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Maggie nodded. “It’s a wonderful idea, and we’d be proud to be there.”
Britt looked at Maggie. “I’ve heard about that. My mom said the first time she saw it, it made her cry.”
“It has the same effect on me,” Maggie said.
“Me, too,” Joey said. “That incredibly brave woman, writing that note to her children, even knowing that if she was right and she died in the battle, it would burn along with her body. She knew what had happened to the defenders of the Alamo.”
“And then picking up her dead husband’s weapon and rejoining the fight,” Maggie said, and the pride that rang in her voice was unmistakable.
“Exactly as you did, in a different way,” Britt said quietly.
Maggie looked startled, then pleased. “I’d like to think I have a little of her grit.”
“Mom,” said Keller as he came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, “you have all of it. Raffertys chose true. Happy birthday.”
Maggie leaned back against her eldest son, smiling up at him. Britt’s eyes stung a little. She was such a petite woman, yet she’d borne four big, Texas-strong sons. And every darn one of them was as beautiful as she was, in their own way.
Even the Coder.
She’d seen him, a bit ago, over talking to Luke. He was dressed up as she’d never seen him before, in a western-cut suit with piping, a crisp white shirt and a perfectly tied string tie. In fact, she’d spent a split second admiring the way the suit emphasized broad shoulders and trim waist before she’d belatedly realized who was wearing the thing.
“—have your copy?”
She belatedly tuned back into the conversation she was supposedly part of, mentally chastising herself for letting that pest distract her.
Keller was pulling out his wallet, and she watched as he fished out a folded piece of paper.
“You carry a copy with you?” she asked, smiling in appreciation of the idea.
“We all do,” Keller said, giving her a look with those green eyes that were a shade darker than Cody’s. And even as she—unwillingly—thought that, he added, “It was Cody’s idea to scan the original, so we could all have copies to keep with us.”
She managed to stop her habitual grimace at the mention of his name. Even managed to get out what she would have said easily had it been anyone else. “Wonderful idea.”
Keller grinned at her as if he’d somehow known what an effort that was for her. But when the unfolded page made it to her, she could think of nothing more than the words, written in an old-fashioned but amazingly steady hand.
My little loves,
Things are looking bad here. Your father is down, and I fear he is gone. This may well be our last stand, but we fight on. We are outnumbered, outgunned, the only hope we have now is that this Texas stone will hold. But if it does not, know that we loved you with all our hearts.
You are Texas born and bred, so I know you will survive even if we do not. Never forget that you are proud sons of this land we love. Make your own stand here, and never run. That is all that is required of a Texian.
They are circling back now, and we must be ready. If this is goodbye, my beloved boys, then so it must be. Know that you are ever and always loved.
Your mother
A Texian. Those who had been here when Texas had belonged to Mexico, and who had fought to free the land they loved. Britt’s eyes stung a little as tears gathered. She herself felt like a Texan to the bone, but this…this was different. This was history, with living descendants of it standing before her.
“I’ll have Cody email you a clean copy,” Maggie said to Joey.
To divert her thoughts from darting down that unwanted path, Britt said the first thing that popped into her head. “You should have Ry do a leather frame for it.”
Joey’s brows rose. “What a brilliant idea!” Then, hesitantly, she added, “Not sure the library can afford him, though.”
“He’ll do it for nothing, or he’ll answer to me,” Maggie said firmly.
They all laughed at what Britt figured was the very idea one of her sons would dispute her seriously on anything.
“Well now, that has to be a first,” Keller drawled. “Britt Roth and Cody Rafferty collaborating on an idea.”
