Highland Ballad Part 32

"America," he said to them, "and G.o.d bless her. America."

When he had gone, Michael put one arm about his young wife's shoulders, and drew her near. With the other hand he touched the growing swell of her womb, as if to caress the unborn life inside it.

He looked at her with glowing eyes and said simply, truthfully.

"Now the work really begins."

For he knew that his mother had been right. The story never ends, it only changes characters. They stood at the end of one road, and the beginning of another, holding firmly to the roots of their past, sending hopeful and determined branches into the future.

Anne Scott remained in her native Highlands and eventually remarried, living with her husband in a modest home near the place of her birth, until her death in 1776. She was buried in the gravesite of her clan, and on her tombstone, these words:

"Those who have left something beautiful behind them never die. They live on in the hearts, the minds, the very souls of those who loved them."

And on her grave a single, glorious rose.

The End