Peggy Moreland – In Name Only (страница 8)

“In God’s eyes, and my eyes, she isn’t your wife and won’t be,” he added, turning to glower at Shelby, “until you are properly married in a church.”

“But, Daddy—” Shelby cried.

He held up a hand, cutting her off. “I don’t have time to discuss this further. I have a men’s Bible class to teach.” He gave his waistcoat a tug, then marched for the door. At the threshold he stopped and looked back, singeing them both with a last, contemptuous look. “We’ll discuss this at dinner tonight. Seven sharp. Don’t be late.” Before either could form a response, he slammed the door behind him with enough force to rattle the windows and set the art on the wall askew.

With the slam of the door reverberating in the small room, Troy crossed to the window, braced a wide hand on its frame and looked down below. Shelby knew by his frown that he was monitoring her father’s departure.

She wanted desperately to throw something, anything. Rant, scream, chase down the stairs after her father and rail at him until she’d freed herself of the anger that burned through her.

But she didn’t.

Instead she did as she’d learned to do years before—she took a deep breath…another…then yet another…suppressing the anger, the frustration, until it was nothing but a knot of burning tension in her stomach.

“I’m sorry, Troy. You didn’t deserve that.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Doesn’t matter.”

But it did matter. More, she suspected, than he would ever admit. “Yes, it does,” she insisted. “He had no right to speak to you in that way.”

His scowl deepening, he closed his hand into a fist on the window frame, making the muscles cord across his bare back. “He was angry. I was the natural target.”

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