Chapter One Lillian Clark slipped a clothes pin from her apron pocket and fastened a bib on the clothesline. A secret smile tipped her lips as she thought of the newest edition to their family. Of all her siblings, baby Dara was the sweetest of them all. She stared off unseeingly across the valley, a wistfulness filling her heart. How she longed to have a husband and children of her own! A sigh slipped from her as she returned to hanging the family laundry. At twenty years of age, she realized the improbability of her ever marrying. She touched her forehead, her hand gliding gently down her temple and her cheek to the tip of her earlobe. Regardless of how many times her mama and papa told her she was beautiful, her heart grieved over the knowledge that no man would ever look past the red marks on her face to see the heart inside her longing to love and be loved. The sound of hooves drew her attention to the horizon. Sean McMillan. Their nearest neighbor and the only man who ever set her heart to beating faster. Of course, he did not know that. Even her mother did not know. It was a secret she kept hidden in her heart. Sean rode across the valley, his broad shoulders and arms of brawn shouting his masculinity across the airwaves. Her cheeks pinked at the turn of her thoughts. She dropped her gaze and took a deep breath, steadying her nerves at his approach.
He slowed his horse to a trot and dismounted in a fluid motion before stepping toward her. “Good morning, Lass. ‘Tis a beautiful day, is it not?”
“Good morning, Mr. McMillan. ‘Tis a beautiful day, indeed.” Odd that he stopped to talk to her. He normally went straight to the barn or the front porch in search of her papa.
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Linnette R Mullin