Hearts Awakening Read Online Free PDF

convincing he could be. “As you must know by now, I do indeed need household help of a more permanent nature. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t going to ask you to consider a position here as my housekeeper at all.”
    Her eyes widened. “You weren’t?”
    “No,” he admitted. “Living out here on Dillon’s Island makes it troublesome, if not too time-consuming, for you to travel between here and Harrisburg on a permanent basis. I truly appreciate your willingness to do so these past few days without any form of payment from me for your time and efforts.”
    To his surprise, she actually blushed, but the pale pink that mottled her cheeks did little to make her even slightly attractive.
    “I also realize that any housekeeper I might hire would need to live here,” he added, “which would—”
    “Which would make it impossible for me to consider, because it wouldn’t be at all proper,” she said and smiled as if she really meant it.
    “No, it certainly wouldn’t,” he admitted and dismissed any concern that this utterly plain woman would tempt him or any other man. “I didn’t have to worry about that problem with Widow Mason, the first housekeeper I hired. She was well past fifty, I believe. Widow Hill was a bit older, but neither of them lasted for more than a few months,” he said, unable to stifle his disgust with both of the women. “You and I, on the other hand, are quite a bit closer in age. Neither one of us should invite the gossip that would ignite if you started living here as my housekeeper.”
    Her cheeks flamed a deeper pink, reminding him of the blush on the yellow apples he had been harvesting. “I’d be more than happy to make inquiries on your behalf in the city, or speak to Reverend Shore for you,” she suggested.
    “To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t going to ask for your help in finding a housekeeper, because I don’t want to subject the boys to a constant stream of different women in our home. I thought . . . well, I thought perhaps we might get married instead,” he blurted and stared at her, waiting to see her reaction and praying all the while she would not bolt from the room and run all the way back to the city, even if she had to swim across the river to get there.
    Fortunately, she remained seated, but her eyes opened wide. She batted her lashes, hard, like the wings on a bird caught in a snare. Her mouth dropped open for a moment before she closed it to moisten her lips. “M-married? Did you say we should get married?” she asked, shaking her head as if she could not believe her own ears.
    He drew in a long breath and nodded. “Yes, I did.”
    “You can’t be serious!”
    “I’m perfectly serious,” he insisted and stiffened his back again so he sat as erectly as she did.
    “You actually want me to marry you.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “But you scarcely know me,” she argued.
    “I know enough,” he countered defensively.
    “After I spent but a few days working here in the house with your sons while you were out in the orchards working? Unless I’m mistaken, this is the first real conversation we’ve actually had that didn’t involve what the boys had done during the day or what work needed doing.”
    “That may be true, but—”
    “But you still expect me to seriously consider marrying you.”
    He shifted in his seat. “Well, I wouldn’t say I expected you to agree as much as I was hoping—”
    “That’s ridiculous,” she said and waved off the very idea with one of her hands. “You’re an incredibly hardworking man, you provide well for your family, and you’re handsome to boot. There must be a dozen women in Harrisburg who’d be more than willing to marry you,” she quipped.
    He grunted. “Then you’d be wrong.”
    “I don’t think so,” she insisted. “Why? Why wouldn’t they want to marry you?”
    He swallowed hard, reluctant to discuss the deep pain of Rebecca’s betrayal or the scandal that had escalated with her untimely death.