Faith Hope and Love (A Homespun Romance) Read Online Free

had been suggested she was too young, but Rachel had stood her ground.  Convincing the selection committee that her slight build and frail looks were misleading, had taken a while.  The medical assistant's course she had completed through the high school ROP program had helped.  So had her counselor Mrs. O'Brien, who had convinced Dr. Hanks Rachel was mature enough for relief work.
    A thorough medical examination had been followed by an intensive course in basic medical procedures.  Her father hadn't objected to her going.  If anything he had seemed relieved.  The day after she'd graduated from high school, Rachel was on her way to Bangladesh, the stiff, awkward, unemotional parting with her father a frozen island of memory.
    Work filled the void in her life, assuaging the physical loneliness.  The gratitude shining out of dark eyes too poor to offer any other payment convinced her she had found her niche.  Immersing herself in the people, the work, and the new way of life, Rachel told herself it was all she ever wanted.  Very rarely did the thought that there was more to life than caring for others surface.
    Over the years she and Dr. Tim Atwell had been the only constant members of the team.  A twelve month stint was the norm for volunteers.  Whenever the others had talked of home and plans for the future, Rachel had kept very quiet.  Every year she had applied for, and been granted an extension.  Her accumulated vacation time she'd spent travelling in neighboring Nepal, and the north of India on cheap railway tickets, and in buses. 
    The telegram informing her of Chris and Rob's death had taken fifteen days to reach her.  The team had been up to their eyeballs in disaster relief.  The floods had worked havoc in a country that had barely learned to toddle.  There was so much to do.  But for Rachel it had been time to come home.
    Tim had contacted two doctors with private practices in Los Angeles, both of whom had agreed to help her with jobs in their clinics.  Now it was no longer necessary to get in touch with them.  The money she had left would last till she got on the next plane back to Bangladesh.  Back to the only life she knew.
    She was drunk from exhaustion.  Lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of spirit.  That's what made losing Gordie, seem like the end.  After she got some sleep she would be fine.  The judge had been right.  She was definitely not the best thing for the baby.
    The uncle was that.  She tried to remember what he had looked like.  Solid.  Large.  Rich.  And very, very sure of himself.  The whiplash of his gaze had cut right through her charade of respectability.  A shiver crept down her spine.  In that instant she had felt wrapped in strength and power.  The urge to reach out for some of each had been very strong. 
    What was even more bizarre was the powerful surge of response deep inside her wanting to believe her first impression was true.  That if she had leaned into his strength she would have found the shelter she had searched for all her life.
     
     
     

 
    CHAPTER 2
     
     
    "Ma'am?"
    Rachel sat up with a jerk.  The cabbie was looking at her curiously.  They were outside the motel.  Dyan had reserved her a room here, earlier.  As she took in the peeling paint, the cracked sign, Rachel knew it fit all her prerequisites.  Cheap, cheap and cheap.  Her lawyer had scored a bull’s-eye on this task at least.  Tomorrow she would go to MRA headquarters in Los Angeles, and transfer into their hostel.  For tonight this would do.
    Reluctance accompanied her as she stepped out of the cab's dark comforting interior.  She still had to go through the ordeal of checking i n.  The world tilted to a forty-five degree angle.  Rachel stumbled, clung to the door.  She ought to have grabbed a bite to eat somewhere. 
    "Are you alright?"  The cabbie looked worried.
    "I'm fine." 
    Rachel paid him, added a generous tip.  He looked amazed, then overwhelmed.  She was