Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 3 Read Online Free

children ate well? And on down the line, each decision altering her future until this moment. And now yet another decision stood before her. As with all her past decisions she would try to make a well-informed choice, but it would always, as in everything she did, be what was best for her children. They were the most important thing to her, their welfare her main concern. Valentine tipped his head to the side and regarded her quizzically and she realized she had not answered his question.
    “Yes, I understand having to choose what is most important to you.”
    Kurt spoke from where he had moved to lean against a tree a few feet from the bench. “Not so much choose as decide. I do not believe we were in the same situation as you, Leah.”
    20
    Love’s Strategy
    Leah blushed as she saw the sympathetic look in his eyes. “No, Mr. Schillig. In my experience, men rarely are.” Kurt merely nodded once in acceptance of this fact. Still looking at Kurt, Leah asked, “And what was important to you?”
    “Valentine,” was Kurt’s simple reply.
    Leah turned to Valentine, who was smiling wryly. “He over-simplifies. We were important to one another, the most important thing, to be accurate. But we did not just want to survive. For many who were there too long survival became the main goal. But I, we, wanted more. We wanted a future.”
    “Yes,” Kurt whispered, and when Leah looked Kurt had turned away to stare off into the hills in the distance.
    “We thought very hard about what kind of future we could have, and what kind of future we wanted. As you can imagine in our situation the two are not always the same.” Valentine’s voice held a bitter note.
    “That is true in most cases, Valentine, not just for you and Kurt.” Leah’s tone was bitter as well. How well she knew the taste of future happiness turned to ashes in the ruin of what was, never to experience what could have been.
    “Of course. I guess we tend to forget everyone else’s troubles in light of our own.
    I’m sorry, Leah.”
    Leah smiled wryly. “Yes, well, I’ve been rather wrapped up in my own troubles as well. Please, go on.”
    Valentine sighed. “There’s not much more actually. What I wanted was a simple life. I wanted a nice country life, a modest home, a pretty wife, children. I want my most pressing concern to be whether it is hunting season or racing season. I want a pack of dogs, a houseful of children, and with all that I want Kurt.”
    “And Kurt?” Leah asked, watching the blond man slowly turn to look at her.
    “I have already told you. I want Valentine.”
    21
    Samantha Kane
    “I see.” And truly she did. They were obviously in love with one another, a concept that should have shocked her but didn’t. She understood that when your back was to the wall you could no longer lie to yourself. You found yourself doing or saying things you never would have before, but when you had nothing left to lose what did it matter?
    When these two men were faced with death on a daily basis they looked at one another and with perfect clarity realized this is what I want, this is what I’m fighting for. And they survived. Leah had survived for her children.
    “Why me?” Leah’s question wasn’t vanity. While she knew she was attractive, she had almost nothing else to recommend her to a potential mate. She was worse than penniless since she had unpaid debts, she had two young children, and no familial connections. “Surely there were women in London, women with whom you were acquainted, that you could have asked?”
    Kurt straightened from the tree. “We did. They would not have us.”
    “Oh I beg your pardon,” Leah said, startled and a little embarrassed. “I just assumed I was the first woman you had approached.” She smiled self-deprecatingly.
    “But now I understand, I am a last resort, am I not?”
    Valentine looked very embarrassed but Kurt eyed her with approval. “You understand then where we are coming from, yes?” Kurt