“Help me with my hair, please.”
Bronnah moves to her and begins to pin it up for her while she talks. “Three other girls are going to meet me, please say you’ll come with us.”
“Not tonight, Lizzy. I’m beat.” Lizzy is young and selfish at times, but Bronnah loves her like a sister. “Promise you’ll be safe.” Her day was spent caring for the infants and babies in the sick ward. Thinking of her baby brother, Michael, in such dire straits breaks her heart. Lizzy grabs her hand and looks up at her.
“I promise to think on your problem, dearest. Don’t fret.” Jumping up, she steps to the door, “Wipe your eyes, your nose is red.”
Bronnah laughs and nods, sighing with relief when storm Lizzy departs.
Leaving Ireland to live in England was not her choice, but her family didn't want to pass up the opportunity for her to receive an education of that caliber. English, composition, history, ancient philosophy, French, Italian, astronomy, geography, math and even music. Bronnah would have only received a basic elementary education at home. Six years is an unusual amount of time for a young girl to stay and she knows soon she could be asked to leave to make room for another girl. Most leave to get married around Lizzy's age.
"All this education and I still can't help my family." Bronnah strips to her chemise and drops to her knees beside her cot to pray for guidance, "Father, I will trust in you," she whispers before falling into an exhausted sleep on the hard cot with coarse sheets and rough wool blankets.
“Wake up!” Lizzy shakes Bronnah from her dream and stifles a giggle when she almost screams in shock.
"Lizzy! What are ya…?"
“Read this, you won’t believe it!” She shoves a newspaper at Bronnah interrupting her and jumps up, too excited to sit still.
Lizzy lights the oil lantern on the wall and whispers, “It’s an advertisement for America. The western ranchers need wives. They pay for your passage and give you travel money. Upon arrival, we are matched up. Bronnah it’s perfect!”
Bronnah sighs and shoves the paper back at her. “Perfect for you. I can’t leave my family, Lizzy.”
“That’s rubbish, Bronnah. They will thank you once you are able to send money back to them.” Lizzy begins to strip out her ruffled dress and tosses the article back at her.
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Bronnah leans closer to the lamp and reads it more closely.
"I overheard the sisters talking, Bronnah, you're going to be asked to leave by Christmas, and my family has chosen a match for me. He's forty!" She flops down on the bed with a frown.
“Oh,” Bronnah sighs and rubs her neck.
Lizzy looks at her with a glint of determination in her golden eyes. “I have some money put aside, Bronnah. I’m going, but I’d much rather do it with you at my side. Listen to what it says.” Grabbing it, she reads it out loud.
"Marriage Broker. Seeking comely wives for respectable, wealthy bachelors. Gentlemen and Landowners doing a good business, desire the acquaintance of young, intelligent and refined ladies, "that's us," from 16-25 years who are willing to make a house a home. All expenses paid."
"It sounds too good to be true, Lizzy," Bronnah says but, in her heart, she keeps hearing her mother's words. They might be going to America too. Her options here are not good in the least. Excitement hums and she watches Lizzy plop down on the cot across from her in disappointment. "However, the only offers I've had lately are from drunken Davey. It looks like we're going to America!"
Lizzy squeals and hugs her tight. “Thank you! You won’t regret it dove, we are going to have a grand adventure together!”
Chapter 3
Diving into the lake, Chase roughhouses with his brothers splashing and throwing each other into the deep water. Summer is his favorite time of the year. Perfect for fishing in the lake and swimming.
"Watch this," Chase yells climbing out of the water and running to a tree. He swings out on the rope over the deep part of the lake and drops in with a tremendous splash.
One second, he's swimming in the clear blue water at home and the next he's engulfed by a sea of blood, death, and dismembered body parts. No space is free of it. His silent scream blows the bloody water out, and it covers his soul as surely as the water covers his flesh. Nightmares haunt him, and he wakes gasping for breath and covered in sweat. He can still smell and taste the metallic scent of blood and rotting corpses as he struggled to find a spot in the battlefield of his mind that wasn't saturated by death.
Chase slips out of the house in the middle of the night and heads to the barn. Addie's eyes haunted him all day, her terror-filled gaze begging him for help, and he felt nothing. Would he have let her die? If he did, what would it mean?
At his stall, he guides his horse out and saddles him for a ride. He knows the process by heart. It's second nature to him now. The sound of boots behind him has his head dropping in resignation. "I could smell you a mile off, Pa."
“That’s just a safety precaution, so you don’t shoot me.” Dane Rivers smirks as he puffs on his black pipe, the scent of cherry smoke ripples around him.
"Funny," he snaps as he brushes the horse and tosses the pad on his back.
Dane watches
