The Teacher's Christmas Secret- by Emma Miller

Author:Emma Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-07-06T16:08:20+00:00

Chapter Nine

As Tobit watched, the color drained from Cora’s cheeks and her eyes filled with tears. The knowledge that he’d caused her pain broke his heart, a heart he’d thought could never break again because it was already broken. The difference, however, was that when his wife had left him and Elijah, Aida had been the one who had caused the devastation. The pain that radiated in his chest now was a result of his own doing.

How could he have let this happen? How had he let his deception go on for so long that now he was harming others?

He was responsible for his and Cora’s pain. He’d been misleading others for so long that he had almost come to believe his lies. He told the story so many times that in day-to-day life, he saw himself as a widower. And it had worked well until he came to Honeycomb. Until he met Cora. In the past, it had never mattered that he wasn’t free to marry because he’d had no interest in marrying again. All he wanted was to be a good father to Elijah and somehow make up for the fact that his son’s mother had left him. But then he had met Cora and dared to consider what it would be like to have her for his wife. His mind had known it could never be, but his heart had let things go too far. He’d allowed her to care for him as much as he cared for her.

“Married,” she murmured, wiping at her eyes with the heel of her hand.

He hung his head in shame. “Ya.”

“Your wife isn’t dead?”

“Nay.”

Cora clutched the scented candle he’d given her. The faint scent of balsam and cedar still hung in the winter air and he remembered the way she had smiled when she had smelled it in the store. He liked doing things to make her smile, but now he feared she would never smile at him again.

“I’m sorry,” he said, forcing himself to look at her. “I never meant to hurt you. I do care for you. A great deal, but—” But what? There was no excuse for what he had done. The loneliness he had felt for so many years, the pain and the frustration of his injury were no justifications for doing this to Cora. To his beautiful, smart, kind Cora.

She took a step back from him, appearing more shocked than angry. “But I don’t understand. When you came to Honeycomb, you told everyone that your wife had died. That she’d been gone nearly ten years. And it was a lie?”

“Yes. No.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “It was part truth, part untruth.” He opened them again. “She has been gone almost ten years. But she didn’t die.” His voice caught in his throat. “She left us.”

Cora took a deep breath. She looked so small and vulnerable that he had an inexplicable desire to take her in his arms. Of course, he couldn’t. Not ever because his wife was out there somewhere.

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