Sweet Annie by Danni Roan

Author:Danni Roan [Roan, Danni]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-19T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“I’m sorry about all of this.” Hazen spoke from his travois as Anna walked along beside him hours later as they trudged toward the ranch. “You could have abandoned me.”

Annabelle was quiet for several seconds, thinking about her reply. They’d dismounted earlier as they moved out onto a tract of land where the wind had blown most of the snow clear, and they could walk more easily.

“You may not see it now, Hazen, but you are a man made in the image of God. You came into this world a soul that is loved by God, and I cannot turn my back on any creature of God.”

Hazen smiled slightly. Annabelle Blakely was a strange woman in his view, but he was suddenly thankful that he had found his way to her on that night when all others would have abandoned him to protect themselves.

The one person that should have been most likely to turn her back on him had quite literally saved his life.

“How much longer until we reach the ranch?” he asked, turning away from the uncomfortable subject.

“It’s been dark for a while now, so I’d think maybe another hour.”

“Saddle up!” Eric called, stopping the horses and offering Anna a hand up onto Reg’s gray horse.

“What’s wrong?” Anna asked, looking back at the cumbersome drag behind Eric’s bigger mount.

“Nothing,” Taylor spoke, leaping into his saddle and pulling his reins into an easy loop, “only that old Buck here’s figured out where we are and is pulling for home.”

Anna giggled, a soft musical note in the frigid air. “I don’t know why I didn’t realize you would bring Buck. Kids at the ranch have been trying to get that old horse lost for years.”

“Not as dumb as I look, am I?” Taylor teased, leaning low over his saddle. “Take us home old man,” he said, letting the horse turn and step out at a quick walk.

“It won’t be long now, Mr. Crane,” Anna called back, lifting her eyes into the dark night and the trail ahead.

***

The first rays of sunlight were sliding across the eastern horizon as the dark shapes of buildings came in to view, and the horses quickened their pace into a back-jarring walk, but no one minded, knowing their long night was at an end.

The creak of the swing on the wide, wraparound porch told the weary travelers that someone had been waiting for them before their eyes could make out the figure moving out into the new day.

“Mama?” Anna questioned, jumping from the horse’s back.

“Me, too,” a man’s voice rumbled as a tall man with a bushy beard stepped into the burgeoning light.

“Da,” Anna cried, throwing herself at the man.

“Welcome home darlin’,” Brion Blakely said, catching her as she came off the horse and into his arms.

Her feet back on the ground, Anna turned toward her mother, who stood before her, a heavy blanket draped around her shoulders.

“You are very slow,” Winny said, pulling her daughter to her for a brief hug.

Anna suppressed a smile, understanding how reserved her mother could be.

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