Read Online Heart of the Sandhills by Stephanie Grace Whitson - Free Book Online Page A

thrilled Aaron right down to the thin leather soles of his best shoes. He studied the small, white hand, positioned tantalizingly atop the folds of her royal blue silk skirt. With his heart pounding, he reached out quickly, covered that hand with his own and then gave a little squeeze before withdrawing and jumping to his feet. “Let’s—let’s go back inside,” he said quickly, hoping Amanda could not see the blush on his cheeks.
    To Aaron’s dismay, because he blushed even more furiously when it happened, Amanda slipped her hand into his. He led her around the side of the house, up the wide stairs leading to the veranda at Leighton Hall.
    “Meg will be so excited to have company,” Aaron said. “The other girls seem to be avoiding her since—well, you know. It’s been hard on her, knowing she can’t go with me to see Daniel and Genevieve. But I promised her that next year when her strength is back and she’s learned how to manage better, I’ll take her West.” He shrugged. “We’re not going to let a little thing like this ruin her life. We aren’t.”
    Amanda suddenly withdrew her hand. “I’ll visit Meg soon, Aaron. Honestly I will. But right now I must be getting home.”
    He could read the message in her brilliant blue eyes, and with a sudden burst of maturity, decided against being ruled by them. To Amanda’s dismay, Aaron did not beg her not to go. Instead, he nodded and guided her down the front path to the gate and across the street to her own front door. Before they parted, he asked, “You’ll come to the station to see me off tomorrow?”
    Amanda pouted, but not for too long. “Of course I will.” And then, just to put him in his place and to remind him, she added, “I’m sure Stephen Bannister will want to come, too. He can bring me.”
    Stephen Bannister . Inwardly Aaron blanched. Stephen Bannister was all the things Aaron was not. Elegant and wealthy, with parents who doted on him and bought him the finest of everything, from a fine pair of matched standardbreds to pull his carriage to the best in tailored suits and leather boots. And, unlike Aaron, Stephen Bannister was going nowhere for this summer. He would be right here in New York, calling on Amanda at every opportunity. Why , Aaron thought, Stephen will probably be sitting next to Amanda in the family pew at church by the third Sunday I’m gone .
    All of this and more flashed through Aaron’s mind as he stood looking down at Amanda. But something else took precedence, and that something was an intangible yearning Aaron felt every time he thought about the West. It was an indiscernible tug, as if he could still hear warriors’ chants around the campfires, still see the faces of the native children, still hear the cries of hopelessness as squaws mourned their dead. That something, Aunt Jane had often told Aaron, was a call . And, Aunt Jane had said, he had best answer it or be haunted for the rest of his life by a sense of failure.
    He was not certain if Aunt Jane was right. But one thing was certain, and that was that he must go West now, this year, and give God the opportunity to speak to him more distinctly about what he, Aaron Riggs Dane, was supposed to do with his life. He had promised God to make himself available, and that promise stood apart from and above everything else in his young life—including, please God , Miss Amanda Whitrock.
    “If she’s the one for you,” Uncle Elliot had said once, “then she will share your dream. And if she cannot share your dream, then trust me, son, you don’t want her.” Uncle Elliot had gone on to say that Amanda was young and spoiled, and that in time Aaron would see what she was made of and know. In the meantime, he had said, Aaron should be about his duty.
    Duty . Aaron was not certain what all his duty included, but he was certain that part of it was to journey West to visit Genevieve and Daniel Two Stars, who had risked their lives more than once to save his. Something in