Move Heaven and Earth Read Online Free

air.”
    “Madam, you are not!”
    He clutched the wheels with determination, but she jerked backward, then forward.
    “Ouch!” He looked at his palms.
    She pushed him toward the door, bumping over the books and crunching pieces of glass to dust. “You’ll survive.”
    Grasping the wheels again, Rand held tight. The chair slowed to a crawl, but the spokes stubbed his fingers and the friction warmed his lacerated palms.
    He couldn’t believe that the woman would do this. He hadn’t been outside for months. The doctors had suggested he should go out. His mother had coaxed, Aunt Adela had nagged, Garth and James had teased. But no one had dared treat him with such impunity.
    Now this wisp of a woman pushed him out into the hall where everyone could stare at him. He clutched the wheels again, and they almost stopped. He could hearher panting behind him as she fought his strength. He could feel her warm breath in his hair and her chest against his back as she pressed her whole body against the chair, and he gloated.
    She was failing. He would win, and the first battle counted most.
    Then the chair jerked forward so hard it threw his hands into the air, and he slewed around.
    Garth stepped away and dusted his fingers. “Go outside, Rand,” he said. “I wish I’d thought to do this myself.”
    “Thank you, Your Grace.” The woman pushed him forward.
    “But Your Grace, Lord Rand doesn’t want to go outside.”
    Jasper sounded alarmed, and conversely, that made Rand more angry. His dedicated body servant, the man who’d accompanied him into battle, was nothing but an overprotective old woman who thought he could direct Rand’s life.
    Everybody thought they could direct Rand’s life, including his brother and this half-pint nurse. The pressure of her body had been removed from Rand’s back, but Rand knew she was still there, still pushing. Pushing, pushing. Pushing him around the corner and into the main hall. Servants watched, peeking with phony discretion from corners and cubbyholes. His family watched openly, crowding together in the hall.
    “Garth, dear. Rand, dear. Oh, dear.” His mother babbled while smiling valiantly.
    “Good to see you, cousin.” James used that hearty, encouraging voice he’d used since Rand returned from war, a useless cripple. This was the first time Rand had ever disappointed him, and he had disappointed him bitterly. James hadn’t looked Rand in the eye since the battle of Waterloo.
    “Rand.” Aunt Adela’s proper, well-bred tones rang like a church bell pealing over his head. “Cover yourself. You’re indecent!”
    These days, nothing amused him so much as offending his aunt Adela, and her horror restored a bit of his equilibrium. He smirked offensively.
    “There’s no talking to you, I see,” she scolded. “But at least think of Clover Donald and her saintly ways. She’s shocked.”
    Rand saw the vicar’s wife peeking at him from far inside the room. She was a mouse, too timid to do more than catch a glimpse as she stood behind his mother, Aunt Adela, James, and the Reverend Donald himself.
    “She probably hasn’t had such a good time in years,” Rand retorted, and waved. “Greetings, sweetheart.”
    Tall, blond, and dressed all in black, Bradley Donald took his ministry seriously, especially as it concerned his cowering wife. Whirling, he clapped his hand over Clover’s eyes. “Sinful,” he declared.
    Rand relaxed as they wheeled past.
    That had been fun.
    Then he saw Jasper, mouth puckered tight, holding the front door wide.
    Dear God, he was really going outside.
    He, who had loved to walk and ride, was going outside in a wheelchair. He was going out with a nurse, like some defenseless worm who needed protecting.
    He, who had been the strongest of the brothers. He, who had been the fastest, the most energetic, the one on whom all familial hopes had been pinned. He was going outside, and everyone was going to see him. Laugh at him.
    “Please,” he muttered,