Hope Between the Pages, Pepper Basham [best ebook reader android .txt] 📗

Oliver’s hand again underneath the table and he turned his face my way, brows rising with his increased frustration. I donned my sweetest smile, or at least I hoped I did, and the tension in those familiar lips of his softened, but not the resolution in his eyes. He wouldn’t allow his mother many more liberties.

“Where is Vicky this evening?”

My question brought Mrs. Camden’s attention back to me. Cold. Dark. Frightfully emotionless. “It is much too late for her to join us.”

Much too late? The evening barely shadowed the sky outside, but perhaps it was Mrs. Camden’s further attempt to keep me from becoming closer to the family. How could I ever breach this chasm? I offered a silent prayer heavenward for strength and wisdom.

The dinner moved forward fairly painlessly except for a few subtle comments from Mrs. Camden about my social status or my inability to appreciate certain aspects of higher society. With each, the tautness in Oliver’s spine tightened vertebrae by vertebrae, until one more statement would prove too much for his kind heart and protective nature to endure.

I attempted to refrain from speaking much at all, except to answer a direct question or to agree with something Oliver said, but as the evening progressed, Mrs. Camden grew increasingly more terse in her responses. Her expression failed to cloak her contempt as it had done in the beginning, and I knew the night boded ill.

“Have you found the gatehouse to your liking?” This from Mr. Camden, his smile too bright.

“Indeed, it provides everything we need, and since no one from the house uses that entrance any longer, we are content in our solitude.” Oliver grinned at me, an invitation to respond.

“It’s so close to town, which will be nice once Oliver is away.” I nodded my thanks to the footman who placed dessert before me. “And wonderfully near Helen’s.”

“Helen’s?” The name hissed from Mrs. Camden’s lips. “Ah, I see how you’ve survived in your chosen poverty, Oliver. You’ve fallen into the good graces of that woman.”

“Good graces?” Oliver lowered his napkin and steadied his attention on his mother. “And poverty? Mother, I have consistently saved money. I have not only the ability to purchase the gatehouse and the five acres surrounding it, but also to provide for my wife for the foreseeable future.”

“When it’s all gone, don’t expect me to offer your inheritance back. Not after this.” She waved her hand toward me. “I will not have some servant as a legitimate member—”

“It is convenient, then, that I have no wish to subject my bride to legitimacy in this family.” Oliver tossed his napkin on the table and stood, dipping his chin to his mother. “Father, I believe we’ve reached our fill.” He turned to me and offered his hand. “My dear?”

“You ungrateful child!” Mrs. Camden shot to her feet, turning the full fury of her glare on me. “And you. Are you happy with how you’ve ruined my son’s life? Stolen his inheritance from him? Stripped him of the dignity of his position?”

“Caroline,” Mr. Camden said, but to no avail.

“I made my choice, Mother, and I would do it again, without a second thought.” He brought me to his side and stepped back. “And, if my dignity is based on the status of my family, I lost it a long time ago.”

His mother gasped.

“In fact, I feel as though the whole attitude of my life has been set right in finding Sadie. The important things in life.” A laugh burst from him and his face fairly glowed. I couldn’t help but stare. “She’s the best person I know, and I am honored to be part of her life.” He looked at me, blanketing me with his certainty. “Her heart.”

I knew he loved me, but watching him stand before his mother, who despised me in every way—hearing his declaration spoken with such confidence and love! No fairy tale in all the world painted love as beautifully as this. No novel touched my heart with such an odd combination of visceral weightiness and sheer joy. Only in the pages of scripture had I found anything so beautiful, showcasing what it meant to be so loved for exactly who I was.

“I should have known long ago that you’d never amount to anything, with your wayward interests and rebellion. No wonder you’d stoop to the underbelly of society to find someone who would have you.”

Heat shot from my stomach to my face. “I’m sorry for you, Mrs. Camden, that you are blind and your measuring stick so distorted. In God’s economy, Oliver is the best of men. He is measured rightly through his kindness and his generosity and his joy. I hope to have just a portion of his strength of character and honor and goodness. You don’t even know your own son!”

Her lips curled. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner.”

“I have every right to defend him. He is mine, and his reputation, his heart, his future, is as important to me as it is to you. Even more so.”

“You’ve ruined him,” she growled out the blame. “He has no future now.”

“I believe that’s our cue to leave, my dear.” Oliver turned to his father. “Good night, Father.” He set his gaze on his mother, his jaw tight. “Goodbye, Mother.”

“Goodbye?” She pushed back from the table as Oliver tucked my arm in his and walked from the room.

“Don’t you walk away from me. You are not dismissed!” Mrs. Camden’s scream echoed over the ornate walls around us as Oliver marched us down the hallway. “Oliver!”

He kept his pace, only pausing to let the carriage driver know to meet us on the road once he had the carriage ready.

“I’m sorry, Sadie. I had such hopes since my last conversation with her.” The night enveloped us as we walked up the lane toward our castle, the sound of the carriage horse coming up behind us. “But she is determined and untouchable. I’m glad all the more that we live