Lorraine Heath by Sweet Lullaby

what the future holds. And promises given only to one’s own heart are easily forgotten.

C
hapter
S
ix
    T HE RIDER HESITATED a fair distance from the group assembled to build the barn.
    Standing beside her husband, Rebecca watched as Jake’s eyes narrowed. Then he lifted his arm, signaling the rider to approach. She felt the familiar tug on her heart, only this time, the tug was a little harder, touched a little deeper. What she was beginning to feel towards him went beyond simple affection, but she wasn’t sure it was love. She slipped her arm behind his back, welcoming the pressure of his arm as it came around her, drawing her near.
    Zach Truscott drew his horse up beside Jake.
    “Heard you were building a barn today. Thought you could use some help.”
    “We can always use a good man,” Jake said.
    “Can’t say I’m that. But I can hammer a nail into wood.”
    Leaving the group of women who were preparing the noon meal, Rebecca walked to the oak tree beside their house where Zach was lifting a ladle of cool water to his lips.
    “Must have been difficult to come here today,” Rebecca said.
    Zach returned the ladle to the bucket of water, his eyes meeting Rebecca’s. “No, ma’am. What was hard was extending my hand the other night. I wasn’t sure he’d accept it, and I didn’t realize how badly I wanted him to until he did.”
    He allowed his gaze to roam towards the barn, which was half completed. “Your husband intrigues me. You can’t begin to comprehend the amount of hate that surrounded him when he was growing up. I don’t understand why he doesn’t seem to harbor any bitterness.”
    “He’s told me a little.”
    Looking askance at her, he said, “I imagine it was only a little.” His eyes went back to Jake. “My mother hated him because he was visible proof of her husband’s infidelity. My father hated him because he saw Jake as his fall from Grace. I think my father thought if he showed God he had no feelings for the boy, God would forgive his transgressions and welcome him into the Kingdom. Ethan hated him because he was living testimony that our father was human. Ethan worshipped Father as he worshipped God, questioned nothing the man said or did. Jake’s presence shattered his illusions.”
    “But you didn’t hate him,” Rebecca said softly.
    “I hated him with a passion that made me tremble. It scared the hell out of me to know I could feel any emotion that deeply or that powerfully.”
    Rebecca was surprised by the impassioned confession. “Why did you hate him?”
    Removing his hat, Zach used the sleeve of his shirt to remove the sweat that had collected along his brow. He heaved a deep sigh. “For all his coldness, Ethan was the perfect son. I, on the other hand, was the one who questioned, the one who didn’t always do as I was told. Father took a strap to me a couple of times and I just laughed, saying it didn’t hurt. Then he brought Jake home.”
    Zach shook his head. “I can’t even remember now what I did, but Father grabbed my arm and dragged me out to the barn. Jake was asleep on the straw, looking so peaceful. My father yanked him up and tied him to a beam, jerked his pants down and applied his strap with a vengeance that my backside had always been spared.
    “When my father was done, he asked me if that had hurt and told me that in the future when I disobeyed him, Jake would get the beating. Then he walked out, leaving me tocut him down. Jake looked at me with those big brown eyes of his filled with tears and whispered, ‘What’d I do wrong? If he’d tell me, I wouldn’t do it again.’ And I told him the truth. ‘You were born.’ So I toed the line as best I could, which probably wasn’t good enough.”
    “I hope you’ll understand my feelings,” Rebecca said, “but I do hope your father is burning in hell.”
    Zach gave her a sad smile. “I’ll do you one better, Mrs. Burnett. I hope someday Ethan and I join him.”
    He sauntered off towards the