Thurston House by Danielle Steel Page B

first time he had laid eyes on her, but what he said now could affect the rest of his life and it was essential that he weigh each word more carefully than gold. But I must tell you, sir, I am almost three times her age.
    Surely not that much ' Orville Beauchamp looked only faintly perturbed.
    I am forty-three years old. She is seventeen. I would think that an age difference such as that would be repugnant to her. In addition, I live some twenty-five hundred miles from here, in a place far less sophisticated than this. You spoke of introducing her to the aristocracy of France. ' I am a miner, sir ' I live a simple life, in an empty house, ten miles from the nearest town. It's hardly an exciting life for a young girl.
    If that were the only thing stopping you, you could move to town. To San Francisco. There's no reason why you couldn't run your mines from there. They're established by now. You couldn't be here if they were not. Jeremiah had to concede that that much was true. You could build her a house in town, and she'd get used to your country life in time. He smiled. It might even do her good, sometimes I think her life is too frivolous here, although I have to confess, I'm partially responsible for that. I don't like her to be bored, so we take her to balls a great deal of the time. But your life might do her good. Camille's father knit his brows. But that's not the point. The real point is, could you care for her?
    Jeremiah Thurston felt a breath whistle through his lungs, as though it might be his last. I never thought to hear myself say this, sir, but I think there is a distinct possibility that I already do. In truth, I don't even understand what I feel for her, and I've been fighting it since we first met, if for no other reason than out of respect for you. She's barely more than a child, a young girl, and I am a great deal too old for this. I have a simple, quiet life, as I said, and I've long since given up such dreams. ' And yet he had met Amelia on the train, and she had touched a place in his soul, and before that he had watched John Harte's boy die in his arms ' and suddenly, for the first time in twenty years he wanted something he had never had before, a wife to love, and a child of his own ' something different than just coming home to Hannah every night, and Saturday nights with Mary Ellen Browne ' and suddenly there was Camille, like a vision in a dream, the embodiment of all that he had never had, or even thought he would' . Something's happened to me in the past week it was all he could say and I need some time to think about it. He wasn't sure what he felt anymore, after Amelia and now this.
    Orville Beauchamp did not look displeased. She's too young now anyway. And I don't want you to say anything to her.
    Jeremiah looked shocked. I had no intention of doing so, sir. I need some time to think myself. I would like to see what happens when I return to my everyday life, my empty house, my mines. He sighed, suddenly it sounded desperately lonely to him. Suddenly he felt as though he needed her there. And he had never felt that way about anyone before ' not since Jennie ' or even then. ' I don't know what I feel for her. Right now, I would ask you for her hand tonight his voice was deep and gruff with the power of what he felt for her but I want to be sure I'd be doing the right thing for both of us. How old is she now? Suddenly his mind was blank, all he could think of were her eyes, her arms ' her lips' .
    Seventeen.
    I will return in six months to ask you for her hand, if that still seems wise to me then. If not, I will advise you long before that. I will come to Atlanta, if you still agree, and ask her to marry me, then I will return again in six months and take her with me.
    Why so long? Why not just take her back with you six months from now, if that's what you decide?
    I want to build her a decent house in town, if she agrees to marry me. I owe her that much at least. Rest assured, Beauchamp, if I