George grinned. That sounded like Mary, who never wasted a minute. “Any idea where she might be shopping?”
“She said to look for her at the mercantile first and if you didn’t find her there, to check the hardware store.”
That knocked the smile off George’s face.
Hardware store? What could Mary possibly want at a hardware store?
He felt a nameless misgiving but dismissed it immediately.
Regardless of what Mary was up to, he would track her down and talk some sense into her.
She was a very strong person. Smart, too. Smart as a whip.
But she must be reeling in the wake of this terrible tragedy and likely not thinking very clearly.
Luckily, he was a man now, and he was here for her. This would likely be a major turning point in their lives, the momentwhere he stepped up and became the dominant sibling, the man Mary would look up to for the rest of their lives.
He thanked the clerk, and they left and went to the mercantile, where they learned that they had missed Mary. She’d finished her mercantile shopping an hour earlier and gone to the hardware store.
At the hardware store, they discovered that they had missed her again. Only fifteen minutes earlier, she’d finished her shopping and gone down the street to the livery.
“We’d better hurry,” George said, walking rapidly in that direction.
“Why?” James asked hurrying after him.
“I’m thinking maybe Mary grew impatient and is buying a horse to ride home.”
“You think she would really do that?”
“Don’t you?”
James thought for a second then nodded. “Let’s run.”
They jogged the rest of the way.
When they reached the livery, their sister stood in front of the place, wearing pants and boots and a man’s work shirt, haggling with the hostler.
As they walked up, the hostler shook his head and raised his hands, looking worn out. “All right, ma’am, all right. You win. Never let it be said that I’m not a sympathetic man. In light of your recent tragedy, I will let you have them both for one hundred and seventy-five dollars.”
Mary extended her hand, and she and the hostler shook hands firmly like a couple of men. “Thank you, sir.”
Then, seeing George and James, her whole face transformed instantly, seeming to fill with light as an enormous smile stretched across her face. “Oh, Georgie! Jimmy! You came!”
She rushed forward and threw her arms around George, who wished she hadn’t called him by that old name. But that mildirritation vanished immediately as he wrapped his arms around the sister he loved and pitied and had come to rescue.
He was a few inches taller than her now. He leaned over her and held her tight.
She hugged him fiercely.
Then she stepped back and grabbed him by the shoulders and smiled up at him, studying him like a mother might study a child. “You’re growing up, George. Look how tall you’ve gotten.”
George nodded, feeling a little off-balance. Suddenly, he suspected he was going to have to make her see that he really was grown up. This wouldn’t be as easy as he was expecting.
At least she’d called himGeorgethis time, notGeorgie.
Mary turned her attention to James, pretending not to know him. “And who is this gigantic boy you’ve brought with you?”
“It’s me, Mary!” James laughed. “It’s Jimmy!”
