ROMANCE: Mail Order Bride: A Sheriff's Bride (A Clean Christian Inspirational Historical Western Romance) (New Adult Short Stories) (84 page)

Chapter Five

It was the best Valentine’s Day that any of them could remember. They spent the day cradled in their beloved’s arms and dancing in the soft white snow. It was perfect. They were happy, and they were in love. As the days passed, it became more and more evident that they’d made the right choice. Aaron and Hannah were a perfect match and so were Caleb and Esther.

The town didn’t seem to bat an eye at the switch Everyone seemed to agree that it was the right thing to do. There was no need for a second marriage. They were just going to live their lives happily. Everything was slowly falling into place, though the more peaceful things got, the more jittery Esther seemed to become. There was still a secret between the sister’s and their husbands--a secret that might very well tear their lives apart.

Esther was in the barn with Caleb staring out into the soft, powdery snowfall. Winter was nearing an end, but the snow was still falling in blankets. Caleb came up behind Esther and puta hand on her shoulder,leaning in to kiss her cheek. She made a soft, surprised noise and turned back to look at her husband with big eyes.

“Esther, what in the world is wrong?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

She couldn’t resist the strength and safety that those strong arms offered, and she sank into them, her eyes fluttering closed.

“I’m just worried,” she said softly, staring out into the barren fields.

“You are always worried,” he pointed out, spinning her around so that they were face to face. He wrapped his arms around her and led her in a slow, silent dance.

She relaxed a little. Esther put her head to Caleb’s chest, closed her eyes and listened to his heart beat. It calmed her more than she could explain. As they danced in the barn, holding onto each other and offering tender, chaste kisses, Esther felt her chest tighten and tears come to her eyes.

Caleb pulled away and cupped her cheeks, frowning and watching her closely. “Esther, are you all right? Don’t cry,” he said gently, kissing her cheeks where the tears began to fall.

“I can’t hold it in anymore. I can’t ignore it and pretend it’s nothing,” she sobbed, burying her face in his chest again.

Caleb seemed shocked but wrapped his arms around her and rocked her slowly. “Esther, what is it?” he asked softly, kissing her hair and trying to gently urge the truth from her.

Her head snapped up, and she gripped his shirt, dragging him into a kiss as she sobbed. “Please don’t send us away,” she pleaded into the kiss. “Please, please don’t send us away.”

Caleb pushed her away enough that he could understand her, cupping her cheeks. “I’m not going to send you away, Esther. It’s going to be OK, but I need you to tell me what’s going on. It is part of a husband’s job to bear the weight of his wife’s burdens,” he said calmly, brushing tears from her cheek.

She stared up at her, her eyes wide with terror and her lips shaking. Her teeth began to chatter, but she somehow forced the words out.

“Hannah is with child.”

Caleb just stared at her for a moment and smiled gently, kissing her temple. “Is that all?” he asked, swaying back and forth with her. “Aaron will be thrilled. He’s always wanted to be a father.”

She shook her head and swallowed. “You don’t understand. It’s not … it’s not his baby.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Caleb stopped moving all together and gently pushed her away, looking down at her with a shocked expression.

“What?”

“She’s pregnant with her first husband’s child,” she whispered, wiping her eyes.

A feeling of dread was starting to fill her. She felt as if she’d single-handedly torn their little family apart. They could recover from the husband swap, but there was no recovering from this. They were going to be sent back to North Carolina where they would surely die.

“I know I shouldn’t have said anything, but I just can’t keep lying. I’ve always been the responsible one, the one who’s always bared the weight of the burden. It’s always been my job to protect my sister and care for her, but I just can’t do it anymore. I feel as if the entire weight of the world is on my shoulders, and I can’t keep being the one who has to bear it all.”

Caleb held her close and rubbed her arms, shaking his head. “You don’t have to. You don’t have to bear that weight on your own anymore. That’s what love is,” he said softly.

“Are you … are you saying you love me?” she whispered, eyes wide even as tears fell down them.

“I am. I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you,” he whispered, cupping her cheek.

She forced a weak smile and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know what to do, Caleb.”

He was quiet for a long moment before he let out a heavy sigh. “We have to tell him,” he finally said.

Esther looked up at him and then away. “Will he still care for her?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. I pray that God will give us the strength to get through this trying time.”

“Me, too. I’ve been praying for so long,” she whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“It’s in His hands now. We need to have faith, and even if things go south, we still have each other, right?”

She looked up at him and smiled sadly, nodding her head. “Right.”

Chapter Six

Caleb and Esther knew they couldn’t wait much longer to tell Aaron the truth. Hannah was getting bigger by the day and only managed to hide her secret because it was winter, and she was often wearing several layers of clothing. The bump was still small and would have gone completely unnoticed to those who weren’t privy to the fact that she was pregnant, but it wasn’t going to stay that way for long.

The snow was finally starting to melt. Although it stopped snowing, the rains were coming, and they all but flooded the little farm house. Caleb and Aaron were locking down the barn and getting everything ready before the rain got any worse. Other farmers were much worse off because the floods would destroy their crops. Esther could only be thankful that their livelihood did not depend on the weather the way other’s did. She was also thankful that the bad weather would make it impossible for her sister to run away.

They were settled at the dinner table, sipping tea and watching the rain come down hard. Esther was silent for most of the day, and Hannah was beginning to wonder about her again.

“Sister, are you all right?” she asked softly, reaching across the table and touching Esther’s hand.

Esther turned her hand over, gripping Hannah’s delicate, pale fingers. She smiled sadly and looked over at her, squeezing her hand.

“We have to tell him, Hannah.”

For a moment, Hannah seemed confused, but then the words settled in, and she realized what her sister was asking of her. She paled and shook her head back and forth slowly.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

Esther closed her eyes and took a breath, knowing she needed to be stern. She hated seeing her sister so scared and upset, but she knew she needed to do this if things were going to get better. She knew that things would only get worse the longer they waited. After a moment, she opened her eyes and nodded her head.

“You can do this, and you have to,” esther said gently.

Tears began to spill over Hannah’s cheeks, and she stared at her sister. “How long have we been searching for happiness? How much have we gone through? These men … they’re God’s gift to us. What if he walks away from me?”

“If he walks away from you, then it wasn’t God’s intention for him love you.” Esther took her sister’s shaking hand in hers and brought them to her lips, pressing a tender kiss to them. “You have to be strong, Hannah. You have to be strong, and you have to believe that God is going to show him how much you love him. We have to put our fate in His hands. It’s out of our control, and it’s always been out of our control. He’s gotten us this far. We need to let Him guide us to the end.”

Hannah was still shaking, staring at the table as if it held the answers to all of her problems. She dropped her head and whimpered softly.

“I’m not strong enough.”

“Yes, you are! You’ve been through so much Hannah. More than I could ever imagine. People think I’m the strong one, but it’s you. You suffered in silence for so long. Now is your chance to be happy. He might reject you, but even if he does, you aren’t alone,” she said quickly, forcing her sister to look up into her eyes. “You are never alone. I’m here, and I always will be. I need you to know that and believe it,” Esther said pleadingly.

All they’d ever had was each other. Their parents were aristocrats who were far more focused on their money and their estate than their children. Esther and Hannah were raised by an army of nannies and never received much love or affection from anyone but each other. They’d been through thick and thin together, and Esther wanted to make sure that Hannah knew she would never be alone.

“You have to tell him, Hannah.”

Hannah opened her mouth to respond, but before she could even get the words out, Aaron stepped into the kitchen, staring at them with his brows knitted together.

“What is it that you need to tell me, Hannah?”

Chapter Seven

Hannah stared up at Aaron for a long moment. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. She was clearly terrified and on the verge of fainting. Esther’s stomach was turning over just as much as Hannah’s, but she forced herself to be strong. She stood up slowly, walking over to Hannah and wrapping her arms around her sister gently. She leaned down and kissed her forehead, sighing softly.

“It’s OK, Hannah. Tell him.”

Aaron watched Hannah expectantly, frowning and clearly concerned as to what was going on. “Hannah?”

Her lips shook for a moment, but she stood slowly and walked over to him, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

“Before I tell you, I want you to know that I love you dearly.”

“Of course, darling. I love you, too. Please tell me what has you so upset.”

She hesitated for a moment and looked down at the floor, a few tears falling and splashing against the dark wooden panels.

“I’m pregnant.”

It broke Esther’s heart when the first emotion that came over Aaron’s face was happiness. It took him a moment to understand why Hannah would be so upset about being pregnant. When then the realization hit him, his face fell. Hannah was staring at the floor still, but Esther watched the full range of emotions that graced his features.

At first his lips set in a thin line, and his eyes widened in anger. He clenched his fists at his side, his hands shaking as his teeth grit together. Soon enough the anger faded into sheer sadness and disappointment. He looked almost vulnerable and confused. He ran his hands through his hair, his finger’s tangling in the dark locks for a moment as he attempted to get control of himself.

“Why?” he finally whispered, staring at Hannah. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“Because I was afraid,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to comfort herself a little. “I was afraid that you might send me away.”

“Whose baby is it?” he asked desperately, his voice cracking with emotion.

She swallowed thickly and fell into the chair, dropping her head into her hands. “People act like being a mail-order bride is such a bad thing, but it’s nothing compared to what they do to girls in North Carolina,” she whispered, shaking. “My mother and father, they arranged for me to marry this man because he was rich and owned a lot of land holdings in the South. They told me to do it because it would be a profitable arrangement.”

Esther’s heart twisted in pain as her sister recounted what happened back home. Hannah took a few deep breaths before she could continue.

“He was a cruel man. He was ungodly, and he didn’t care about me. The only time he ever paid me any attention was in his bed chambers and then even that stopped. He was much older than me and passed away after only a year of marriage. Our parents also died that year, and all of our money and our estate went to my husband,” she whispered, staring at the floor. “By the time Richard died, he owned everything, and he controlled me. He controlled us,” she whispered, wiping her eyes again.

Esther was watching Aaron’s face, and he seemed to be softening as Hannah explained herself.

“I didn’t love him. How could I love him?” she whispered desperately as the tears came faster and heavier. “He was just so cruel. Even in death,” she said with a bitter laugh. “He was seeing a mistress regularly, a woman he thought was much prettier than I. She was a lady of the evening, and when he died, he left everything to her. He left every penny to her, and we had nothing,” she whispered. “When we found out I was with child, we knew we couldn’t stay in Edenton. There was nothing for us there. We didn’t have any skills, and no one was going to marry two women who couldn’t offer anything. All we were to the men in town were two more mouths to feed,” she said, shaking her head. “There was no other choice, so we came West.”

Aaron stepped forward for a moment and stood before Hannah, looking down at her. After a moment, he got down on his knees and cupped her cheeks, looking up at her. Tears were still pouring down Hannah’s cheeks, and she sniffled, wrapping her arms around the man in a desperate attempt to hold him close.

“Please don’t send me away. Please don’t hate me,” she whispered.

A soft tearful laugh escaped him as he wrapped his arms around Hannah in return. “I could never hate you, Hannah. I love you,” he whispered, kissing her temple and cheek. “You are everything to me, you know that?” He pulled away and cupped her face, pressing their foreheads together. “Every single day you impress me. You are so strong and so brave, and you have every right to be none of those things. You’ve seen so much pain and strife, and you somehow still manage to light up my world,” he whispered.

Hannah let out another choked sob, whimpering Aaron’s name as she pressed her lips to his. He took a breath and ran his fingers through her hair.

“I can’t fix the bad things that have already happened, and I can’t make the pain go away, but I promise that you will never have to face the world alone again. I am here for yo,u and I’m always going to be here for you,” he promised, wiping away the tears that were steadily falling down Hannah’s cheeks.

He held her close and rocked her back and forth, swallowing thickly. “I’m not mad, sweetheart. I wish you would have told me sooner, but I’m not mad. I love you, and we’re going to get through this.”

Esther pressed herself against Caleb, tears of joy coming to her eyes. She wiped the away quickly and sniffled as Aaron peppered kisses all over Hannah’s face.

“I prayed for someone I could love, and God sent me you. He brought you here for a reason, and I’m not going to question that,” he said simply. “You were the answer to all of my prayers, and I would never turn that away. I’d never turn you away, Hannah. If God wants me to care for this child and raise it as my own, then I will. There’s a reason for everything.”

Hannah nodded and wiped her eyes again. “There is, isn’t there?”

Aaron smiled and nodded, pulling her into a hug. “Just promise me you’ll never lie to me again.”

“I promise, Aaron. I promise. I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

As he pulled away, he smiled at her. “No more apologies. It’s OK. We’re OK.”

She offered a shaky smile in response and nodded. “I love you, Aaron.”

“And I love you, Hannah.”

Esther watched on, grinning and pressing her hand to her chest in an attempt to still her heart. It was slamming in her chest as happiness bubbled through her and came out in the form of a giggle. She watched her sister and Aaron and for the first time in a long time, she knew everything was going to be all right.