Читать книгу Sanctuary - Brenda Novak - Страница 11

AFTER RUSHING to get inside before whoever had come could drag Faith away, Hope stood in her doorway as though transfixed. It was Bonner. After so many years, she’d begun to think she’d never see him again. She’d certainly never expected him to show up on her doorstep.

He’d changed. Of course, he was only eighteen when she’d seen him last; she should have anticipated some differences. But Bonner had done more than grow a couple of inches and put on a few pounds. Unlike most of the other men in the church, his thick dark hair was neatly trimmed and his face cleanly shaven. His clothes were modern and his teeth straight, despite the fact that few polygamists ever bothered with braces. And his eyes…

Actually, his eyes were the same. Maybe that was why his presence hit her so hard.

Slowly, he rose to his feet. Next to him, Arvin did the same.

Arvin’s presence came as much less of a surprise. Hope had worried that he might crop up again, somehow give them trouble. She had not considered Bonner’s involvement.

“What’s going on?” she asked, finally looking at Faith.

Faith folded her arms in a cradling, protective manner. “I’m sorry, Hope,” she said. “I…I felt I should call Mother, let her know where I was and tell her we’re okay. She said she was really grateful I did—”

“And then she sent Arvin after you.”

“I just wanted to give her some peace of mind.”

“Your mother did the right thing,” Arvin declared, his attention on Faith. “Now you need to do the right thing. I’m your husband, after all.”

“You’re her uncle,” Hope clarified. “Nothing more.”

“You’d bastardize your sister’s child?” he cried. “Listen to her, Bonner! See what she’s become? She’s trying to make a mockery of my marri—”

“Arvin,” Bonner interrupted, his tone sharp, “calm down and let me handle this.”

To Hope’s amazement, Arvin quickly backed off. “Fine. You take care of it, Bonner. I’m just…I’m angry, that’s all. She had no right to take my wife and child away. I’ve never done anything to Hope.”

Bonner spared him an irritated glance, and Hope braced herself for whatever he might say. He was the only man she’d ever loved. She’d had a few sexual encounters since they’d created Autumn, but those experiences had been, without exception, unsatisfying and mechanical.

“You look good, Hope,” Bonner said. “But then, you were always beautiful, more beautiful than any other woman.”

“You can say that to me when you’re married to my sister?” she asked, her stomach churning with leftover emotions she’d rather not name.

“You want me to lie?”

“I want you to go.”

“Only if Faith goes with us,” Arvin interjected.

Another pointed glance from Bonner shut him up. “I know you have no reason to hear me out, Hope, but I’m only asking for a few minutes of your time. That’s all. Surely what we shared warrants that much. Is there someplace we could talk?”

Hope felt tears sting her eyes, but she absolutely refused to shed them. She’d quit crying over Bonner long ago. “I have nothing to say to you.”

“Just a few minutes,” he said. “I want to make things right between us.”

There wasn’t any way to make things right. Autumn was gone. Bonner could never restore what he’d taken from her.

But he’d been only eighteen….

Finally Hope gave a brusque nod and led him out to her back porch, where she sat in one of the two wrought-iron chairs. She would’ve offered him the other chair, but she could barely bring herself to look at him.

“It’s nice out here,” he said. From the corner of her eye, she could see his gaze sweeping the flower garden, the birdbath and hummingbird feeder.

Hope’s throat felt thick, as though she couldn’t speak. She turned her attention to the huge, colorful heads of orange, purple and pink dahlias and tried to draw strength and peace from their beauty. She inhaled the smell of moist grass and freshly turned earth. This was her haven, the safe place she’d created.

But her past had caught up with her.

“Say what you came to say,” she said, hoping for a quick release from the intensity of the moment. Her fatigue wasn’t helping.

“Look at me.”

Did she have to? She forced her eyes to meet his.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply, his expression somber. “I know I hurt you. I was young and stupid, and I’m sorry.”

Hope didn’t know what to say. She’d lost Autumn, and now he was sorry? “Not half as sorry as I am.”

“Then come home with me.”

Her heart skipped several beats. “What?”

“I’ve never stopped loving you, Hope. I’ve prayed and prayed that you’d come home eventually, that you’d come home to me.”

When she spoke, her voice was barely audible. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Things have changed. I have more power in the church. No one will mistreat you if you’re my wife. Everyone will forgive and forget, and things will finally be as they should’ve been in the beginning.” He propped his hands on his hips as though he’d thought it all out and arrived at a decision she could only agree with. “I’ve already received your father’s blessing. He gave it to me before Arvin and I came here. I want to take you home and marry you. Come back where you belong.”