A Tailor-Made Bride by Karen Witemeyer

Author:Karen Witemeyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Published: 2010-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

J.T. trudged back to the livery, a Bible tucked under his arm. He’d never thought of himself as a coward, but he’d been extremely tempted to toss his conversation with Delia to the wind and ignore her challenge. What if he dug deeper into the Word as she suggested and discovered he needed to adjust his beliefs? Could he do that? They’d been his rock for so long. Guiding him. Shaping him. If they turned out to be shifting sand . . .

Tom waved at him as he approached the office. “Doc came by to rent the buggy. Said Mrs. Walsh was due to have her next young’un any day, and he wanted to pay a call on her. I hitched up the roan. Hope that’s all right.” He crammed his hands into his pockets and rocked up and back on the balls of his feet.

J.T. slapped him on the arm. “You did fine. I’ll add it to his account.”

A grin exploded across Tom’s face.

The Bible under his arm poked J.T.’s ribs as he moved past the young man and reached for the knob on the office door. A similar jab from within made him hesitate. He glanced over his shoulder.

“Uh, Tom?”

The boy spun around and trotted back to J.T.’s side like an eager puppy. “Yeah?”

“Would you mind sticking around for an extra hour or so? I’ve got some things to work on, and I’d rather not be disturbed.”

“Sure.” Tom eyed the black leather protruding from beneath J.T.’s bicep. “If them things need a Bible to figure out, I reckon they must be mighty important. No one’ll bother you unless there’s an emergency. I’ll see to it.”

“Thanks.” J.T. pulled the book from under his arm and lifted it to the brim of his hat in salute. Then he entered his office and closed the door.

A tangle of harness leather cluttered the top of his desk. With one hand, he scooped it up and tossed it onto a barrel in the corner as he circled the table and lowered himself into his cane-backed chair. He set the Bible on the desktop in front of him, then pushed it over to a corner. The scrape of leather on wood echoed loudly in the small room, but J.T. ignored it. He swiveled away to collect a different book.

He extracted the account ledger from the drawer to his left and flipped to the page that held the current entries. With a nub of pencil, he added a dollar to the doctor’s balance and totaled the sum since the man’s last payment.

Black leather tugged at his peripheral vision. He scratched an itchy spot on his jaw and turned back to the ledger. Might as well total up all the accounts. It’d make the end-of-month tally much easier. J.T. welcomed the mathematical diversion, his focus only occasionally drifting over to the Bible that sat patiently on the corner. Until the numbers ran out. With no sums to keep his conscience at bay, the black book loomed large, creeping into his line of sight.

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