to her."

He looked up at John again. "Is this making any sense to you, or are you just writing it off as the ramblings of an old fool?"

John shook his head. "No, it does make sense. I've been much the same way with Sarah since I first met her in the war, I've been following her career and trying to keep her safe. It's still hard to believe that she was only eleven when I met her though as you're right, she was masterful even then. Since we got teamed up with Chuck and Ellie was added in, I've tried to watch over them too. Chuck isn't weak in any way, I couldn't believe that anyone could take what he took and keep going that time I almost killed him, especially as he was only sixteen at the time, but his soul hasn't been sullied by this life the way that our's have…. I reckon that's what I'm trying to protect, that and the fact that it would destroy Sarah if she were to lose him."

"If you've been watching her the way you say you have, I expect that you also know about the relationship that Harriet and I had back when she was at the height of being Carina Miller, the wild one, but that does not change the fact that I do my best to protect her from anything and anyone, then and now, and that goes for Zondra, Mei, Adele and the other girls too. Don't kick your self too much for losing sight of Harriet and Zondra at times, like Sarah they are damned good at their jobs, so they're quite capable of disappearing unless you're right there to see what they're doing."

They stood in a companionable silence for a while after that, then Roan turned to John and asked.

"So, have I earned the right to stay as part of Harriet and Zondra's lives, and the family?"

"I believe so…. I'll give you a qualified yes for now, which as good as I'm prepared to give anyone outside of our immediate family."

He pointed his cigar at Roan. "Stop trying to look into the Elana, the Memphis Belle and the other boats though, if anything you do brings attention to us and them, then whatever trust we may have in you at this point will be gone!"

Roan nodded, asking. "I presume that that applies to the Gatling guns, cannon, and whatever that thing they're building in that covered building behind the hacienda is too?"

John locked gazes with him. "Yes!"

Roan nodded easily.

John looked away for a while, then looked back at him. "Can you get this Don Garibaldi's location for me?"

Roan chuckled grimly as he nodded. "Calvary Cemetery, he died in prison less than a week after his trial. They found him inside his locked cell one morning, tied down and gagged, with a rough wooden stake driven right up inside him. He'd bled out during the night, but apparently it wasn't a clean kill, as going by the lacerations from the ropes used to tie him down he'd been thrashing around for quite a while before he died. They never did find out who did it, but there was a lot of speculation that someone in the Garibaldi family must have wanted to make sure that he never came back to take over again, or possibly get revenge for some slight, because a couple of the prison guards who were known to be on the family's payroll disappeared that night. That apparently started infighting in the family which thinned their ranks quite a bit."

John nodded approvingly. "Did you tell her?"

"Just that she was safe, he was dead and she didn't need to worry about him any more."

"What about her father?"

"Oh he died in prison as well, he was bound and gagged and stabbed multiple times in the stomach with something small and jagged, he apparently took a while to bleed out too. She never asked about him and I didn't tell her."

John nodded approvingly again. "Alright Roan, I'll trust you, but I will be keeping an eye on you."

Roan nodded easily at that "I'll take that." He held out his hand and John shook it.

As Roan left the train in Washington, John handed him a piece of paper, when Roan looked a question at him, he nodded to the paper and explained. "Those are the names and private communication codes you need to wire Harriet, Zondra and me. It includes how to address the wires and one set of codes to hide the content, along with another set of codes for you to decode the replies. Use them when you want to contact Harriet and Zondra. So long as we keep trusting you, we'll tell you when we change the codes and addresses."

He hesitated and then added. "Look, contact Harriet, if she wants you there and you can make the time she'll give you the day and time that you need to be in St Louis so we can pick you up to take you back to be there for her baby's birth, my Uncle Andre will be waiting there for us as well."

Roan smiled gratefully and shook his hand. "Thank you John!"

The next day, they were picking up Hattie's mother and aunt in New York, along with a bag of legal paperwork and congratulations from Jim Goodman as they changed their car to a train heading north. Hattie's Aunt Carina had gone down to New York (with a Pinkerton escort) to collect her mother for their California trip, so they met the others at the railroad station and they all headed up to Farmington in the Pullman car.

When they arrived, Kathleen and Alex were waiting with Albert at the station. Albert drove the Miller sisters over to Hartford in the Landau to collect Andy's mother, while the Pullman car was unhitched from the train and Kathleen and Alex's luggage was loaded into the car (they'd folded both bunks down in one station, and used them to store the ladies' luggage).

It took them almost two and a half hours to pick up Elizabeth, which meant there was only just time to load her luggage and hitch up the Pullman car to the next train leaving on the more direct route back to St Louis (straight across, rather than down through New York and Washington). They wired Roan and Andre to say that they were on their way before they left Farmington.

When they arrived in St Louis, Andre and Roan were chatting away like old friends. John had been expecting something of the kind though, as the two charming old rogues were two of a kind in many ways, down to the fact that they had almost as much luggage as the ladies did. Neither of them missed the disapproving look John cast at the pile of bags, and he was only slightly mollified when Roan murmured that the largest trunk was from Uncle Sam.

Things were initially quite cool between Hattie's mother and Roan after she discovered that he'd been instrumental in getting Hattie into this life, but they were all surprised that it was Mei who managed to talk her around. Mei did that by recounting what Hattie herself had told her about her life.

When the starting point of the story was how the fifteen year old Hattie had run away from her family home to avoid being forced into a marriage of convenience by her father for the purpose of shoring up his business deals, well that took the wind out of the sails of any argument that this was largely Roan's fault, but she'd didn't stop there.

She repeated Hattie's story of how she'd gone to Harvard Law School and been admitted to the bar, as a boy, and she'd enjoyed that, but then she had quickly grown dissatisfied with that life, even though it doubtless would have been rather more interesting than the life of an idle society wife in a loveless marriage that her father had dictated for her. At that point she'd CHOSEN to try the Secret Service after Roan discussed his life in the Secret Service with her.

John took over there, talking about how Hattie had been rather wild as Carina Miller (that got her sister a glare from Margaret), and she'd had some relationships that may not have been in her best interests, such as himself (the surprise was his this time though, as both Roan and Carina jumped in to repeat what Hattie, as Carina, had told them about how caring and protective he'd been to her back then), but she'd had another protector (Roan, as he knew now) to support her and watch over her, and he told her mother about a few of the situations that she'd told him about where her protector had rushed in to save her from some fate or another.

Then he pointed out that when she came to work with him and Sarah again, she'd met a fine man in Tom, whom she'd come to love, and marry, and was now about to start a family with. Therefore, while she may have led a wild and sometimes dangerous life, she'd found happiness, and that was something that would have almost certainly eluded her in the world she'd been destined for in New York!

Margaret was quiet for a while and Carina held her as she cried, but when she'd composed herself, she apologised to Roan and Carina, and John as well, for the way she'd behaved, saying that she'd only been lashing out at them because she'd lost her daughter. She'd been out of her daughter's life for so long, and she was only now realising that she didn't really know her any more.

Carina shushed her, saying. "Maggie, open your eyes! No, we don't really know much about what Hattie does for work, and I don't believe that either of us would want to for that matter! But do you remember our sweet little Hattie, that stubborn little girl who questioned everything and who's favourite word was 'No!', but who could light up the room with her smile and warm your heart with her laughter? Well she's back! Do you remember how she was before Henry started punishing her whenever she wasn't 'behaving like a young lady should', even in the privacy of your own home? We're seeing that girl again now! She's happy, she has a loving family in these wonderful friends of her's, and now she's creating her own family with Tommy, the man who finally managed to unlock her heart!"

She turned to look at John where he and Mei were smiling at each other, because from that description it appeared obvious who it was the young Hattie had taken after, unless her mother had been that way before she married the man she did too. "She did, does, truly care for you Johnny, but from what she told me, neither of you were ready to let go of your demons and open up your hearts to each other back then. I'm so glad that you, too, have finally found the person who could unlock your heart again, in Mei!"

She looked at Kathleen to apologise, but she was shaking her head with a smile to indicate that she agreed with what had been said. After all, she'd said much the same thing to Mei herself.

With that she turned back to her sister again. "What I'm trying to say Maggie, is that we haven't lost Hattie at all! In fact we have our sweet little Hattie, who lit up our lives and gave us so much joy, BACK, and we can thank Johnny, Mei, and the rest of her friends for that. We can also thank Roan for helping save her from the hell that Henry tried to consign her to for his benefit, because she would have been dying inside every day, trapped in that life he tried to force her into!"

Margaret kept crying, but when she raised her head she was smiling, and they could see a light of hope in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Mei smiled at her and started "Mrs Miller..." before being cut off with "Margaret, please Dear!"

"Margaret, you should get Hattie to tell you about our travels, and show you the photos. We don't have pictures of all of our travels by a long shot, but we do have quite a lot of pictures, so you'll see the type of life we lead sometimes. We've had adventures such as most people can only dream of, the good with the bad, but I believe I can say that scales are tipped to the good."

Elizabeth was nodding as she remembered the incredible stories and pictures that Eleanor and Andrew had shared with her when they came to Farmington previously. Margaret caught that and nodded to Mei with a smile. "I will do that, thank you Dear."

The rest of the train trip, and the passage down the coast in the Elana, was filled with stories of Hattie, and Andy, and the things they'd done, and those stories made the time fly.

When they came in to the dock on the lake at the hacienda, as usual the family was waiting. Hattie and Ellie were sitting in one of the passenger cars with Blackbird harnessed to the car. They could see the two awkwardly climbing to their feet, so they hurried over to try and stop them. After quick hugs all around they were induced to sit again, and the older ladies climbed onto the car with them before Blackbird was led back to the house.

When they reached the hacienda, Margaret, Carina and Elizabeth couldn't believe that this was what these people had been referring to as the 'old hacienda' that they lived in, because it was magnificent. After the heat outside, the cool atmosphere in the courtyard with the splashing fountains was delightful too.

As expected, the reunions took some time, but the meeting between Alex and Johanna was sweet, as it was obvious from the start that they were going to be good friends, especially with their semi-family status.

The atmosphere was more relaxed than Zondra and Ben's wedding had been, as they'd had a couple weeks to get ready so much of the work was already done. The only real surprise was when Mei asked Andre if he'd give her away, as he was as dumbstruck as Roan had been when Zondra asked him, but once he'd gotten over the surprise, he was delighted to agree.

John did take the time to sit down with Chuck, Sarah, Hattie, Tom, Zondra and Ben to talk about the discussion he'd had with Roan. Hattie and Zondra were misty eyed about the things that Roan had said about them, and they all agreed that what he'd said rang true with the feel that they'd gotten from him.

When John talked about what Roan had said about being undercover in the Confederacy, Sarah realised that she did remember him from those days, and that he hadn't been like most of the men she'd met. Yes, he'd tried to charm the pants off her, but he'd accepted graciously when she'd declined his advances and she hadn't felt threatened or pressured by him at all, in fact she'd generally enjoyed his company.

John told Zondra in private about what had happened to Don Garibaldi and her father, and she admitted that she'd suspected that that may have been the case, but had never been brave enough to come out and ask him straight out. She'd turned to him with tears in her eyes as she asked whether it made her a bad person, that she was happy that someone would care enough about her to do that for her? John took her in his arms as he answered her.

"Of course not! They were both scum that the world's better off without and you're worth so much more than they were. In fact, it was Roan telling me about that that made me decide to give him a chance, the fact that he was prepared to go that far to protect the people he loves." He held her for a while, then waved Ben over to take his place, sharing the gist of what he'd told her when he arrived.

John didn't remember to have the talk with Kathleen and Alex about not mentioning who Kathleen was when Father Maurice was around until after they arrived at the hacienda. While not really happy about it, they could understand that their story was too complicated to try and explain to the priest.

In the ceremony, Sarah, Zondra and Alex stood with Mei, while Chuck, Ben and Weed stood with John, because Ellie and Hattie had had to bow out as they were too near the end of their pregnancies to be standing through the ceremonies, so Tom and Andy were out too.

The ceremony was simple, but heartfelt, and Father Maurice got rather merry from the cognac again at the dinner afterwards. He didn't have any more couples to prod this time, but he did point out that it was about time for Chuck and Sarah's children to be christened, along with some of the other babies around the hacienda. They got out of discussing it then by promising to sit down and talk to him about it soon, then he was helped back to the priory, singing merrily.

A/N: If anyone wants an image for Father Maurice, the one I had in mind when I was writing this was an older Maurice Chevalier, from his 1960s movies.