Read Online Written In Stone by Jennifer Smith - Free Book Online

of Jonathan. She thought of the baby girl born too early as a result of the accident, and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will the thoughts away. But they refused to go. How could one foolish moment end so tragically and with such long-lasting and far-reaching effects? The terrible memory played out in her mind…
     
    It had been a beautiful fall day when she decided she wanted to take a carriage ride and see the brilliant shades of crimson and gold of the fall foliage. Jonathan was laughing as he hitched the horses to the carriage. He then helped Angie up on the seat then climbed up beside her. She was nearly six months into the pregnancy; the weather was so beautiful and there was plenty of time before the baby so that she might enjoy being outdoors. The horses trotted along, the breeze causing Angela's hair to fly behind her and whip around her face. She was laughing at something Jonathan said, and Jonathan placed one of his arms around her shoulders, pulling her to him. He kissed her cheek, and she felt warm and secure in his arms.
    "Faster, Jonathan." Angela encouraged him.
    "I don't think we should, Ang. All that bouncing might not be good for the baby," he cautioned.
    "The baby is fine. I am fine," she assured him gleefully. "I haven't been able to ride my mare in months now. I just want to feel the wind on my face and the speed of the horses. Please? For just a little way?"
    Jonathan sighed. He could never resist her. "All right," he conceded, "but just a short way. I'm not taking any chances with you or our child."
    "Oh, thank you, Jonathan," she laughed delightedly. Then without thinking, or any warning, Angie snatched the reins from his hands and slapped them to the horse's rumps. As they lurched forward and began to gallop, the rush of the wind carried Angie's laughter and Jonathan sat back, looking at her face and obviously thinking he was the luckiest man alive.
    Just as they rounded a curve, Angie and Jonathan both saw the fallen tree across the road too late to stop the horses. They tried to leap over it, running the wheels of the wagon into the trunk. Angie remembered screaming Jonathan's name, then flying through the air. Both of them thrown from the carriage, and Angie came down hard on her head and one shoulder. She heard a loud pop in her neck, then flipped over and felt her back twist. The pain was excruciating and all went black.
    Days later, she awoke in the sanatorium ward, pain wracking her body. She cried out, asking for Jonathan. When she placed her hands on her abdomen and discovered a smaller, softer stomach, she screamed, "My baby! Oh, God, where is my baby?" She couldn't seem to stop screaming until someone summoned the doctor, and he injected her with something that burned her arm and put her back to sleep.
    Two more days passed before Angie regained full consciousness, still in pain but aware of her surroundings. Summoning the doctor to her bedside once again, she asked about Jonathan's condition. That's when she learned he had died instantly upon being thrown from the carriage seat. The doctor told her that she had gone into early labor several hours after the accident, and they couldn't stop the baby's birth… or save the child once delivered. She never drew a single breath, he had told Angela, but arrived in the world as if she were sleeping.
    What the doctor hadn't told her, because he hadn't known himself, was that Angie could no longer walk on her own. After the injuries to her body healed and the back sprain eased enough that she could sit up on her own, the doctor decided to get her on her feet and walking again so she would regain her strength. When she tried to stand, she immediately fell to the floor. The doctor called nurses to help him and examined her legs and back again. They tried several times to get Angie to stand on her own and take a few steps, even using braces on her legs to help, but she could no longer walk on her own.
     
    Angie took a deep breath and held the