A Heart's Gift by Lena Nelson Dooley

Author:Lena Nelson Dooley [Dooley, Lena Nelson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wild Heart Books

Chapter 20

After nursing him, Lorinda finished rocking Michael to sleep and placed him in his cradle. She had put him down before she, Franklin, and Mrs. Oleson had supper, but when Franklin left the house, the baby awoke and started fussing.

Even though her husband had told her not to wait up for him, she hoped he would come back in before she went to sleep. She wondered what had gone wrong. And she didn’t intend to go to sleep until she knew he was in the house...and safe.

Besides, they’d only been married less than two days. Would this be the way their marriage went? Him going out to do things without telling her why or where he went. Not much different from her father or Mike. Once more, a man was controlling things in her life without her input.

Lorinda plaited her hair into a loose braid and tied the end with a thin strip of fabric. She donned the white dimity gown with all the colorful embroidered flowers across the top and around the cuffs. How silly dressing like this for bed when no one would see her, except maybe Michael when he awoke during the night.

Completely ready to lie down, she paced the room instead, her slippers not making any sound on the wooden floor. She didn’t want Mrs. Oleson to know what she was doing. The sooner they got the woman’s new quarters ready for her, the better. Then Lorinda wouldn’t need to worry about what their housekeeper heard.

By the time she’d made more passes across the bedroom than she wanted to count, she heard the front door open, then close again with a click. Franklin locked the door. She didn’t remember him doing that before. There had to be a reason. What might endanger them?

She jumped into the large bed in the room that had been his. Pulling up the covers, she lay as still as she could, closing her eyes in case he checked on her.

The door between the hallway and the room where Michael slept opened, and Lorinda was aware of her new husband tiptoeing toward the cradle. He stopped and stayed beside it for several minutes. Whispered words sounded in a loving tone, but she couldn’t understand what he said. Her husband was pouring all his love into her...their son.

Tears slipped from under her closed eyelids and trickled toward her pillow. She needed love as much as Michael did. But her agreement with Franklin ensured she would never again experience physical love from a husband. She longed for the genuine love of a true husband. She gritted her teeth to keep from sobbing. It would never do for him to hear that.

When Franklin came through the open door of Michael’s room into the dressing room, she felt his presence through her doorway. The aroma of heat, horse, Bay Rum Oil, and the unique masculine fragrance that was his alone circled around her, making her feel her barren life all the more. What a bleak future.

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