Romance: Mail Order Bride "The Ideal Bride" Clean Christian Western Historical Romance (Western Mail Order Bride Short Shorties Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

looked up, and Nora stayed in his hold as Welsh spoke fast.
    “I’ll take on your debts. You will work my land and yours. It’s not an easy fix. But if you want it enough, you will grow up and get your head in the game.”
    Welsh led Beatrice away as the door closed.
    “Henry? I’m sorry. I…”
    “You came all this way to show me out,” he said. “It’s not what I wanted you to do.”
    “But it’s chance, Henry,” she pleaded. “Can’t you see that much?”
    Henry said nothing, and Nora wept into her hands as she crawled back to the bed and tried to fall asleep.
    “Don’t do that. Don’t dream without me, Nora.”

Chapter 7
    “Can you see to Mary?”
    Beatrice was trying hard to baste a roast and make a perfect dinner for the men as soon as they returned from the fields. Nora kept clicking off the days. The land was safe from the likes of Davis and Turner. Life was tense for a time. But once Henry grew to like the man and saw the reward, Henry kissed her goodnight and thanked her for being in his corner. Soon the nights alone seemed too long without him, and Nora asked him to stay. Henry kissed her under the sheets and reminded her that he had loved her at first sight when they broke apart and sat at opposite ends of the bed, their finger just touched over the sheets.
    I no longer have the ring. But we have to take vows if we’re going to---
    And she clung to his neck as she nodded her assent and peppered his chin with tiny kisses and found his ear.
    Then just marry me already. What more do I need to do to show you that I want to be your wife?
    “Nora?”
    Beatrice’s voice roused her from the memory that was their wedding. A simple affair in Welsh’s dining room. The room had been flooded with flowers, and Nora had to marvel at the fact that they matched and bested Emily’s spread as she linked her hand in his and uttered her vows.
    With everything that I am and have, Henry. From this moment until the end of my days.
    It suddenly felt like that as she gripped Beatrice’s hand and clutched her stomach.
    “It’s…. it’s happening,” Nora started. “I need… I want Henry to be--”
    “Take it from someone who knows,” she said. “You have no say when it comes to the timing.”
    With those words, Beatrice gathered Mary close and helped Nora into the nearest bedroom under her free arm. As soon as she hit the sheets, Nora looked to the window and parted her lips with a sob.
    “I still… please, Beatrice.”
    Screaming through the feeling that her body was about to give out, Nora fell back to the bed and kept asking for her husband as Beatrice laid her baby in the basinet and kissed Nora’s suddenly crimson cheek.
    “I’ll call him home,” Beatrice promised. “He can’t be far away.”
    Beatrice stayed in the room as she lifted up one window and screamed into the fields. Nora’s mind followed the sound of Beatrice’s voice, and her body wished for the pain to go away when she felt the unseen baby starting to push away.
    “I’m not ready!” Nora cried out. “I can’t do this.”
    “Nora?”
    She turned her head to see Henry covered in the dust of the land as he fell to the side of the bed. He seized her hand and wrapped his free arm around her neck so he could gently cradle the back of her head.
    “I’m right here,” he assured her with a quick kiss to her brow. “You didn’t think you were going to do this without me, did you?”
    Nora tried to answer when she was wracked with an unspeakable pain. Henry’s hands stayed sure, but she saw his eyes turn frantic and could do nothing to ease the tension from his body or his mind as Beatrice pulled him from her side and started to strip off her clothes.
    “What in God’s name to you think you’re--?”
    “I’ve been through this,” Beatrice reminded him. “She needs to be kept comfortable. And you should wait outside.”
    “I will not leave my wife to face this alone.”
    Nora’s eyelids started to flutter as she weakly