By Starlight Read Online Free Page A

father.
    Built on a corner lot of Colton’s Main Street just opposite the bank, the mercantile carried many of the things needed for small-town Montana life: pairs of shoes; big jars full of sweets; nails and the hammers to pound them; women’s dresses; and bags of flour, oats, and beans. Maddy had heard about stores in faraway places like Denver, St. Louis, and even New York City that sold only expensive dresses, fancy plates and silverware, or pounds of chocolate, but such a place was unimaginable in Colton.
    Silas Aldridge had built his business out of simpler ideas: a good item for sale for a fair price, each one sold with a smile. By ordering the hard-to-find product, allowing only the occasional perishable to go to waste, and investing some of himself into each and every person who walked through the door, he ensured that the mercantile thrived. Though his wife had died young, Silas brought up both of his daughters to understand that rewards came from hard work. But then, out of the blue, everything had changed.
    When Silas had first fallen ill, there didn’t appear to be any reason to worry. Over the years, he’d begun to feel a dull pain in the joints of his hands and his feet if he stood on them for too long, but suddenly the pain had become nearly unbearable. Dr. Quayle had assured Maddy that it would all soon pass, that her father just needed some rest, and that he’d be right as rain.
    Instead, things had only grown worse.
    The pain became so intense that Silas could get out of bed only for short periods, then only with assistance, and finally not at all. No matter what the doctor prescribed, nothing seemed to help. Often, Maddy would wake in the night to hear her father moaning, his sleep as unsettled as his days. He began to slowly wither away before her eyes, losing weight along with his vigor, no longer the larger-than-life man he’d been when she was a child.
    In order to keep food on the table and a roof over the family’s head, Maddy understood that she needed to step in at the mercantile. In her father’s place, she had to run things until his health improved. In the beginning, she’d been terrified, nervous that she’d fail, and struggled to never let it show. Her father wrote to vendors and farmers, any supplier the store used, explaining that he was temporarily off his feet and that they should deal with Maddy when they called. She worried that many of these men, as well as customers, would find it odd to deal with a woman, but her fears had proven to be pleasantly unfounded.
    Even in the midst of the Great Depression, with more and more families struggling to make ends meet, Maddy kept the business profitable. Surprising even herself, she found that she had an eye for business. She bought and sold goods shrewdly, purchasing items her father would have passed on, turning down others she felt would languish on the shelves. Maddy made the hard decisions without emotion, knowing where her ledgers stood to the penny. Most days were rewarding, even a little bit fun.
    And then there were days like this one…
     
    Maddy watched as Pete Seybold sat in his truck in front of the store, his head in his hands, the rain pounding down, drumming incessantly on the roof. Rainwater cascaded down the mercantile’s windows, distorting her view, but she thought she saw his shoulders shaking and that he was crying. Even as thunder roared and lightning flashed, he gave no sign of leaving, instead choosing to wallow in his misery. The streets were deserted; no one would step into such weather. She thought about running out and tapping on his window, asking him to come in from the storm, but she was probably the last person in all of Montana he’d listen to.
    Maybe if Helen asked…
    In many ways, Helen couldn’t have been more different from her older sister. Four years younger at eighteen, Helen bore little physical resemblance to Maddy; her midnight black hair was cut short, her skin pale and soft, and the