Jericho (A Redemption Novel) (15 page)

CHAPTER 15

S
he tried to concentrate on the scenery around her as Christian drove them to her sister’s home.

It was familiar territory. Memories flooded her. Happy ones. Sad ones. Ones she’d rather forget. It was almost like going home, except it wasn’t. Carolina lived in the next town over. In a wealthier area, a place where many of her father’s parishioners had come from once upon a time.

They had stopped coming. A lot of people had stopped coming to their church after Abel died. Her father had changed. Instead of preaching of love, happiness and forgiveness, he preached of repentance and of right and wrong. It scared some people away, but it invited others. A more hardened bunch. A group of people who claimed that only God could judge and yet they judged and shamed anybody who wasn’t like them. Robert was from one of those families.

He had moved into town just after his sixteenth birthday when his family had returned from Africa. They were missionaries.

We spent our lives trying to convert the heathens and savages,
Robert’s father would always say.

Georgia’s father loved them. He called them the most righteous. The most devoted to God’s word. But Georgia found their devotion to be nearly militant. Nearly hateful. They failed to enjoy the beauty of the world around them because they were too focused on judging people who didn’t live up the standards they thought everybody should live by. But she’d thought that Robert wasn’t like them at first. He was a little more carefree. He always had a smile on his face and a kind word for her.

Her father had approved of him. Robert had planned to go to theological school and become a minister. He’d told her father that he wanted to take over the church when he was ready to retire, that he wanted to learn from him. That had made Abraham Williams a very happy man. None of his own sons had taken an interest in following in his shoes. So he’d invited Robert into the family. He’d trusted his daughters with him. He’d wanted Robert for Carolina. He thought they would get married when Carolina finished her teaching degree.

It didn’t work out that way. Robert was never interested in Carolina. He was only interested in Georgia, and what he wanted from her had nothing to do with marriage.

She hadn’t realized that Christian had pulled off the road until she felt his hand on her face. “Are you sure you want to do this, Georgia?”

She looked at him—his face held its perpetual scowl but his eyes were worried. “I’m fine.”

“No.” He took her hand and uncurled it. It was then she realized that her fingernails were biting into her skin. Little red angry imprints marked her palm. “You aren’t. What are you thinking about?”

She looked back at Abby, who had fallen asleep. “I try not to think about how I got her. Most days it’s easy, but today it’s not. My father loved him like a son. He was my brother’s best friend. I trusted him and he did that to me.”

“You tell me where he is, Georgia, and I’ll kill him.”

He wasn’t joking. And as much as she wanted an end to him, she knew her conscience couldn’t rest if he were to die that way. “No.” She shook her head. “I’m supposed to be happy. I’m getting married. I’m moving on. I shouldn’t let this bother me.”

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “You wouldn’t be human if this didn’t bother you.”

She slid her fingers into his, squeezing his hand. She realized it was the first time she ever really had someone to lean on. It was a nice feeling.

“We can turn around right now,” he said into her skin, his soft breath tickling her as he spoke. “We don’t have to do this today. You tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen.”

“We have to go. We can’t turn back now.”

“Okay.” He kissed her face once more before he let her go and pulled back onto the road.

* * *

“Talk to me, honey,” Georgia said after a few moments of silence. She moved over in the seat as far as she could to get closer to him. She gently rested her fingertips on his burned arm, absently tracing the scars as he drove. He knew they were approaching her sister’s house. With each mile they drove Georgia grew paler and paler.

He couldn’t imagine what it was like to be in her shoes, to have a baby by a man who hurt you. To go face a family member who had originally deserted you.

His parents were gone and he missed them so much the hollowness in his chest never seemed to go away, but it must have been worse to be her. To have a whole family who threw you away for no reason.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Our life,” she said softly. “Tell me what you want for us.”

He swallowed. It was a hard thing to answer. He never thought he would be here, with somebody else to care for. “I was thinking we could get married on Sunday. If that’s okay with you. There’s a little park with a garden in it my parents used to take walks in. I thought it would be nice to have it there. But if you don’t want to,” he said quickly, “we can have it someplace else.”

“I would like to have your parents there, Christian. There’s nothing I would like better.”

She understood. He didn’t have to explain himself and he was grateful for that because he wasn’t sure he had the words. “I have a house in Charleston. It was my parents’, but it’s empty now. I thought if you liked it, we could live there for a while. I’m not sure about much else, Georgia. Up until a few days ago I thought I would die a marine. I don’t know how to be a regular man.”

“I don’t know how to be a regular woman. I guess we’ll have to figure it out together.” The GPS directed him to pull onto a road that led them to a neighborhood of large stately homes with rolling manicured lawns. He watched Georgia’s eyes grow wide. She hadn’t told him much about her childhood, but from what he did know he was sure she hadn’t grown up like this. To her father something like lobster was sinful and decadent. Even up to her adulthood, she’d lived in relative poverty.

Her life was about to change. He hoped she was prepared for it. He finally came to a stop in front of a large brick house with brown shutters. She grabbed his hand, squeezing it as if trying to take some strength from it.

“I know this must be her house,” she said in a rush. “She told me she always wanted a big brick house. That it was her dream. This must be it. She married a dentist, you know. He would be able to give her a big house like this.” She turned to look at him. “What if she’s not home? I should have called. I know better than to come over uninvited. I didn’t think. Maybe we should come back another time. I don’t even see any cars.”

The front door opened and a pretty young woman with light brown skin and tawny-colored hair stepped out as Georgia finished saying those words.

“She’s home, sweetheart,” he said softly. Georgia’s eyes swiveled toward the front door. Her face went a little paler, her mouth dropped opened a little.

The woman—her sister—stared at Georgia, her delicate face frowning in confusion, her eyes locking with her sister’s through the open car window. A man stepped out behind Carolina. He placed a supportive hand on her back, but just as he opened his mouth to speak she left the front step, running toward the car. It only took Georgia a few moments before she jumped out of the car and ran to her sister. The women smashed into each other, falling to the ground, hugging each other so hard that he couldn’t tell where Georgia began and Carolina ended.

There were no words between them, and if there were Christian wasn’t able to make them out over the loud sobs. Their tears seemed to be happy tears, and sad tears, and tears that cleansed. It became hard for Christian to watch the women’s reunion. It made him uncomfortable. He’d never had a sibling. He was the only child of only children. He never knew the connection of having one. The bond seemed stronger than he could ever imagine.

He turned and looked back at Abby, whose eyes were now open. She looked out the window and then back to him. “Mama?”

“She’s saying hello to her sister.”

Abby blinked at him. “No Da?”

“Yes Da.”

She sighed.

“Up?” She reached her arms out to him.

“Yes. I’ll pick you up.”

He stepped out of the car, retrieving Abby before they went to Georgia. She didn’t notice him approaching, she was so wrapped up in her sister. But her sister’s husband did, and he stared at Christian, his eyes widening as they took him in. There was no greeting. No acknowledging he was a man, or even human. The man just stared at him.

“Captain Christian Howard,” he said gruffly, introducing himself.

“Doctor Miles Hammond.” The man was soft-spoken, small. Couldn’t have been much more than five-seven. “You’re a very large man.” Dr. Hammond extended his hand. “I used to pray to God and drink my milk and eat all my vegetables when I was a child because I wanted to be big like you. When I was twenty-one and still only this size, I stopped eating my vegetables and drinking my milk and praying to God. Now I eat cheeseburgers and red-velvet cake. It’s nice to meet you, sir. I’m Carolina’s husband.”

“I’m going to marry Georgia. And this is Abby.” Christian relaxed a bit. Ever since the explosion, he had been sensitive about his burns. So much so that he forgot that it was his size and build that put people off first.

He stepped forward again, touching Abby’s arm gently. Abby buried her face in Christian’s neck, seeming afraid. “Hello, little thing,” he said very softly. “I’m your uncle. You’re going to have a cousin to play with soon.”

He looked toward his wife, whose arms were still tightly twined around her sister. The women were quiet now. All their tears seemed to be cried out. They just held each other, as though they were trying to make up for all the years they couldn’t.

“Carolina, love.” He walked over and placed his hand on her back. “Please get up. I would like to meet your sister.”

“My sister,” she said in a whisper. “She’s here.”

Georgia finally looked up, and her eyes went directly to Christian’s. He could see the myriad of emotions running through them. This must be so much for her. The proposal and reunion and the knowledge that her life was never going to be the same. He walked over to her and extended his hand, wanting to take away some of the fear in her eyes.

She took his hand and squeezed it, placing his burned skin against her cheek. “Carolina,” she finally said. “This is the man I’m going to marry.”

* * *

“Your house is lovely, Carolina,” Georgia said to her sister as they walked hand in hand through the upstairs. They had been together a little more than an hour—the first few minutes Carolina had spent reminiscing about their childhood and about Oakdale and how much it hadn’t changed since she had left. It all sounded so idyllic, as if it might be a place that Georgia would like to live if she hadn’t grown up there, if she hadn’t known what the town and its people could be like. But she pushed that thought away. She was with her little sister. Her young, married, mother-to-be sister. She had missed so much of her life in the past two years. Georgia wanted to enjoy this time.

Carolina was showing her around her large home, excitedly explaining all the little handpicked details as she went. Some things never changed. Carolina had always dragged her along when they were kids. Showing her wildflowers or baby birds. Pointing out anything and everything pretty.

She was glad it was a quality that her sister never lost. Carolina, it seemed, had never lost her innocence. Georgia wasn’t so lucky. She had stopped seeing the pure prettiness of the world a long time ago.

That feeling settled in her chest again. The heaviness. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. This day was supposed to be beautiful. It was supposed to wash away the past two years of hurt and pain, the feeling of betrayal. But it didn’t.

At first she had been so happy to see her sister, to be there, to touch and look at her, but that feeling had worn off as soon as their embrace broke.

When Georgia introduced Carolina to Christian, her sister wouldn’t meet his eyes. They had been taught that women were to be submissive, demure, quiet in a man’s presence, but Georgia wasn’t sure that Carolina wouldn’t look at Christian for those reasons.

She stared at him, at the burns on his face. She knew Carolina. She didn’t find Christian beautiful like her own husband, who was a small man with boyish features and easy charm. Georgia might have been able to push that feeling under the rug, because she knew that Carolina didn’t care for large men, but when she didn’t look at Abby at all when Georgia introduced her, when she didn’t hug her or touch her or show any of the affection to the niece she claimed that she wanted her baby to be close to, the heaviness settled in her chest and failed to lift.

She tried to shake it off, to tell herself that she was crazy. She had missed her sister. She wanted to know her husband and unborn child. She wanted some sort of family, if not for herself, then for Abby.

“I love it here.” She smiled prettily. “Miles is so kind to me. He lets me do whatever I want with this place. He never gets cross with me when I ask him for things. He says he wants me to be happy. That’s why I’m so glad you’re back, Georgia. I can be happy now. I can’t wait to show you this next room.”

Georgia nodded as they stopped before a large guest room, complete with a small crib. “This is your room, Georgia. I figured that you didn’t want to sleep away from the baby, so I put a crib in here. I was so sure you were coming back.” She hugged her. “I knew Miles thought I was crazy when I asked him to buy another crib, but I was right. You came back to me.”

“I’m getting married, Carolina.” Georgia blinked at her sister. “That’s why I’m here. To ask you to come to my wedding. I’m not going to live with you, honey.”

“But, Georgia...” Carolina looked at her, confusion mixed with hurt on her face. “You don’t have to marry him anymore. We’ll take care of you. You can help me raise my baby.”

“I’m marrying Christian. On Sunday. I don’t want you to take care of me. I never did. I just wanted my sister back in my life. In our life.”

“Is that man making you marry him?” she asked softly. “We can help you get away from him. I know he must frighten you terribly, but Miles can help you get away from him. Maybe one day you can find a nice husband who won’t care what happened to you. There must be other men out there. It doesn’t have to be him.”