Enchanted Heart Read Online Free Page B

and his elegant charm, which propelled him into politics and ascended them into the upper crust of society. But because he was a lawyer and spent most of his time either in court or courting political allies, she rarely saw him, which made her eventually hate the lavish lifestyle that she had married into.
    Elias had studied at West Point and Harvard University before he had come back home to New Braunfels as a stark opposite of the boy who had left his meager farm years before. And when the Civil War started, he joined the Southern Rebels because of the Confederate Conscription Law, which had demanded that all men enlist in the Confederate Army or face death and loss of lands. He left his wife, hoping that his loyalty to the South would indemnify their civic status and personal welfare, only to be killed in action a few months later, leaving Marty with more misery than she cared to combat. And as the months waned into years, her large house became lonely and empty, an overwhelming replica of her broken heart. The echo of her own voice grew distasteful and repugnant to her solitary ears in that big, lonely mansion. Many times, she found herself gravitating back to the house that Sven had built for them, where love reverberated in every room.
    Two years after Elias was killed, Marty sold the estate for a smaller sum than it was worth. But leaving it behind, along with its memories, was worth every penny that she’d been paid for it. She rented a little house near Sven’s blacksmith shop and she would stop to visit him on her way to teach at the school every morning and then again after school. Her overwhelming sense of loneliness seemed to be cured by her stepfather’s company and having someone to whom she could tell her troubles was certainly a godsend.
    As the years passed, Marty spent more time with the man who had won Mama’s heart and his merry enthusiasm seemed to heal her, as it probably had done for Mama. Each day, after she had moved into her tiny new home, she and Sven would talk and her mood would be transformed into cheerful optimism by his encouraging conversations.
    She so missed having a man to talk to, any man, and Sven became a suitable substitute for the banter that she craved. And every morning, she walked away from the blacksmith shop thankful that Mama had found happiness with this man and deep in her heart, Marty wished that she would find a man who was not afraid to speak his mind or to stick out his chest against any adversity. Being strong and resilient and she hoped—no, she expected her next mate to be tougher and feistier than she, yet she realized that she needed him to be gentle and loving toward her, like Sven was to Mama.
    Elias was neither of these things. Elias was filled with gigantic words that spilled from his mouth like a spewing waterfall that thrashed the earth below but still sparkled with a rainbow-like glow. He was stiff and staunch, prim and proper. He replaced his boyhood charm, which he believed would get him nowhere in life, with a haughty air of importance that he flaunted with his every utterance. He nullified his inadequate background by making and spending money and by entertaining the wealthiest of New Braunfels’ inhabitants. But he was never demonstrative in his feelings toward his wife except when they lost their unborn children. In his own rigid way, he comforted her, which made her love him all the more despite his tepid touch when he held her in his arms. And she knew that he loved her even though he hardly told her so, for his eyes reflected the admiration that she knew that he felt for her. And she loved him. She loved him because he showered her with gifts of imported fineries, furs and jewels and all the things that she had been deprived of in her childhood, things that Mama had been deprived of and that Marty wished that Mama could have enjoyed. But things that Marty turned her back on when she walked away from her mansion.
    She knew that Mama was happy with