The Mountain Girl by Emma Payne Erskine Chapter 21 Page 11

“Dear heart, dear heart! What are you thinking and fearing? Can’t you understand? You are mine now, to be cared for and loved and held very near and dear to my heart. We are no more twain, we are one.”

“Yes, but — but — David, I — I want you to need me,” she sobbed, and he knew some thought was stirring in her heart which she could not yet put into words. He comforted her and soothed her, explaining certain plans which later he put into execution, so that her duties at the Fall Place were brought to an end and he could have her always with him.

A daughter of her Uncle Cotton, who had gone down into South Carolina to live, was induced to come and stay with the widow, and the girl’s brother came with her and helped David on the farm.