by Faye Sonja
“Forgive me for once again being there for you. You don’t make it easy and I understand that you have been through a lot, but do not be mean about it Agnes. Just try for once to accept this and let us see if we can make a good life of it for little Cameron here.”
“I am sorry and thank you,” she said angrily and they rode in total silence until they got back to the house. She wanted to tell him she was mad at him for letting her go in the first place and then waiting two weeks to come for her, but as she sat there watching him spend time with Cameron who was elated to see him, she felt her anger slip away. He was right. Nothing really matters if at the end of the day he shows up and he tries to always be there for her and the child.
When they arrived at the house, a happy Mrs. Potter made them supper and tended to Cameron while she ate and re-settled in her room.
“Cameron will have his own room and will always have Anna to take care of him,” Charlie said from her doorway after dinner. “I know you have worked hard over the last couple weeks and I think you deserve a couple nights of peaceful rest.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking away from him. She couldn’t stare at him any longer or she might give in to the urge to run into his arms and cry her fears away.
He stood before her as she made her way around the room he had given her on her first night there. “If you really don’t want to be here and if you don’t want my help, I won’t stop you from leaving, and I promise not to come after you once you have left, but please give it some time and think about it. I would love it if you stayed. I would love it very much.”
As he walked away she pulled him towards her and kissed him on the cheek. “I am sorry and thank you for everything, especially for being there for me tonight.”
His eyes softened when he looked down at her. “I am serious. If you want to go I will not stop you. I am going to get cleaned up and if you are not here when I return then I will understand.”
She didn’t answer him as he walked away, but she studied his words as she made her decision. She didn’t trust anybody, but he had come into her life unexpected and he had refused to leave her side ever since. There were only a couple of possible explanations. Either he really did care for her and her child, or he was stark raving mad. Nobody cared this much without a reason. Her recent life of betrayals had taught her just that, but she would enjoy the ride wherever it took her, because regardless of what his intentions were, he was in her life now and she actually enjoyed him being around. And for tonight she really didn’t want to be alone.
Minutes later she sensed his aura of hopefulness as he knocked on her door. She told him to come in and her eyes met his from where she was, snuggled under the homemade quilt with the cold night air blowing in through the window to stir her strands. He smelled like love as he stood in her doorway.
“Still here?” he asked smugly.
She left him to his smugness and resettled beneath the sheets, snuggling into her pillow. “Don’t gloat.”
A glance at the clock on her bedside table said it was just a couple past ten at night and she really wanted to get some sleep. Her head ached from the events of the evening.
“Still here,” she said loud enough so he could hear. “Until you have had enough of me.”
She closed her eyes, feeling a whole lot safer with him in the room, despite the fact that she had just tried to run away from him. She closed her eyes and willed the sleep to come, feeling his eyes caress her body. Beneath the sheets she yearned for his strong arms to hold her and tell her everything would be fine.
“Come,” she finally demanded when it was clear he was not going to leave. Patting the bed beside her, she welcomed him to sleep there with her.
His shadow moved across the room and moments later the sheets lifted and he slithered up to her, wrapping his arms around her protectively. She could feel the heat of him against the length of her body, but arousal was not the mood that set in. It was comfort and security that she felt with him there. All the questions she had melted away and all the anger she felt earlier went with it. In that moment they were just two lost souls seeking comfort in each other- anything sexual was irrelevant.
“I like you a lot Agnes,” he said to her. “Do not force me out of your life. I mean you no harm and I never will.” He pulled her closer into him resting his cheek against hers from behind, and placed wet kisses where his lips rested.
Agnes was not okay with that response, she had a feeling she needed to take the coward’s way out of the chaos that was brewing in her head. She could feel herself falling for him and she couldn’t have that... not now.
“Do you understand what you are getting yourself into?”
“No,” he said flatly, “but it will be with you and I am okay with that.”
“For how long?” she again questioned, snuggling into him further.
“I already have,” was his stone cold final reply. From the tone he used she was sure that meant she was not to ask him anymore questions and so she left it at that. Truth be told she loved knowing he would be there and she believed that he would.
“I like you too Charlie, but I don’t want to. Everybody I care for or like seems to die or push me away. I will not survive if you do it to me too.”
He held her closer. “I am here to make sure you are okay and that is all you need to worry about for now. I will not leave you and I will never again turn away from you. I promise you and Cameron that.”
She took him for his word.
“What about your brother. I am afraid that he will never approve of this. Whatever this is.”
“Jared has been made to see the error of his ways and he will never again be a problem to you here. I can promise you that,” he said not even bothered by what she had just told him. She waited for him to ridicule her revelation but none of that happened. He pulled her closer, and she thanked the heavens for him and tried her best to fall asleep. When sleep did come moments later it was calm and restful like she had never had before, and throughout the night he never left her side.
She stirred in his arms hours later and he rested a kiss on her forehead. “Good morning sleepy head,” he said.
She smiled. They just laid there together for a few minutes until he once again broke the comfortable silence.
“I have something to tell you,” he said to her.
She waited patiently for him to say what it was, but he was hesitant.
“What is it?” she asked, worried by the look in his eyes.
“I have watched you sleep all night and I have worried over your every breath, your every sound and your every whimper,” he paused as if unsure he should tell her what he wanted to. “I love you Agnes. With all my heart I know I love you.”
She bolted upright in the bed. “What?” she said to him. She was happy to hear those words, but they also brought her fear.
“Don’t bolt for the hills just yet!” he said jumping off the bed and pacing in front of her. “It is just that as much as I try to deny it, my heart sings for you and I would love nothing more than to have you in my life. For the last two weeks I have felt lost because you and Cameron were not here and I do not want to ever feel that low again.”
“You love me?” she asked him as the tears gathered in her eyes.
He stopped pacing and knelt at the side of the bed with her. “More than I realized and more than my words can do justice to.”
She smiled at him and a tear slipped down her face. “For days I have battled with the same dilemma, thinking I must have gone crazy to have my heart longing for a man who is not mine to claim.”
“I am yours to have if you will have me,” he said taking her hand in his.
“I-I....” she stuttered, unsure of what to say next.
“Agnes Forbes, I would never have thought in a million years that a woman and child in a burning building could ever be my Achilles heel, but you have both become my breath of fresh air and with you both is where I want to be every day. You don’t have to a
nswer now, but…”
His words trailed off as he got to his feet and placed a kiss on top of her head. She waited for him to finish saying what he wanted to say, and when he didn’t speak she panicked. He walked to her dressing table and pulled a small box from his pocket and placed it there.
“I have thought about it long and hard, and I would love nothing more than for you to be my wife and for us to raise little Cameron together,” he paused and looked at her. “Think about it, and if it is a no I will respect your decision. If you say yes, I will be the happiest man to walk the face of the earth.”
With that he turned and left her room, giving her time to think about what he had just said, and when she got over her shock she thought about it all.
What would her child’s life be like?
She was broke and homeless. For certain no child should ever have to grow up dealing with that. She sighed deeply, what would the rest of her life be like? What would the rest of Cameron’s life be like? What did she have to offer Charlie?
Nothing.
But even as she had that thought she realized the most important thing. She had tried to live without him and she had been miserable. She had thought of him every day and Cameron had missed him too. She was not going to put the three of them through that again. She got up from the bed and made her way across the floor to where the box was. She opened it to see a small ring with a black diamond atop it glimmering the promise of a bright future at her and she could no longer hesitate. There was no longer a question of what she wanted or what she would do.
She took her time preparing herself for the day and then donned the ring and walked down the silent hallways to where he sat with a worried look across his face. In his arms Cameron played with the buttons of his shirt and she smiled.
“Yes,” she said to him, drawing him out of his daze.
“What?” he asked looking at her.
She reached the hand bearing the ring out to him and repeated her words. “Yes, I will marry you.”
He squealed like a child in delight and pulled her into his arms. The kiss he placed on her lips was one of relief that breathed the beauty of what was to come in her life.
“Have you ever gotten up and wished your life had somehow been different?” she asked him a few seconds later as he kissed Cameron’s head in jubilee. Mrs. Potter danced behind him and the two maids grinned like children at Christmas.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “All the time, but then when I get to wake up to you and Cameron every day, I will know that everything is exactly as it was supposed to be.”
He kissed her smiling lips and pulled her in for a hug with a cooing Cameron between them.
“I love you Charlie,” she whispered.
“And I will love you more each and every day of my life.” He told her.
The wedding, when it did happen a few weeks later, was no grand wedding. It was small, intimate and perfect. She watched him for the days leading up to their big day to see if there might be some hint of regret or maybe a glint of fear in his eyes, but she saw nothing but love there, and when she walked down the aisle that beautiful Saturday afternoon she felt like heaven had moved into her world.
When she whispered the words I do against his lips she lost herself in the thought of happily ever after where nothing was more important than the love they felt for one another.
* * *
Epilogue
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Six months later
late autumn
“Good night, beautiful.” she heard his voice say as they lay there together. She was so engulfed in the erotic and passionate presence of him that she didn’t even realize his lips were moving. When she did she could do nothing more than smile at him, running her fingers through his hair.
“I like having you in my space...” she finally said, slowly. “All the things they say about finding that one who you just connect with is true...” she trailed off and he placed a kiss on her forehead, her eyes fluttered closed as she embraced the moment.
“Really, so now you believe in these romantic things?” he teased remembering how they had spoken of the love she once thought was merely a myth.
She chuckled against his chest, hesitant to continue. “I guess...”
He smiled and kissed her nose. “I love having you in my space” he said. They laid there for a while longer in silence. Maybe it was true what they say, that silence is golden, because the look in his eyes told her everything she ever wanted to hear.
For a few minutes they just laid there and she willed herself to go to sleep. She intertwined her fingers with his and breathed in his scent, wanting to imprint it on her memory.
“A penny for your thoughts,” he whispered in her hair. He somehow always said that when she was deep in thought about something. It was as if he could truly read her emotions.
“At this rate you will soon be broke,” she laughed.
He tickled her gently. “You are worth every single penny of it, so tell me.”
“I wish your brother were here,” she whispered into his chest. “He missed our wedding and now he will soon miss the birth of our child.”
He sighed in her hair. “I wish he were here too, and I like to believe that with time he will come around.”
They fell silent to their own thoughts and he chuckled.
“What is it?” she asked him.
He sent us a present a few days ago, but I did not think you would like it.”
“What is it?!” she asked excitedly.
“A very ugly pair of pillows. One for Cameron, the note said, and the other for our child to come.”
She smiled. “So he knows.”
Charlie turned her face to his and kissed the tip of her nose before resting his hand on her tummy. “My brother is an enigma, but even then one thing is certain. Everything he does he does to protect the people he loves. We might not always understand his methods, but he doesn’t hate you. He loves you in his own unique way.”
“So will he come back home?” she asked hoping she would get a chance to bond with him.
“Yes,” his note says he is after a runaway and when that is taken care of he will be coming home.”
She fell silent and hoped it would be soon. She loved Charlie more than she could ever explain, but she knew he missed his brother and she prayed that wherever he was love would find him and bring him back home.
Little did she know, the universe had a plan for him too.
* * *
The Brave Ex-Amish Bride
Mail Order Ex-Amish Brides Ride West
Book 2
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b o o k 2
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Being brought up in an Amish community and taught the Amish ways was something Jasmine had taken great pride in, until an argument between her and her father causes her to be shunned and she finds herself among a group of thieves fighting to survive.
But she longed for love, a husband, and so she sought one. Jared...
Upon urgings from his closest friend Tommy, Jared placed an ad, but the woman he was about to meet came with a deadly secret - Jasmine.
Would it be a secret that true love could overcome?
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Prologue
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Somewhere along the Mississippi River
1887
Jasmine sat under the shade of the lone almond tree on the riverbank and held her head in her hands. She was trying hard not to cry and she wasn’t sure if it was due to her headache or if her frustrations were finally getting to her. She’d just had enough and no matter how much she tried to find a better way of life for herself, it just never seemed to work out for her.
“We have to go,” Amy said looking around.
Just the sound of Amy’s voice made her want to scream. She was happy for her company and even happier that she was not going through t
his phase of her life alone, but sometimes she just wanted a moment to break down. The sound of a carriage approaching made her heed Amy’s warning. The last thing they needed was for someone to say that they had seen the two women, because whoever owned the house that they had just robbed would surely soon be on the lookout for the duo.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said to a worried Amy before they hiked the tails of their dresses up and dashed through the forest. The darkness of the night was their cover, and their hopes and dreams gave their feet wings. As she ran Jasmine thought of what had become of her. She thought of how she had gotten there and wondered if there was a possibility that they could ever go back to life the way it used to be.
Just a year ago she had been comfortably adjusting to life in her Amish community, oblivious to anything but the mooing of cows and the constant babble of the chicken farm close by. She had been set to marry and start a family, but here she was, running through the forest with a bag of loot over her shoulder.
Whose place had she just robbed?
The Mayor’s house. And she had made sweet Amy her accomplice. She would have a lot of things to answer for on judgement day, but for now she needed to run. Had she not gone and gotten herself shunned she would have been singing the evening chorus in the community church and soon after, seated beside the fire as her mother read to her and her siblings from the bible. She would have been busy contemplating her ordung and the work to be done for the spring harvest, but no... she had just had to go and get herself shunned over something silly.
“Light up ahead!” Amy called to her as they broke through a clearing.