Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
“Grateful? He treated you like a slave, took away your inheritance, your
family, everything. And you’re grateful?”
“Without all that, I might never have come to know the Lord, and in the
end, my father had more reason to hate me,” Michael said. “When I left,
Paul and Tess came with me. Tessie was special to him. Very special. And
now she’s dead.”
Angel saw the tears in his eyes. He didn’t try to hide them.
“She would have liked you,” he said, reaching out and touching her
cheek. “She could see into people.” Without thinking, Angel put her hand
over his, moved by his sadness. His smile made her heart twist. “Oh,
beloved,” he said. “Your walls are coming down.”
She took her hand away. “Joshua blowing his horn.”
He laughed. “I love you,” he said. “I love you very much.” He drew her
into his arms and lay back with her in the grass. Rolling her beneath him, he
kissed her gently at first, then more thoroughly. She felt a quickening inside
her, a soft, warm curling in her belly, yet she felt neither threatened nor
used. When he drew back slightly, she saw the look in his eyes. Oh.
“Sometimes I forget what I’m waiting for,” he said huskily. He stood,
drawing her up with him. “Come on. I’ll hitch up the horses.”
Bemused, Angel folded the blanket and put the basket back beneath the
seat. Resting her arms on the side of the wagon, she watched Michael bring
the horses back. There was power in the way he moved. As he harnessed
the horses, she watched the strength of his shoulders and hands.
Straightening, he turned to her. He lifted her to the high seat and stepped
up beside her. When he took the reins he smiled at her, and without the
least hesitation, she found herself smiling back.
It began to rain as they traveled. Michael stopped to put up the canvas
while she wrapped herself in the blanket. When he sat with her again, he
put a second blanket around them both. She felt comfortably snug next to
him.
Five miles down the road, they came upon a broken-down covered
wagon. A haggard man and woman were trying to raise it enough to put on
a repaired wheel. Nearby, sheltered beneath a massive oak, a dark-haired girl
hugged four small children around her.
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