< previous page page_20 next page >

Page 20
Woolcott, Jem's niece, had been the most obvious. She was also the most spiteful when Arlen fell in love with Abby's sister, Lucy.
Now, looking into Arlen's keen gray eyes in the faint glow of daybreak, Abby had a vague feeling that it could have been he with whom she had shared her emotions in that strange vision of moving stars and the growling bird.
She closed her eyes, trying to reestablish the inexplicable contact she had had with another's mind. Had it been Arlen? No; her special sense told her that Arlen was not the one, after allbut at the same time it filled her with an immutable certainty that her destiny and Arlen's were intertwined. She shook her head in disgust. Once again, her powers were odd and useless.
His voice tight with concern, Arlen said, "Abby, are you all right?"
He would be embarrassed if she cried in his arms as she suddenly wanted to dofor herself; for her flawed powers; for her fears for the thirsty emigrants; for little Jimmy lying beneath the ground. She answered simply, "I'm fine, Arlen. No," she amended, "I'm frightened. How can my family go on without a third of our oxen teamparticularly with the rest so weak from lack of water?"
"We'll find a way, Abby. Don't worry." He took her arm and led her back toward the wagons. "Other livestock have died, too," he said. "We will let the remainder rest today. You'll all wait here while I go with Hunwet to find water."

 
< previous page page_20 next page >