Jacob's Return by Annette Blair

Author:Annette Blair [Blair, Annette]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Lachesis Publishing

Chapter 13

The Gutenberg by lamplight cast a bestial shadow across the barn floor. Six kerosene lamps placed on barrels, two atop a scarred old desk, yellowed the paper beneath Rachel’s hand to parchment.

A new editorial for tomorrow’s issue of the Amish Chalkboard was finished.

Midnight. A new day. A new beginning.

Esther and little Daniel slept peacefully after the ordeal of labor and birth. Emma was spending the night with Levi in the daudyhaus, Aaron with his Unkabear in the kinderhaus.

Unkabear.

Rachel shook her head wondering again at the surprising difference in her husband. After the hearing over her newspaper, he’d changed. How could that be, considering his cutting, hateful words to her there?

Unkabear.

Could Aaron’s innocent, unconditional love have wrought such a change in his once hard-edged uncle? If so, it couldn’t be just a day and a half of Aaron’s company that made the difference. No, it had taken longer than that. Aaron had been breaking down Simon’s defenses bit by bit since his very first day here.

Yet if Simon had returned Aaron’s regard before their time in the tobacco field, no one saw it … yet Rachel couldn’t help suspect that Simon had wanted to return it. Perhaps he’d been afraid, or he didn’t know how. More than likely, he had fought the urge. Knowing Simon, he would have seen it as weak.

However it came about, Simon was suddenly and surprisingly the same man who comforted her four years before. As she’d sat beside her mother’s coffin, Simon next to her, his quiet support reminded her why she’d married him.

But support was not love. His caring had been false four years before. It could be false now. Before they wed, to win her, he’d been pleasant and caring. He’d supported her through losing Jacob. All to win her. But for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he wanted her. He disliked her in every way. She didn’t think he loved her, not even at the beginning, not even with a love as weak and brief as hers had been for him.

The answer to why he married her had to come down to the one fact that had colored Simon’s entire life; he wanted what belonged to Jacob.

So why pretend now? She no longer belonged to Jacob. Simon no longer needed to win her. They were already married and would be for the rest of their lives.

Why would he pretend now?

The question plagued her.

Perhaps there was no pretense. Perhaps Simon cared for her at last.

The new question, could she find it in her heart to care for him again? After everything they’d been through, would it be possible for them to make their marriage work? Couples with a good marriage were the best parents. And for this baby … She placed her hand on her belly. For this child, she was willing to do anything, even become a wife to Simon again. Her babe would need a good home. A family to love.

Though family without Jacob seemed no family at all, Rachel knew she must be strong.

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