Romancing the Schoolteacher by Mary Davis

Author:Mary Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460379080
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Though the rain had let up the following morning, clouds still hung heavy in the sky. Lindley walked his children to school. But once the building was in sight, he held back and sent them ahead. He watched from a stand of trees as Gabe and Dora approached the other children.

Bridget stood on the stoop, monitoring her students. She wore a striking blue-and-black-striped dress. Not only did his heart ache emotionally, he had a physical pain in the center of his chest as if someone were squeezing the life out of him. Even breathing hurt.

He hated her being angry at him, but he didn’t know how to make her understand. Make her see that there was nothing wrong with his first marriage. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, but he didn’t know what he’d done. What was he sorry for? Sorry she was angry at him? Sorry she disagreed with him? Sorry she was unreasonable?

Just sorry.

He wished he’d never brought up his arranged marriage. When Bridget had asked if he loved Doreen, he should have just said yes. Then they never would have disagreed. And she wouldn’t have gotten upset at him. And he wouldn’t be stumped as to exactly what he needed to apologize for.

If Doreen hadn’t taken ill and died, he would have been happy to be married to her the rest of his life. To grow old with her. But now that he knew the joy of love, he realized he had only been content. But content wasn’t bad, was it?

Had he been wrong to enter into the marriage?

No.

Regardless of the reasons, he’d wanted to marry Doreen, and she him. Regardless of their fathers arranging it, they had both wanted it. Regardless that the practice was out of date.

Regardless.

Then why did he feel so guilty?

Bridget raised her head, noticed Gabe and Dora, and looked around, presumably for him. Just as her gaze landed on him, he turned and limped toward Mr. Keen’s office. Until he knew what to say, he couldn’t face her. He would likely only make matters worse.

The mine manager, sitting behind his desk, looked up. “These clothes suit you better. Did you learn all you needed to for the investors?” He stood and thumbed through a stack of papers on a low shelf behind him.

“Not quite. I need to review the ledgers to see if I can find out why the profit margin isn’t what they think it should be.”

“How far back you planning to look?”

“I don’t know. Until I discover the problem. Or if the problem lies in the investors’ greed.”

As Mr. Keen sat again, he waved his hand toward a shelf across the room. “Last year’s ledgers are over there. There’s one for accounts receivable and payable. Another for how deep we’re excavating, the amount of limestone taken out of the ground and amount of quicklime produced. A third for supplies, workers and miscellaneous.”

He lifted papers on his desk and peeked under them. “This year’s are someplace on my desk.

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.