The Revealing Read Online Free PDF Page B

just looking out for her. Her buggy horse Flash was long past retirement age and could only be used for short trips around town. He couldn’t even stand and wait during church with the other horses because it made his joints too stiff.
    “Now’s as good a time as any,” he said.
    Side by side, they walked to the barn, the morning frost crackling beneath their shoes. Galen stopped by the oats bin and scooped up a handful, then slid open the door to Silver Queen’s stall and offered her the oats. With his other hand, he stroked the horse’s long neck and absently combed hisfingers through her mane. That was one of Galen’s ways, Rose realized. He taught a horse to trust him by giving her what she loved best: a handful of honeyed oats and a loving touch. In return, the mare gave him her best.
    In the stall next door, Silver Queen’s colt pricked up his ears, whinnied and stamped his foot, snorted, then tried to wedge his nose between the stall bars, eager for attention. Or oats. Or both. Rose stood by the colt’s stall and let him nuzzle her hand.
    Galen looked up. “Soon, it’ll be time to get that one started.”
    “Oh, but he’s young yet. Scarcely a year.”
    Galen slipped a bridle over Silver Queen’s head. “Too young to pull weight, but not too young to condition to traffic.”
    Rose ran a hand over the colt’s velvet nose.
    Galen tossed the lead line over Silver Queen’s neck and came back outside the stall. “Rose, I’d like to talk to the bishop. Make it formal, set a date for our wedding.”
    She looked at him in surprise. “I thought we could wait until Tobe is released from jail. It shouldn’t be much longer.”
    “Why do we need to wait?”
    “There’s so much that needs to get figured out first.”
    “Like what?”
    She could feel his gaze. She glanced at him and found him watching her with concern from beneath the brim of his black hat. “Where we’ll live, for one. If we live in your house, what should I do about the inn? A guest is due in tonight. And I’m starting to take reservations for the summer. And who will care for Vera?” She took a few steps away. “But if we live at Eagle Hill, then what about your house? What about Naomi?”
    “Naomi has a lot of options. Besides, the houses are only fifty yards apart. Hardly a difficult thing to navigate.”
    “Then there’s Bethany. She’s counting on Jimmy Fisher to propose soon.”
    “Really?” His brows lifted. “He hasn’t said a word to me.”
    They looked at each other, sharing a mutual thought. Jimmy talked a blue streak about anything and everything. If he were going to propose soon, wouldn’t he be crowing about it? “I thought, perhaps, Tobe might be interested in running the inn.”
    A moment passed, then Galen dropped his chin to his chest. “You’re expecting too much of Tobe.”
    “Maybe you don’t expect enough of him.” Rose spoke the words and knew them to be true, and the thought behind them was true, and yet she was sorry she’d said them aloud. She found herself always defending Tobe, although she understood Galen’s assessment. Understood . . . and even agreed with him. But unlike Galen, she wouldn’t give up on Tobe. She held hope that he was becoming a new man. His letters, though infrequent, certainly seemed to be showing evidence of maturity. “Tobe is broken, Galen. You saw that when he was here last summer. He’s lost. Sincerely lost. He needs us.”
    Galen made a small sighing sound, as if he’d heard this before. “I just don’t think we should arrange our plans around Tobe.”
    Just then the wind kicked up hard, blowing through the open barn door, slapping her skirts and rattling the loose shingles on the eaves. The weather had turned cold again, with no hint of spring at all. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling deflated. “I just need a little more time, Galen. To sort things out.”
    He walked up to her, put his arms around her, and gently pulled her against his chest.