excerpt
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She still had her nurse’s
cap on, and she pulled away from him a little to reach up and remove
it. But her stiffly starched uniform crumpled around her in the ardour
of his embrace. She didn’t care. She responded to his kiss with
abandon. Gently then, he held her away and looked into her face.
“Tyne, honey, you’ve always put me off when I talked about marriage.
But I’m going to ask you to make a commitment.” His eyes
sought hers, his look tender. “Will you marry me, Tyne?”
“Oh, Morley, I love you, you know I do, but I … it’s just that I
haven’t got things sorted out with Da … with my parents yet and ….”
He became very still. “When will you have things sorted out with
them?”
She stiffened. “You know what the problem is, and you know it
can’t be solved on the spur of the moment.”
He sat back in his seat. “We’ve been going together seriously for
a year now. You tell me you love me and want to marry me, but you
won’t make a commitment because you don’t have it sorted out with
your parents. Why don’t you just tell them you’re going to marry me?”
“And why won’t you try to understand?” Tyne cried. “I’ve been
raised in the Roman Catholic Church by very devout parents.”
“And I,” Morley said quietly, “have been raised in the Evangelical
faith – also by devout parents. I don’t find that there is anything
about my relationship with you that I have to sort out with them.”
“Oh, Morley, I know, I didn’t mean ….”
“Look, Tyne, let’s get this straight. I’m not asking you to change
your faith, because I’m not willing to change mine.” He took a deep
breath. “But, like I’ve said before, we can have a mixed marriage. It
may not be ideal, but when two people love each other as we do they
can work it out. I know that, Tyne. I know people who have worked
it out, and I’m sure you do, too.”
“Yes, of course, I do, but ….”
“But what? Don’t you think it will work for us?”
Forcing herself to remain calm, she said quickly, “Oh yes, yes, it
could work for us. Like you said, it isn’t ideal, but we do love each
other.” Tyne looked into his face, so close to her own. “There would
have to be some concessions, of course.”
“Concessions? Yes, I suppose there would. But what do you mean
exactly?”
Libros Libertad 