Free Pioneer Love: Damaged Hearts Head West: Mail Order Bride 5 Bundle by Indiana Wake Page B

right?"
    Confused, she nodded. "Yes." Why was he asking and where would this lead?
    "So, why did he not come with you?" He looked up to see the pain in her eyes.
    Seeing him watch her, she looked away.
    "It's as I said before, it would've been inappropriate for him to come along," Jolene said, averting her eyes.
    "It wouldn't have been inappropriate and you know it. I saw your face and I don't believe that’s the reason he didn't come. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but maybe you should, maybe you need a friend."
    Jolene looked into his caring eyes and saw the concern there and before she could think about it, she blurted out, "I broke off the engagement."

Chapter 6

     
    Ryan repositioned himself so he was sitting in front of her. That was such glorious news. Then he stopped himself, how could he think such a thing when she was suffering so.
    He looked at her with such concern in his eyes that Jolene found herself confessing the whole thing to him. Confessing the reason she had fled from home and the reason she never wanted to go back. Every time Anna had asked her about Jonathan it had taken all her strength to not shrink back and scream. Yet the words came easily to this stranger, this handsome man, when she could not tell them to her best friend. "I was madly in love with Jonathan,” she said thought her voice was merely a whisper, “and he with me.”
    Ryan leaned forward and there was something in his eyes that made her continue. It was gallantry or courage or something and it pushed her onwards.
    “Even though we were courting we would sneak off to meet each other and be with one another without the pressures of society and rules. A few months before Anna left to meet you, Jonathan finally proposed and we let everyone know that we were in love and soon to be married. The first month was spent happily and we were preparing for the wedding, but then he started to want more from me now that we were engaged. I kept telling him that once we were married I'd be his forever and there was no rush. I thought he understood and agreed with me but a week before I came here he...." Tears fell from her eyes and she choked up, but it felt so good to finally say out loud what had happened to her that she continued. "...he took me into the woods for some alone time, as he put it. We were sitting together having a nice afternoon all alone when he started kissing me. We had kissed a few times before but this time was different. There was an urgency about him… and he kept… even when I pushed him away and told him to stop. It was then that he.... he hit me. I tried to run, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back and then… and then…" The tears were falling in earnest now and she couldn't continue.
     
    Ryan had never felt so shocked and sick in his entire life. This courageous woman sobbed before him. It was obvious that she was trying so hard to be strong. What could he do to help? His first instinct was to find this Jonathan and to rip his head off his shoulders. But that would not help Jolene now. Softly he reached out a hand to comfort her but she shrank away as though a snake were coming to attack. He hastily withdrew his hand. "He… he...” Ryan could not say the words, could not make her hear them. This poor woman had been beaten and soiled in the eyes of society. No wonder she came out here to hide. Anger surged through him and it took everything he had to not scream and shout. “What kind of a sick man couldn't wait a month for his own marriage!” he said through gritted teeth. “I could kill him right now! Does Anna know about this?"
    Jolene sat up and taking the handkerchief he offered she wiped away her tears. "No, and I don't want to tell her about what happened to me either,” she said her head held high her lip quivering. “Frankly, I don't even know why I told you but I trust you not to tell anyone. It is bad enough that I have been soiled but if anyone found out… I could not live with