A Match for Lilah Jo: Marianne's Mail Order Bride Book #9 by Marisa Masterson

Author:Marisa Masterson [Masterson, Marisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-07T23:00:00+00:00

Lilah’s arms ached to hug the small stranger. She and her brothers grew up looking very much like this boy, ill-cared for and tattered. He would fit perfectly into her family. Her mind told her that.

“He’s not a stray puppy, Lilah Jo.” The softly rumbled words had her turning away from the table. Roland’s eyes held the icy, reserved look from months before, the stare he used when she first arrived. As their closeness deepened, that coldness all but disappeared. The reserved expression this morning flustered her.

“I-I never thought he—”

“Yes, you did. I could see your eyes measuring him for clothes.” She dropped her gaze, gripping her hands tight. From the corner of one eye, she saw the boy stop eating. He hunched his shoulders as Roland took a step toward her.

A warm finger slipped under her chin as her husband raised her face to his. She breathed out a sigh of relief at the warm concern now filling his gaze. “I don’t begrudge someone in need. The thing is, well, we need to know where he belongs.” He dropped the finger to run a hand through his dark hair. “You gettin’ your heart broken, well that’s the last thing I want.”

Behind her, a fork scraped a plate. Obviously, what he heard made the boy comfortable enough to start eating again. The sound pulled Roland’s attention from her as he focused on the foundling. “What’s your name, boy?”

The child sneaked a look at her before his eyes darted to her husband. “Gopher,” he mumbled before using his fork to attack a pancake.

Lilah gasped softly at the name. The noise brought Roland’s focus back to her. “What’s got you upset?”

She shook her head. A small sob escaped from the hand she held tightly to her mouth. She moved it to wipe a single tear. “My youngest brother’s name. Well, not really. We called him that, though.”

Turning, she reached a hand toward the dirty head. It hovered over him before falling. “He reminds me a great deal of my brother. I thought that the first time I saw him.”

“Only a coincidence. Where’s your brother now?” She heard the spark of interest in his voice and considered it strange. They rarely talked about her past and never spoke about his. Lilah knew very little about Berta’s parents or how Roland easily afforded anything she and the girls needed. He had the best equipment in his businesses, too. Odd, but not once did she ask him about it.

“Gone to the Lord. All three of my brothers and my parents, too.” She shook her head. “Not long after Pa sold me to Jim Henry one spring. Typhoid hit their area that summer.”

Roland’s rare look of shock intrigued her. She’d never seen his normally narrowed eyes widen as they did in that moment. “It happens. Typhoid, I mean. A lot of people drinking from the same river got sick that year.”

His head slowly moved from side to side. “Yeah, I get that. I’m workin’ on the idea that your pa sold you.

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