Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

F R A N C I N E R I V E R S
ever managed to win a girl like Miriam?”
He laughed for the first time in months. “God only knows,” he said,
shaking his head. He sighed heavily and relaxed. “She loves me. She told me
she knew the first time she met me she was going to marry me.” Talking
about Miriam made the warmth come flowing back. “I’d watch her and
want her so much and find every kind of reason why I wasn’t good enough
to kiss the hem of her skirt. Then she came to me one dawn in my cabin.
She said she was moving in with me, and set about convincing me how
much I needed her. I didn’t have the strength to send her home.”
Angel laughed softly. “I can’t imagine Miriam being that bold.”
“She told me she learned courage from you.” He hadn’t known what she
meant then. Now he did. Angel had loved Michael enough to leave him
when she thought it was in his best interest. Miriam had come to him for
the same reasons. If she hadn’t, he would have gone back to the goldfields
and drinking and spending time in the brothels—and he probably would
have died up there with his face in the mud.
“Miriam sent me to find you. Amanda, I want to take you home.” He
meant it.
Amanda. Her throat closed, and she smiled. Another burden lifted, and
she was grateful, but it wasn’t that easy or simple. She couldn’t let it be. “I
can’t go back, Paul. Not ever.”
“Why not?”
How much did he have to know to understand and become her ally?
“There’s a lot about me you still don’t know.”
“Then tell me.”
She chewed on her lip. How much was enough? “I was sold into prostitution
when I was eight,” she said slowly, staring down at nothing. “I never
knew any other way of life until Michael married me.” She looked at him
again. “And I never understood him, not the way he hoped I would. I can’t
change who I was. I can’t undo the things that happened.”
Paul leaned forward. “You’re the one who still doesn’t understand,
Amanda. There’s something I didn’t even comprehend until now because I
was too stubborn and jealous and proud.… Michael chose you. With all your
past, with all your frailties, with everything. He knew from the beginning
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