Acadia Song 04 - The Distant Beacon Read Online Free

search for security, for peace. She felt it would only have forged bonds that were already threatening her heart with uncertainties. But Gordon seemed to sense her need to give from what she had, and she admired him all the more for not requiring a defense of her generosity.
    Gordon rejoined the driver and his assistant, and together they began rocking the carriage out of the ditch. The older girl watched them for a moment, then asked, “Please, missus, will there be the guns in the night?”
    “I’m sorry—?”
    “Up Georgetown way. Where we’re headed.” The girl brushed tangled tresses away from her eyes, leaving a dirty streak across her forehead. “Will there be the guns again? They scared little Nel something awful, them guns.”
    The little girl whimpered around the finger she had kept in her mouth. Her sister draped a protective arm about the little one’s shoulders. She continued in her piping voice, “That’s why we had to leave in the end. We didn’t want to go. But them guns, they kept coming closer. Every night they went booming and flashing, till one night they was right in the next valley over.”
    Nicole resisted the urge to sweep up both girls in a fierce embrace. The parents were watching closely and might not care to see a stranger hold their children so. “I am absolutely certain,” she said, forcing her voice to hold steady, “there will be no guns around Georgetown, not in the day or the night.”
    “It’s all right, then.” Maggie hugged little Nel to herself. “See there, what did Papa tell you? We’ll be safe and sound—you just wait.”
    Nicole walked the two girls back over to their parents and set the sack of provisions at their mother’s feet. “My father is vicar of Georgetown.”
    “Your father?” The husband seemed to have difficulty fitting his mind around that news.
    “That’s right. He and my mother do all they can to help out newcomers like yourself. I urge you to seek them out.”
    He slowly rose to his feet, slipping the sweat-stained hat from his head. “Your pardon, missus. I thought, well, with the carriage and all—”
    “It’s not mine. I’ve been away for almost two years, and this was lent to me to help speed my way home.” She gestured to the sack. “Please accept this as a token of welcome to your new home.”
    Gordon called, “Nicole!” When she turned, he said, “The carriage is free now. We can eat and continue on our way.”
    “One moment.” She turned back and urged the parents, “Please contact Pastor Andrew Harrow as soon as you can. And do not consider what they offer as charity. They seek only to build a better, closer community. When you can, give to the next ones who arrive and are in need.”
    To free them from any necessity to find words of thanks, Nicole bent down and placed both hands on the shoulders of young Maggie. “Remember what I say to you, little friend. Hold fast to God, and be strong. This too shall pass.”
    She then strode back to the carriage, heartsore at the matter-of-fact way the child had learned to carry her suffering. She looked at Gordon as he watched her approach.
    They had seen this kind of hardship numerous times before. They moved to the side of the road and bowed their heads to thank the Divine Creator and Sustainer of Life for the gifts before them, simple as they might be.

Chapter 2
    Finally the road rounded a bend that seemed carved from Nicole’s most heartfelt memory. She could no longer contain herself and cried for the carriage to halt. Before the driver had fully reined in the horses, Nicole opened the carriage door and dropped to the ground, almost spilling head over heels. But she managed to keep her balance as she hurried forward. A hundred yards along the trail, a hundred fifty, then she suddenly stopped. She pressed hands tightly to her heaving chest.
    Up ahead, rising from the browns and grays of an early spring landscape, rose the slender spire of her father’s church. It seemed only