Chapter 43:

"We're almost there."

Logan stirred from his half-asleep doze over the horn of Thunder's saddle. "Huh?" he asked her.

"We're almost there," Jubilee said, smiling sympathetically. Sunset had been hours ago, but she was too excited about going home and seeing Remy that she hadn't wanted to stop. Logan, despite his tiredness and exhaustion, sensed that she wanted desperately to see the Cajun again, and so hadn't insisted that they stop, although his butt hurt from so much riding and he thought he was going to walk permanently bow-legged for a week. He slumped over the saddle horn, not bothering to try and guide Thunder anymore. The big horse was tired too, and simply followed Jubilee and Shadowcat.

The pair of girls, however, were frisky. Shadowcat knew they were close to home, and Jubilee had to hold her to a walk; she wanted to run for her stable and her feed. Jubilee was too excited to stop; she wanted to get home and see Remy and then crawl into bed.

"There," she said, reining Shadow up and pointing through the trees. "If you look, you can see a little of the house from here…"

Logan squinted. His tired, gritty eyes could just make out a white plantation-style mansion sitting on what seemed like an awfully steep hill. "Yeah, I see it," he grumped. "Can we get a move on 'fore I fall off the dang horse?"

Jubilee laughed at him, but urged Shadow into a fast walk. Thunder ambled after her at a slightly faster pace than he had been using, and Logan woke all the way with a lurch and grabbed for the reins as he nearly fell from the saddle.

Jubilee turned onto the smooth wide avenue that led up to the house, and Logan straightened up in the saddle with an effort. He couldn't meet all these fancy people slumped over the saddle horn! He did his best to look awake as Jubilee dismounted in front of the colonnaded front door. She tugged the rope hanging from a bell beside the door.

Logan was trying to figure out what the bell was for when two things happened simultaneously. A small boy, maybe ten or eleven, came bounding up out of the darkness, and the front door opened. The figure at the door was backlit by the bright lamps in the hall, and he couldn't see who it was.

Jubilee addressed the little boy first. "Bobby, we've had a hard ride here," she said. "I figured you'd still be up, though. Think you could take them in and rub them down, water and feed them? Don't worry about grooming, you're probably too tired."

"Sure, Miss Jubilee," said the lad, taking the reins from Logan's hand and Jubilee's hand. Thunder was so tired he didn't even go through his usual snap and snort routine with the strange hand now holding his reins. Bobby yawned prodigiously and led the horses off across the gravel drive into the darkness.

"Jubilee?" said the figure in the door. "Is that you?"

"It's me, Ororo," Jubilee said, blinking her suddenly watering eyes. "I've come home."

The figure stepped back, indicating that they should step in, which they did. Then she closed the door and pulled Jubilee in her arms. "We were so worried, child," she whispered, hugging the younger girl tightly. "Remy was almost out of his mind, hoping you had reached your father safely--"

A door at the end of the hall opened, and Logan looked up at the hiss of breath. Remy was standing at the end of the hall, staring as though he couldn't believe his eyes. "J-Jubilee?" he finally croaked weakly.

Jubilee released Ororo, and ran down the hall. "Remy!" She squealed. Remy was still frozen in shock when she barreled into him at top speed, and staggered a little as she flung her arms around him. "Remy, oh, God, I missed you, I love you so much, oh, Remy…" She trailed off, covering his face with kisses as she cried in happiness, and Remy brought his arms up to touch her, as if not quite believing that she was there. "Jubilee," he breathed. "Jubilee, it is you…mon Dieu, I thought I'd lost you…" And suddenly they both were crying. He cupped her face in his hands, wiping at her tears as she wiped at his, and for that moment, there was no one but them in the world. He brought her face up to his, pressing his lips against hers, and their lips locked in a kiss. Remy took a step back, taking her with him, and they vanished back into the doorway he had come out of. Seconds later the door closed.

"It looks like she's forgotten all about you," said the woman. Logan turned to look at her for the first time, and his breath caught in his throat.

She was tall, maybe a head taller than himself, with long silver hair tumbling in waves past her waist and light blue eyes that twinkled. Her features were sculpted, with high cheekbones, full lips, and very white teeth that shone whitely when she smiled. He stared for a long moment. "You're beautiful," he stammered, unable to think of a single thing to say. Then he cursed himself. He sounded like a love-struck schoolboy.

"Why, thank you," said the woman. "I assume you are Logan, Jubilee's father?" She extended a hand in greeting. "I am Ororo. I'm the cook and housekeeper." Logan took her hand mechanically, still staring at her. She laughed. "Come. I'm sure you're tired, let me show you to a room." She turned and headed for the staircase, and Logan followed numbly, shaking his head. He was just tired. Maybe tomorrow he would be able to put together a coherent sentence to say to this woman. Still, as they climbed the stairs, he couldn't help but stare at the long silver waves of her hair.

"The mansion's set up fairly simply," she said as they reached the top of the stairs. "There are three floors, and a single hallway extends down the length of each floor. The stairs are in the middle. The right side of the hall from the top of the stairs is the servants' wing; the left side of the hall is the family wing." She paused, thinking a moment, then said, "Let me put you in the room next to Jubilee's in the family wing." She swept down the hall, her white cotton dressing gown whispering along the cool floor as she walked.

"But I ain't family," Logan said.

Ororo stopped in front of a door. "Jubilee is family, to us," she said firmly. "And because you're her father, you are family too."

Logan couldn't think of a single thing to say, pinned by those incredible ice-blue eyes, and stood there for a moment tongue-tied. "I ain't really her father," he finally managed to get out.

Ororo studied him, her eyes warm with amusement. "But you are. In everything but blood, you are her father. She doesn't consider you anything but her father. You've never been a Master to her." Her voice was soft. She turned away from him and opened a door to a darkened room, walked in a few steps, and lit a lamp from the candle she'd been holding. "This will be your room," she said. "Will this be suitable?"

Logan looked around. A chest of drawers, a large! bed, a framed piece of glass against one wall that was painted black on the other side so that he could see his reflection, and a tall ceramic container in one corner with a lid. He pointed to the container. "What's that?"

"A chamber pot," Ororo said smoothly, showing no embarrassment at the sudden flush over Logan's cheeks. "The maids will empty it every morning and clean it." She saw his look. "The outhouse is too far for you to be able to reach it if you have an emergency. There is one in your room, and there are also small closets so equipped on every floor of the mansion if you are not able to reach your room."

Logan walked across the floor, tempted by the sight of the bed. "Jubilee tol' me all 'bout these,' he said. "Said it was so soft…oohh," he groaned as he sank onto a cool, inviting softness. The straw tick at home—no, he corrected himself, back in Missouri, this was his home now—was nowhere near as comfortable as this was. "Think I'm gonna go ta sleep now."

"Not in your boots and clothes," said Ororo firmly. She started tugging at his boots.

"Don't," Logan grumbled, half-asleep already. "Not proper…f'r a lady..t'see…a naked…"

"Oh, hush," Ororo said gently, dropping his boots beside the bed and reaching for the buttons on his shirt. "Nothing I have not seen before." She got his shirt off, but mercifully left his pants alone. Grabbing his feet, she shoved the bedcovers aside and pushed his feet under them, then pulled the rest of the blanket over him. Logan was already drifting into sleep when she picked up the candle…so he might have been imagining the gentle brush of lips against his forehead.

He was considerably more awake the next time he saw her, but still found himself as tongue-tied as he had been the previous night. He had woken early, unable to sleep, and went down the hall and stairs, looking for the kitchen. He paused in the hall, trying to detect the smells of cooking food or at least coffee, when a new voice, definitely masculine, said "And you are Jubilee's father."

He turned and saw the bald man walking up to him. The man's step was firm, sure, and his brown eyes were creased at the sides with smile lines. Those lines deepened as the man said, "Come. Everyone will soon be up and around for breakfast; this may be the only time I have to get in a private word with you." He waved Logan into a large, sunny breakfast room in front of him. "Oh, Ororo," he said when Logan and himself had both taken seats, "Would you bring me a cup of tea, please. Earl Grey. And maybe a cup of coffee for Mr. Logan?"

"Black," Logan got out around the swelling in his throat. In the early morning sun streaming in through the huge windows (how did they make so much glass?) her hair turned into a halo of white fire around her head. She was beautiful, and he bit his lip again as all coherent thought vanished from his mind. She smiled and disappeared through a door.

"Jubilee brought you here last night, I understand," Charles Xavier said. "Ororo greeted me with the news this morning. I trust your journey was uneventful?"

"Yeah. Jubilee was rushin' up here ta make it before the snow fell. Said it'd be pretty damn near impossible ta get here after snow started fallin'."

"Winters can be harsh up here, Mr. Logan," Xavier said, turning in his chair as Ororo came in with a tray. "Ah. Thank you, my dear." He took his teacup from the tray, and Logan took the cup of coffee she held out to him. It was china, he noticed, white china. He hadn't eaten off a china plate since he'd left East for Missouri. Ororo was about to leave when Xavier stopped her. "If breakfast is under way there, perhaps you might have a moment to spare? Please sit and talk with us."

"Of course," Ororo sat down easily in another chair.

"I assume Jubilee told you about my offer," Xavier said, after a few more moments of small talk. Logan figured that the man was just being polite; he didn't seem like the type to like small talk. Logan liked that. He himself was blunt and direct.

"Yeah, she told me that ya needed a new stable manager," he said. "She said the guy you got now don't know how to handle horses."

"Everyone has their own way of handling horses, and no one way is wrong or right," Charles said evenly, and Logan nodded once. "However, Andrew is universally disliked by all the stable hands and the other servants. My son Scott does not like him either. Having you here solves two…no, actually, three problems for me. The first problem is that I need someone who can handle horses. I have one of the finest breeding stables around; my father bred horses, and I inherited my love of horses from him. The quality of the horses has been going down in recent years, because of poor handling and ill-chosen breedings. Do you feel capable of handling the horses?"

"I can handle 'em," Logan said. "What's yer next problem?"

"Making my children happy." Logan stared at Charles, whose face broke into a smile again. 'Remy is my child, as much as Scott, is. The fact that we have no common blood makes no difference. He was a scared, brutalized, orphaned child when I bought him and brought him north to set him free. He is now a young man I am as proud to call my son as I am of my biological son Scott. Jean is Scott's wife; she is also like a daughter to me. Jubilee…" Xavier paused. "She is like a daughter to me too. She reminds me of Scott's mother sometimes. And the way she makes Remy happy makes me happy too. But I could sense she wasn't happy, and Remy told me that she had left you under the impression that you did not love her, and it weighed heavily on her soul. I wanted to see her truly happy. So I asked her if she would bring you back. Your presence would fill her heart and make her happy, and Remy would be happier too. I am pleased to see you've accepted--"

"Charles--" said a female voice as footsteps entered the dining room, and Logan turned. A handsome young man walked in, followed by a woman with the brightest red hair Logan had ever seen. Logan's heart twisted as he saw her eyes. Annie's eyes had been that shade of green. "Oh, you have a guest…"

"Oh, please, sit down," Charles said. "This is Jubilee's father, Mr. John Logan." Logan extended a hand to the young man and woman. "Mr. Logan, this is my son, Scott, and my daughter in law, Jean."

"Pleased to meet you," Scott said automatically. Jean gave Logan a warmer smile when she took his hand, and Logan's heart twisted. She even smiled like his Annie.

They were interrupted by Remy, half-carrying Jubilee. "Jean, Ororo, something's wrong with her, she woke up real sick," he said worriedly. Jean jumped up with an exclamation, but Logan frowned at Jubilee. "Ya ain't told him yet?"

"Tol' me what?" Remy paused in his hovering.

"I…I hadn't had a chance yet, papa," Jubilee said weakly. "We've only just gotten up."

"Tell me what?" Remy looked like he was about to explode.

Logan grinned wolfishly. "Yer gonna be a Papa."