Remember Me - Regency Brides 03 by Kimberley Comeaux Page B

and North had to wonder if God wouldn't mind the lie so much since they were only trying to be nice.
    Final y Helen was standing before him, giving him a smile that could only be described as one borne out of pity. Splendid, he thought grimly. The woman for whom he carried great affection felt sorry for him.

    "You did it!" she whispered with encouragement. "It can only get easier from here."
    North didn't feel quite so optimistic, but he did manage to murmur, "Thank you."
    "You read real y fast," Josie offered. She was wearing the same expression as Helen. Helen nudged the younger girl and scolded,
    "Don't say that, Josie. He read quite nicely."
    "I was trying to compliment him!"
    North stemmed whatever Helen was about to say by stepping up and putting his hand on Josie's shoulder. "Thank you, Josie. You are very sweet," he told her, touched that she, too, was trying to help him feel better.
    The sermon real y must have been appal ing.
    "Reverend Campbel ! Wil you join us for our noonday meal?" Imogene asked, coming up behind Helen and Josie. "We have invited the whole church to come and picnic with us on our plantation." There was nothing North wanted to do less than be around the congregation, but he saw no way to bow out graciously. "Of course I'ljoin you."
    "Excel ent!" Imogene exclaimed with a smile. "Then would you mind taking the barouche with Josie and Helen? I'l ride with my husband in our carriage."
    He told her he would, and when everyone had exited the church, he closed it up and headed for the barouche, where Helen and Josie sat waiting for him.
    Helen's face blossomed into a breathtaking smile when she saw him. North suddenly didn't care that he had embarrassed himself or that he would stil have to face his congregation once again.
    He was about to spend another day with Helen.
    Nothing else mattered.
    ~
    All through North's sermon, Helen couldn't help feeling responsible for putting him through the whole tedious ordeal. She felt such admiration for him because, even though he didn't know what he was doing, he was wil ing to give it his best efforts. In fact, Helen realized now that she hadn't real y known North at al back in England. She had only been taken with his good looks and charming ways.
    She had never seen. the giving, carrying person who was nervous about public speaking and so determined to do what he thought was right-to be the man everybody thought he was even though he didn't feel like Hamish Campbel .
    He was truly a good, decent man. A wonderful Christian man.
    She didn't deserve him, but she couldn't tel him that. She couldn't tel him any of the truths she, and only she, knew to be true, because it would not only hurt him but everyone she respected in Golden Bay.

    Helen felt terrible she had let things go this far. When she first thought of lying to him, she never stopped to consider the consequences. All of her reasoning was based on herself.
    Now all she thought of was North. Every night she prayed not that God would forgive her but that. He'd help her find a way of helping North get his memory back without hurting him too much in the process.
    Unfortunately it sounded like an insurmountable task.
    "Al right, ladies. you are being too quiet, and Josie keeps smiling politely at me as if she's been instructed to do so," North said suddenly, breaking the long silence as they rode toward Golden Bay plantation. "Why don't you just give me your honest opinions? Trust me, it could be no worse than what I have already thought of myself."
    "Wel ..." She hesitated, desperately trying to think of something positive to say.
    "You have a very nice voice for speaking. It's deep and very pleasant to listen to."
    North threw her a look that told her he knew she was evading the question.
    "Wonderful! I read swiftly, and I have a pleasant voice. Anything else?"
    "You could use some practice," Josie told him bluntly, making Helen groan with embarrassment. "Wel , it is the truth, and that is what he asked for