The Heavens Shall Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

manner and never would. My God, woman! I thought you well understood how much I love you.”
    “ Love me?” She echoed his words. The room quieted. She wiped her reddened eyes. “You have never said so. I thought…”
    His hand cupped her face so she could look into his eyes. “I love you, Hannah. I have from the first moment we met. Take care of Seth. Then we’ll talk.”
     
    Hannah finally soothed Seth back to sleep. She pulled the blanket up around him and quietly left the room. As best she could, she tried to make herself presentable. She pulled back her hair into a semblance of a braid. She hadn’t the patience to fight with her stubborn tresses that kept escaping. Her eyes had dried, but she was well aware of their puffiness.
    Giles stared out the window. He wheeled toward her when she entered. She made no movement when he walked to her. Her head lowered. He took her by her shoulders.
    “ Look at me, Hannah,” he commanded. Slowly, she lifted her head. “I am not ashamed of you and never have been. I’m no fool, though. I know what you have been through. Yes, I wanted to give Seth a name. In part, I did feel I owed you. Not pity, never pity. I saw within you the same spirit I have. I made you a promise and I kept it.” He paused for a moment. “But Hannah, I was there with you and know well the feelings you had for this colonel. You called for him over and over in your sleep. I’m sorry but it’s in the back of my mind.
    “ I let you hold to me because I cared. I will take care of you always, but I didn’t want to rush you into something you weren’t ready for because you felt obligated. I don’t want to be an obligation, Hannah. I had hopes one day…one day you might feel for me what I feel for you. I said I was sorry this morning not because I didn’t want you, but because I thought I had botched the whole of it.”
    Hannah wiped the tears that once more escaped her eyes. “Giles, Marcus has been in my past the moment I agreed to be your wife. In honesty, the night you asked me to marry you, I had contemplated going back to him. I would have found a way, but something held me back.
    “ Sometimes I get this feeling in me. It was as you told me once. You can’t question if it feels right. I never had it with Marcus. That was what Reverend Brown tried to tell me. But I found it with you. We have a bond, you and I. Moreover, I cling to you, Giles. I have never clung to anyone in my life.”
    His arm s pulled her into an embrace as hers rounded his neck. “When I was a child, I dreamed of having my own family. It is what I dream of now with you. I didn’t marry you only to have a father for Seth, but for our children. Giles,” she whispered. “I don’t want or need anyone but you.”
    His mouth found hers. The kiss deepened to where she gasped when his lips broke from hers.
    “I love you, Hannah.”
    “ Then love me,” she answered him. He needed nothing more.
     
    Afterwards, she lay peacefully within his arms. The sun had risen. Yet she had no desire to leave the bed. Her hand lay around him as if never to ever let him go. He lay contently, whispering with a laugh. “So how exactly were you going to get back to Virginia? Swim?”
    “ I really didn’t have a plan,” she said in a soft voice for she had not the desire to wake Seth. She didn’t want to move. She was where she wanted to be in his arms.
    “ Do you still want to go home?”
    She answered simply, “I am home.”

Chapter Three
     
    Rupert Arnett crossed the street in the hazy morning air. He had received a request for his immediate presence by Major Andre. Rupert made his way readily to the house where the major billeted, knowing Andre did not like to be kept waiting.
    As he walked through the wrought-iron gates and up the steps to the entrance, Rupert wondered whether he had been overzealous in his enthusiasm on France’s decision to enter the war on the American side. Nothing more had happened since the French had