No One's Bride (Escape to the West Book 1) by Nerys Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

head, not meeting his eyes.
    “Did someone try to hurt you?”
    She didn’t answer, but a tear caught the light as it fell from her chin to the floor. In an instant, all his anger drained away. He took a step towards her, reaching out a hand before thinking better of it and folding the knife back into its handle and holding that out instead. She took it from his hand and looked up at him. The fear and vulnerability he saw in her eyes almost knocked him flat.
    “I won’t let anyone hurt you.” The words came out before he even knew what he was saying, but he meant them, maybe more than he’d ever meant anything in his life.
    She wiped her eyes again and sighed. “You don’t have to do anything. I meant what I said, I’ll get the money to pay you back, I swear.” She picked her bag up from the floor. “Which way is the boarding house? I don’t remember seeing it yesterday.”
    Suddenly, the thought of Amy staying in Trenchard’s Room & Board terrified him. Mrs Trenchard, the widow who ran it, wasn’t a bad person, but she did have a tendency to overindulge with the wine in the evenings. In addition, the boarding house wasn’t far from the saloon with its drunken patrons and noise and other activities that went on upstairs. It wasn’t a safe place for a woman on her own.
    “You can stay here,” he blurted, before he could think it through.
    She looked up at him, startled.
    “I mean in the room you stayed in last night. The boarding house, it’s not... What I mean to say is, it’s near the saloon and the noise could be... distracting.” He breathed out, trying to unscramble his mind. “I don’t want you to feel afraid anymore.”
    She stared at him for a few seconds before lowering her gaze. “What do you want?”
    He frowned, confused. “What do I want?”
    “In exchange for me staying here. I can’t pay you straight away, until I find a job. I can clean and cook, but if you want more than that...” She swallowed, still not looking at him. Her trembling fingers clutched the knife against her stomach.
    Adam still didn’t know what she meant. “More than...?” And then understanding came like a punch to the chest. He took a step back, stumbled against one of the chairs, and dropped onto it with a thud. “You think I would... No! I would never ... I meant you can stay here for free. I don’t expect anything from you, and certainly not... I just want to help.”
    Her eyes were wide as she looked down at him. “Why would you do that? After what I did to you?”
    He was about to answer it was because he was a good man, unlike whoever had tried to hurt her, when he remembered something. He chuckled, rubbing one hand across his eyes.
    “Why are you laughing?” Amy said. She looked as if she was undecided if she should run.
    “Last night I picked up my Bible to read, like I do every night, and I dropped it and my bookmark fell out. I couldn’t remember exactly where I was, just that it was somewhere near the start of 1 Peter. But instead I ended up in James, on the verse where it says if there is a brother or sister in need it’s no good to just wish them well without doing anything to help them. I’ve read that verse so many times before, but last night it seemed to stick in my mind.” He smiled, shaking his head. “It seems God was making me clumsy to teach me something for today.”
    Amy moved back to the table, taking a seat opposite him. “Sometimes I think God speaks to me. Not out loud, like I hear you now, but in my mind. Do you ever get that?”
    The only voice he ever heard in his head telling him what to do was his father’s. “Not that I can recall.”
    “But you think He made you drop your Bible?”
    He shrugged and smiled. “Maybe He knows I don’t listen hard enough and so He has to do things I can’t ignore.”
    She smiled back at him. For a moment, Adam could only stare. She had such a beautiful smile.
    “So will you stay?” he said. He really wanted her to stay.
    She