Chapter 2 #2
As she nods, I hand her another piece of cheese.
She takes a small bite.
When I look across the table, Rebekah’s head is cocked to one side, a quizzical expression on her face, narrowed eyes, parted lips. She can’t see Adam, who is angled slightly behind her. He’s smirking. He’s on to me. I don’t give a fuck.
I hand Hannah a cracker next. It’s a fancy fucking cracker, not a saltine. Whole grains and shit. I feel a bit hoity just owning the strange box now that Hannah is staring at it.
Finally, she eats it. It’s obvious she’s trying very hard to control the urge to devour every morsel on the table.
“It’s okay,” Rebekah begins softly. “Aaric isn’t kidding. The Gallants have enough food to feed the entire mountain. Take your time. No one is going to take it away from you.”
Hannah nods and lifts her spoon to take a bite of soup. She moans again. Poor thing. My heartstrings can’t take this.
We all sit quietly and let Hannah eat. It’s probably making her nervous, but I don’t know how to stop that. I’m not willing to move away from her, and I don’t want to force her to talk when she’s so hungry.
Eventually, she stops shaking. Her blood sugar was probably very low.
She eats every bite of food in front of her.
It’s obviously difficult for her to control the urge to stuff her face and swallow it all whole.
I never ever want to see her this hungry again in my life, and I suddenly know it will be one of my life’s goals to ensure it doesn’t happen.
Whatever she’s been through, it’s over now.
Whoever she was with wasn’t taking care of her.
I don’t care if she’s married. Her husband is no longer welcome in her life.
I’ll see to it that her marriage is annulled or divorce proceedings start immediately.
Whatever is necessary to change her life around.
Eventually, she drains another glass of water and leans back. “Thank you,” she whispers before looking across the table at Adam and Rebekah. “How did the two of you get together?”
Rebekah giggles. “When the Gallants showed up to rebuild on their land, I started sneaking around, watching them. It felt like old times, except they didn’t know I was watching this time. Not for a while anyway.”
“And Mrs. Gallant wasn’t here to feed you,” Hannah mutters. She jerks her gaze to Adam and then to me. “I’m so sorry about your parents. It was tragic.”
I reach for her hand and squeeze it in her lap. “Thank you, Hannah.” It’s been ten years since a fire burned down our home, killing both of our parents. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, and at the same time, it often seems like yesterday.
“Dad started the fire,” Rebekah informs her sister bluntly.
Hannah gasps and sits taller, eyes wide. Her jaw drops as she stares at me again. New tears run down her cheeks.
I still have her hand in mine, and I give it another squeeze.
“You must hate us. Why would you even make me a meal?”
I flinch, frowning. “No one hates you, sunshine. You didn’t start that fire. Your father did. He was a hateful man.”
Rebekah looks down, wringing her fingers in her lap. “I feel very guilty about it, too, Hannah.”
We’ve been through this. I hate that Rebekah feels any sort of responsibility for her father’s actions.
She’s been struggling with this information since the night Richard Sharp revealed his culpability before inadvertently killing himself with his own ammunition—weapons he’d brought here with the intent of murdering the rest of us.
As if he could have possibly outgunned or outsmarted us.
Adam reaches for his wife and lifts her onto his lap. “We’ve talked about this, firecracker. You are not to blame.”
She lifts her head. “If we’d obeyed his orders to never come onto your property when we were kids, he never would have been so angry that he felt the need to kill anyone.”
Adam grabs her chin. “And you would have been even more malnourished than you were without our mother feeding you. Plus, who would have entertained us with such shenanigans if not you?” he teases.
Rebekah leans into him. She loves him so much that she swallows down the ugly pill of her father’s culpability. Hopefully, she’ll slowly stop feeling culpable. I certainly don’t want Hannah to carry any of that guilt, either.
“I’m glad he’s dead,” Hannah agrees firmly. I doubt she’s aware she’s holding my hand as tightly as I’m gripping hers.
“Have you been with Presley Vanguard all this time, sunshine?” I ask, hoping to get some details out of her.
“Yes.”
“Are you…” I inhale deeply. “…married to him?”
She shakes her head. “No. And gross. He’s nasty. I never let him touch me.”
I frown and glance at her giant belly.
She looks down and then sets a hand over her stomach. “It’s not his,” she whispers.
“So you’re not married to anyone?” I ask, confirming. For some reason, this detail is important to me. When she shakes her head, relief floods me. It’s irrational. Why am I enamored with her? I found her an hour ago. There’s no reasonable explanation for my infatuation.
Do I have some sort of savior complex? Or maybe it’s because I can tell that underneath the layers of dirt is a beautiful woman. A gentle one who deserves kindness and love. I’m oddly compelled to provide those things.
Hell, Adam fell hard for Rebekah and married her the same damn day Asher found her snooping around our property. I refuse to feel like I’ve got a screw loose for finding myself with similar feelings toward Hannah.
“I’ve sinned,” she says, looking at her lap again. As if she just now realizes she’s holding my hand, she tugs hers free and fists her two small hands together.
I have to grit my teeth so I can compose myself.
Rebekah’s breath hitches. “Hannah…”
Hannah shakes her head vehemently. “I have. I deserve God’s wrath. I had sex with a man out of wedlock. My baby is a bastard. God will punish me for my sins. I just hope he doesn’t punish my baby. They don’t deserve that. They’re just an innocent soul who deserves a chance at life.”
My chest is so tight. I want to pick her up and haul her onto my lap the way Adam is holding Rebekah, but I don’t dare. I don’t have the right to do that.
Yet.
I swallow and set my hand over both of hers.
To hell with the fact that she pulled away.
“That’s nonsense, Hannah. I’ve always known you to be a kind person.
I’m certain you’ve never done a single thing to upset any deity.
If there is a god, he is not judging you for having sex.
He has much bigger problems to deal with than people having sex. ” Am I even making sense?
She sniffles and doesn’t look at me.
“I agree with Aaric,” Rebekah says. “That’s nonsense our stupid, backward father filled our heads with.
I bet Vanguard was just as ignorant. I’ve been here two months, and I spend every day at the computer, learning everything I can to fill all the holes in my knowledge.
There’s a world of information out there.
Adam is teaching me. I’m going to get my high school diploma one day.
” She beams as she tells her sister about her plans.
Hannah cocks her head to one side. “I’d never be able to do that.”
“Of course you can, if it’s something you want to do, sunshine,” I encourage.
“How did you get here, Hannah?” I ask, stroking her knuckles.
“I walked.”
“How far?”
She shrugs. “Four days.”
I stiffen. We all do. “How did you know where you were going, sunshine?”
She tugs one of her hands free and reaches into a deep pocket in her skirt to pull out a very used, folded piece of paper. “I stole a map from Presley’s truck. It’s really old and beat up, but I didn’t figure that would matter. I studied it for weeks until I thought I knew how to get home.”
I grin. “Brilliant.”
She gives me the first true smile I’ve seen yet. “I made it home.”
“Yes, you did.” I can’t resist reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Now her appearance makes sense. She’s been walking for four days. She couldn’t have gone very fast in her state, wearing worn-out shoes and this hideous, heavy skirt.
“I was so scared when I got to the house. I thought Dad would pack me up in his truck and drive me right back to Presley, but I didn’t know what else to do. I had to try to escape, and I hoped by some miracle Dad would take pity on me and not send me back.”
I’m worried about why she fled. Aside from the obvious. I suspect something happened to make her run away. It probably had to do with the baby, especially since we now know it’s not Vanguard’s child.
I still have a million questions, but Hannah is exhausted. She needs to sleep for days. “Why don’t you rest for a while? I promise Rebekah can come over any time you want.”
She takes a deep breath. “That would be nice. I’m so tired. Thank you.”