From Runaway to Pregnant Bride by Tatiana March

Author:Tatiana March
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Historical
Published: 2017-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

When the first glow of sunrise painted the horizon with pink and gold, a gunshot boomed deep within the mountainside. Clay felt a sudden release of tension that left him numb. His lungs seemed to seize up, no longer drawing in air.

Annabel had been dozing. She came awake with a jolt. For an instant, she froze. Then she wriggled around in his arms and looked at him with grief-filled eyes.

“Was it...?”

“Yes.” His voice was hoarse. “No more waiting. It’s over.”

Annabel pressed her face to his chest, fighting to suppress the tears.

“Hush,” Clay said. The emptiness inside him eased a little, as if consoling Annabel was thawing some of that cold, numb feeling that had settled over him. “It’s all right,” he told her softly. “Mr. Hicks called his time, chose the moment of his death. That’s more than most men can ask for.”

“I know,” she muttered against his shirt. “But it is so terribly sad.”

Bracing up on one elbow, Clay laid Annabel down on her back on the bedroll and leaned over her. With his other hand, he stroked her hair. “Cry it out,” he said. “Let your tears flow, for it is a good farewell for a man to have a woman weeping over him.”

“He told me not to...but I can’t help it.”

“He would be pleased. Sometimes a man does not like to ask for something yet he is grateful to receive it.”

Annabel gave in to the need to mourn. Her body shook with the force of her sobs. Lowering his head, Clay kissed away her tears, tasting the saltiness on her skin. He kissed her brow, the crest of her cheeks, her eyelids. Annabel clung to his shirt, her small fists clutching the fabric, and let her grief flow out.

Clay felt his chest tighten with tenderness. Perhaps this was how it worked between a man and a woman. Masculine pride did not allow a man to seek solace in tears, but if he had a woman to do the crying for him, it eased his grief, too.

His feelings in turmoil, Clay settled down beside the weeping girl and rocked her in his arms. She had to be exhausted, physically and mentally. She’d worked beyond endurance, helping him to clear a passage into the cave and crawling through, not knowing what she would find on the other side, and then caring for the dying man. Throughout the ordeal, her courage had staggered him. For the greatest courage was not the lack of fear, but the ability to keep going in the face of it.

* * *

Annabel knelt in the corner of the cavern overhang, sorting through the few items of clothing Mr. Hicks had left behind. Even though her melancholy refused to lift, the sharpness of her grief was easing. She’d always felt embarrassed by her emotional nature, but perhaps it was the best way.

Her grief was like the water in the creek, flowing free, letting the pain inside her heal. Clay’s grief was like the dammed pond, building up inside him, creating a pressure that never had a chance to ebb.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.