Ruby Read Free Page A

far? You said it made you so happy.” Ruby handed her the plates to set on the table. “Now is our opportunity.” The longer word sounded more important than chance and one that couldn’t be argued against.
    “Why did he leave us with Bestemor after Mor died?”
    Opal, I’ve told you this enough times to . . .
    “I know you told me that Far was so sad and wanted to make lots of money.”
    “He thought he could do better out West in the gold fields. Many men went west.”
    “He could have taken us with him.”
    Ruby shook her head. “We were much better off at Bestemor’s. She loved us very much. There weren’t houses or milk or good food out West, especially for a young girl and a baby.” She’d read, too, of terrible blizzards and such heat in the summer that it shriveled and dried out folks, since in some places water was scarce. Silence fell as they both disappeared into their own thoughts.
    “Far could have stayed.”
    “Perhaps.” Ruby had often thought that too. At least at first, when she had sobbed into her pillow at night with missing both her dear mor and far. He could have come back or written more often and kept them apprised as to where he was.
    “But what about the Brandons?”
    “I will talk with them after supper. Let’s eat quickly. I’ll tuck you into bed so that I . . .” The thought of leaving this place that had been their home for more than five years and these people who treated them more like relatives than employees made Ruby want to double over and weep into her apron. They were the only real family Opal had known since Bestemor died when she was too small to remember, and Mrs. Brandon was the only mother since theirs had died bringing Opal into this world.
    “We’ll be going on the train, as we did last summer when we went to the seashore.”
    Opal took her chair and propped her elbows on the table. “Do you think I will have a horse?”
    “What made you think of something like that?”
    “Well, everyone in the West rides on horses, and we have to be brave and not be afraid of the Indians.”
    Ruby just shook her head, and they ate in silence for several minutes. Ruby’s thoughts wandered around cowboys and cavalry and Indians and covered wagons. She’d read newspaper accounts of the building of the transcontinental railroad, of the Indian wars, and the gold rush. The more she thought, the more she wondered whatever in the world possessed their father to request their travel to such a Godforsaken place.
    “I’m finished.” Opal pushed her plate toward the center of the table.
    “What do you say?”
    “May I please be excused?”
    Ruby looked from Opal to the napkin ring beside her place and back to meet her sister’s gaze. Opal followed where her sister’s glance had gone and rolled her eyes. She folded her napkin in precise fourths, smoothing the creases with her thumb and inserted the center point into the silver ring. Laying it exactly two inches from her plate, she looked up. “Now may I be excused?”
    “You may.”
    The sigh and the eyes that rolled so far up as to appear to be painful conveyed her extreme impatience with such trying and unnecessary strictures.
    Ruby felt like doing the same. If only there was someone else to be in charge. Someone who could take over the responsibility for their welfare, a responsibility she felt so keenly.
    With Opal in bed and the three Brandons, who had come upstairs when their parents dismissed them, now getting ready for bed, Ruby followed their usual routine. She reminded them to be about their business, granted permission for books to be read in bed, promised Penelope she would come back and read to her, and checked one last time on Bernie, who was fast asleep, before finally slipping down the stairs, letter in her pocket.
    Following the sound of adult conversation coming from the library, she tapped on the door before entering.
    “Yes, Ruby, what is it?” Mrs. Brandon looked up from the needlepoint canvas she was