Read A Place Called Harmony for Free Online Page B

Galveston ’cause Solomon gets crazier every year. She told me if I did, she wanted to run away with me.”
    Patrick was silent a moment as if listening to Shelly’s answer, then added, “I know what you’re thinking. I don’t love her and I doubt she loves me and she ain’t very pretty, not like those two stepsisters of hers. Those girls downright sparkle. Too bad they don’t have a full brain between them.”
    Patrick drove the team, plotting out his life aloud. “I’m going to marry Annie. It’s only right if she’s agreed to go with me. Harmon Ely said I’d need a wife if I take the job, and she’ll be a good one.” He noticed Shelly’s grin and added, “I know what you’re thinking: Annie’s older than me by a year so she’s probably smarter.”
    Shelly nodded.
    Patrick pulled the wagon up to the crossroads. No light shone from the direction of the Spencer house. If Annie was coming she’d be walking the path in almost total darkness.
    “I hope she comes,” he said to his silent brother. “She’s got the prettiest eyes, and did I tell you she can cook?” He tried to relax, but the fear that she’d changed her mind weighed on his thoughts. “I’m going to be good to her. Better than Solomon was to either of his wives. And I’ll listen to what she has to say, ’cause I have a feeling she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
    “I’m glad to hear that.” A whisper came out of the darkness.
    He looked down and saw Annie standing only a few feet away. “You came,” was all he could think of to say.
    She held up a pillowcase full of her things and then another long, feather-light pillow. “I came.”
    He swung off the wagon bench and put his hands gently around her waist. She was a tiny thing, barely five feet and less than a hundred pounds. Her long honey-colored braid hung down so long she could easily sit on it.
    Awkwardly, he bent to kiss her cheek but missed and touched her ear.
    She laughed and he lifted her up, saying, “Shelly wanted to come along as best man. Hope you don’t mind.”
    To his surprise, she hugged Shelly. “I don’t mind at all.”
    Then, as if she’d done so a hundred times, she scooted next to Patrick and circled her arm around his. “No one will miss me or my sister’s new pillow until they wake without the smell of breakfast cooking in the morning.”
    She looked toward Shelly. “Don’t look at me like that. I collected the feathers and made the pillow. Even if she claimed it, I figure I’d consider it a wedding gift she forgot to offer.”
    Both men laughed and Annie settled her small rounded frame between the two tall, thin McAllen brothers.
    An hour later they drove the wagon onto the ferry and locked the wheels. Patrick hugged his brother but didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. Shelly knew his thoughts. As they moved away Shelly stood on the dock, the only one watching them go. He raised his hand and held it high. Patrick did the same until the night separated them completely.
    A young priest who worked at the hospital in town married them between helping with injured drunks. No flowers or well-wishers. No rings. Just simple words and a hurried blessing. The marriage didn’t seem real, but now, as they left the last of their family behind, the truth of what they’d done seemed to weigh on them both.
    “Do you think your brother will join us one day?” Annie asked, still waving at a man she could no longer see.
    Patrick shook his head. “He doesn’t like strangers, and after tonight he’d have to cross hundreds of miles of strangers to get to us.”
    As they moved over the water between Galveston and the rest of the state, Patrick told Annie all he knew of where they were going. “Not even a train passing near the place,” he said. “Right now it’s only a trading post, but the man who owns it wants to start a town. I’ll work for two years at a fair wage to help build it, and then he says he’ll give me land.”
    Patrick brushed