The Tender Vine (Diamond of the Rockies #3)(137)

She remembered Mr. Pierce’s admonition, that it was wrong for Quillan to keep his words to himself. Carina looked into her husband’s face. Had he so healed he could share his soul at last? If that were so, who was she to stop him? She rested her hand atop his on the cane head. “Mr. Pierce will burst like grapes shattering on the vine.”

“I think he’ll recover.” Quillan’s mouth torqued to one side.

It would be a strange alliance—fiercely private Quillan and unscrupulous Roderick Pierce. But she sensed a purpose in him, and a peace. “In the meantime, we must decide where to build our villa.”

Quillan looked back over the land. “Near the vineyard. I want to see it from every window.”

Carina laughed. “We’ll have to put it in the middle, then.”

He nodded. “Jesus said He’s the vine and I’m the branch. I thought it meant I could only have Him, that all else must be cut away. But look, Carina.” He pointed out over the field. “How every branch reaches across to another, so tangled I can’t say where one ends and the next begins.”

She wove her fingers between his. “The blooms of one vine bring fruit to another.” She touched her belly, almost tempted to increase his wonder. But she would wait, savoring the knowledge that like this field resisting the pestilence, the night they’d spent together in the midst of all the trouble would bear fruit. How had Ti’Giuseppe known? But she would save it for another moment, when there was room in Quillan for more. Ah, Signore, you work all things for our good, because we love you!