Where Dreams Meet by Jennifer Moore

Author:Jennifer Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2022-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

Jane stood on the platform next to the tiny train station in Kirksville, cherishing the good fortune that had gotten her here thus far as she waited.

And waited.

Her good luck seemed to be fading. The train was long gone, and she had no clue what to do next. Cousin Fiona’s husband, Zeb, was supposed to pick James up. Today was Tuesday, January 5, just like James’s letter had instructed, but no one was here to greet her, or to greet anyone, for that matter. She grabbed her bag and paced to one end of the platform, then to the other. Again. This was getting her nowhere. She walked into the station. A solitary man with a long gray beard stood behind the counter.

“Excuse me, sir, I am hoping you can help me. Can you tell me where I might find a man named Zeb Diffley? He was supposed to pick me up.”

“Zeb Diffley, ya say?” The man scratched his head. “He was in here a good ten minutes ago, when the train arrived. Said he was lookin’ for someone but couldn’t see him. Then he mumbled about needin’ to go to the mercantile before he headed back to his farm. He must have missed ya somehow.”

“Aye, he must have,” Jane said, her fears knotting in her stomach. Zeb had obviously been looking for someone who fit the description of James.

“Maybe you can catch him if you hurry on down to the mercantile. It’s a good half day’s ride by wagon back to Adair, and I don’t think a skinny thing like you would want to be walkin’ all that way on your own. The wind might blow you away.” He chuckled.

Jane didn’t find that amusing at all. “Mercantile? ’Tis like a market?”

“Yep. Head down this road two blocks and you’ll see it on the corner. Can’t miss it.”

“Thank you kindly, sir,” Jane nodded her thanks and ran out the door.

When she reached the mercantile, she found a horse hitched to a wagon parked outside the front door. A large, burly man with dark hair carried out an armload of chicken wire and loaded it in the wagon. Jane slipped into the mercantile and looked around. There was no one else inside but a man wearing a plain white apron, standing behind the counter. She left, deciding to take her chances with the dark-haired man outside.

Once on the wooden sidewalk, she took a deep breath. “Excuse me, sir, would you happen to be Zeb Diffley?”

“That I am. And who might you be to be askin’?”

“I’m Jane O’Shea, James O’Shea’s sister. And—”

“Where’s James?” He cut Jane off, looking this way and that. “I waited outside the train station for a good five minutes after the train left. I specifically said I wouldn’t be waitin’ if he wasn’t there.” He glared at Jane as if realizing she was still there. “What’s he doing, bringing his sister along? That wasn’t part of our bargain.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve come in me brother’s place.”

“I don’t need no scrawny girl working my farm.

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