Page 26 of Mail-Order Brides Wishes
“Yup. We do. I’ll take you out to them one of these days.”
“I’d like that.” The truth was, she wanted to see everything and know everything about this man she’d married.
They changed direction and walked along the path connecting the two houses. Adele waved from her window. Bryn waved back. They passed the garden Addie had shown her earlier. Was it just this morning? So much had happened that it felt much longer.
The ground rose slightly. The grass beside the path had been cut but beyond were tall weeds such as she’d seen in other areas. Flint must have noticed her interest.
“I told Addie she should let her chickens roam. They’d clean up the weeds, but she said she’d sooner use the scythe than risk her chickens getting lost. That woman has a fondness for her hens.”
At the way he shook his head and sighed, Bryn laughed. “She seems like a nice person.”
“Yup. So I guess I’ll overlook her small failin’.”
Knowing he was joshing, Bryn laughed. “Where are we going?” The buildings were behind them.
“We’s there.” He set Susie on the ground. “I hope you aren’t offended by being brought to a graveyard.”
A shiver crept up her spine. Had Flint or Adele or even Jayce lost loved ones and buried them on this hill? “Whose graves?”
“This’d be Mr. Roe’s family. His wife and three young’uns. Mr. Roe owned this ranch, but after his family passed, he lost interest and it got neglected.”
“How sad.” The grass had been trimmed around four mounds of stones, one larger than the others. A doll lay on the smallest mound wrapped in a small green knitted blanket.
Susie immediately spotted it. “A dolly. Can I has it?”
Guessing there was a reason for it being where it was, Bryn caught Susie’s hand before she could touch the toy. “It belongs here. You have to leave it here.”
Susie’s eyes were wide. She opened her mouth as if to protest but must have seen something in Bryn’s expression because she nodded. “Who it ‘longs to?”
“A little girl who used to live here.” A doll and a small mound of rocks gave Bryn enough information for her to assume it was so.
“Her coming back?” Her gaze lingered on the doll.
Bryn didn’t know how to explain it.
Flint squatted to eye-level with Susie. “She’s not coming back but she would like the doll to stay here.”
Child and man studied each other then Susie shrugged. “I gots my own dolly.”
She trotted away to explore around the tree and bushes that stood guard over the hillside.
A cross stood beyond the child’s grave. Bryn moved closer. Read the bold letters. Evert Ward. The look she gave Flint was doubtlessly full of curiosity.
He nodded as he trailed his fingers along the top of the cross and answered her unspoken question. “Adele came west lookingfor her pa. Don’t know if’n she told you, but she married Jayce by mistake.
Bryn jerked her gaze from the cross to Flint’s face. “You aren’t joshing.”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
She tried to think how that was possible, but nothing came to mind. “How can you get married by mistake?”
“Seems she banged her head and lost her memory for a time in which she agreed to marry Jayce.”
“And they’re still married?” Her voice thinned at such an idea.
He chuckled softly, a sound like falling rain that washed away a layer of her uncertainty about her decision to marry him.
“He bargained with her. If she stayed and sorted out the house and made a few meals—” He laughed again. “The house was very dirty, and we were too busy working to make meals. Mostly we opened a can of beans and ate straight out of the can.” He paused and looked at her.
