Against Her Will

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Temperance stretched and yawned as she slowly came awake. The moment she realized it was the day before Trevor was scheduled to come back her stomach tied in knots.

While she had faith that together she and Tanner could handle things, it didn't stop that fear--that slight edging of doubt--to creep into her mind. And that doubt was enough to do away with the positive energy she had tried to surround herself with the last few days.

Working side by side with the other employees on the plantation, she and Tanner had been repairing the slave quarters and fixing things up. Each and every former slave had agreed to stay on at the plantation because they cared for Temperance and respected Tanner so deeply.

Temperance was amazed more each day by Tanner. He was so different from the other men she'd met recently. She reminded him of her father, her brothers and of Robert.....

He was strong and yet gentle. He was brave and yet quiet. He didn't yell or boast or brag. He didn't use harshness or coercion to get his way. She knew he had killed men--lots of men--but somehow those murders seemed less important because they were things that, quite simply, had to be done.

Temperance wanted to open up to him more than she had yet had found herself unable to. There was still a wall between them and neither seemed to have the courage or the notion to bust it down. It was slowly driving Temperance mad but she knew that now was not the time to deal with the issue.

Trevor would be back soon and he and those men had to be dealt with before she could figure out what might possibly exist between her and Tanner.

"You're in love with him, aren't ya, child?"

Wilma's voice broke through her thoughts and Temperance sat bolt upright in bed, her eyes flying to the woman who stood in the doorway with a tray of breakfast and a knowing look in her soft brown eyes.

"Who?" Temperance demanded, laying her hand over her heart which was still threatening to beat out of her chest.

"Tanner of course, child. That's what has your head so lost in thought this morning."

"No," Temperance replied honestly. "I don't love him. Love is.... Love isn't real, Wilma. There can't be something as pure as love in a world like this--at least not romantic love. That is simply a silly notion put into the minds of children."

"I'm sorry ya think that, child," Wilma lamented as she sat the tray of food at the foot of the bed. "Though given what you've been through with Trevor I can understand..."

Temperance nodded and simply stared down at the oatmeal, sausage and peaches. She hadn't ever opened up to anyone about the time she had spent before Trevor. She didn't want anyone knowing exactly how foolish and naïve she had once been... she didn't want them knowing how dirty and used up she truly was.

"Tanner is a good man," Wilma continued. "You could do much worse."

"I'm still technically a married woman," Temperance reminded her pointedly. "I have very little hope that anyone will grant me a divorce or annulment."

"Ya have to live with hope," Wilma scolded gently as she sat down beside Temperance. "You are the one who has been preaching to us about hope and a better life; are ya saying that those were lies?"

Temperance sighed. "No," she replied. She smiled sadly at her friend, "I'm sorry, Wilma. I'm having a melancholy morning, I suppose."

Wilma smiled warmly. "We're all entitled to those now and then, child. Now be honest with me. Are ya falling in love with Tanner?"