by Lisa Bingham
From deep in the shadows he heard the rumble of the train, heard the hiss of its engine. And somehow he sensed that Ginny meant to get on that train, wherever it might be going. She meant to leave him.
“I’m sorry, Ginny.”
The panting approach of the train grew louder and louder, filling the air with its hungry breath. Ginny rose to her feet, her eyes already slipping down the length of track to the faint headlamp appearing in the distance, but she didn’t speak.
“Please stay.”
“Nothing has changed, Orrin. I’m still the same woman I was this morning, and last week, and last month.”
“Stay. Please.”
The shrill whistle of the train filled the dawn as it rushed past them, gradually grinding to a stop several yards down the track so that Ginny and Orrin stood flush with the last two passenger cars. Except for the conductor and a bleary-eyed farmer who stumbled toward the stationhouse, the platform remained empty and cold.
The conductor eyed Ginny and motioned for her to approach the train. “Are you boarding, miss?”
“Yes.”
“Come along, then. We’re a bit behind schedule as it is.”
She took a step forward.
“Ginny!”
She waited but didn’t turn. She couldn’t look at Orrin. Not now. Not like this. She wanted to remember the way he’d been before winter had come. She wanted to remember his smiles, his tenderness. She wanted to remember his hair strewn with dandelions.
“Ginny, don’t go. Please.”
Though she told herself she shouldn’t, she finally glanced at him. “Why?”
The dawn hung around them, cold and brittle. The air seemed to vibrate with an expectant hush.
He lifted a hand, as if he didn’t know how to find the words to express his feelings. “The children need you. The house is so empty without a woman’s touch. And the chickens just don’t lay as well.”
Ginny took the conductor’s arm. Though she loved Orrin, would always love him, she couldn’t stay out of duty. If she did, she would come to accept the bleakness in his eyes and forget the way they’d once gleamed with passion and tenderness and love.
“Good-bye, Orrin.”
“I need you.”
The words melted out of the darkness. They were softly spoken, but they had the power to pierce her soul.
Need. She’d never understood the word until she’d been denied the warmth of his touch.
“I need you, Ginny Parker Ghant.”
But she couldn’t do it. Not without the love.
The conductor was eyeing her openly. He bent to pick up the portable steps, then moved to the last car and climbed aboard.
The engine hissed, puffed. She felt the shudders beneath her as if some huge beast were coming to life. Yet through it all she thought she heard Orrin Ghant say, “I love you. I love you still.”
And then she studied his face. In the weak light of dawn she could scarcely credit the misery she saw there. It seemed to echo the pain she felt.
“Good-bye, Orrin.”
The railroad cars jerked. Ginny raised a hand to wave. Orrin’s head lifted. His shoulders grew rigid and proud.
A tear fell from his lashes and coursed down his cheek. Then another.
Orrin was crying.
Ginny stood in shock. Though she’d seen a range of emotions cross Orrin’s face, they had always been cloaked by an innate reserve. Now she saw such naked grief, such vulnerability, that she felt as if someone had reached within her and yanked out her heart.
“Orrin?” Her throat seemed to close. He appeared so beaten that Ginny could scarcely believe the emotion was a result of her leaving.
Did she really have the power to affect him so strongly?
No. He hated her. He’d told her that.
He’d said he loved her, she remembered. Loved her still.
Her grip tightened around the handrail, but try as she might, she couldn’t look away.
How could she leave him like this?
The train began to creep into motion.
How could she leave him at all?
“Orrin.” The train jerked and hissed. “Orrin!”
Barely aware of her motions, Ginny grabbed her satchel and swung from the train as it began to pull away from the rough plank boards of the platform.
The shrill whistle split the silence around them. The engine huffed and panted, its wheels churning faster and faster as the passenger cars disappeared into the darkness.
Then the silence closed around them, thick and dark and cold.
Ginny wondered what she had done. Dimly she regretted leaving the sanctuary of the railway car, where she wouldn’t have to think, wouldn’t have to feel. But then she met Orrin’s gaze and read the spark of hope deep in the earth-brown warmth of his eyes.
No, she couldn’t have left him. Not now. Not ever.
Very slowly she approached him. Stopping just a few inches away, she paused and set her satchel on the ground. Her palms lifted and framed his face. When her thumb moved to touch the tracks of moisture staining his cheeks he tried to jerk away, but she held him, then wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
He remained still, then clung to her.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said over and over again. “And I didn’t mean to hurt James. I was a fool. Such a fool.” The strength left him as he sank to his knees and buried his head in her stomach.
And cried.
She tangled her fingers in the silky softness of his hair. This man had given her everything dear to him. His name. His home. His love.
His pride.
Kneeling beside him, she lifted his face. She kissed him tenderly next to each eye, his chin, then on his mouth. Their lips blended, clung. And as a result of their embrace a sweetness began to build like the warm glow of a summer sun.
Drawing back, she offered him a tender smile, then stood.
As their fingers laced together she knew that she had married a strong man. A proud man. She would probably never again see his emotions so bare, his soul so vulnerable. But she would always know that he needed her. Even if he found it hard to find the words to tell her so.
He rose, and she basked in the naked adoration she found in his eyes.
“Take me home,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Take me home.”
He held her close. For long moments they stood clinging to each other. Then, keeping her next to his side, Orrin walked toward the sleigh he’d left tied to a post in front of the station.
With each step they took he held her more tightly. Soon, as they paced farther and farther away from the platform, a balm of loving words flowed between them. Then a shimmering passion. Finally their past mistakes were left to seep, forgotten, into the cool, winter-kissed air, and they settled close together in Orrin’s sleigh for the ride home.
Home.
Author’s Note
Utah Territory became the hub of the West due to the influence of the railroad being brought through the city of Ogden. Eden Creek exists only within the pages of this book. However, on a still summer afternoon, if one has the time and the inclination to travel east through Ogden Canyon, Eden—and just a little taste of heaven—can easily be found.
More from Lisa Bingham
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A young woman makes a desperate attempt to find freedom, only to fall prisoner once again — to love.
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For years, Slater McKendrick has lived in hiding, awaiting his chance to seek vengeance against the man who stole his family’s precious jewels, the Bengal Rubies. So when Aloise arrives on his lonely beach hideaway, it seems as if the opportunity has at last been delivered to him. But while he holds her
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As the flame of passion ignites, Aloise knows that Slater remains the force standing between her and freedom. But while she cannot trust him, will she have the strength to resist her newest captor?
Distant Thunder
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Determined to make Susan his wife, Daniel arouses her deepest passions and unlocks her darkest secrets. But before they can embrace the promise of the future, Susan must confront the past she worked so hard to keep hidden.
Silken Dreams
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In games that are as perilous as they are passionate, everyone plays for keeps.
When Fiona McFee first meets the straight-laced deputy Jacob Grey, he is naked and bound in a field of foxtails. A con man’s daughter through and through, Fiona leaves him there as he swears to never forget her. True to his word, Jacob tracks Fiona to Chicago years later, and he has an offer for her that she can’t refuse: A full pardon for her and her father in exchange for her help in catching a counterfeiter. All she must do is pose as a wealthy British widow and play poker on a tourist train heading West.
With her freedom at stake, as well as another chance to outwit Jacob, Fiona must perfect her poker face as she gambles for the fate of her future. But neither she, nor Jacob, can ignore the undeniable attraction between them, and as the stakes of their deadly game soar to new heights, the thin line between inevitable danger and unyielding desire begins to blur.
Now both Fiona and Jacob have more to lose than either of them bargained for— their hearts.
Temptation’s Kiss
To tame the beast in a man, one woman must unleash her own animal nature.
Chelsea Wickersham seeks a new start. The conservative English governess agrees to tutor the long-lost heir of the mysterious Cane estate. But when she arrives expecting to find a boy to teach, she is instead introduced to a strange and terrifying sight: Sullivan Cane, a feral, uncivilized man.
But Cane is craftier than any beast. Taken from his island hideaway, forced to return to his family estate in Scotland, he strives to outwit his calculating brethren. He plays the role of wild man that they all believe him to be, but even as he grows exhausted of his savage pretense, he also discovers an unexpected pleasure in watching the walls of Chelsea’s façade crumble.
As passion sparks between teacher and student, a sinister enemy lurks in their midst, threating their love and their lives. To survive, and to be together, this untamable man must learn to act his part, and this upright woman must learn to unleash the animal inside of her.
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