Lover's Knot by Emilie Richards Read Free Book Online Page A

Isaac wanted his world to be governed by rules and logic. Now he suspected mental foul play and didn’t know how to find the culprit.
    Relieved.
    Relief was the one that was an ache inside her. But she knew this was not something she imagined. This new wife, with the injured spine and the damaged organs, this wife who required waiting on and hand-holding, this wife who he apparently considered too fragile to make love to…This wife was someone he wasn’t certain how to cope with. Isaac would never refuse to try. But having taken that decision out of his hands, she was certain he was grateful.
    She sighed. This, too, sounded natural here. She thought that perhaps Isaac’s grandmother had indulged in many such sighs on this porch. If it was true, Kendra was sorry.
     
    In the late afternoon she slowly unpacked the boxes, noting all the things she hadn’t had room to bring. For this first trip to the cabin she had chosen only the most practical items, and others, like the quilts, that had sentimental value. She planned to ask Isaac to ship some of the small antique pieces she had defiantly collected to offset the institutional furniture that had come with their condo. The carpenter’s chest, the pie safe, the yellowware bowls she’d had no room to display in the condo’s galley kitchen. The moment she felt strong enough to drive, she would shop for more antiques in the Valley and fill the old cabin with them.
    She wondered when that would be.
    By six she knew she wasn’t going to have the energy to cook dinner. There was no microwave to heat frozen food. She had a narrow four-burner stove, a dorm-size refrigerator and no small appliances. She decided to buy a slow cooker as soon as she could, so in the mornings she could fashion a dinner for later, when energy was only a memory.
    She settled on an apple and took it to the front porch. There was no furniture there, but she would remedy that, as well. As soon as she was able.
    She was sitting on the edge, back against a pillar, when she heard a car approaching. The sky was still light, and she suspected friends, but her hands began to perspire despite the cool air of evening. She was completely alone here, and even if she called for help, it would take a long time to arrive.
    With relief she noted that the old pickup that finally chugged its way up to the clearing held two women. The relief turned to pleasure when she recognized one. She got clumsily to her feet.
    “Helen…” She looked at the steps and realized she wasn’t up to negotiating them to greet her closest neighbor.
    Helen Henry swung her legs over the passenger seat of the truck and dusted off a printed sack of a dress. “I heard you were coming today. No reason to think that rascal of a preacher would get it wrong.”
    A pretty young woman with a cloud of red-blond hair got out on the driver’s side and came around to help Helen. Kendra remembered that this was Cissy, who, along with her husband and baby daughter, lived with Helen. Kendra had met the girl briefly at the church where Sam Kinkade was the minister.
    Helen, a woman in her eighties, was still vigorous, and she brushed aside Cissy’s attempts to help her down. “Day comes I can’t get myself out of this pickup, I’ll just lie down and die. I’m not down yet, am I?”
    “Ms. Henry, you’ll probably die standing up giving somebody a lecture.”
    Helen couldn’t suppress a smile, although clearly she tried. She slid down and landed with a thud , but it didn’t seem to faze her.
    She turned, then spun around and held up a cardboard box. “Brought you supper. That’s what neighbors do around here when somebody moves in.”
    Suddenly Kendra’s apple seemed even less appealing. “That’s so kind of you.” She looked down at the steps. “I’d come and help, but I’m afraid these stairs just don’t look too good to me right now.”
    “You stay right where you are. We made enough to keep you in leftovers until you get on your