Loving Helen (32 page)
“Come. Get on your wrap, and we shall all go down.” Amid Helen’s protests that she could not go downstairs if she wasn’t wearing at least a morning gown, he swept her from the bed and hurried her into her robe.
“How will we cover her eyes?” Beth asked as Samuel tied the sash at Helen’s waist.
“A very good question,” he said. “But one I have thought of already.” Reaching behind him, he pulled the previous night’s hastily discarded cravat from a chair and proceeded to wrap it around Helen’s eyes.
“I do not think it will be much of a surprise when I fall down the stairs because I cannot see,” she muttered good-naturedly, having no doubt that Samuel would steer her safely to wherever the surprise happened to be.
“
Tsk
. Such little confidence in me,” Samuel said, sweeping her into his arms again and carrying her. Helen felt, rather than saw, them leave the room. She could tell they were moving through the hall and then down the stairs to the foyer below.
She worried that her reaction to the surprise would not be appropriate. If it had to do with Samuel’s — and Elizabeth’s — roses, she was not certain her response would be at all what he hoped for. Since mid-spring nearly two months ago, he’d spent a great deal of time with the roses — at least as much as he had spent staying appraised of Sir Crayton’s whereabouts and planning with Christopher and Nicholas what was to be done about the man.
Samuel had first transplanted the roses that had been indoors all winter, then trimmed and replanted some already growing along the drive. If that wasn’t enough, he had planted even more bushes from the wagon-full that had been delivered. At times, as she watched him laboring diligently, Helen’s heart felt a peculiar catch. It wasn’t that she was jealous, exactly. Rather, she wondered if Samuel’s love for her could ever equal that which it seemed he still felt for his first wife.
His unwavering love and devotion to Elizabeth had been one of the things that had attracted Helen, and he had been nothing but loving and devoted to her since the day they’d wed. Still, Helen was not certain what to make of his continued and considerable dedication to the garden.
She smelled the roses before she saw them, their sweet scent heavy beneath the mid-morning sun.
How many must have opened at once for their fragrance to be so strong.
A draft of spring air sent a chill rushing up her gown, reminding Helen that she’d been in the foyer and was now out in the yard, with only a dressing gown to cover her. Samuel wore no more clothes than she, and Helen felt her cheeks heat as she worried that someone might see them gallivanting about in such a state of undress.
“Blushing already.” Samuel stood her on the ground and placed a kiss upon her cheek. “It becomes you as much as ever, but you needn’t feel embarrassed. The servants all know I am besotted with you, and as for our neighbors …” He chuckled. “I am fairly confident that Nicholas and Grace would not judge us being in the garden dressed as we are.”
“
Under
-dressed, you mean,” Helen chided, but she could not be angry.
With gentle hands, he untied the cravat and let if fall from Helen’s face. Her eyes blinked as they adjusted to the sun, then widened as she took in the glorious bursts of red and yellow encircling them.
Elizabeth’s yellow roses still grew along the drive, but beside them now, interwoven in a lovely pattern, were dozens and dozens of
red
roses in bloom. What had to be hundreds of new plants filled the garden, their bursts of crimson the most glorious sight she’d ever beheld.
“Oh, Samuel.” Helen turned and threw her arms around him.
He chuckled. “I take it you like the addition.”
She clung to him, her face buried in his shoulder. “They’re perfect. How did you think of it?” With such evidence before her, how could she ever doubt that she held Samuel’s heart?
“I thought of
you
,” he said. “As I do every day from the moment I wake to my very last thought before I fall asleep with you in my arms. You hold my heart in your hands, Helen. No one else.”
Standing beside him in the morning sun, in the glory of the garden, with Beth skipping a circle around them, Helen wondered how she had ever doubted. She was home, and she was loved.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading
Loving Helen.
I hope you enjoyed Helen’s journey to courage and love.
The book you just read is the second in the Hearthfire Historical Romance series. A third novel,
Marrying Christopher
, will be coming Summer 2015 and will continue the story of the Thatcher family. Watch for previews and teasers on my
website
in coming months.
Reviews are always appreciated by authors and readers alike. Thank you in advance if you are able to take a few minutes to post one.
If you would like more information about my other books and future releases, please visit
http://www.MichelePaigeHolmes.com
. You can also follow me on Twitter at
@MichelePHolmes
.
Happy reading!
Michele
Hearthfire series
:
Michele’s romances
,
click on the covers below:
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Michele Paige Holmes
spent her childhood and youth in Arizona and northern California, often curled up with a good book instead of out enjoying the sunshine. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in elementary education and found it an excellent major with which to indulge her love of children’s literature.
Her first novel,
Counting Stars
, won the 2007 Whitney Award for Best Romance. Its companion novel, a romantic suspense titled
All the Stars in Heaven
, was a Whitney Award finalist, as was her first historical romance,
Captive Heart
.
My Lucky Stars
completed the Stars series.
In 2014 Michele launched the Hearthfire Historical Romance line, with the debut title,
Saving Grace. Loving Helen
is the companion novel, with a third,
Marrying Christopher
, to be released in fall 2015.
When not reading or writing romance, Michele is busy with her full-time job as a wife and mother. She and her husband live in Utah with their five high-maintenance children, and a Shitzu that resembles a teddy bear, in a house with a wonderful view of the mountains.
You can find Michele on the web:
Facebook:
Michele Holmes
Twitter:
@MichelePHolmes
I continue to be grateful for the talents of so many who have contributed to this novel. Their dedication and skill make my stories into what I have imagined them to be.
I am especially grateful for fabulous editors Heather Moore, Annette Lyon, Cassidy Wadsworth and Kelsey Down, whose combined efforts shaped
Loving Helen
into a story worthy of publication, and for the beautiful cover designed by Rachael Anderson. I am also grateful to Heather Justesen for her work formatting the e-book.
Much gratitude goes to my husband and children, all of whom are neglected when I am in the final stages of writing a novel. Thank you for your patience and Pepsi. Thank you for understanding (or pretending you do) my need to keep writing the stories in my head. I hope you know, I write them for you.
