The Line That Binds by Miller J.M

Author:Miller, J.M. [Miller, J.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary
Published: 2013-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

When I backed into Ben’s chest, I almost fainted. That small amount of contact felt so right, and in that moment I wanted more. I wanted him to wrap his arms around me and pull me closer. It was a nice thought; unfortunately, even with my purposeful delay, he gave no reaction suggesting it was possible. I pulled my body away from his as smoothly as I could without shaking, which was hard to do since my knees were as unsteady as my emotions had been lately.

I flipped another few pages as lightning crashed outside, rattling the ground and the house’s walls. Desert storms never scared me. They’d roll through the Vegas area fast, dumping loads of rain. Their biggest threat was flooding underpasses and trap idiotic drivers too busy to consider flood zones. They traveled too rapidly to be much of a hindrance. This storm didn’t feel the same.

I tried to concentrate on the ledger and not on Ben, who remained right behind me, looking over my shoulder like he was as interested in the book as I wanted to be. His breath rolled down my neck, sending shivers down to my toes. I flipped to the back of the book, ignoring the notes about farming budgets and the records of labor, crops, and tools. When I pulled the back of the ledger up to close it, another picture popped out of a slit cut into its lining.

Ben reached over me again, grabbing the black-and-white picture before I had the chance. He slipped it out of the hiding spot and laid it on the book between my hands. A young woman, maybe in her early twenties, stood beside a stone house. The layout looked exactly like Ben’s house, with large squared stones outlining the kitchen windows, unlike the tall, slim borders of the main house or the mansion.

She wore a basic-patterned dress, with no evidence of a corset to cinch her curvy waist. Her hair was pulled back, her big eyes gazed adoringly at the camera, and her hands folded together at her waist. Ben flipped the picture over. The handwritten date was smudged, yet legible, stating September 1863. The name Dahlia Wentz was printed beside the date.

Ben flipped it back to look at her again. “I know I’ve seen her before,” he said close to my ear.

“Is that your house?”

“Yeah. I think she was one of the servants.”

“Dahlia,” I said, staring at her beautiful eyes. “Pretty name, pretty girl.”

“I’ve seen other servant pictures in albums in Janine’s office upstairs. Maybe that’s where I’ve seen her before. But why would Charles have this hidden in his ledger. Unless …”

I waited for him to speak again, but he didn’t so I turned my head closer to his. “Unless what?”

He breathed out, looking at the picture again. “He loved her.”

“If so, do you think he was hiding this from his wife or do you think he hid it because she was a servant?”

“I’m not sure. I guess if they were involved, it could be either, or both.

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