Page 57 of Mail-Order Bride Secret
“Maddie, I need to ask you a question.”
Her head came up slowly. Something in his expression must have alerted her for her eyes narrowed and filled with wariness.
“I don’t mean to hurt you or embarrass you. I’m willing…eager even…to put our pasts behind us and look to a future blessed by God.”
Her mouth tightened. Her shoulders rose.
The defensiveness evident in her posture almost made him change his mind.Courage, man. Don’t let fear keep you from doing what needs to be done. The questionthat needs to be addressed.Mr. Shannon, and yes, Mrs. Shannon, would expect him to seek the truth. In a kind and gentle way, of course.
“Maddie, it’s about Jonathan.” If her shoulders drew any higher, they’d reach her ears.
“What about him?” Clearly a challenge to leave things alone.
“You must surely know how much I love the little guy.” He waited for the flicker of her eyelids that indicated agreement. “I wouldn’t want to lose him.”
Her eyes widened and she sat up straighter at his comment. “How could that happen…unless you aren’t happy with me?” There was no mistaking the tremble in her voice.
He knelt at her side, his arms around her waist. Her stiffness ached clear through him. “Maddie, I’m happy with you. I’m pleased you are my wife. I expect there will be trials ahead in our lives, but I look forward to facing them together.”
She nodded but remained tense.
He pulled a chair close to sit directly in front of her and took her hands in his. They were cold as if she still sponged Otis. Although he squeezed gently there was no responding pressure from her. A fact that sent a sharp stab to his heart.
Her eyes held his, unblinking, demanding, full of caution.
Very well. He’d get it over with, quickly and painlessly…if the latter was possible.
“Maddie, who is his father?”
She jolted back, snatching her hands free. “Why? What does it matter?” She jumped to her feet, almost knocking Wally out of his chair. With hurried feet and twisting hands, she went to the window. Her likeness reflected, and she spun away from the view, her eyes wide, restless, as if seeking escape.
He rose. “Maddie—”
“It’s in the past.” Challenge flared from her gaze. “I thought you said we would forget the past and move forward.”
He nodded, slowly, thoughtfully. He was coming at this wrong and had upset her. He tried again. “I only ask because I wonder if his father might want to claim him when he’s a little older.”
Her skirts swirled around her legs as she hurried to the farthest wall. The lamp light flickered at her sudden movement. Air so harsh it sounded like it carried sand, rasped from her lungs.
Sourness lay on his tongue like a bad meal. For a second, he regretted asking the question. Then he rose and crossed the room to stand six feet from her and wait. Icy lumps of dread collected in the bottom of his stomach at the way her lips worried back and forth over each other. Still, he waited, his arms at his side,his fingers curled into anxious fists, his breathing almost as ragged as hers.
Her gaze went to the window, lingered a moment, and slid past him to the open door of the room. Was she thinking of running, hiding without answering him?
She sucked her lips in. With infinite slowness, she brought her attention to him. “His name is Delroy. He doesn’t know he has a son.” Every syllable fired from her mouth, spit out like a bitter pit. She reached out to push past him.
First name or last? She didn’t say and he wouldn’t ask. It was enough that she’d answered. He caught her arms and pulled her to his chest. Held her even though she resisted, her entire body stiff. He rubbed her back.
“Didn’t he try and locate you when you left Philadelphia?”
She shook her head.
Wally ground his teeth. If he’d been the one to be intimate with Maddie, he would have loved her and would have found her and married her. Yet a portion of him was glad the man hadn’t, for if he had, he wouldn’t be holding Maddie, his wife. His arm tightened around her, wanting to keep her safe.
“Maddie, that’s all I wanted to know. As far as I’m concerned, the boy belongs to me. You and me.”
She sank toward him.
“Together we will build a home based on honesty and trust. Jonathan is my son.”
