Their Inconvenient Marriage by Elizabeth Rowan

Author:Elizabeth Rowan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-07-11T19:27:24+00:00

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Lorna’s thoughts were still on the afternoon a few hours later when she returned to her cottage after supper and lit the lamps. It was only half past seven but it was fully dark outside. She had learned to be frugal with her lamp oil, which meant that she would have to work quickly to finish all her tasks for the night. She had letters to write and a few last-minute decisions to make about lessons tomorrow.

Dinner had turned out well. The fish soup had been tasty, the biscuits fluffy, the company good. Tonight, Jesse had told one of the Samson stories, entrancing the children with the life of a Nazirite. She’d found herself intrigued by the similarities between Jesse and Samson: the long hair and the refusal to take alcohol. He had not told the other part of the story, the part about Delilah. Lorna smiled to herself as she set out her writing supplies. Jesse told a lot of stories from the book of Judges.

She wondered what his fascination with that part of the Old Testament was. Perhaps he didn’t realize it? She would have to ask him. For a man who no longer prayed and who was just beginning to read, he was well versed in the Bible. At one point, he must have been a man of great faith.

Lorna sat at the table and took out her letter. It was already five pages long, but there was more to add. If it took months for a letter to reach Concord, she wanted to make it worth everyone’s while.

She’d started the letter last week. She looked back over what she’d already committed to paper: descriptions of the lessons she’d taught at school, an account of what the reverend had preached about on Sunday. There was a small paragraph about dinner at the Hill and a rapturous sentence about Mrs. Carrington’s bathtub, which she had generously insisted Lorna use when she visited. It was, in fact, the chief attraction that kept Lorna going back for Sunday afternoons. Lorna added a little note in the margin there. I hope it is not selfish to crave a hot bath once a week in a real tub. I prefer to think such a luxury is warranted if cleanliness is indeed next to godliness. She hoped that would make her mother smile. Her brothers would think it a great lark that baths were at a premium in the West. They despised them.

The rest of the letter was taken up with news of the Kittredges—what she’d taken to dinner, what stories Jesse had told, the progress Jesse was making with his reading lessons, a squirrel she and Jesse had seen on a walk. Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.

She’d not realized she’d written so much about him and there was still more to write. She wanted to tell her mother about their walk today, about the colors of the leaves and the things he’d shared and the way he’d shared them. But she would

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