excerpt
Let No Man Put Asunder
In the bedroom Sarah picked up a comb and ran it through her
soft curls. Although she had rouged her cheeks before leaving for
town, her pallor was evident. Was she really that apprehensive? She
had no idea what he would expect of her tonight, if she would be
keeping this room as her own, or if he would insist on her moving
her things into his bedroom off the living room.
The day had turned out so differently from anything she had ever
imagined her wedding day would be. Even when she had made the
commitment to marry a man she had never met, she had not expected
him to be so cold towards her. His letters had always been
reserved, and yet Sarah sensed a softness, an unspoken passion.
Had she read into them only what she wanted to believe? Or was he
disappointed in her now that they had met?
But what had he expected? She certainly wasn’t unattractive, of
that she was aware without being vain. And she had a keen and inquiring
mind. Not that there had been much chance to prove it to
him, because few words had passed between them in the four days
she had been under his roof. Without Mrs. Thompson in the house,
those days would have been intolerable.
That humble little lady turned out to be a joy. Motherly, in a
way that Sarah had never known, she was solicitous of the younger
woman’s every need. She was a devout Christian with a gentle humour
that Sarah found refreshing. Mrs. Thompson was seventy-two
years old, she confided, and this was the first time in her life
that she had been asked to be a chaperone.
“I hope I’m doing everything right, lass,” she said in her Northern
England dialect, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
Sarah laughed and hugged her. Ben had been right when he said…
Libros Libertad 