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most honorable man I know.” The Pastor said. “I just think this came as a shock, if you know what I mean.”
    “A shock? I came here to marry a quiet storekeeper and help care for his mother. I don’t know anything about this man. This Jake Shelling. How do you know he’ll be back?”
    Her circumstances were beginning to sink in. She had read and reread Mr. Snelling’s letters so often she felt as if she would be in for few surprises. A twist of fate she could have never envisioned put her into the keeping of a man she knew nothing about.
    “Told you. He’s honorable. And honest to the core.” The Pastor turned his hat in his hand. “You’re going have to just trust me on that.”
    Julia was sure she was in some kind of mental or physical shock. She just did not seem able to make her arms and legs respond to any command. Let alone begin to sort through her thoughts. She saw the pastor rise and turn to look at a wagon approaching. Jake Shelling stopped the horse-driven open wagon up along side the train platform. One long leg stretched from the wagon and he vaulted up beside her. He looked down at her and her things sitting in the heat of the sun.
    “All this stuff yours?” he asked.
    Julia nodded.
    He picked up two cases and heaved them in the wagon. Glass shattered.
    “My pictures!” Julia shouted.
    “Sorry,” he said. He bent down and loaded her trunk on his shoulder.
    “Please be careful, sir,” Julia said. He turned slowly to face her and frowned. He stepped on to the seat of the rig and put her trunk down carefully behind the seat.
    “Better?” he asked.
    She looked down at the two remaining bags. “I’ll hand these to you.”
    He accepted the two cases, dropped them beside her trunk and plopped down on the seat. His bride remained standing on the platform. “You coming?” he asked.
    Julia swallowed and nodded. The pastor took her hand.
    “This is one of those twiny, twirling paths that God puts before us. One step at a time, Mrs. Shelling. One step at a time,” Pastor Phillips said.
    This strange man, in this new town had called her Mrs. Shelling. Frightening as that thought, the minister’s words had given her comfort. The sentiment sounded like something Eustace would have said, and Julia felt tears fill her eyes again. The immediate problem though, the one keeping her from that “twiny, twirling path,” was how she was to get in her husband’s wagon. She looked up at the pastor.
    “I can’t decide now whether to be grateful or furious that you won’t let us annul this marriage.” Julia looked at her hands folded at her waist. “In the mean time do you think you could assist me into the wagon so my husband doesn’t desert me?”

Chapter Four
    Before the pastor could put his arm to hers, Jake was out of the wagon standing between her and the minister. He looked from the wagon to the platform to her wide hooped skirt. Flossie would have a fit if he let his new bride fall and break her neck before she got to meet her. Jake lifted his wife in his arms, stepped into the wagon and set her none to cautiously onto the seat. An oomph popped out of her mouth as she tried to straighten her skirts and right her hat. Jake hawed the horse and town and its noise quickly faded to be replaced by complete and utter silence.
    “I really couldn’t hear you when you said your name,” she said.
    Jake didn’t think the woman had set out to trick him but he was in no mood to make her feel better. He felt too lousy himself. He turned to her. “What is your real name?”
    “Julia Crawford. Julia Snelling, I mean Julia Shelling,” she stumbled.
    Jake whoahed the horses and pulled the break. He faced his wife. “Let’s get one thing straight right now. You married me. Not Snelling and his mother. I can’t imagine why a woman like you would be batting your lashes for that skinny, mealy-mouthed pain in the ass, but the fact is you married me. Get him out of your head.” He took her chin in his