Cheryl Reavis by An Unexpected Wife Read Free Book Online Page A

become overwhelming and indefinable. His sins were so many he couldn’t
separate them out anymore. They had all melded into guilt, into sorrow, into a
relentless sense of regret. There would be no fatted calf for his homecoming,
nor should there be. He didn’t deserve one, not when he’d abandoned what was
left of his family the way he had, and the worst part was that, despite the
progress he’d made, he was still lost in the relentless apathy that passed for
his life.
    I need Your help, Lord, he thought. I have to make this right if I can. If I haven’t waited
too long. If the damage can be undone.
    “Who is here in the house?” he asked abruptly.
    “Right now? Mrs. Kinnard—she comes and goes. Mrs. Russell and
Mrs. Justice are here on a more permanent basis for propriety’s sake. And
Sergeant Major Perkins. Several soldiers from the garrison who are usually
assigned to the infirmary—they’ve been taking care of you. The army surgeon is
in and out. And there are one or two other soldiers whose job it is to keep Mrs.
Kinnard happy.”
    “And my father?” he asked. “Where is he?”
    She looked surprised by the question. “I’m sorry, Mr. Markham.
Your father died not long after Maria and Max were married,” she said.
    He took a deep breath, and then another, trying to distance
himself this time from a different kind of pain. Coming home, getting this far,
had been the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. He had known that the old
man might not still be alive, but he had hoped—prayed—that that would not be the
case. Incredibly, he hadn’t realized how much he was counting on his father
being here.
    Dead and gone . Like Samuel. Like
Jimmy Russell. Like so much of his life. His faith was strong enough for him to
believe that they would all meet again; in his heart he knew that. But surely he
hadn’t thought he could come home after all this time and find that the
important things would have remained the same? The sorrow he felt at this moment
told him that he had.
    He knew she watched him as he tried to process the information
she had given him so ineptly. He was grateful she hadn’t just left him to try to
understand all the things she’d told him on his own.
    “My father— Do you know...what happened?” he asked after a
moment.
    “He was very ill. It was his heart,” she said. “They had to
hurry the wedding on account of it—at his request, because he wanted to see
Maria as a bride. And his doctors advised that there could be no delay.”
    “My father approved of the marriage, then.”
    “Yes. He was quite fond of Max, and he...” She hesitated,
apparently uncertain as to whether he was up to hearing the details of his
sister’s marriage to a Yankee colonel.
    “Go on,” he said. “I need to know.”
    “He made sure that Maria could live here as long as she wanted.
It was in his will. He was worried that something might happen with the
occupation and the house might be confiscated if Maria owned it. So he left it
to Max. Your father trusted him to take care of her—they had long talks together
about it. The ceremony was held here in the upstairs, the wide hallway right
outside his room on the other end of the house. He could see and hear
everything. Maria looked beautiful—she wore the earrings you and Samuel gave her
before you left for the war—”
    “We thought she would marry Billy Canfield. Where is he? Why
didn’t she?”
    “You would have to ask her about that,” Kate said.
    “My father was pleased about her marrying your brother,” he
said. It wasn’t a question, but the whole idea of such a thing was hard for him
to believe.
    “Yes. He was. I think it was a very enjoyable day for him. Lots
of food and drink and good company, and I’m certain he sneaked at least one
cigar.”
    Robert smiled briefly at hearing that his father’s love of
cigars had never waned. At least he had had something pleasant to focus on at
the end of his life. “An enjoyable day.