Robin Lee Hatcher Read Online Free PDF Page A

fluttered. “ Nein, but I would like a bath, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
    “No trouble.” He cleared his throat, then added, “I’ll heat the water for you now.”
    “ Danke, Jakob.”
    Karola’s mother had labored long hours on a wedding gown of ivory mousseline de soie. Laced, ruffled, and embroidered, the dress had been made with love for a daughter who was traveling far, far away.
    The wedding gown remained in the trunk. Karola didn’t want to wear it. It seemed all wrong to her now.
    After a bath, she donned a cream-colored blouse with a high collar and billowy sleeves and a pleated skirt of a soft dove-gray fabric. Over the blouse, she wore a sleeveless bolero with a buttoned front closure. It was a pretty outfit, but ordinary enough.
    She didn’t bother to fuss with her hair either. Without so much as a glance in the mirror, she twisted it into a knot at the nape and secured it with hairpins, then placed a wide-brimmed straw hat on her head. Finally, she grabbed her gloves and her handbag from atop the chest of drawers and left the bedroom.
    The Hirsch family awaited her in the parlor. The children were wearing what she guessed was their Sunday best, their faces shining. Jakob wore a striped wool suit, dark gray in color, and his leather shoes had been shined to a bright finish. In his right hand, he held a black bowler; in his left he gripped a bouquet of wildflowers.
    “Maeve picked these for you.”
    Karola took them, then looked at the young girl. “Danke.”
    The child cast an uncertain look at her father.
    Jakob placed the bowler on his head. “ Danke means thanks.”
    “Danke.” Maeve pondered the word for a moment, then grinned. “You’re welcome.”
    Pleasure warmed Karola’s heart, and her nerves quieted.
    “Karola,” Jakob said, “are you sure you don’t want to eat something before we go?”
    The nervous flutter in her belly resumed. “ Ja, I am sure.”
    “Then I guess we’re ready.” He lifted Aislinn into his arms. “Let’s go.”
    Jakob led the way out of the house, off the porch, and to the carriage that awaited them. The two older children scampered up onto the backseat while Jakob assisted Karola to the front one. After a questioning glance, he handed Aislinn to her.
    For one panicked moment, Karola thought the toddler would burst into tears. But then her father appeared on the seat beside them, and Aislinn smiled.
    It is clear he is a good man. His children love him. He is a hard worker or he would not own a farm or house such as this. Perhaps that will be enough for happiness.
    If only it felt like enough.
    Jakob gave the horse its head, allowing the animal to set its own unhurried pace. It took over a quarter of an hour to reach the main road.
    As the carriage turned south toward Shadow Creek, Jakob cast a quick glance in Karola’s direction. She sat rigid on the seat beside him, Aislinn in her lap. She was staring at the passing countryside, but her grim expression told him she was too lost in thought to see what surrounded her.
    This isn’t the wedding day she expected.
    Looking away, Jakob set his jaw, determined not to feel guilty. He’d told Karola he was sorry, despite it not being his fault she hadn’t received his letter. He’d offered to pay her way back to Germany, even though he couldn’t afford to do so and hadn’t any idea where he would have found the money. He’d given her a way out. She had chosen to stay. Many women far younger than Karola were never given a choice. Arranged marriages hadn’t been uncommon in Steigerhausen. Back in Germany, two of his friends had married girls they’d never met before their wedding days. Wasn’t this better than that?
    They weren’t strangers, he and Karola. They’d loved each other in their youth—a different sort of love than what he’d known with Siobhan, but love all the same. He and Karola had a shared past, as distant as it all seemed to him now. And he would be good to her. He was not an