Jacob's Return by Annette Blair Read Free Book Online Page B

until a lima bean Aaron tossed stuck in his beard. Then he growled.
    Aaron opened his arms. “Unk?”
    Simon sighed and lifted him — holding him at arms length, as if trying to identify the object he held — then he frowned and placed him in Jacob’s lap. “You take him. Rachel, I want to talk to you.”
    Rachel’s heart raced as she followed her angry husband to their bedroom.
    He rounded on her the minute the door closed. “You would give up teaching for Jacob, when you would not for me?”
    Rachel winced, despite facing the reaction she expected. “I gave my resignation to Abe Stoltzfus for the school board this afternoon. I want to care for those babies, Simon. I want to teach Emma things every little Amish girl should know. I want to show Aaron how to—”
    Simon grasped her arms. “And your newspaper? You will give up your foolish paper? For Jacob?”
    He hadn’t listened, much less understood. “No, not the newspaper.”
    “How can you not?”
    “Atlee Eicher has a printing press. Jacob is willing to fix it so I can print the newspaper here. That way, I can publish it weekly, instead of monthly, and get it to more people. I want to send it to other districts and invite them to send articles.”
    Simon’s fingers bit into her arms. “A printing press cannot be managed by a woman.”
    “Jacob will help me.”
    He tossed her like a rag doll and she lost her balance. “Of course, Jacob. But we have no money for a printing press, so it is out of the question.” The truth of his statement pleased him and he smiled looking down at her on the floor.
    Rachel rose aware she was treading water. “The press is part of the price Jacob will pay me to care for the children.”
    Simon’s bark of laughter surprised her. “Your love for those children has a price, I see.”
    “Jacob is replacing my teaching salary, so you will have nothing to quibble about.”
    Simon jabbed her shoulder with his finger. Hard. “Did you speak of my quibbling, you and Jacob?” His next jab forced her to step back. “Did you?” He poked her, again. She stepped back again. And again. And when the backs of her knees hit the bed, Simon pushed on her shoulders to make her sit. “Have you been discussing our marriage with my brother?” he asked, face close, voice scary soft.
    “That would be a sad discussion, Simon.”
    He growled and whipped her kapp off and downward, catching it on the bodice of her dress, pins scattering.
    Rachel tried to get away from him but cried out when something stung her.
    Simon held a pin, resolve and maybe satisfaction, in his eyes, as if, as if … He’d pricked her on purpose?
    But Rachel had no time to ponder it before he grabbed a hank of her hair. “You are not happy in our marriage, Rachel?”
    “As happy as you are.”
    By her hair, he pulled her closer. “We will be married for the rest of our lives,” he whispered into her ear.
    “God help us both.”
    He raised his hand. Lowered it.
    Had she spoken aloud? Rachel released her breath when he turned away, but, like a cat, he turned back. “Jacob favors Esther. Let her take care of the twins so she can begin to know her children.”
    “Jacob and Esther have not even talked privately—”
    “Which cannot be said for Jacob and you!”
    Rachel inched back toward the headboard. “Do you think Esther should move in here? I could move home. You would like me out of your sight. Then you would not be repelled by me.”
    Simon’s rigid stance frightened and emboldened her at one and the same time. “Esther can conceive a child,” she said. “Perhaps you would like to have her in your bed, instead of me. Perhaps she could make you man enough to do the deed.”
    Her shock at those words was no less than Simon’s. His look — detached, feral — made her scoot off the opposite side of the bed, and for the thousandth time over the past years, she wondered why she married him.
    Any affection she’d ever had for him, he’d crushed, ruthlessly,