Page 11 of Wagon Train Redemption
“Before what?”
“I was thinking from when the Millers used to live in Bruffin.”
“I was only two when they left.”
“So how?—?”
“I met him by accident when he came to visit his ma’s grave a spell ago. He inquired after our family. We wrote back and forth a few times after that.” He didn’t want to talk about Walt but could see no way of getting her to answer his questions.
He slowed the horse. Ruby walked by the wagons, Hazel at her side. Carson dropped to the ground beside them.
Maybe this pair would have something to say.
Angela held the lines steady.Anyone watching her would think she saw nothing but the oxen in front of her. Thought of nothing but keeping them in line. But they’d be wrong—very wrong.
She’d glimpsed Carson talking to Irene. There was no reason for that to concern her. They were brother and sister. Had grown up together. No doubt they had a lot of memories to share.
Yet her nerves tingled.
It wasn’t like he would find out anything about her past from them. Thanks to the kindness of his parents, that part ofher life had never been revealed. Yet she couldn’t dismiss the way her hands clenched without her permission and her mouth grew dry.
Why had she reacted so strongly to his comment about marriage? She had nothing against Althe institution. But it was the thought that she wouldn’t have a say in her choice of groom. That she didn’t deserve the same consideration the Woods sisters did.
No one said that. Only her own dark memories put the notion in her head.
She was Angela Lowe. Daughter of Noreen Bigalow. Stepdaughter of Obed Lowe. She was now known as Angela Woods—adopted daughter of Marnie and Norman though, to her knowledge, no legal papers had ever been signed. Nevertheless, she was happy to accept the role and leave her former life behind.
Except, for some unfathomable reason, shadows of the past had risen up to plague her.
When Carson dismounted to walk beside Ruby and Hazel, those shadows grew larger, especially when all three glanced in her direction.
Her jaw ached from the pressure of clamping her teeth together.
The trio continued for several more turns of the wheels before Carson remounted and rode into the distance. Only then did her jaw relax and air rush into her lungs.
She hunched over, staring at the oxen’s broad rumps. Their tails switched as they lumbered onward. Patient creatures with nothing to worry about except good grass and sweet water. In fact, it was their owners who did the worrying. The oxen depended on the humans, trusted them.
Maybe she should be more like the oxen. Letting the One in control of the universe lead her.God, You are my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. In You will I trust. I will call onYou. You are worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. The words were part of Second Samuel chapter twenty-two. Pa Woods had read her the verses when he saw how frightened she’d been upon her arrival. Not knowing what to expect. Nor how she would be treated. Her welcome into the family had been beyond her dreams.
Pa Woods’s gentle voice whispered into her memory. “Angela, no matter what your life has held in the past or what it will bring in the future, God will always be there for you, ready to help, to deliver, and to save. Never forget that.”
She’d promised him she wouldn’t and had memorized the portion, often praying it back to God.
As always, the words comforted her. “I can face the future because I have a Guide and a Shepherd. Thank You.”
Another verse he’d pointed out to her filled her thoughts. “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” She smiled as she mentally gave the place where it was in the Bible. Ephesians chapter three, verse twenty. Pa had always said it was important to know the location in case you ever wanted to check the wording.
Pa’s faith was an echo of Father’s.
Peace infused her. She sat up straight and smiled, noticing how blue the sky was and taking in the dull green of the leaves on the trees they passed.
By the time they stopped for the noon break, she’d almost forgotten her concern about Carson talking to his sisters. Her past was no longer a threat. Or even a worry. She planned to walk confidently into the future knowing God was leading.
Carson strode over to help unhitch the oxen and take them to water.
She thanked him though it was a task she and Ruby had learned to do. Then she hurried to help Ma put out the food. Thanks to all Angela’s baking yesterday, there were lots ofbiscuits and cookies to accompany the cold beans and cooked venison roast.
Angela and Ruby found a quiet spot under the shade of a poplar tree and lay down on the crunchy grass.
