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amazed at the changes she’d found in him as he was in her. The tall, stick-thin boy had become a tall, broad-shouldered man. While he’d held her with tender care as they climbed the hill to this house, there had been strength in his arms.
    Sadly, her brother was a stranger to her in many ways. The letters they’d exchanged over the past eleven years had been few and far between. He was a poor correspondent, and she little better. Now she needed to know him, needed to know that he was the kind of man who could love her son.
    Pain sliced through her abdomen. A pain that was familiar to her by this time. A cancer, the doctor had told her. A growing tumor. One that couldn’t be stopped.
    Let me have long enough, Lord. Let me make certain Todd will be all right. Please .

4
    Back home in Virginia, Shannon had known all of the fine families who were members of her father’s congregation. She had gone to school with many of the daughters. She had been courted by some of the sons. And of course she had become engaged to Benjamin Bluecher Hood, the handsomest young man in the county. But here in Grand Coeur, she knew no one, save for the Wells, Fargo stagecoach driver and the gentleman who’d met them upon their arrival.
    As she sat in the chair near the small pump organ, she watched people coming into the sanctuary, wondering who they were and what had brought them to this town. The vast majority were men—and not the sort one would deem gentlemen. They were a rough-hewn lot, many with scraggly beards that begged for a trim. The few women who passed through the church doors wore plain, everyday dresses.
    But who was she to judge? Her own dress could hardly pass for the latest fashion. Not after three years of war and the blockades that had closed the Southern harbors.
    Shannon closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, a wave of homesickness washing over her. She hadn’t known it would be this hard to be away from Virginia, that it would hurt this much, that she would feel so alone.
    “Shannon,” her father said softly.
    She opened her eyes and saw him tip his head toward the organ.
    She quickly moved to the bench and waited for his signal, as she’d done hundreds of times before.
    “Welcome.” Her father spread his arms wide, as if to embrace every member of his new congregation. “Please stand with me and sing ‘Rock of Ages.’”
    At her father’s slight nod, Shannon began to play. The organ was new, just as everything else in the church was, and it played beautifully.
    She was thankful for that, for it drowned out the off-key voices that peppered the sanctuary. Father liked to remind her that the Lord loved a joyful noise raised in praise equally as much as He loved a song that was pitch-perfect.
    At the close of the hymn, she returned to the nearby chair, took up her Bible, and placed it on her lap.
    Her father’s sermon that morning was on the importance of trusting in the Lord no matter the storms that buffeted His children. Shannon tried to listen, tried to take his teaching to heart, but her thoughts insisted upon wandering as her gaze scanned the motley congregation before her.
    She stopped when she recognized Matthew Dubois in the last pew. It surprised her, seeing him there, a woman and boy by his side. Then she remembered his sister and her son had been expected. That must be them . Yes, there was some resemblance between Matthew and the younger woman, although the sister exhibited none of Matthew’s robust health. Even from where she sat Shannon could see that. What was wrong with her? What treatments had the doctors prescribed? Perhaps if she consulted one of her books on nursing—
    Her father’s voice raised to emphasize a point, and it pulled Shannon’s attention back where it belonged. Thank goodness she hadn’t missed his cue for the closing hymn.

    Matthew hadn’t been keen on coming to church that morning. Not because he didn’t want to be there, but because he’d thought Alice should