He went directly to Angelica’s room and pushed open the door. She was, indeed, lying in the bed, her face red, her forehead sweaty.
He walked to her bed and sat on the edge, looking down at her. As ill as she looked, her beauty still shone through.
“You aren’t feeling well.” He didn’t ask it as a question. She nodded at him, her brown eyes reflecting deep sadness. “Do you know why?”
She didn’t answer. She just shook her head and looked away from him.
“Would it make you feel better if I told you that I have decided to keep you on here as my wife?”
Angelica looked at him. He pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“You do not love me,” she said.
He touched her cheek with his fingers, brushing them softly over her lips and through a ringlet of brown hair that had gone astray. “I would like to love you. I would like to have the opportunity to love you. But can you love me? Can you love an old bachelor with no sense of compassion or romance?”
“You have compassion, Adam,” Angelica murmured. She pushed herself up on her elbows and gazed at him. “You would not have taken in two strange women if you didn’t have compassion. I know I can love you. I…” She had closely watched him in the last week. He was kind and gentle to every living thing. She wanted to know him much better. If he married her, she certainly would.
He looked at her for another brief moment before taking her in his arms and holding her to him. Relief flooded through her.
“I think…” he hesitated to confirm it in his mind and heart and pray quickly. “I think I already love you, Angela. I just didn’t know it. God sent you and your friend here. He did.”
Angelica pulled back from him and gave him a loving look, the first of many. “I am sure He did, Adam. I’m sure he did.”
Adam pulled her back into a tight hug and whispered in her ear, “Will you marry me?”
She smiled and whispered back, “Yes. Yes, I will.”
****
THE END
A Sheriff’s Heart – A Clean Western Historical Romance
Chapter One
The napkin in Hettie’s hands was nearly ripped to shreds before she noticed she was pulling it apart. She stopped, felt her cheeks flush and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. She licked her lips and looked back out the window at the passing scenery. She was leaving everything behind, her father, brother and uncle, her best friend and her dream of being the schoolteacher for the town she grew up in.
She was nervous but knew what needed to be done. The man she was going to meet and marry had given her father enough money to get the store out of the red and into the black. She needed to be strong and accept that things had to change.
At 24, she had never expected to leave her home and travel across the country to marry a stranger. But it was apparently her lot in life. God must have decided this for her or she wouldn’t have felt as compelled to go when her father mentioned it. He’d shown her the ad and asked if she would be willing to make that kind of change. The war had put an economic strain on their small town, and the store was beginning to fail. Although her family were all supporters of President Lincoln, it didn’t put money in their accounts.
James Banks had placed the ad. He was Sheriff of the town of Elko, in Nevada, and was looking for a bride. He was willing to help them financially if she would agree to travel there and marry him. She had accepted.
It was four weeks ago that the prospect of this adventure was placed before Hettie. Her mother had died when she was only twelve; she barely remembered her. She had grown up in the loving, firm care of her father and uncle, her mother’s brother. Her older brother of two years had also vowed to protect her throughout her life and had held true to that statement, keeping her safe from harm whenever it approached. And it had.
Hettie was fully aware of the methods of men. She had sometimes been accused of being too rough, though she was a small, fit young lady, with long blond hair that waved around her petite face. Her eyes sparkled an aquamarine blue and were framed by long dark blond eyelashes. She had small red lips and high cheekbones. She certainly didn’t look rough on the outside.
She wondered what James was like. A Sheriff. She guessed he might have a lot of rough characters he had to deal with regularly. She hoped he wasn’t a big, tough man. She didn’t want to be fighting for the rest of her life. That sounded miserable.
She was working herself into a frenzy. She pulled in a deep breath and relaxed her muscles. She would have a headache by the time she got there if she wasn’t careful. That was the last thing she needed.
“Are you all right, dear?” the elderly woman sitting next to her leaned forward and looked up into her eyes. Hettie gave the woman a smile and nodded.