A Second Chance Bride to Embrace by Emberly Hart

Author:Emberly Hart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mail order bride romance, arranged marriage, historical romance, western frontier romance, clean and wholesome romance, historical western romance
Publisher: Emberly Hart
Published: 2023-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

EVER SINCE HENRY HAD told the story of the pig’s adventures, Maisie had been quiet and solemn. Following supper, he had offered to help her clean up, but she had only given a shake of her head in reply.

He did the evening chores around the farm and strolled back to the house slowly, wondering what he could do to help his bride settle into her new life more quickly. They were strangers, but he could not help but feel there was a wedge she had forced between them.

Whatever past followed her, he hoped in time she would confide in him. His momma always said that speaking about the hard times helped to ease them, and even as a boy, he had put this logic into practice.

When he reached the house, he opened the door and poked his head inside. Spotting Maisie right away in her rocker, he said, “Come on outside and we’ll sit a spell.”

He heard the chair rock smoothly on the floor as she stood, and then a moment later, she slipped outside with him.

Night was gathering close, the sky banking with clouds so there would be no moon to watch as he had suggested earlier. But they could still enjoy the warm evening and watch fireflies blink through the field.

There was a sturdy bench he had built as his first attempt at furniture, and this sat along the wall just beside the door. He gestured to it, and she took a seat, pulling the skirt of her gown close as she did.

Such a feminine woman, so soft and mannerly that he had to wonder at her upbringing, though he would not ask her outright. She must come to him with her stories.

Perhaps if he began with his own, she would not feel so nervous.

Settling next to her, he stared out at the fireflies. “When I was a boy, I tried to count them.” He pointed to the little yellow lights dancing across the field. “I was convinced that the same one always came to my window every night to say goodnight.”

She turned her head to look up at him.

He chuckled. “A silly notion that my mother went along with, even reminding me to tell my firefly goodnight after I said my prayers.”

“Did you ever forget?” she asked, her whispery voice dragging a sigh of contentment from him.

“I’m sure I did forget once in a while. But even now, when I look toward the window, right before I fall asleep, I often think of the fireflies.”

“I like that tale,” she said after a silent moment.

He rested his back against the wall and studied her hands in her lap. Slender fingers he could still feel the touch of from helping her down from the cart. She twined them in her lap, a gesture that made him think of grannies on porch rockers, talking about their youths.

He hoped someday Maisie would be one of those grannies, and he a grampy beside her, talking to their kin about the early days after they had wed.

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