Alone, pacing back and forth in front of her desk, Amelia had worked herself up into a good and agitated state.  She couldn’t focus on her job.  She couldn’t think straight.  She couldn’t make a decision about anything at all, not even whether to sit back down at her desk or keep up her marching.  Time stood still, though she herself found it impossible to do the same.  Ever practical, realistic, clear-minded, and in control of her emotions, Amelia knew she was none of those things at the moment.  Unlike her.  Most unlike her

The very idea that she might put herself forward as Aaron Zachary’s mail-order bride struck her as preposterous.  Harvey had to be jesting.  But then, Harvey wouldn’t.  Not about … this.  He, more than anyone else, even Gabriel, knew she did like Mr. Zachary.  She didn’t know the rancher at all, but she did like him.  Heaven knew why.  The last time she’d liked anyone, it had gone terribly wrong.  Avery Bingham had left her with nothing but open wounds and wretched memories.  For all she knew, all men would do the same thing.

Suddenly Amelia stopped pacing.  A pain hit her stomach, as if she’d been smacked with a mean fist.  She walked slowly toward her chair and gingerly sat down.  Thinking about Avery Bingham raised issues other than romance, issues that hit her harder than his leaving had—the reason he left her. 

I’m deaf.  That’s why.  I’m deaf, and I can’t talk right.

Amelia put her hands to her temples to try to ease her throbbing head.  It surprised her that old hurts could return with such a vengeance.  She might have been only a child when deafened, but she’d been old enough to understand rejection, even revulsion, on the faces of others—faces other than Avery’s.  Amelia, after a time, accepted what had happened to her.  She wished she could say the same for others.

Rising slowly, she went for a drink of water.  The cool liquid soothed her, and calmed her enough that she began to tie her scattered thoughts together.  She sat back down at her desk.  For the first time in over an hour, Amelia chanced a peek, through the revolving presses, at the front counter.  She knew Bertha Hildebrand must still be there, since Harvey hadn’t informed her otherwise.  Bertha Hildebrand and her two spoiled, misbehaving children waited for Aaron Zachary to come and marry her and take all of them back to live with him on his ranch. 

Amelia knew then with certainty that she did have to help Mr. Zachary.  Somehow, she would.  She’d figure it out.  There had to be a way other than marrying him herself.  There just had to be.