Page 5 of Valley of Dreams

She turned to look. Getting to the hill alone would be no small jaunt. She would have to come back for her trunk. Surely someone in her new town would fetch it for her.

She heard the coach roll away behind her. There was no turning back now.

“Are you ready to begin a new adventure, Lydia?”

The little girl’s eyes were on the sky. “Clouds.”

“Lots of clouds,” Eliza said. “You’ll see a lot more of the sky now that we’ve left New York.”

“Clouds.”

Eliza spun back to grab her carpetbag;thatshe could manage even with Lydia. On the dusty ground on the other side of the road from where the stagecoach had been, was another trunk. And standing beside it . . . the grumbly bear himself.

He dragged his trunk across the dirt road toward her.

“Is this your destination as well?” Eliza asked.

He nodded, taking the handle of her trunk as he reached it. His own trunk was left behind as he slung hers on his back and began his trek up the hill.

She rushed to catch up with him. “What aboutyourtrunk?”

“’T’won’t run off while I’m gone.” He kept trudging upward.

“You didn’t say you were bound for Hope Springs.” She kept pace with him.

“Never came up.”

“Which is surprising,” she said. “We talked about so many things.”

“Aye,youdid,” he muttered.

Eliza—and Lydia—laughed. “I’m glad you’re going to be living nearby.”

“Why’s that?” The man had too much hair and too wide a hat brim for her to see if he looked as annoyed as he sounded, or if the hint of amusement she heard in his voice twinkled in his eyes. She hoped he was at least notdispleased at the idea of being her neighbor.

“Why?” she repeated. “Because it’ll give me time to sort out why you act grumpy when I don’t think you actually are.”

He stopped and set her trunk down. Had she upset him?

“Begor,” he whispered. “That must be the town.”

She looked ahead out over the vast valley, a patchwork of farm fields and the occasional building. A river wound through, with a couple of small bridges crossing it. Nearest the hill they stood on was a small group of buildings.Small, in this case, meaning three. In total.Threebuildings.

“Is that all of it, do you suppose?” Her dear friend Maura, who’d sent for her to come west, had told her that the town of Hope Springs was small. But this was shocking.

“It could be hidden under a clover.” He sounded as shocked as she was.

“‘Under a clover.’ You really are Irish.”

“I used to be.” He picked up her trunk once more.

Eliza adjusted her hold on Lydia, then walked alongside him down the hill toward the town she meant to make her new home. Her hairy companion didn’t speak again. Usually when Eliza was nervous, she grew chattier. Approaching the three-building town, however, her tongue was entirely tied.

“Sweet heavens, I hope coming here doesn’t prove a mistake,” she whispered.

She didn’t consider herself cowardly, but now and then her mettle faltered. Fortunately she had a knack for rallying her courage. Her stride was sure and purposeful as she entered the town. She pulled from her pocket the written instructions she’d received, directing her to where she was meant to meet Maura.

“Walk through town to where the road forks. The house at the fork is the Archers’, and you’ll more likely than not find me there.”

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