Lone Pine Bride (The Brides of Lone Pine #1)(40)

“In Romans ten it says that if we confess our sins He is faithful to forgive us,” Seth replied. “Praying out loud is a confession.”

Hannah shut her eyes. “Dear Lord Jesus. I’m sorry for all the lying I’ve done lately and all the wrong things. I’m sorry for being frightened because I know You will look after us, even if that means us dying. I receive You.” She looked at Seth. “Is that alright?”

“That’s good,” he said. “Now you’re a child of God and you’ll go to Heaven when you die.”

He shut his eyes. “Thank You, Father, for looking after us and thank You for Hannah and that she’s now one of your children.” He paused and with her eyes shut Hannah did not see his face screw as he continued to pray. “Please bless the marriages we are going to embark on soon and please forgive us for lying about being married. We didn’t know what else to do. In Your Name, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

“Amen,” Hannah said. She looked at Seth with a little frown. “I’d forgotten about that. We were wrong to lie, weren’t we, but it could be embarrassing for Wilfred and Monica if we tell them yet and the children won’t understand.”

“No. I think we have to keep up the pretence for a bit.”

“We shouldn’t even really be here together.”

“I don’t know what else to do,” Seth said, standing and making his way back to where he had been lying. “But we’re just friends so it doesn’t really matter.”

“No.”

He lay quiet for a few minutes before speaking again. “Seth is a lucky man,” he said.

She closed her eyes. “Not really. Do you think he’ll be cross because I came here?”

“No, of course he won’t. He’ll understand.”

“Would you be cross if you were in his place? I could have gone to the Reverend’s house instead of coming here, which is where everyone else went. But I wanted to get clean before I saw Seth and I didn’t think beyond that.”

“Nobody could be cross with you,” Seth said. “I’ll explain to him how things have been and how invaluable you’ve also been. If it wasn’t for you Wilfred and his family would be dead.”

“We worked as a team,” Hannah replied.

“Yes, which meant I couldn’t have done without you. Maybe God organised it that way. You don’t have to worry about Seth.”

“You’re a nice man,” Hannah said.

“Not that nice.”

“My mother says that when someone compliments you, you should just say thank you. If they’re being sarcastic it will throw them off balance. If they mean it they’ll be pleased.”

“You said not really when I said Seth was a lucky man.”

She opened one eye to look at him. “Seth is a lucky man,” she said.

He grinned. “He is.” His face straightened. “Thank you for everything you’ve done today. You’ve been invaluable.”

“So have you.”

This time they both smiled widely before Hannah slid down a bit. “Goodnight,” she said. She opened her eyes again. “Read to me before we sleep.”

“I’ll read Psalm ninety one. That’s about God keeping us safe.” He began to read. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the Shadow of the Almighty! I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Whom I trust.’ ”

He looked across at Hannah and wasn’t sure if she was asleep or not. If he stopped reading and she was she wouldn’t say anything. If she was awake she would open her eyes and ask him why he had stopped. He paused and there was total silence. Looking down at the Bible he carried on reading quietly and his expression was pensive when he finally put it down.

Tomorrow they would go to Seth’s home and Hannah would marry him while he himself would marry Rachel. Everything would be sorted and they would get on with their lives and help the people who had lost homes to rebuild them.

Well, maybe tomorrow because they needed to help Wilfred and his family and it wasn’t fair to ask Rachel after he married her to have to entertain them. There might be other people to assist too and he was planning to travel towards Independence to check the houses there. Maybe he should have done that today but it would have been impossible to look in the dark and he rather suspected that the Reverend would stick to his word. Houses beyond Independence the army would hopefully check.

And Hannah would want to help him in anything he did, he was sure, because she was really involved with everything. She had taken on the problems of the community even though she had only been here a couple of days. And they were a good team because they seemed to think things through together, nor did she criticise him concerning anything to do with the house because he hadn’t tried to pretend with her.

She was the most beautiful, brave and enterprising person he knew, even to her cooking a meal for so many people. She didn’t mind that he was stupid enough not to remember the fish, and the cheese had tasted really good on the potatoes. Only she would have thought of something like that.

But maybe he would try to catch a fish in the morning for breakfast to feed their guests, and the children needed nutrition because they were so full of energy. Wilfred needed nutrition to help his leg heal. At least he knew how to cook fish though whether it was the way it should be done he didn’t know. Hannah would work it out too, even though she hadn’t cooked before, because she was clever.