A Bride of Honor by Ruth Axtell Morren

Author:Ruth Axtell Morren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2009-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

“How was your time at the orphanage?”

Damien looked up from his plate and tried to muster a smile for his pretty wife. Wife. He still felt a sense of amazement every time he uttered the term, even in his mind. How could this beautiful, ethereal creature be bound to him in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the Church, the law?

“Very good,” he replied. He hesitated to go into any detail for he knew she wanted to accompany him to the orphanage. Thus far, he’d put her off with vague excuses, insisting he didn’t want to overtax her with all her new responsibilities at the parsonage.

But every time he glimpsed the disappointment in her eager face and watched the light slowly fade from her eyes, he felt afresh the constant struggle to keep his distance from her, for her own good.

Every day he had to fight to stay away from her when all he wanted to do was see her every moment. And every night he had to stay put in his study to keep from running after her when she ascended to her room.

“Were the boys well behaved?” she asked.

“Yes. Jonah is always adept at keeping the unruly ones under control.” He looked down at his plate, his mind going back to the correspondence he’d received from the Bishop of London. Despite his assurances to Florence, he was troubled by the communication. He’d thought his involvement in his brother-in-law’s escape from the law would have been dismissed when Jonah had received his royal pardon.

“Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

He looked up again, startled, and realized he had been silent for some minutes. “I need to work in the study a bit. I’m preparing some written documents.”

“Your sermon?”

He looked away from her, his cheeks flushing. “Yes, and other things.” The last thing he wanted to do was worry Lindsay. “What about you?” he asked, needing to get the focus off himself. “Do you have anything special planned? How are you coming along with the women of the congregation?”

“Fine.” Though she smiled, her tone held no enthusiasm.

He gazed down at her plate. She had eaten little, causing Damien to worry afresh. Was she regretting her rash decision to marry him?

Damien set down his fork and knife, his own food unfinished. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe I shall go into the study.” He needed to satisfy the bishop. Above all, he mustn’t let any breath of trouble come near Lindsay. She’d already suffered enough at her father’s hands.

She looked at him a moment, then looked back down at her plate. “Will you be long?”

“I, uh—” He paused. How he longed to drop all his responsibilities and take her in his arms. How he longed to tell her his worries and fears. Instead, he rose and tucked in his chair. “I believe it will take me some hours. Please don’t wait up for me.”

It was a pity Jonah and Florence’s farm was so far from town. Things had been easier—in many ways—while they were still here in the evenings.

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