Seasons of Bliss (Saskatchewan Saga Book #4) Read Free Page B

constant and persistent work.
    Allan and Robbie had chosen to build separate cabins rather than live together. Each wanted the satisfaction of stepping out of his house in the morning and looking over land he could call his own. But their cabins were not far apart, each built almoston the line dividing the properties. The thick, unrelenting bush between the cabins remained intact, dividing house from house as surely as though it were a curtain. At times the brothers could hear the ring of an axe or the bawling of a cow or smell the smoke of a chimney, but they could not see one another for the thick and rampant bush between them; they rather liked it that way. A narrow path threaded the bush and made quick contact possible; what it would be like in the dead of winter was yet to be seen.
    Robbie and Allan had come too late to be among those fortunate Scots who had settled a dozen years and more ago near Wapella. The philanthropic Lady Gordon Cathcart had proposed a plan to the Department of the Interior whereby she, and her funds, would assist Scottish families to settle in the Northwest Territories; she had advanced up to l00 pounds each, a tremendous encouragement to anyone considering such a move. The first ten families were followed by forty more, and though they suffered much hardship and deprivation in the early years, the settlement had taken root and eventually prospered.
    Such knowledge encouraged the Dunbar brothers—it could be done!—but was no real or practical help. They had to make their own way, every step of the way, every cent of the expense. However, Robbie and Allan, attending the Bliss church one Sunday, had been happy to make the acquaintance of at least one Scottish family who lived nearby—the Morrisons. The Morrisons’ story was still largely unknown to them, but it seemed their daughter Molly was keeping company with the pastor.
    Church services, held in the schoolhouse, were a good deal different from those in the kirk back home, but they offered the best chance of meeting other members of the community. The dear and friendly people of Bliss had gathered Robbie and Allan to their collective bosom and had showed their welcome and friendship by turning up for a “building bee” when the young men had erected their cabins.
    Before that, however, having arrived in Canada with no resources whatsoever, Robbie and Allan had spent their first months in the territories working for the railroad. The money earned had been used for the filing fee and the basic necessities to begin homesteading. With the land near the Wapella settlement taken up, they had turned farther north, ending up in Bliss. Whether or not it would live up to its name they would have to see.
    With the astonishing appearance of Tierney Caulder, it certainly had every opportunity to be blissful for Robbie Dunbar.
    Robbie’s sturdy Scottish heart had nearly failed him when he had told Tierney of his father’s decision regarding his and Allan’s future. The awful blankness, followed by anguish, that he had seen reflected in Tierney’s amber-colored eyes that day, had almost been his undoing. Yet with heartbreaking reticence she had said little or nothing, realizing, as he did, the uselessness of it. Therefore, the words he had never said, planned someday to say, dreamed of saying, were never spoken. He had left her, lonely as the passing cloud, and leaped away, never to see her again. Until today.
    “Think on’t,” he muttered now, still half dazed, shaking his head.
    Making a few more rounds he concluded the day’s plowing, then turned the team homeward, to unhitch, water the horses, and turn them loose in the small pound he had built at the side of his barn, working and walking through it all with a feeling of unreality.
    Dreams, it seemed, did come true. But was it too late?

H erbert Bloom, though intent on his driving, could sense the troubled spirit of the young woman sitting next to him in the buggy.
    “Ahem!” he said,