A Virtuous Ruby (25 page)

She stopped walking and turned to him. “All I needed was love.”

Adam spanned his hands on her small waist and bent down to kiss her. “And you have love, Mrs. Morson.”

“And I thank God for it. Every day.” Ruby reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck and they really did kiss this time. The happy cheers and applause of their family sounded in the distance.

Leaving his life in God’s hands had led him to his heart’s desire. When he touched the soft black hair of his Ruby, it was hard to imagine anything better than the here and now with Ruby and their beautiful son.

Maybe there would be other children, and the notion thrilled him all over again. There was always more room for love. God made love possible, and it delighted him so much to know all about it.

Author’s Note

The infamous movie,
The Birth of a Nation
, is now one hundred years old. Still it usually took a longer time for such an eventful cinematic movie to be shown in a small town. It wouldn’t have shown in Calhoun until later, as in 1916.
The Birth of a Nation
was quite an event, but I needed that movie so that Adam could see Ruby’s frustration at the racial portrayals in it. I appreciate your indulgence.

Several texts inspired me to write this story. I had always wondered what would happen if Thomas Hardy’s
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
met up with James Welson Johnson’s
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
. In the pages of
A
Virtuous Ruby
, it was fun and satisfying for me to imagine a happier ending for my characters than Hardy or Johnson did.

Some of the books that helped me were:

One Drop
by Bliss Broyard

Plum Bun
by Jessie Fauset

A Chosen Exile
by Allyson Hobbes

At the Dark End of the Street
by Danielle McGuire

Passing Strange
by Martha Sandweiss

The Warmth of Many Suns
by Isabelle Wilkerson

About the Author

Piper G Huguley, named the 2015 Debut Author of the year by Romance Slam Jam, is a two-time Golden Heart
®
finalist and the author of “Migrations of the Heart,” a five-book series of inspirational historical romances set in the early 20th century featuring African American characters. Book one in the series,
A Virtuous Ruby
, won the Golden Rose contest in Historical Romance in 2013 and was a Golden Heart
®
finalist in 2014. Book four,
A Champion’s Heart
, was a Golden Heart
®
finalist in 2013. Huguley is also the author of the “Home to Milford College” series. The series follows the building of a college from its founding in 1866. On release, the prequel novella to the “Home to Milford College” series,
The Lawyer’s Luck
, reached #1 Amazon Bestseller status on the African American Christian Fiction charts.

Piper blogs about the history behind her novels at
www.piperhuguley.com
. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son.

Look for the next installment in the Migrations of the Heart Series by Piper Huguley

Coming Soon:

A Most Precious Pearl

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

A Virtuous Ruby

Copyright © 2015 by Piper Huguley

ISBN: 978-1-61922-741-5

Edited by Latoya Smith

Cover by Kanaxa

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: July 2015

www.samhainpublishing.com