Read Online From This Day Forward by Margaret Daley - Free Book Online Page A

“In case you need me.”
    “I will be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
    “Thank you for coming. I couldn’t leave you in the cabin by yourself overnight.”
    The softness in his look doubled her heartbeat. Seeing him after being apart all day uplifted her spirits, which immediately frightened her. In a very short time, she had come to care about this man who had saved her on the road. She shouldn’t. “Well, you will have to leave me alone when I go to Dalton Farm.”
    A frown descended. “About that—”
    She raised her palm to stop his words. “Don’t. I will be going to my new home.” Then she fumbled for the handle and quickly slipped into her suite of rooms. A fire blazed in the fireplace, Maddy rocking Faith in front of it as she sang a lullaby to her.
    This bedchamber was so different from the one at Nathan’s home. Its size alone rivaled the total size of the cabin. Heavy wine-colored draperies of damask were pulled closed over two large windows. Wallpaper with tiny roses covered the walls. A massive, four-poster bed of walnut dominated all the other pieces of furniture. Next to it sat a table with an oil lamp that made the room much brighter than candles, as though a dark shadow was not allowed in the bedchamber. A cozy warmth, which did not carry over into the rest of the house, suffused the area.
    Maddy looked up and gave Rachel a huge smile. “Mr. Stuart told me he had a servant bring in a cradle and this rocking chair for us. Perhaps we can stay here for a while.”
    Rachel crossed to the bed and pressed her hand down into the softness of the mattress, the feel of the brocade coverlet luxurious beneath her fingertips. “Don’t get used to this. We shall not be here long.” But looking around the room only underscored her longing to go home to England.

    “How is he?” Patrick came into the dark bedchamber, stopping next to Nathan beside their grandfather’s bed.
    “Better.” The raspy sound of the old man’s breathing mocked his words. “He’s now sleeping well. I put a poultice on his chest that seems to help some.”
    “You need to sleep. I can stay with him. If he becomes worse, I will come get you.”
    “No, I cannot sleep.” Although weariness dogged Nathan’s every step, being home brought back too many bittersweet memories for him to rest.
    Patrick pulled a nearby chair closer to the bed and sat. “I miss talking to you. I wish you and Grandfather would—”
    “Patrick, if you stay, I prefer not discussing what happened five years ago. It will not change the facts.”
    “Have you ever tried to contact Mama?”
    “Yes. The first year she was gone I wrote to her. I finally received a letter telling me that it was better she left before war broke out between our countries. She is English and wants to live in England.”
    “I wrote her, too, and received the same type of letter. It is as if with Papa’s death and what Grandfather did, we don’t exist to her anymore. How can she do that? I saw Mrs. Gordon holding her baby, and I just don’t understand.”
    “I cannot answer that.” A picture of his mother climbing into the carriage the day she left Pinecrest for good filled Nathan’s heart with the deep ache he had felt at the time. She wouldn’t listen to him when he pleaded for her to stay. She told him she wanted to go home to England, and now that her husband was dead, she finally could. It was not until later he had discovered that his grandfather had ordered her off the plantation. “I wish I had arrived at the dock before her ship sailed. I might have been able to do something about what occurred.”
    “Defy Grandfather?”
    Nathan twisted toward his younger brother. “Yes. I ended up doing that anyway.” The final incident with Eliza and her baby that had caused the rift completely to tear between Grandfather and him nudged forward in his mind. He shut it down lest he refuse to sit at the old man’s bedside and nurse him back to health. “I could not stay