Home by Morning Read Online Free PDF

he didn’t pull her closer as he usually did. And even though she was close enough to feel the warmth of his breath against the top of her head, she sensed a space between them.
    Leaning back, she looked up into his face. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”
    â€œAlways,
Eho’nehevehohtse
.”
    Yet he didn’t stop her when she pulled away. “You don’t show it.”
    â€œNo?” Taking her hand, he placed it on his chest. “Can you not feel how you stir my heart?”
    â€œThen why do you act as if you’re afraid to touch me?”
    â€œBecause I am. I do not want to frighten you like I did when last we were together.”
    She sagged with relief. “You didn’t frighten me. What happened before . . . it wasn’t you, Thomas. You could never frighten me.”
    â€œThen why did you cower before me?”
    â€œI was startled. You were angry, and for a moment . . .”
    He finished when she couldn’t. “You thought of the Arapaho.”
    She made an offhand gesture. “It’s nothing.” And why were they even talking about this now?
    â€œA fear that makes you shrink from me is ‘nothing’?” Taking her face in both hands, he looked into her eyes. “You will banish him from your thoughts, Prudence. He can never hurt you again.”
    She felt walls come up in her mind. To distract herself—and him—she turned her face into his hand and kissed his callused palm. “I don’t want to talk about Lone Tree right now.”
    â€œYou will have to someday,
Eho’nehevehohtse
.”
    She drew back. “I know.” Terrors she had long suppressed skittered through her mind and sent her moving restlessly about the room. Aware of his gaze following her, she battled a momentary resentment. Thomas would never let fear rule him. He would dance a reel around danger and smile the whole time.
    She paused to straighten a book on her night table, making sure it aligned precisely with the edge, then continued pacing, touching this and that. “It’s just that sometimes, something happens that makes me remember, and I overreact.” And Lone Tree would rise up in her mind, ready to pounce. “But I’m doing better.”
    â€œHe was Indian. I am Indian. But we are not the same.”
    â€œOf course not. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder. Do we have to talk about this now?”
    â€œPrudence.”
    Just that. Only her name. Said in the low, husky voice of a man who spoke seldom, and not at all to her for the last several months. She pressed the heel of her hand against her brow to stop a sudden sting of tears. She didn’t want to show weakness before this strong man.
    Yet, somehow, he knew. He always knew.
    Moving toward her, he pulled her into his arms. “Do not be afraid to weep,
Eho’nehevehohtse
,” he whispered against her hair. “It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.”
    She didn’t want to cry. Didn’t want their first meeting after so long an absence to be filled with sorrow. But with the release of tension, tears broke in a flood. Knowing that he washere and hadn’t given up on her, and that for a while, at least, she could let down her guard and rest in his arms, filled her with a raw, instinctual wanting that stripped her bare.
    â€œI am here with you, Prudence. I will keep you safe. You know this.”
    She nodded, unable to speak, pushing to the back of her mind the awareness that Lone Tree wasn’t the only barrier between them.
    Rocking her gently in his arms, he held her for a long time.
    This man was life to her. Hope. He had found her broken with despair and had put her back together again. He was her way out of the past and into a safe and loving future . . . once they got beyond the threat of Marsh, and
if
they could overcome the obstacles before them.
    But not tonight. Tonight she only wanted to hold him,