Free Heaven Sent by Pamela Morsi

family could be a real boon.
    With these pleasant thoughts, Henry Lee joked easily with the last of the campers heading out and laughed off the most raucous jokes about his wedding night. He seemed, to himself and to all those who spoke to him that morning, a man content with his life.
    Henry Lee ate his breakfast with enthusiasm, complimenting Mrs. Bunch until he had her giggling. When Violet assured him that Hannah could make biscuits just as light, he gave his new bride a warm smile and an agreeable nod.
    Hannah was also strangely cheerful and content. It was apparently true that things always seem better in the morning. Yesterday, the idea of marrying Henry Lee Watson had seemed the height of idiocy, but today it seemed no more strange than marrying Will Sample. After all, she could be a good wife and helpmate to either man. Making a quick perusal of her new husband through lowered lashes, she also admitted that, if the truth were told, Henry Lee Watson was a good deal more handsome than Will Sample.
    Yesterday that handsomeness had seemed almost threatening. But today she was no longer afraid. Certainly, he was a man who was going to need a good deal of churching and would have to be schooled in good manners, but with the confidence of the new day, Hannah felt up to the challenge.
    After breakfast, Myrtie volunteered to help Hannah sort her things and finish packing up.
    "Anxious to have the room all to yourself?" Hannah asked her curiously as they walked to the room.
    Myrtie giggled nervously. "I'll really miss you a lot, Hannah, but I'm so excited for you."
    Myrtie gave her sister a quick hug, dropping the sheet and towels that she had clutched.
    "Now look what I've done!" she exclaimed in exasperation, dropping to her knees. "Violet wanted you to have this extra bedding and towels." She lifted an armful, shaking it clean as she deposited it in Hannah's outstretched hands, then rose to her feet with her own bundle clutched firmly.
    As the two began folding Hannah's clothes into her trunk, they giggled like young girls. Now that they were starting separate lives, the differences between them seemed to have disappeared.
    Bushed and giggling, Myrtie looked slyly at her sister. "You've got to tell me what it was like," she said, gesturing dramatically as she threw herself across the bed like a fainting heroine, scattering linen in her wake. "I want to know every romantic detail!"
    Hannah shook her head comically at her sister's antics, but couldn't conceal her involuntary blush. "Myrtie, you know it's none of your business."
    "Of course, it's my business!" she insisted indignantly. "I'm your baby sister and you've always been willing to give me the benefit of your knowledge."
    Hannah scooped a pillowcase from underneath Myrtie's shoulder and folded it, thinking of all the things she had shared with her sister. She'd taught her to read, and quilt, and turn the seams on a dress, but, being her sister and not her mother, there were some facts in life for which she had not been able to offer instruction.
    Now she wasn't able to look Myrtie in the eye. "I don't really have that much to tell you yet, Myrtie. At least not much that I think you'd want to hear." It was the closest Hannah could come to admitting that her husband had not elected to assert his rights on their wedding night. Unfortunately, Myrtie took it all wrong.
    "Oh, no!" she wailed miserably. "Was it awful then? Did he hurt you?" She clenched her fists in anger and looked mad enough to spit. "I don't care how cute he is, if he was mean to you, Hannah, I'm going to hate him!"
    Hannah waved away her sister's anger, sorry that she'd got Myrtie on the wrong track.
    "No, no, he didn't hurt me." She thought about the tender caresses of the morning and found herself blushing. "He was very kind actually, but you'll just have to wait until your own wedding night for the details."
    Myrtie rolled to her side, propping herself on her elbow with a look of disgust. "I just can't