Secret Surrender--Jarrett Family Sagas--Book Four by Vivian Vaughan

Author:Vivian Vaughan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626818569
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 1915-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

Travis’s cynicism had one welcome effect—it kept Molly from spending the rest of her Sunday worrying over Jubal and what could ever come of their relationship. Several townsfolk, including the reverend and his busybody wife, came for supper. Sugar was prepared with left-over meatloaf, supplemented with fresh cornbread and clabber. Mrs. Callicott couldn’t stop praising the meal.

“Imagine, all this time you’ve had that wonderful cook locked away up here and none of us knew anything about her.”

Molly wanted to respond that nobody had come up the hill to test Sugar’s cooking until Jubal arrived and piqued the town’s interest. She wondered how many townsfolk looked upon her as a tramp, like Travis said.

Undoubtedly some did. But surely not everyone in town considered her a fallen woman, now that she had resumed renting to bachelors. One of them, though, was so visible about town, so open with his generosity to her and the children. So vocal in defense of them. Yes, she could see where people who didn’t know the truth might talk.

After supper, she sat on the porch, telling herself she wasn’t waiting for Jubal. She needed time to think. Lindy was in her room, the boys were in bed, and Travis hadn’t returned from the Taylors where he fled after their earlier confrontation.

Rubal found her there, sitting quietly in the swing. He stopped on the top step, glanced over, and saw her. His heart began to race. A thousand different emotions sang through his veins.

Passion. Yes, they all added up to passion. And guilt and remorse and hopelessness. Passion. Lust and love. Love? His eyes caressed the dim silhouette of her. He could tell she was looking at him, but he couldn’t see her eyes, nor read her expression.

How did she feel about his strange marriage proposal? He took a step toward her. For that matter, how did he feel about it?

One of the reasons he took Jeff along on his ride into the country was to keep his brain from dwelling on last night and Molly, and the implications his rash words held for both of them.

The other reason, the obvious one, of course, was to keep Jeff away from Lindy so Molly would have a measure of peace today.

Had she? Had her day been peaceful? Or lonely? Had her day been as lonely as his? Settling beside her on the swing, he asked casually, although around a lump in his throat.

“How was your day?”

“I’ve had better.”

He turned to her with a frown.

“I’ve had worse,” she added. Then, at his prompting, she told him about her argument with Travis, leaving out the part about Jubal’s responsibility in the town’s image of her as a tramp.

He rested an arm along the back of the swing. Her calico sleeves whispered against his arm. “Want me to talk to him?”

“It wouldn’t do any good. After we sell the timber and he gets to go to school, maybe he’ll see reality.”

“Reality? What’s that, Molly?”

“That his family loves him. And that we’re not all dimwitted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.