Angel Train Read Free Page B

run along home, Evan. Watch the girls. Mind.”
    “I certainly will, but who’s going to watch me?”
    “I’ll watch him, Sister,” Meredith said quickly. “If he does anything wrong, I’ll tell you.”
    Charity laughed and took the arm of Charles who seemed surprised she had done so. “Now, let’s go do your good deed for the day.”
    * * *
    THERE WAS NO COOKING on the Sabbath day, and that night the family sat down to warmed soup. Gwilym was unusually quiet. He often started a conversation about an element in Scripture, but tonight he said absolutely nothing until the meal was nearly finished. Finally, he looked up and cleared his throat. “You’ve probably been wondering why Mr. Campbell wanted to speak with me.”
    “Yes, what did he want, Pa?” Evan said. “I don’t know as he’s ever gone to visit any of his workmen.”
    Gwilym Morgan seemed troubled. “Well, it came as a surprise for me.” He turned to face Charity and said, “He asked my permission for Charles to come calling on you, Charity.”
    Charity’s eyes opened wide with surprise. “Calling on me?”
    “Yes, I thought it was a polite thing to do since it’s the custom around here to get the permission from the father.”
    “Why didn’t Charles ask you himself?”
    “I don’t think Charles ever does anything himself,” Evan grinned. “He’s still under his father’s thumb just like all the rest of us.”
    “I think he’s shy,” Bronwen said. “He could hardly talk to you, Charity.”
    “Well, what am I to make of that? What did you tell him, Pa?”
    “I gave him my permission.”
    Bronwen cried out, “Won’t that be wonderful! If you marry him, we’ll be rich! We can live in a big house and have servants.”
    “No.” Evan was not quite so enthusiastic. “I imagine a wife of Charles Campbell will have a lot to put up with.”
    “You don’t like him?” Bronwen asked in disbelief.
    “I don’t have any feelings about him, but I know one thing. A daughter-in-law would have to toe the line with Mr. Angus Campbell.”
    “I think you’re right,” Charity said. “It would be like living with a tyrant.”
    “That young man? Never,” Gwilym said.
    “No, his father. You think Charles Campbell would ever stand up to Angus Campbell? Never in a hundred years!”
    Gwilym was toying with his fork. He didn’t answer for a time, and then he said, “Maybe a strong woman could give him some courage.”
    “I’ll have no husband who’s afraid of his own father,” Charity said. Then she laughed. “I’ll go walking with him though. There are some other poor women who need help. I’ll see to it that he does what’s right.”
    “You won’t marry him?” Bronwen cried out in disappointment.
    “No, but I won’t tell him that right off. Just think of all the envious looks I’ll get from the women who would like to have him. Well, they can have him when I’m finished with him.”
    Gwilym put his fork down, and there was an expression on his face his children had never seen before. “Well, I will go to my death!” he said loudly. “You’re turning down a man who has everything?”
    Charity Morgan looked at her father and said with great emphasis and determination, “He has everything except courage, and without that what good is a man?”

Chapter Two
    BY MID-MARCH, THE IRON-COLD weather had passed and brought one of the mildest springs in anyone’s memory. The trees had already begun to put on their tiny golden tongues, the forerunner of the leaves that would soon turn dark green and fill in the forest with an emerald spring dress. It was the time of year Charity Morgan loved best, and she had left the house seeking some of the early plants that were her delight.
    The first she found was a patch of pokeweed, and the berries were already beginning. Some people, Charity knew, believed that it was a remedy for rheumatism, but it was dangerous. Some Pennsylvanians pressed the berries and used the juice for a strong