A Love Beyond Lies: An Inspirational Historical Romance Book Read online

  A Love Beyond Lies

  AN INSPIRATIONAL ROMANCE NOVEL

  LILAH RIVERS

  Copyright © 2020 by Lilah Rivers

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  A Love Beyond Lies

  Table of Contents

  A Love Beyond Lies

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Her Unintentional Pure Love

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  A Love Beyond Lies

  Introduction

  Trapped in a terrible match, Gemma Temple tries to escape from her future husband by becoming a mail-order bride. When she thinks she has finally managed to start over, her past hunts her down and her new husband, Amos, is nothing like what she has imagined. Will she find common ground with him, or is she cursed to live a life without true love? Will she find a way out of the imminent danger that threatens her happiness?

  Amos Thompson is caught up in a lie that he needs to rectify as soon as possible. Finding a mail-order bride is like manna from heaven. At first sight, he feels enchanted by Gemma’s presence and intrigued by her different personality. Although his heart and mind are intrigued, his happy moments with her won’t last for long. Is he willing to take a step further, no matter the consequences? As his own mistakes will keep challenging him, will he endure everything for the sake of love?

  Battling difficulties of culture, while they are trying to know each other better has been much more demanding than they expected. Their efforts though will be ambushed by a threat that will almost tear them apart. Seeking God in the midst of their struggles, Amos and Gemma wonder if their desperate decisions could ever bring a happy ending. Stuck in the nightmares of their past, could they hope for a future together beyond lies? Will they manage to overcome their secrets or will they be overrun by the threats that are closing in?

  Chapter 1

  Amos ran a hand through his chestnut hair and looked at Justine with severe disappointment. Or maybe it was the other way around…

  “A lie?” Justine asked, her brown eyes, so much like his own, wide with shock.

  “Please don’t look at me that way. I’m ashamed enough as it is,” Amos said.

  “Okay, but what sort of lie? And why would you lie? That’s not like you,” Justine said, shaking her head at him.

  “I know, I know. I can’t think of another time in all my life that I’ve lied. I mean, I’m sure I’ve done it. Everybody stretches the truth from time to time and I ought to be ashamed of it.

  “But honestly, I can’t think of a time that I’ve ever done something like this,” Amos said, leaning back in his rocking chair as they sat on the front porch of their home. The sun was nearly gone and the sky was a wealth of color.

  “You still haven’t told me what the lie was,” she said.

  Amos took a deep breath and released it, ready to reveal his shame to his sister. She was the only person he really had left in the world, but he had longed to see their family continue for many generations to come. Just as he hoped that Justine would marry someday, he wanted to marry as well.

  But his desire to marry had gone way too far.

  “Some of the guys at the bank were teasing me. Saying that I’m too old to be unmarried and there must be something wrong with me,” he began.

  “Too old? Hardly! I know just as many men older than you who are unmarried as I know younger,” Justine interjected.

  “I know. I shouldn’t have taken it to heart because I know just as well that I’m a normal age for marrying. But it bothered me. I want a wife, Justine. I want to find a woman that I can love and I want to spend my life with her,” he said.

  “All right, but what foolish lie did you manage to tell?” she asked.

  He breathed in again, delaying as long as he could before he got the words out.

  “I told them that I have someone. A woman in England. I said that we’re betrothed but she hasn’t come to America yet,” he said, his face contorted with embarrassment.

  Justine’s mouth flew wide open.

  “Amos Theodore Thompson. That is just about the most foolish thing I have ever heard in all my life. What on earth compelled you to do that?” Justine demanded.

  “I told you, they were mocking me,” he said, still angry at himself for being foolish enough to fall to this.

  Amos’s coworkers at the bank in Tucson were his friends and hardly the sort of people to whom he needed to prove himself. In fact, they were always teasing one another and joking around. They didn’t expect one another to all be perfect or have ideal lives in every situation.

  Then again, they were all happily married, and each had at least one child. They had all married fairly young and of the twelve employees at the bank, Amos was the only one who was still single.

  But Amos truly longed for a wife. And for some reason, a reason that he could not quite put his finger on, he had always dreamt of a British wife.

  Perhaps it had been the young woman who had helped to look after him now and then when his mother and father started to grow ill. She was so compassionate despite being far from home and in a foreign land.

  Whatever it was that had caused him to seek this particular route for his life, Amos was now stuck with his lie, wishing that he could undo it all and go back and tell the truth.

  “I honestly can’t believe you would stoop to such a level. You’ve broken a commandment. I thought you were a better man than that. I just can’t believe it,” Justine said, shaking her head again.

  “Well, believe it, because I managed to get myself into this terrible situation,” he said.

  “What will you do when they find out the truth?” Justine asked.

  Again, Amos was sheepish, realizing that his sister was only going to be more shocked by his announcement.

  “I intend to make it a truth,” he said.

  Justine looked at Amos dubiously as if he had spoken to her in an entirely different language.

  “What does that mean? How are you going to make it a truth?” she asked.

  “It isn’t so hard,” Amos replied.

  “I think it would be very hard. How do you intend to turn your lie around? You said you have a betrothed all the way over in England. Don’t you think they would notice if you disappeared for six months in order to go to England and find yourself a wife and come back?” Justi
ne asked.

  Amos tensed his jaw, annoyed that she was even thinking about it like that.

  “I don’t have to do that,” he said.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “Because, as it happens, there is a matchmaker here in Tucson who will bring me a wife,” Amos told her.

  Once more Justine gave him a wide-eyed expression as if she had not understood a word that he said.

  “A matchmaker? One who can get you a wife from England?” she asked, apparently trying to clarify.

  “Exactly. And I have already contacted her about what I would like to find in a wife and the fact that I am wanting one,” Amos said, trying to straighten his back and be as confident as he was when he had not just been caught in a lie.

  “What sort of woman would come all the way from England for a husband?” Justine asked.

  “It would seem that there are quite a few. I believe the way it works is that this matchmaker has a sister in England who finds young women who want a better life in America. They sign up, come, and then the matchmaker pairs them with one of the men who is waiting for a wife,” he explained.

  “I just don’t understand. Who says that a life in America is better than the lives they live in England?” Justine asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they are women from the lower classes? You know in England they are very bad about that,” Amos said.

  “Sure, I have heard that, but I still don’t understand why they think it would be better here. And if she is from a lower class, what if you get paired up with a woman who has no manners at all?” Justine asked.

  Amos had thought about that, but he didn’t mind so much. He could help his wife if she didn’t know how to do certain things that were considered manners in America. Besides, weren’t the manners different? Wasn’t he going to have to teach his wife about life here anyway?

  “I’m sure it’s all going to be okay,” Amos said.

  “Amos, I think you ought to stop and think about all of this,” Justine said.

  “I have. I got myself into a lie and now I have to make it right. Justine, I am a grown man and I want a wife. I am ready for a wife. So why shouldn’t I find one? Why shouldn’t I fix this lie by making it a truth if it is a truth that I am longing for?” he asked.

  “Amos, this is a sacred covenant. Marriage is a vow made before God and man to spend the rest of your life with another person. Is this really how you want to start your life together?” Justine asked.

  Amos had thought about this as well. He had considered the fact that it was not ideal, that it was not even the sort of match that he thought would turn into true love. But he wanted to be married and he believed that God would honor the vow he was going to make.

  “I know I am marrying this woman without really knowing her first,” he began. “I know I may end up with someone who won’t arrive for another two years. But, Justine, I am ready to be married. And marriage is a vow, a commitment. You’re right.

  “But I also think that everyone who falls in love has to hold firmly to a vow at times. Everyone experiences difficulties, don’t they? So why shouldn’t I make a choice to love this woman no matter what?” he asked.

  Justine looked sad from what he could tell in the waning light, but she sighed in understanding.

  “I still don’t think you should be messing around like this. I have never known you to make a bad or irresponsible decision in your life and here you have made the biggest decision you could ever make and have done it without wisdom,” she said.

  “I know you feel that way and I can’t exactly blame you. But this is my choice. I will make my lie a truth and I will do my best to like this woman, whomever she may be,” he said.

  “Did the matchmaker tell you when she is going to come? Or what her name is?” Justine asked.

  “Right now, she doesn’t even know who I will be matched to. But she said that her sister is always looking for young women and she expects more to show up over the next few months. Apparently there are always young ladies coming and there are always gentlemen waiting,” Amos said.

  “I never imagined that you would be one of those fellas,” Justine said.

  “Neither did I. But I will have a wife now and that’s what I want. I’m ready,” Amos said.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to just introduce you to someone?” Justine asked.

  Amos smiled at her, accepting her worry for him. But this was what he wanted. This, strange as it was, worked for him.

  “You know, looking through Scripture, God used some pretty strange ways to bring people together,” Amos said.

  “Sure, but he usually told them first. Think about Rebekah. It was God who sent for her,” Justine said.

  “Do you think she knew? I know the man who went looking for her knew, but what about her? Do you think God told her to go and offer water? Or do you think she was just going about her business and there he was? Maybe it took a little bit of faith,” Amos said.

  “You can’t really equate your attempts to undo a lie to Isaac and Rebekah in the Bible,” Justine said.

  Amos knew she was right. All of this had been borne out of his mistake. But in making it right, perhaps he really could find someone worth his time and energy. Maybe a nice British lady would be exactly the sort of woman that he had always wanted.

  In Tucson, he knew nobody who held his interest and he didn’t imagine that anybody was going to show up out of the blue. This was his only option and he was going to take advantage of it. He was going to enjoy the opportunity and find someone who would make him an honest man.

  “Anyway, I hope this all works out for you. But if you don’t mind, I would really like to have my good and wise brother back,” Justine said.

  “Don’t you worry, he will be back. Only when he comes, he will be happily married,” Amos said.

  “Happily married or called out for his poor decisions,” Justine said dryly.

  Amos looked back at the sunset and rocked a little more. As the sun slipped beyond the small range of mountains, he wondered what the future held.

  Would he be happy and find the woman who made his dreams come true? Or would he spend the rest of his days stuck in a life that had been destroyed by a selfish lie?

  Chapter 2

  Gemma Temple tried her best to hold her tongue as her mother rushed her along through the shops, whisking her through London in an effort to brighten up the fashions that she wore. It was vital that she find a stunning new assortment of gowns.

  Of course, Gemma considered this to be a grave waste of money. Why would she need three whole new gowns for nothing more than days out with Lord Linton? She could hardly stand to look at the man, let alone bear the thought of being married to him.

  And with each gown came shoes and ribbons and bobbins for her hair, things that she would have been grateful for under very different circumstances.

  But to be trying to impress the Duke of Walshire? Gemma could hardly stand the man. His rudeness, his authority over her, all of it was simply atrocious for Gemma.

  He was a very clever man, to be sure. He only expressed his ownership of Gemma when her parents were at a distance and he could not be heard. Because of that, whenever Gemma begged them to release her from this marriage, they would claim that she was lying and being ungrateful.

  They had no idea that she was suffering at the hands of a dreadful man who could not wait to make her his wife because he considered her his already. A thing to be owned.

  “You ought to wear a pale pink. You look lovely in pale pink,” Gemma’s mother said for the third time that day.

  “Mother, you know that I am not fond of that shade. Why not peach? I like it better and it is close enough,” Gemma said.