Holly's Broken Dream (Rejected Mail-Order Brides Book 1) by Margaret Tanner

Author:Margaret Tanner [Tanner, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Holly woke up and groaned slightly. What was the weight on her arm? Then she remembered little Matilda. The child had climbed up on the bed with her. What a sweet little cherub. A pity her uncle was so surly and eager to get rid of her. No, that wasn’t fair. Luke had shown compassion to a stranger. Many people would have ignored a filthy, battered-looking creature like her and continued driving without a second thought.

Bitterness was a terrible thing and Luke was eaten up with it. There again, so was she. Don’t I have the right? How about being left standing at the altar in front of a packed church; what must that have been like to a proud man? And he would have been proud; she didn’t know how she knew, yet she did. Cora, the woman who had scorned him, must have known he was a good man if she wanted him to have her child. How could she do such a despicable thing to him? Did she live to regret it?

Holly gritted her teeth and gently eased her arm out from under Matilda. The nap had done her good. If only she could brush the tangles out of her hair, she would feel almost human as her head didn’t throb anymore. Gingerly she climbed off the bed and tried to straighten her dress. Even this didn’t cause as much pain as previously. Never had she felt so bedraggled and disreputable looking. It was humiliating to look so bad.

“Holly, don’t go,” Matilda’s plaintive plea reached her ears.

“I’m only going out to see your uncle. Do you want to come with me?”

“Yes.”

“All right, we’ll go together.”

Holly waited for Matilda to scramble off the bed, then holding hands they left the quite spacious room. The double bed was comfortable and the patchwork quilt was quite pretty and soft to lie on. This would be a nice place in which to live, if only Luke would ask her to stay.

“I like you, Holly.”

“And I like you, too, sweetheart, but you need to understand. I can only stay here for a short time until I feel better.”

“I want you to stay wiv me.”

“It’s up to your uncle, whatever happens,” Holly said, wondering how she could have bonded so quickly with this little girl. It was probably because Matilda had no parents to love her, just like me. At least the little girl had known her mother, and had an uncle who was prepared to take her into his home. Had she been a boy it would have been much easier for him, Holly supposed.

The kitchen was empty as they stepped inside. If she didn’t have to bend or reach for items, she could probably cope with preparing supper. That’s if Luke decided she was not well enough to travel into town.

If he let her stay, they would probably need something extra after her having eaten one of their beef steak pies. The sun was starting to slip behind the distant mountains, streaking the peaks with pink and red, indicating she had slept for hours.

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