Nora waved her hand. “That oul’ bastard? I’m not afraid of him anymore. He’ll be lucky if they don’t send—what is the word?—a posse—up to New York to give him a taste of Texas justice.”

“Would serve him right!”

We looked at each other in silence. Then I said, “Will you see Dom?”

Her face clouded. “Ah, sure at one time my pride would never have let me go near him again, but if what you say about the Kathleen one is true . . .”

“It is,” I said, taking her hand. “Please promise me you’ll give him another chance.”

Nora smiled. “I suppose I’m saying I wanted adventure, just like you always wanted, but now I’ve seen you and Aidan together, I realize that all the adventure in the world is a bit empty without someone to love and who loves you back.”

“If we’re lucky, we can have both.”

“Aye.”

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, Nora?”

“We have.”

We hugged each other tightly, both of us in tears.

“Don’t be a stranger, Nora,” I said. “This is just the beginning of life for us together. I don’t want us to be apart.”

She shook her head. “We never will be, Delia. I’ll always be thinking of you. Besides, New York is only a train journey away.”

“And you’ll come and visit Aidan and me, despite the heat and the armadillos?”

Nora laughed. “Ah sure I suppose I could get used to them.”

* * *

As the train steamed out of the station, Nora opened the window of her compartment and leaned out, waving. I waved back until the steam from the engine enveloped her in a fog. I thought back to another time when we were at a train station, back in Donegal when we were setting out for America. Who could have known what awaited us? Disappointment and sorrow, and self-doubt that nearly destroyed us. But we also found the courage and strength to become who we were meant to be. And we finally found each other.

“Good luck, my sister,” I whispered, “and Godspeed.”

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

First, my thanks to my agent, Anne Marie O’Farrell, of Marcil-O’Farrell Literary Agency, for her constant support, encouragement, and friendship throughout my writing career. I also want to salute my editor, John Scognamiglio, at Kensington Publishing, for his concise and focused editing that never fails to improve the quality of my manuscripts. In addition, my thanks to the competent Kensington staff for their careful attention to all aspects of production of this book.

A special thanks goes to my dear friends, and “first” readers, David Hancock and Bernard Silverman, for their eagle-eyed comments and for giving so generously of their time. And an extra shout-out to David—a self-described Titanic maven—for keeping me straight on all things Titanic, right down to the menus.