Remember Me - Regency Brides 03 by Kimberley Comeaux

found the whole exchange ridiculous.
    Soon they were both laughing.
    "I don't know what is so funny," Josie huffed as she stood up from her chair. "If you don't want the horses, I'l take them!"
    That just made them laugh harder.

Chapter 8
    It was with great excitement that Helen and the Baumgartner family dressed for church the next morning. In fact, the whole area was abuzz with anticipation of final y having church services and their very own pastor. Weddings would not have to be delayed, and funerals could final y be done properly, with a minister presiding over them instead of someone just reading scriptures. There had been no one for spiritual guidance and no one qualified to go to for clarification on certain scriptures.
    Among the females in the area, however, their excitement was not focused so much on the spiritual benefits but rather on the fact that he was young, single, and extremely handsome. Helen didn't real y want to listen to that particular rumor from Imogene as they walked into the church, but there was plenty of evidence to support it when they entered and saw every female in the church dressed fancier than Helen had ever seen them.
    Helen was amazed at the elaborately decorated bonnets that al seemed to match their frocks perfectly. It was almost like being transported back to London, so stylish they al looked. She glanced down at her own gown, which was nice with its pink flowers at the bodice and flowing cream taffeta below the high waist, yet it wasn't as stylish and wel made as most of the dresses in the room. Even her bonnet, though one of her finest, seemed dowdy in comparison.
    These were like al the society ladies whom North was used to being around in England. Would the sight of them jog his memory?
    As she thought of North, she looked around but was unable to see him among the twenty or so people there in attendance. Helen took her seat beside the Baumgartners in one of the middle rows. It was then that she saw North enter the church from the side door by the pulpit.
    She was only able to partial y see his face as he took a seat in the front pew, and she wondered why he didn't look about the room at al . In fact, he seemed a little tense as he faced forward, not speaking to anyone.
    Helen glanced to her side, and Josie, too, seemed to be studying North's strange behavior. But before Helen could whisper anything to her young friend, Ol ie Rhymes, the self-appointed hymn leader from the Hil plantation cal ed for everyone to stand and turn to hymn number twenty-three. It was then that Helen noticed the handmade booklet with words to songs written out in plain script and tied together with a heavy string. Since she was sitting on the end and there was only one booklet per pew, she was unable to sing the words to the unfamiliar song. It real y didn't matter because poor Miss Ol ie sang like an injured house cat, and since she was hard of hearing, her volume was one of gargantuan proportions.
    Though Josie was al but holding her ears as she grimaced with mock pain, Helen barely gave Miss Ol ie a glance, her gaze stil fixed on North.
    What is wrong with him? .
    "What's wrong with him?" Josie echoed her thoughts, talking louder than a whisper as she tried to make herself heard over the caterwauling: Helen noticed the disapproving frown from Imogene directed at her daughter, so she just shook her head in lieu of an answer. .
    Final y Miss Ol ie ended the song, and Helen could almost hear the audible prayer of thanks from everyone in the smal church as the petite, elderly woman stepped down from the pulpit.
    Miss Ol ie smiled and nodded toward North, giving him his cue that It was his turn. Apparently he didn't know the cue. North just sat there, and after a few seconds, the congregation started whispering and moving around. What was wrong with North?
    Final y Miss Ol ie apparently got tired of standing there and smiling at him. She went over to him, slapped him on top of his shoulder, and said, "It's