Page 65 of Wagon Train Song
Irene continued to try until she lost patience. “Bertie, don’t you want Mama to be happy?”
“She happy. She got Bertie and you and—” He named off the entire family.
“Shoot. That’s not enough.” She swung to the back of her horse and galloped away at right angles to the wagon train.
Walt watched her. “That girl’s gonna get herself into a heap of trouble someday.”
A little later, Ruby fell back and walked beside Bertie.
If anyone could convince Bertie to change his mind, it was Ruby with her quiet, gentle ways.
“Mama and Gabe love each other.”
“She love me too.”
“Of course, she does. She loves all of us.”
“I love Alice.”
Ruby studied her brother. Then with a sad shake of her head, she grew silent and a little later rejoined Angela.
They stopped for the noon break. Gabe had decided he’d speak to Marnie. Things couldn’t end this way.
But if he moved an inch, Bertie did too.
“Marnie, please, can we talk?”
She pressed her hand to her cheek. “Bertie’s right. You’re his friend. That’s the way it has to be.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I can’t destroy my family.” Her eyes clouded.
This was as hard on her as it was on him, so he nodded. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
But he wouldn’t stop praying for things to change. For the better.
CHAPTER 17
It had been five days since Bertie had discovered her in Gabe’s arms. Five of the most miserable days of her life. When Bertie was sick, relief came when he recovered. When Norman lay dying, a form of relief came when he was freed of his suffering. But to see Gabe every day, so close and yet so out of reach, was an agony she didn’t know how to deal with.
She’d mourned before, and it brought physical pain to her heart. But this was more intense than anything she’d ever known.
Tears flowed as they sang around the campfire and she retreated to the privacy of her tent.God, why did You bring Gabe back into my life, show me how precious he is, and then take him away? Why?
“My ways are not your ways.”
Shivering, she answered the whisper in her soul.I know that, but why this?
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The words from the Bible branded across her thoughts.Can you trust Me to work things out for the good of all?
“Oh, Lord,” she whispered into her pillow. “It’s hard to trust You when my heart is broken. Hold me and strengthen me for the rest of this journey. Let us be friends even if we can’t be more.”
The pain didn’t disappear, but wrapped around it was a tissue-paper-thin layer of peace.
That peace lingered as she emerged from her tent the next morning.
Gabe was already gone, tending to chores. Bertie was also missing. He’d be with Gabe as usual. He hardly let the poor man move without following. Not that Gabe was ever impatient with him.
