Cheryl Reavis Read Online Free Page B

Abby? For my sake. I know you have a kind heart.”
    “No,” she whispered.
    “Yes,” he said, taking her hand. His fingers werestill cold from his ride here and he slid them in between hers.
    “No,” she said again. “I will not.”
    “I need you to let me me explain, at least. Let me try to tell you the way things are.”
    “Then tell me.”
    He took a deep breath. “The Union army didn’t have a chance at Fredericksburg because there were serious tactical errors made. The general who made them—Burnside—knows he is in danger of being relieved of his command. He is an incredibly arrogant man. He’s going to try to save face now, and he’s going to sacrifice his Grand Divisions to do it. I will do my duty when the time comes, but I need…” He stopped, holding her hand in both of his for a moment. “Guire was my friend. You are all that is left of his family. I need to know that you’ll be taken care of. Do you understand? I need to be sure. As my wife—or my widow—”
    “Don’t,” she interrupted, trying not to cry. “Guire would never have expected you to do this.”
    “I want to do it, Abby. I haven’t much time for persuasion. I can’t make pretty speeches to convince you. I can only tell you the truth.”
    “Look at me, Thomas. What good am I to you like this? I’m an invalid. I may stay an invalid.” She couldn’t bring herself to speak the real truth—that she might not survive this illness, just as her mother hadn’t survived.
    “You are my sweet Abiah. You are all I have left of the one truly happy time in my life. I’m asking youto let me go into this folly of Burnside’s with my mind at ease.”
    She closed her eyes to keep from crying. She couldn’t waste her strength on tears. She had to save it, so that she could do the right thing.
    “Abby, answer me.”
    She looked at him. Marrying Thomas Harrigan was all she had ever wanted, but her heart was breaking—and for his sake, not hers. She loved him too much to ever want to hurt him. In the naive and reckless plan she had once contemplated to trap him into becoming her husband, she would have at least been a healthy wife and not a sickly burden. It would be wrong for her to say yes to him now. She knew that, just as she knew that she hadn’t the will to refuse him.
    “We have some major political differences, Thomas,” she said.
    “I think they would make for very lively discussions at the dinner table,” he countered easily.
    She smiled slightly at the idea, even knowing that it was improbable that they would share a dinner table ever again.
    “Won’t your engagement get in the way?” she asked.
    “That arrangement no longer exists.”
    “Does she know that?”
    “She does. And she has nothing to do with this.”
    Abiah looked into his eyes, believing him because she wanted to. What did it matter that this was only a gallant gesture on his part?. An attempt to give her herheart’s desire, because he was fond of her and because he thought she wouldn’t recover?
    So be it, she thought. She would take the only chance for happiness she would ever have, however fleeting it might be.
    “All right,” she said. “You bring the minister—and I’ll try to remember who you are.”

Chapter Three
    O f all the emotions he had anticipated when he went to ask Abiah to marry him, surprise wasn’t one of them—at least not on his part. And he had certainly been surprised. First, when she told him she had another suitor, and then, when she had been so unwilling to even consider his own offer of matrimony. But most of all, when he realized how much he minded on both counts.
    It had all seemed so clear to him beforehand. He was honor and duty bound to take care of the last member of the Calder family as best he could. It was something he simply had to do. Now, through no conscious effort of his own, he was afflicted with the added burden of wanting it.
    Thanks to La Broie and his machinations, Thomas had gotten away to see