A Reluctant Bride by Kathleen Fuller

Author:Kathleen Fuller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Sadie didn’t know what caused her to reach out to Aden. When she heard his knock at the door, she hadn’t intended to answer it. What if he was still angry? What if the man she saw downstairs, the one who had so much fury in his eyes it terrified her, was the real Aden Troyer? What kind of monster had she married?

But that wasn’t true. Sol was the monster, not Aden. Her husband had saved her from his brother—again. How could she ignore him after that?

Then she saw the pain in his eyes when she opened the door. The shame. And she couldn’t turn away.

He released her slightly shaky hand and walked inside. She closed the bedroom door, which was a foolish thing to do since they were alone. But she wanted to give him a sense of privacy. For him to feel safe.

She sat down on the edge of her bed while he hovered near the door. He shifted from one foot to the other, looking everywhere but in her direction. Sweat dripped down the sides of his freckled face. She went to her dresser and pulled out one of her kerchiefs. “Here,” she said, handing it to him.

He wiped his face with the pale yellow cloth, then gathered it into a ball in his hand. Finally he looked at her. “Sorry about the kitchen door.”

She almost wanted to smile. After everything, he was apologizing for a stupid door. “It can be fixed.”

“I’ll take care of it right away.”

She sat back down on the bed and met his eyes squarely. He was evading, and she wouldn’t let him get away with it. “All right. After we’ve talked.”

He looked away again. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and she could hear his heavy breathing in the silence of the room.

“I have never hit mei bruder,” he finally said. Then he turned to her with a desperate expression. “I need you to believe that.”

She nodded. Because for some reason, she did.

“When I saw him here . . . when I saw how scared you were . . .” His voice cracked. “I lost it.” His hand squeezed her kerchief. “I’ve never been that angry before. I promised myself I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” He looked down at his feet. “It almost did.”

“That wasn’t yer fault. You didn’t know Sol was going to be here.”

He lifted his head to look at her, his smile off center. “Now look who’s being nice.”

Their gazes met, and something changed in Aden’s eyes. There was a warmth there, a different emotion she hadn’t seen before. It reached inside her, softening the hardness that had slowly consumed her since her parents died. She looked at the green-and-white quilt on her bed and smoothed the already straight fabric, needing to focus on something other than the perplexing emotions he was stirring inside her.

“Sol has a temper,” Aden said after a long pause, his tone taking on an edge that hadn’t been there before.

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