A Home for Hannah by Patricia Davids Read Free Book Online Page A

Four
     
    M iriam stopped short of slamming the door when she entered the house. Nick infuriated her. How dare that man presume to know anything about her? She didn’t want him to know anything about her. She didn’t want him to read her so easily.
    She was scared of the way it made her feel. Like she could depend on him.
    She balled her fingers into fists. She couldn’t decide if she was angrier with him, or with herself. For a few minutes, she had forgotten what lay between. Somehow, after everything that happened, Nick still had the power to turn her inside out, as he’d done when she was eighteen and a naive country girl.
    Well, she wasn’t a teenager anymore. She wouldn’t fall under his spell again. She had too much sense for that. There was too much that stood between them.
    How could she have forgotten that even for a second? She had gone months without running into him. Why now? How much more complicated could her life get? Perhaps in the back of her mind she knew this would happen. That Nick would use his charm to make her forget her anger and forgive him.
    If she forgave Nick, she would have only herself left to blame for Mark’s death. She was the one who had sent her brother on his panicked flight that night. The guilt still ate at her soul. If only she’d had the chance to beg Mark’s forgiveness, perhaps she could learn to live with what she’d done.
    When Mark’s Englisch girlfriend, Natalie Perry, had come begging for a word with him, Miriam had been only too happy to inform her Mark wasn’t home. When the tearful girl explained that her parents were making her leave town the following evening, Miriam had been relieved. It was God’s will. Without this woman’s influence, her brother would give up worldly things and be baptized into the faith. Miriam had given up Nick’s love for her faith. She had passed that test. Mark would, too.
    Natalie had scrawled a note and pressed it into
Miriam’s hand, pleading with her to give it to Mark as soon as possible. At the time, Miriam had no idea what the note contained, but she didn’t give it to Mark until late the next day. Only afterward did she understand what harm she had caused.
    Mark had flown out of the house, stolen a car and tried to reach his love before it was too late. Nick had stopped him, and Miriam never had the chance to beg her brother’s forgiveness.
    The front door opened, and Nick came in looking as if he expected a frying pan to come sailing at his head. The idea of doing something so outrageous made her feel better. Slightly.
    When he saw that he didn’t need to defend himself, he said, “Ada, is there anything you need me to do before I leave? I can chop some kindling if you need it.”
    “ Nee, I reckon we’ll be fine.”
    He nodded. “You let me know if you hear anything from the baby’s family.”
    Ada nodded toward the baby sleeping in the newly washed bassinet. “Do not worry, Nicolas. The mother, she will come for her babe.”
    “I pray you are right. Miriam, I’d appreciate knowing what the doctor has to say about Hannah.”
    He waited, as if he expected Miriam to say something. When she didn’t, he nodded in her direction. “Okay, I’ve got to get back to town.”
    When the door closed behind him, Miriam took the first deep breath she managed to draw all morning. “I thought he would never leave.”
    “It was goot to see him again. I remember him as such a nice boy.”
    “It’s too bad he turned out to be a murderer.”
    “Do not say such a thing, Miriam!” Her mother rounded on her with such intensity that Miriam was left speechless.
    Ada shook her finger at her daughter. “You are not the only one who has suffered, but you are the only one who has not forgiven. The more you pick at a wound, the longer it takes to heal. I don’t know why you refuse to see that. I’m tired of your selfish attitude. Maybe it is best that you go back to your Englisch home.”
    Dumbfounded, Miriam stared at her mother in