Authors: Shelley Shepard Gray
The Protector (21 page)
His mother held up a hand. “Graham, sit back down.” When he complied, she said, “Now, tell me. How could you dishonor her like that?”
“I haven’t ‘dishonored’ anyone.” Too angry and confused to sit on his chair like an obedient child, he got to his feet again, shaking off his mother’s restraining hand. “What have you been telling them?”
Jenna bit her lip. Darted a glance his way, then looked directly at the floor. “Everything.”
“Obviously not.” Still feeling his sister-in-law’s piercing gaze and his mother’s confused expression, he turned from all of them and paced. “Jenna, I don’t know who you were keeping company with, but we both know that the babe you’re carrying is certainly not mine.”
“There’s been no one else,” Jenna said, her eyes wide. Too wide. “There’s been no one but you.”
Her words were so outlandish, and so very
wrong,
he felt his world tilt. Reaching for the back of the couch, he gripped the soft cushion for support. “You know that’s a lie.”
But instead of replying, twin tears rolled down Jenna’s cheeks, making her look even more delicate.
Lucy reached over and took Jenna’s hand and squeezed gently.
Next to him, his mother stiffened. “Graham?” she whispered. “Graham, sometimes it’s necessary to face our problems. . . .”
“This ain’t my problem.”
Jenna flinched at his tone and hid her head against Lucy’s shoulder.
Lucy wrapped her arms around Jenna and glared at him. “You need to make this right, Graham.”
Graham backed away, feeling like he’d walked into the wrong house. Into the wrong life.
Because he and the Lord knew the truth. He had never lain with Jenna. He’d never even kissed her! Moreover, he’d never lain with any woman, had never desired anyone except for Mattie.
But as Jenna started crying harder, as Lucy looked at him with bitter contempt, and as his mother gazed at him with pure disappointment, Graham knew the awful truth: At the moment, what he knew to be true didn’t really matter at all.
SHELLEY SHEPARD GRAY is the beloved author of the Seasons of Sugarcreek series as well as the Sisters of the Heart series, including
Hidden
,
Wanted
, and
Forgiven
. Before writing, she was a teacher in both Texas and Colorado. She now writes full-time and lives in southern Ohio with her husband and two children. When not writing, Shelley volunteers at church, reads, and enjoys walking her miniature dachshund on her town’s scenic bike trail.
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Sisters of the Heart series
HIDDEN
WANTED
FORGIVEN
GRACE
Seasons of Sugarcreek series
WINTER’S AWAKENING
SPRING’S RENEWAL
AUTUMN’S PROMISE
Families of Honor series
THE CAREGIVER
Jacket design and photograph by Laura Klynstra
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE PROTECTOR. Copyright © 2011 by Shelley Shepard Gray. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition July 2011 ISBN: 9780062092359
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062020628
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
11 12 13 14 15 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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