Now & Then

written bulletin nailed to a post. Pim wasn’t an accomplished reader, but he’d learned enough of his letters to make out the gist of the announcement: the next morning at noon someone’s wife was going to be auctioned off in the town square.

Auctioned off? Someone’s wife?

Pim looked up and thanked God for sending such a bold sign. He meant to have a look at this woman, and if she pleased him, buy her.

Chapter 10

The next morning Jack was up and out the door before Johanna or any in the family had stirred. He saddled a horse and led it out of the pen. Then he heard a sound that made him look up and stop dead in his tracks: Rose was standing on the roof of the store, her hands stretched upward. He looked around the perimeter of the building but could see no ladder, barrel or box. The height was ten feet, maybe more.

“How’d you get up there?” he said.

“I flew.”

“Then fly down. If you jump, I won’t be here to catch you this time.”

Jack climbed on his horse and barely cleared the yard before her laughter started. He dug his heels into the horse’s ribs and bolted through the brush. So fierce was her laughter he could hear it half a mile away. Or maybe it was the earlier laughter still ringing in his ears.

“I’m glad she’s not the one in love with me!” he said to his horse.

The river crossing was a mile and a half from George and Marie’s, but the path to it was muddy and overgrown with thickets and scrub pines.

When Abby saw him she smiled.

Jack’s face and neck had been sliced by foliage. His shoulders and sides ached from the pounding and thwacking of tree branches. He climbed off his horse feeling like he’d been in a bar fight, but a fight that he’d won.

With Abby Winter the prize.

“Each time I’ve come, you’ve been here waiting,” he said.

“I always know when you’re nearby,” Abby said. “I can feel it.”

They kissed. And kissed again and again, short, happy bursts that often missed the mark and made them laugh.

“Did you also know I was here?” she said.

“I hoped you would be, but had you not, I would have whistled.”

“My father sleeps soundly, though my mother might have heard.”

“It’s best to keep our doings quiet,” Jack said.

Abby put a finger to his lips. “No longer,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

“Much has happened since last we met. And I have great good news!”

“You do?”

“Yes. I’m apt to burst from waiting to share it!”

“Then do so, please.”

Abby took a deep breath. As she let it out her eyes danced. “We’re getting married!”

Jack stood there, his smile frozen on his face.

“Who is?”

She looked at him like he had two heads. “Why, you and I, of course!”

Jack felt as though he’d been chucked in the head with a yardarm.

“What’s wrong?” she said.

“Did you speak of marriage? You’ve caught me by surprise.”

Abby smiled. “It’s the perfect time. Nay, sir, it’s the only time.”

Jack cocked his head quizzically. “But how can this be the only time?”

“My mother’s being sold today.”

“She’s…what?”

Abby sighed. “Being sold. Today.”

“Sold? You don’t mean sold. What’s the word you’re seeking?”

“The only word I’m seeking is the one I used. She’s to be sold in the town square at noon today, and that’s a fine fact.”

“Do you mean to say you can actually sell your wife to another man in these Florida colonies?”

“Well of course you can! Where have you been?”

“And you don’t need her permission?”

“Well of course you need her permission! How can you not know these things? Are you not related to Mayor