River to Redemption by Ann H. Gabhart

Author:Ann H. Gabhart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance;Christian fiction;FIC042030;FIC042040
ISBN: 9781441219770
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty

The funeral was awful. Absolutely awful. Adria would have gone outside to stand with Louis, but Ruth gripped her arm and insisted she stay in the seat beside her. She was right, of course. Ruth was always right. Adria couldn’t go stand with the Sanderson slaves. Not without causing upset and problems for Louis, for Ruth, for herself.

Not that she would have made any kind of scene. She could have just stepped out into the open air where at least she could breathe and not feel as though she might melt in a puddle of mourning sweat. Why couldn’t white be the color of mourning? Angel colored. But no, everything had to be black. Black soaked up the heat. Stored it against your skin. Made you wonder which would happen first—you fainting dead away or the priest finally concluding his elaborate praises of the deceased.

Adria felt damp with sweat. Even her head was sweating under the black hat kept solely for funerals. Many of the ladies around Adria looked every bit as miserable. Several pulled fans from their reticules and waved them back and forth while others glared at them with disapproval. Adria envied their bit of stirred air. Better a bit of disrespect than a second funeral featuring you.

Ruth meanwhile sat perfectly still except for the moment she had grasped Adria’s arm to keep her in her seat. Ruth’s face barely glistened and no sweat drops ran down past her eyes as they did on Adria’s face. If Adria lived a hundred years, she would never be the lady Ruth was almost effortlessly.

Carlton sat with his family close to the front, as befitted their position as a family of wealth in the community. Carlton had glanced back at her once without a smile. In fact, she wasn’t even sure he was looking for her and not Janie Smith. Not that she cared, she tried to tell herself. She had other things to worry about.

But she did care. Whether she wanted to say yes to marrying Carlton or not, she did love him. At least she was pretty sure she did. Some. And she’d always been positive he loved her. Maybe not exactly the way she wanted to be loved as an independent woman able to think for herself. Even so, there was a certain amount of comfort knowing a man like Carlton wanted to marry her. Now maybe he didn’t. Perhaps he had glimpsed the real Adria and was ready to give up on her ever being the wife he dreamed of her being.

It was all so confusing. Thinking she didn’t care whether Carlton loved her when she did. Then what about Logan Farrell with those remarkable eyes? The very thought of him was enough to make her heart speed up. Steady, comfortable Carlton or dangerous, unknown Logan Farrell. Why dangerous? He’d done nothing to make her think outlaw, but a woman knew a dangerous man by instinct.

She pushed thoughts of them away. She could simply spurn them both. Take Abigail up on her suggestion to come east and stay with her.

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