Her Deepest Secret
Giving up her out-of-wedlock son was the only right choice. Still, Kate Woodward aches that she isnât part of his life. She canât heal herself, but she can help former Confederate soldier Robert Markham rebuild his war-shattered life. But helping Robert is drawing them irresistibly closeâeven as Kate fears she can never be the one he deservesâ¦.
Battlefield loss and guilt rekindled Robertâs faith and brought him home to Atlanta. And Kateâs past only makes him more determined to show this steadfast, caring woman that she deserves happiness. Now, with her secrets revealed and her child in danger, Robert has only one chance to win her trustâand embark on the sweetest of new beginningsâ¦.
âWhere is Kate?â Robert asked.
âShe is giving away most of the contents of our food basket to a woman with three hungry children,â Mrs. Kinnard said. âAs she should. Now, aboutââ
âExcuse me,â he said, pushing his way through the crowd again to get closer to the train.
He stood waiting on the platform, watching Kate progress all the way until she finally appeared. She was soâ¦beautiful to him and had been since the first time he saw her in the downstairs hallway of his fatherâs house.
Maria was right. He did want Kate to be a preacherâs wifeâhis wifeâand he didnât see how their situation could be any more impossible.
I love her, Lord.
He didnât know when it had happened, or how. All he knew was that it was so, that she was in his mind night and dayâand now he was only moments away from breaking her heartâ¦.
CHERYL REAVIS
The RITA® Award-winning author and romance novelist describes herself as a âlate bloomerâ who played in her first piano recital at the tender age of thirty. âWe had to line up by heightâI was the third smallest kid,â she says. âAfter that, there was no stopping me. I immediately gave myself permission to attempt my other heartâs desireâto write.â Her books A Crime of the Heart and Patrick Gallagherâs Widow won a Romance Writers of America coveted RITA® Award for Best Contemporary Series Romance the year each was published. One of Our Own received a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series Romance from RT Book Reviews. A former public health nurse, Cheryl makes her home in North Carolina with her husband.
Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen
your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.
âPsalms 31:24
For my mother, in honor of her birthdayâ
92 years and counting. Thank you, Mommy, for always being my biggest fan.
Chapter One
Kate Woodard stood looking out the parlor window, more than content to be in her brotherâs finally empty house and do nothing but watch the falling snow. It was deep enough to drift across the veranda now, a barricadeâshe hopedâfrom any outside intrusion.
The house was cold; a strong draft at the window made the lace curtains billow out from time to time. She could light a fire in the fireplaceâif only one had been laid on the hearth and she knew how. When she made her impulsive decision to deliberately miss her train, she hadnât for one moment taken into consideration that it was the dead of winter and she knew next to nothing about managing parlor fires, much less the one in the kitchen. Tomorrow she would do something about all thatâhire someone or...something. Now she would savor the peace and silence of the house, and it would be enough.
She had come to Salisbury, North Carolina, to visit her brother and his family in the hope that a change of scenery and the rowdy company of his adorable young sonsâtwo adopted, one his by bloodâwould redirect her mind. She was so weary of living the false life that had been foisted upon her when she was hardly more than a child herself. She needed...respite. She needed the privacy to feel all the emotions she had to keep bottled up for the sake of propriety. She wanted to weepâor not to weep. She wanted to pace and fret, if that seemed more applicable to her state of mind. She wanted the freedom to think about her own son. Her lost son. He was thirteen now, and the web of lies surrounding his birth had held fast. No outsiders knew young Harrison Howe was her child and not the child of her parentsâ closest friends, nor did they know his brother was not his brother at all.
John.
He had made a much better brother than fatherâat least before the war had changed him so.
All these years Kate had lived on the fringes of Harrisonâs life, watching him grow, being his friend but always carefully exercising the restraint it took not to make Mr. and Mrs. Howe or her own family think that she might be trying to get close to him. She was so good at it that she sometimes thought the people who knew the truth forgot that she was Harrisonâs real mother.