Beloved Counterfeit Read Free Page B

apron strings as she cast a furtive glance at the fellow now standing with pants wet halfway to the knees from the surf. So she had the worrisome habit of forever keeping watch. Life had taught her that things happened when she looked away. Bad things.
    If only she’d kept watch that night when Tommy thought to choose her bed over Opal’s. For once, he had been the one who would bear the scars—not her.
    She threw another glance toward the horizon; then, as if she were more interested in the weather, she turned her attention to the sky. Puffs of white cotton waltzed across a sky as blue as the girls’ eyes.
    The girls.
    Her heart caught in her chest as it did whenever she thought of them. Right now, twins Carol and Maggie would be learning their letters and numbers from Miss Emilie—Judge Spencer’s new wife—at the new schoolhouse. Smart as whips, those two, and quick to fit in with their adopted home.
    Ruby smiled to think of Tess at the parsonage, helping the reverend’s wife entertain her grandbaby. How much help a four-year-old could be was questionable, but Mary Carter seemed to thrive on having the little girl underfoot. Tess, too, had blossomed under the Florida sun.
    “Well, what do you know?” Micah Tate drawled. “I’ve witnessed a miracle.”
    She looked his way but didn’t respond.
    “Yes, indeed,” he said as he fitted his cap back in place. “I saw a genuine miracle just now.” He laughed, deep peals of humor that rumbled as they rose. “Indeed,” he said a moment later, “had you been standing where I am, you’d say the same thing.”
    “I’ll not play your game, Mr. Tate,” she said.
    He grew somber. “No, I should’ve known you wouldn’t.”
    A nod of good-bye would have to be sufficient, she decided as she felt her apron pocket for the sand dollar. By the time she’d made her way past him, Ruby had already redirected her thoughts to the noonday meal and what she’d be serving with the stew.
    The diversion served her well. By the time she’d decided on warming last night’s bread and slathering it with fresh jam to go along with the stew, Ruby had all but forgotten her worries.
    Not forgotten, exactly, but she’d certainly shoved them to that dimly lit part of her memory where only the occasional shaft of light and remembrance pierced the darkness.
    “Miss O’Shea?” Mr. Tate loped up to join her, his pant legs rolled to the knees and his boots in hand. “Aren’t you curious as to the miracle I saw?”
    She picked up her pace and counted off the ingredients for the pie she’d bake this afternoon. Soon the larder would need to be refilled. Thankfully, Mrs. Campbell had trusted Ruby with the household account while she was away visiting her daughter on the mainland. Without the ability to purchase what she needed, the boarders would soon be doing without most everything except the fruit that grew readily on the trees in the side yard and the scrawny chickens that ran about like they owned the place. Humility rolled over Ruby in waves as she thought of the dear woman who knew the ugly truth of her past and trusted her anyway.
    “Really, Miss O’Shea. I don’t recall meeting another woman with less natural curiosity.”
    Ruby sighed. Truly the man was too much. “I fear it’s a natural state for me. It was beat out of me as a child.”
    Realizing she had said the words out loud, Ruby froze. By degrees, blinding anger replaced abject humiliation.
    Anger for speaking aloud what should have been kept private.
    Anger at the Lord for blinking when He promised not to.
    Her feet began to move, and Ruby could only follow. A slow walk became a trot and then an all-out race to find her way back to the boardinghouse and safety.

Chapter 3

    Micah stopped to fully appreciate the beauty of the woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day. Blue skirts the color of a noonday sky fought the sea breeze but did not slow Miss O’Shea’s progress as she vaulted over the sand with the