Come the Spring
Authors: Julie Garwood
A ruthless killer. A relentless FBI man.
Both after the same thingâ¦
One irresistible woman.
READ
JULIE
GARWOOD'S
ELECTRIFYING BESTSELLER
HEARTBREAKER
“Entertaining.”
â
USA Today
“Heart-stopping.”
â
Port St. Lucie News
(FL)
“Riveting.”
â
Book Page
Available from Pocket Books
Acclaim for Julie Garwood's
New York Times
bestselling
Clayborne novel
COME THE SPRING
“What began so beautifully in
For the Roses
and continued with the Clayborne Brides series comes to a truly lovely conclusion in
COME THE SPRINGâ¦
. You'll find it as hard as I did to say farewell to a family you have come to love like your own. Thank you, Ms. Garwood, for Mama Rose and her children.”
âKathe Robin,
Romantic Times
“Garwood does her usual superb jobâ¦. [A] fascinating tale of western romance and adventure.”
â
Abilene Reporter-News
(TX)
“The Rose series [is a] tremendous collectionâ¦.
COME THE SPRING
is as good if not better than the previous novelsâ¦. With its tremendous prose and building suspense, this book [is] a long-term literary classic.”
âHarriet Klausner, America Online
“Julie Garwood has become a trusted brand name in romantic fiction ⦠[featuring] characters of the Old West, especially the ruggedly handsome gunslingers and the sassy, beautiful women who love them.”
â
People
Also available from Simon & Schuster Audio
Praise for Julie Garwood's
Clayborne Brides novels
ONE PINK ROSE
“[An] utterly charming little bookâ¦.”
â
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Great dialogueâ¦. Wonderful characters.”
â
Denver Rocky Mountain News
ONE WHITE ROSE
“As charming as
For the Roses,
as sweet and funny and
sensual as anything Ms. Garwood has writtenâ¦. A
must-have book if you love the Claybornes.”
â
Romantic Times
“Vintage Garwood, funny and tender, familiar yet new.”
â
Book Page
ONE RED ROSE
“Charming and heartwarmingâ¦. Garwood has a gift
for sending our hearts soaring.”
â
Romantic Times
“Absolute dynamite storyâ¦. A scrumptious romance,
nonstop action, and delightful dialogue.”
âRendezvous
These collected novels are also available from Simon & Schuster Audio
Julie Garwood wins raves for
her smash
New York Times
bestsellerâa tour de force of
passion and suspense
HEARTBREAKER
“Heartbreaker
moves along at a racehorse pace, its plot swerving and darting with sudden turns and joltsâ¦. Garwood's characters are well-drawn.”
â
New York Post
“Heartbreaker
dances between suspense and romance.”
âUSA Today
“Just when it looks like the ride is over, the action ratchets up again and doesn't let up until the final shot has been fired.”
â
The Kansas City Star
“Garwood has quite a flair for intrigue and suspense!”
â
Romantic Times
“A heart-thumper.”
â
The Ottawa Citizen
“Engrossingâ¦. Addictiveâ¦. By turns explosive and unpredictableâ¦. You cheer for the good guys and are glad when the bad guys get caughtâ¦. [Garwood] has found a niche for herself in contemporary romantic fiction.”
â
The Anniston Star
(AL)
A Main Selection of the Doubleday Book Club
Books by Julie Garwood
Gentle Warrior
Rebellious Desire
Honor's Splendour
The Lion's Lady
The Bride
Guardian Angel
The Gift
The Prize
The Secret
Castles
Saving Grace
Prince Charming
For the Roses
The Wedding
Come the Spring
Ransom
Heartbreaker
Mercy
The Clayborne Brides
One Pink Rose
One White Rose
One Red Rose
Published by POCKET BOOKS
The sale of this book without Its cover Is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that It was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book”
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1997 by Julie Garwood
Originally published in hardcover in 1997 by Pocket Books
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 13: 978-0-671-00334-0
ISBN 10: 0-671-00334-8
eISBN 13: 978-1-4391-4076-5
First Pocket Books paperback printing October 1998
16 15 14 13
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases,
please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798
or [email protected]
Front cover illustration by Lisa Litwack
Photo credit: Darrell Gulin/Stone
Printed in the U.S.A.
Â
For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.
âFrom
Atalanta in Calydon
Algernon Charles Swinburne
For my daughter, Elizabeth,
who has the mind of a scientist, the heart of a saint,
the determination of a champion,
and the twinkle of a true Irishman.
Oh, how you inspire me.
A special thanks to the following:
To Jo Ann for keeping me accurate, focused, and on track ⦠and for putting up with me.
To my agent, Andrea Cirillo, and my editor, Linda Marrow, for believing in my dreams⦠and for never saying the word “impossible.”
And, to all the readers who fell in love with the Claybornes and encouraged me to continue their story. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Â
For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snows and sins;
Â
But for the grace of God and an untied shoelace, she would have died with the others that day. She walked into the bank at precisely two forty-five in the afternoon to close her account, deliberately leaving the task until the last possible minute because it made everything so final in her mind. There would be no going back. All of her possessions had been packed, and very soon now she would be leaving Rockford Falls, Montana, forever.
Sherman MacCorkle, the bank president, would lock the doors in fifteen minutes. The lobby was filled with other procrastinators like herself, yet for all the customers, there were only two tellers working the windows instead of the usual three. Emmeline MacCorkle, Sherman's daughter, was apparently still at home recovering from the influenza that had swept through the peaceful little town two weeks before.
Malcolm Watterson's line was shorter by three heads. He was a notorious gossip, though, and would
surely ask her questions she wasn't prepared to answer.
Fortunately Franklin Carroll was working today, and she immediately took her place in the back of his line. He was quick, methodical, and never intruded into anyone's personal affairs. He was also a friend. She had already told him good-bye after services last Sunday, but she had the sudden inclination to do so again.
She hated waiting. Tapping her foot softly against the warped floorboards, she took her gloves off, then put them back on again. Each time she fidgeted, her purse, secured by a satin ribbon around her wrist, swung back and forth, back and forth, like a pendulum keeping perfect time to the ticktock of the clock hanging on the wall behind the tellers' windows.
The man in front of her took a step forward, but she stayed where she was, hoping to put some distance between them so that she wouldn't have to smell the sour sweat mixed with the pungent odor of fried sausage emanating from his filthy clothes.
