His Heartbroken Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 4) by Merry Farmer Read Free Book Online Page B

would mean Teddy would live on. The joy and encouragement offered by her family during that conversation had come close to killing Libby with guilt. She hadn’t been able to make it through without crying. Thank God she hadn’t had to explain her tears.
    “It must be daunting to marry a man while carrying another man’s child,” Josephine said as she brought a tray with the teapot, two teacups, cream and sugar to the table. “But under the circumstances, it couldn’t be more innocent.”
    Slowly, Libby dragged her eyes up to meet Josephine’s. Her lips twitched and her tongue ached to confess the truth, but her jaw wouldn’t move.
    Josephine continued to watch her through eyes that saw far more than she would say aloud. She added cream and sugar to one of the teacups, then passed it across the table to Libby. “Teddy was a good man,” she said. “I didn’t know him well, but he was generous and jovial every time our two families visited.”
    “Teddy was the very best of men,” Libby agreed, her throat squeezing. “I’m proud to have known him, to have loved him. I won’t let our sons forget him either.”
    “Of course not.” Josephine grinned. “So you think this one is a boy too?” She nodded at Libby’s stomach.
    Libby had picked up her teacup, but set it down without taking a sip. She knew that failing to smile at Josephine’s comment could only look suspicious, but she couldn’t manage so much as a twitch at the corner of her mouth.
    Josephine’s expression went serious. “Teddy was a good man, but Mason is a good man too, and I do know Mason.”
    “As do I,” Libby sighed. She picked up her teacup again and managed to get it to her mouth for a sip this time, though her stomach roiled.
    “But you think marrying again so soon after Teddy’s death is unseemly.” Josephine guessed at her thoughts.
    She had to say something. She couldn’t hide the truth of what had happened from a woman who was the closest thing she’d had to a mother since her own mother died. She willed herself to find the words, prayed for them to come, but her soul was silent.
    “Barely three months,” she whispered. And Hector had cornered her after little more than a month. “What kind of woman does something like…like this so soon after her husband’s death?” She lowered her eyes, sadness and shame pressing down on her.
    Josephine was silent for so long that Libby peeked up at her to see if inevitable judgment had come to her eyes. So far, the only emotion there was concern. “Some women can go their whole lives without being married,” she said. “I thought I was one of them, but along came Pete. But some women blossom much brighter when they have a husband to stand strong beside them. I think you’re one of those women.”
    “Maybe,” Libby conceded with a sigh. That could explain why, on one level, marrying Mason now felt like the right thing to do. She certainly would have stood a lot taller against Hector’s advances if Teddy had still been alive. In fact, the scenes from her memory that had played out during the last few weeks seemed to show that she had stood firmer when Teddy was by her side. It was only once he was gone that she had…fallen.
    “There’s no shame in doing what’s best for you and your children.” Josephine reached across the table with her words, squeezing Libby’s hand. “I think Teddy would understand and approve.”
    He would. At least, knowing Mason was taking his place he would.
    And still, the truth ate at her, like a worm in the core of an apple.
    “Josephine, there’s something I haven’t told anyone,” she forced herself to say, voice trembling.
    Josephine still held her hand. “Oh? What?”
    Libby licked her lips and took a breath. With her eyes downcast, she said, “Several men at the logging camp offered to marry me—for protection—after Teddy died. I think they were just being kind. But one of them, a man named Hector Sterling, was more…insistent