Hearts Awakening Read Online Free PDF Page B

“My marriage to Rebecca wasn’t a particularly happy one, and there was more than a bit of gossip about us, both before and after she died,” he offered weakly, refusing to label the gossip as scandal for fear of completely turning this woman against his proposal.
    Ellie waved her hand in the air. Again. “I care as much about gossip as I do for salted fish, which is to say I avoid it as much as possible.” She paused. “Was there any truth to this so-called gossip?”
    He stiffened. “A fair bit. Yes. A good bit of it, I should rightly say,” he admitted, waiting for her to reject him now, just like several young women had already done when he approached the idea of courting them, although those women were obviously far more aware of his situation than Ellie was.
    She nodded slowly, but he noticed a slight twitch to her lips. “Were you . . . were you always true and faithful to Rebecca?”
    Her question caught him off guard, and he flinched. “Of course I was, but I don’t see why—”
    “Then you should dismiss the gossip as nothing more than malicious prattle, along with any woman foolish enough to let gossip control her decisions about whom she decides to marry or how she decides to live her life.” She huffed. “Surely there must be one woman of substance who would be willing to marry you.”
    “I haven’t found her in Harrisburg or anywhere else within fifty miles,” he argued. “But even if I could, I’d rather not have my life complicated by marrying any of them. I’d rather marry you.”
    She narrowed her gaze. “ ‘Complicated’? Exactly how would marrying any woman, other than me, make your life ‘complicated’?”
    She huffed again, but he sensed his advantage and held on to it. “Because I’m not looking for a wife to share my bed. Just my name,” he blurted. “If truth be told, I’ve no desire to marry again at all, but I need someone who can help me take care of my sons and keep a clean house and make a good home for them without worrying about how long she’ll stay. I need someone of good character they can respect. Someone they can learn to trust.”
    “But—”
    “I want to marry someone like you because . . . because it also occurs to me that you have little more to look forward to in the coming years than living with your cousin and his wife or finding a position in someone else’s household and spending the rest of your days as a spinster. I can offer you so much more,” he explained and leaned forward just a bit to judge her reaction to his rather provocative, if not insensitive, words.
    In reply, she simply stared at him, although the pained expression in her eyes and the deep blush on her cheeks made it clear that she was uncomfortable with his rather stark assessment of her life.
    When her gaze darkened with hurt, he softened his voice. “I’m not trying to be unkind. All I really want you to see is that it would serve your interests, as well as mine, if we were to marry. If you think so, too, as I hope you will, we could travel directly to the city and get married this morning. By late afternoon, you could be back here, with your own home to run and two boys to mother as your own. You wouldn’t have to depend on your cousin for a place to live or for anything else, ever again,” he said gently.
    Pausing for a moment, he held her gaze. “I’m not a rich man in my own right, by any means, but I can and will provide well for you as your husband, and I . . . I would hope we could find contentment and . . . and a pleasant companionship with one another as we raise Daniel and Ethan. Together.”
    Her eyes welled with tears that she visibly struggled to keep at bay. When she did speak, her voice was barely above a whisper. “I trust I may speak to you as frankly as you’ve spoken to me.”
    He caught his breath for a moment. “Of course.”
    She moistened her lips, blinked back her tears, and tilted up her chin. “I believe I may have misspoken earlier. You