Broken Bow by Irene B. Brand

Author:Irene B. Brand
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2014-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

Twelve

The weather was fair on Thursday, and Paula persuaded Florence to go with her to Broken Bow. They made plans to stay overnight and help prepare treats for those who came to the Christmas Eve service and baskets for the town’s needy families. Florence stayed with her daughter, but Paula took a room at the Inman Hotel. She looked eagerly for Carson when she went to the dining room for supper. When he didn’t put in an appearance, she thought he would surely be at the church.

A large group of people gathered to fill brown paper bags with hard candies and other treats. Paula helped fill several baskets with canned goods, potatoes, and dried beans, which Reverend Bailey would take to indigent families a few days before Christmas. Paula kept watching the door, expecting Carson to show up. During the two hours the group worked, Carson didn’t arrive and his name wasn’t mentioned. As everyone prepared to leave, Paula approached Reverend Bailey.

“Mr. Hartley said that he would be here tonight.”

“He’s gone away for a few days. I saw him at the railway station this morning with Homer Sullivan, but he assured me that he would return before Christmas Eve. I’ve asked him to help with the service.”

Paula was embarrassed to be asking questions about Carson, but she would be miserable until she found out where he was. “Did he go back to Kansas City?”

“No. He told me he was going to Lincoln.”

Her pride wouldn’t permit Paula to ask any more questions, but she was puzzled. When he left the Lazy R on Sunday, Carson hadn’t been planning a trip. Or had he? And why had he gone with Mr. Sullivan?

Paula spent a miserable night, turning back and forth in the bed, wishing she knew more about Carson.

The next morning, Paula wasn’t enthusiastic about buying Christmas gifts, especially when she went into the Central Nebraska Bank to withdraw some cash and realized that her small hoard of money was almost gone. Mentally, she counted the few remaining days until Christmas. When that day arrived, she would either be a pauper or prosperous. She was tempted not to buy any gifts for the Hannsons, but a verse from the Bible entered her mind unbidden: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Remembering the scared, pinched faces of the two children in the dugout, at Salisbury Dry Goods Store, she bought sweaters for them and a doll for the girl. At Ryerson & Leslie’s Books and Stationery, she purchased a picture book for the boy and a novel for Florence. She had bought shirts for the Lazy R cowboys in Grand Island that she’d used Lazy R funds for, as Mr. Sullivan agreed that would be a legitimate expense for the ranch.

❧

Paula and Florence returned to the ranch the next day, and it took all of Paula’s willpower to get out of bed the following morning. She wasn’t hungry, and at breakfast, she sipped at a cup of coffee and nibbled on a biscuit.

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