Free Love Finds a Home (Anthologies) by Wanda E. Brunstetter Page A

take the time to talk things out.
     
    Glenna found a seat inside the train station, where she would wait with their luggage while David went to the livery stable for a wagon. Butterflies played tag in her stomach whenever she thought about the days ahead. Would she and David ever be able to communicate? Could she find the courage to tell him what was truly in her heart? Would their pasts always lie between them like a barbed wire fence, or could they use those terrible things to build a firm foundation for their marriage and David’s ministry?
     
    Glenna’s head jerked up when David touched her arm. “Ready to go?”
     
    She offered him a hesitant smile. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
     

     
    David loaded their suitcases and the supplies he’d purchased for the trip into the back of the wagon, then covered it all with a canvas tarp. He went around to help Glenna into her seat, but to his surprise, she was already sitting there with a strange look on her face. He cast her a sidelong glance as he climbed into his own seat and took up the reins. “All set?”
     
    She merely nodded in reply.
     
    They rode without conversation for nearly an hour, the silence broken only by the steady clip-clop of the horses’ hooves over the rutted trail leading them northward. The warm afternoon sun beat down on their heads, and David began to pray for traveling mercies on this trip which would take a day and a half.
     
    “The landscape here in Idaho is much different than the plains of Nebraska,” Glenna said, breaking into David’s prayer.
     
    “That’s right. Lots of tall, rugged hills surrounding the area.”
     
    A gentle sigh escaped her lips. “I’ve never been this far west. It’s beautiful.”
     
    He smiled. She liked the land. That was a good sign. Yes, a very good sign.
     

     
    “Will you tell me about your past now?” Glenna asked suddenly. If their marriage was ever going to work, she really did need to know more about this husband of hers, even if it wasn’t all to her liking.
     
    David tipped his head. “I suppose it is time I tell you.”
     
    Glenna leaned back in her seat, making herself as comfortable as possible, while David began his story. “I was born in Ames, Iowa. When I was sixteen, my parents and younger brother, Dan, were killed.”
     
    “What happened?”
     
    “There was a fire. Our whole house burned down, and they were all inside.”
     
    Glenna gasped. “How awful! Were you in the house too?”
     
    He shook his head. “I was spending the night at my cousin Jake’s. I didn’t even know about the fire until the next morning. I came home expecting some of Mom’s delicious buttermilk flapjacks for breakfast. Instead, I found nothing but the charred remains of what used to be our home.”
     
    Even from a side view, Glenna could see the grief written on David’s face. The tone of his voice was one of regret, too. She knew what it felt like to lose both her parents and a little brother. She and David had that much in common.
     
    “What did you do after you found your house burned and knew your family was gone?” she prompted, laying a hand on his arm.
     
    David gripped the reins a bit tighter, and a muscle in the side of his cheek began to twitch. “I lit out on my own, and I never went home again.”
     
    Glenna’s mouth fell open. “But you were only sixteen. How did you—”
     
    “Support myself?”
     
    She nodded.
     
    “I learned the fine art of gambling,” he replied tersely. “I traveled from town to town, cheating people out of their money, lying, stealing, cursing the day I’d been born, and blaming myself for my family’s deaths.”
     
    “How could you be held accountable for that? You said you weren’t even at home when the fire started.”
     
    David blew out a ragged breath. “I didn’t start the fire, but if I’d been there, I might have saved a life or two.”
     
    She studied him intently. “Maybe you would have been killed, too. Have you