Free Heaven Scent by SpursFanatic

his… other family.”
    Rafe felt disoriented, as though a
cinder block had dropped on his head. Anger warred with disbelief,
the idea too incomprehensible to digest. Then again, he shouldn’t
be surprised. Rafe’s knowledge of his father’s womanizing had kept
them constantly at odds growing up.
    “How do you know this?”
    “When I was going through father’s
things after he died, I found a deed to a house in Atlanta.
Thinking I could sell it and use the money for working capital, I
traveled down there only to find our stepmother and stepsister
living there. Father had been dead for weeks and they’d had no
idea.”
    Rafe turned away, dragging a hand down
his face. What was this madness? His father had another family? The
notion was inconceivable.
    However, if anyone could believe it, it
was Rafe. But to marry someone else when he already had a
wife?...
    Now, he could add bigamy to his
father’s long list of sins. Rafe gritted his teeth.
    Patrick leaned back in his chair. “I
couldn’t toss them out, Rafe. They had nowhere to go. I gave them
what money I had, but hell, we’re in dire straits ourselves. I send
her what I can, but how can I let Mother do without?” Patrick shook
his head, his eyes downcast.
    Rafe sighed aloud. Yes, their mother.
She had been through so much. How could Rafe risk the humiliation
she would surely face if she had to leave her home and life in the
Brahmin? How could he make Patrick suffer the same fate when he had
been carrying the load for so long?
    “I assume Mother doesn’t know…” Rafe
said softly.
    “Hell no,” Patrick replied. “And his
wife down in Atlanta doesn’t know about Mother, either. She thinks
our mother is dead.”
    Rafe dropped his head back against his
shoulders and laughed bitterly. His gut ached like he’d eaten some
of Rosa’s chili.
    He had an opportunity to solve all of
their problems. All he had to do was marry Tarin Worthington. But
to even contemplate marrying her without revealing his scars was
unthinkable. And to try to bed her knowing she would be sickened by
him was more than his pride could take.
    In another place, another time, the
bargain would have been just as Worthington said – an offer no sane
man would refuse. However, sane was not something Rafe felt at the
moment. And he was no longer an ordinary man.
    Cursing to himself, Rafe
stared at the ceiling. He had no choice. Regardless of what his
conscience told him, he had to do the impossible. For his family -
no families .
    He had to marry Tarin.
     

Chapter 5

     
    “You would not believe what my mother
told me this morning,” Kitty said, as she sat down at the petition
table outside of Templar Hall. “She said that midwifery school was
no place to meet a man.”
    Tarin laughed as she scooted her chair
to make room for her friend. They sat awaiting the start of the
women’s seminar. Hopefully, they would gain more signatures
today.
    “She told me that the only men I would
meet would be married men – and new fathers, to boot. She said if
any man was in love, it was a man with a child on the
way.”
    “She does have a point,” Tarin said,
placing an anatomy journal on the petition to keep it from blowing
away.
    The breezy sunshine was refreshing
after the abundance of rain they’d had in recent days. Tarin
wondered where the clear skies were yesterday, before she had
ruined another skirt sneaking into the seminar with
Rafe.
    “I told her this school was not about
meeting men,” Kitty continued, as she adjusted the ribbon on her
bonnet. “It’s about taking a stand, self-fulfillment, helping
others.” She patted at the hair brushing her forehead. “Of course,
meeting a good man would be nice…”
    Leaning an elbow on the table, Tarin
propped her head in her hand. “But unlikely.”
    Kitty sighed as she squirmed in her
seat. “Too true. Why, I don’t think the good Lord above even makes
good men anymore.”
    She stilled before elbowing Tarin.
“Perhaps, I spoke too