Home to Caroline by Adera Orfanelli Read Free Book Online Page B

deserve a wife who can bear your children. Not a woman like me.” She sighed and let her chin fall to her chest. She stood in the small, family plot, counting how little she had to offer Travis. The farm barely supported itself, though in other times it had flourished. She feared her body would never carry a baby to term. Travis, her war hero, deserved so much better.
    “Maybe I do deserve a woman like you, Caroline.” Travis’s soft words startled her.
    “You do?”
    He smiled, laughter tumbling from his lips like water over rocks in the creek. “You’re a strong woman, Caroline. You kept this farm going. You survived the loss of your father, your son and your brother. Even now, you were willing to use your mother’s jewelry to pay for supplies. Why would you ever think that I wouldn’t deserve you?”
    “I—” She stuttered, aware how foolish she probably sounded. “I don’t know,” she admitted at last.
    “I think you’re the one who doesn’t deserve me.” He tilted her face so she saw the sincerity in his blue eyes. “My family may be farmers, but I never learned the family trade. You’ll have to teach me. You may find that you’d be better off without me.”
    Caroline brushed a kiss across his lips. “I never thought I’d married a farmer,” she said when they parted.
    Reaching down, he tangled their fingers. “I wish I had known about my son. I wish I had been here for you.”
    She turned into him, pressing her face against his chest and wrapping her arms around him. His words dredged up memories of kneeling beside the grave, crying for the loss of her son, fearing the loss of her husband. Tears flowed from her eyes to dampen his shirt. Her sobs rose and she cried into his chest all the tears that he hadn’t been there to see.
    Travis caressed her back, his hands moving with long, sweeping strokes. “It’s okay. I’m here now. The war is over. I’m not going anywhere.”
    She relished being in his arms and slowly her tears subsided, though he hadn’t said he loved her.
    “We can always try again,” she said, thinking of the times they’d loved since his return home. “Or maybe you’re right and we already have.” She closed her eyes and rested her cheek against her husband’s strong chest. It seemed God had given them a second chance. She vowed not to do anything to ruin it.
    “Maybe.” Softness filled his voice. He pulled away long enough to go down on one knee, reminding her of the time earlier this afternoon when he’d knelt before her with desire. He reached for her hands, clutching them to his chest. “My darling Caroline, you were the only thing that I thought about during those long years apart. Your face filled my dreams, and it was for you that I made it out of every battle alive. I fought for my country and my family, but I fought for you, to put an end to this battle once and for all so that we could live in peace. If you’ll have me, a poor Confederate soldier, then I want to stay. I want to make love to you, and I want our love to bring children into this world. Because I know you would be the best mother, just as you’re the best wife.”
    Caroline drew a breath, touched by the depth of his emotion. “I’d hoped and prayed you’d come back to me.” She pressed a kiss to her forehead. “God gave me so many burdens to bear, I prayed every night he’d bring my husband home. Farmer or not, my love, you’re my husband. And I love you.”
    He stood then and embraced her, his hands sliding down to her hips. His big hands splayed across her rear brought her in intimate contact with his body. “You named him after me,” Travis said. “Your father and me.”
    She nodded, her throat too tight to force words. She wondered if he’d even heard her admit her love and if it even mattered to him.
    He stepped away and held out her hand. “Let’s go inside,” he offered, and she willingly accepted. Taking her husband’s hand, seeing his fingers entwined with her own,