Promises Reveal Read Online Free PDF

doubting?”
    No. “Of course.”
    The laugh lines deepened. “Don’t think too highly of yourself, do you?”
    She sighed. Being different did come with a price. Often the respect of others, but that was a small amount to pay for the pleasure of respecting herself. “Some days not as much as I should.”
    That got his attention. His eyes were very blue in the afternoon light. Very observant. “Why?”
    “Lack of moral fortitude.”
    “The one thing you don’t lack is fortitude.”
    But maybe he thought she lacked morals? She couldn’t find an answer in his expression.
    The judge, apparently feeling she’d debated enough, rapped out in that aggravatingly officious way of his, “Young lady, I’m waiting on an answer.”
    The man clearly didn’t approve of her. She didn’t care. “You can wait a minute more.” Turning back to Brad, she asked, “Did you place any bets?”
    “A man of God doesn’t gamble.”
    If the laugh lines weren’t still there, she might have taken him seriously. “A man of God doesn’t land front and center at a shotgun wedding either.”
    “True enough.”
    “So?”
    “I already answered.”
    “That was an evasion.”
    “Yup.”
    “That’s all? Just ‘yup’?”
    “The time for discussion, young lady, was before you disrobed with this man,” the judge intoned pompously.
    Who was this fat prig to lecture her? She rounded on him. “Land of Goshen! If you’re going to vilify me, get your facts right.” She pointed to Brad. “He was the one naked!”
    “Evie!” her mother gasped over a bark of laughter. From the guffaws that filled the shocked silence, everyone in the church had heard her gaffe. Evie wanted to scream at them to shut up, instead she glared at Brad.
    “Now see what you did?”
    His left eyebrow cocked up. “You’re the one announcing to the world that you had your way with me.”
    “I did not.”
    “Sure sounded like it to me,” the judge interrupted.
    “That’s because you look for the bad in people.”
    The judge drew himself to his full height, jowls jiggling. “I don’t have to look far to know the shame of this situation.”
    She gasped. How dare he? Brad’s hand circled her upper arm, holding her back.
    “You want to repeat that, Carlson?”
    “The girl is—”
    The judge stumbled forward under the force of Asa’s cuff to the back of his head. “The girl is the Reverend’s affianced.”
    Evie had the satisfaction of seeing Carlson’s face turn white as he realized the McKinnelys, along with Asa, were frowning at him. It didn’t pay to annoy that bunch.
    “I was just saying—”
    “You weren’t saying anything except ‘will you take this man.’ ”
    Brad was still talking in that quiet voice, but Evie knew she wasn’t the only one who heard the threat in it. There was a murmur of approval from the guests. And a sputter of belated concern from the judge, followed by the most horrific advice.
    “A woman like Miss Washington needs a strong hand applied on a daily basis.”
    “Bull feathers.” She glared up at Brad. “You try to beat me and I’ll kill you in your sleep.”
    “If I feel the need to beat you, your butt will be too sore to be doing any sneaking while I sleep.”
    She should have been shocked, scared. Maybe even intimidated. She wasn’t. Mainly because those crinkles were still at the corners of his eyes. He was amused by something. “You underestimate me.”
    The lines deepened ever so slightly. “Not hardly.”
    “Young lady, I strongly suggest you listen to your husband rather than provoke him.”
    The suggestor was wearing on her nerves. “I suggest you hush.”
    He looked over her head as if she didn’t exist and blessed Brad with his wisdom. “A daily reminder of her place would assuredly go a long way to smoothing the road of your marriage. It’s my experience that ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ is not a philosophy reserved just for children.”
    A beating. He was telling Brad to beat her.