Adam was certain that the townsfolk were hiding something. However, it didn’t deter him from asking questions. One way or the other, he would find out the truth.
Chapter 9
“So, how are you feeling today?”
Olivia looked at Adam and smiled sadly at him. How was she feeling?
Broken.
It was a few days since he told her the dreadful news. For two days she hadn’t eaten a morsel, consumed by her misery.
But when Cora had read a passage in the bible, encouraging her not to mourn so deeply as she would see them again on the last day, she had begun to come to terms with their deaths.
Cora had ended her uplifting sermon by saying, ‘’Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
It still hurt deeply of course that she wasn’t going to going to see White Bird and her family again. She recalled fond memories with them instead of dwelling on the tragic way they died.
“I feel fine,” she, at last, answered Adam who was seated beside her on the porch steps. “My heart still clenches at the knowledge of the destruction of Standing Tree’s tribe by my own people. But someday, I’ll look back and smile at all the wonderful things I did with them before their demise.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Olivia offered him a small smile. In the days that she had mourned her people, refusing to be comforted, Adam had stood beside her through it all.
He had told her that he knew what she was going through because he, too, had lost his parents. Olivia hadn’t really believed that he understood the pain that clutched her heart.
Twice now had she lost her family. Who could understand what she was going through except her Father in Heaven?
At first, she had been too angry to pray, wondering why God would deal her such a heavy blow. But as she opened her mouth to pray, peace had covered her heart and she had felt comforted.
“I want you to know that I’m still carrying out my investigations. I know something is going on in the town and I’ll find out what it is no matter how long it takes me.”
Olivia merely shook her head. She wasn’t interested in the case. As long as it wouldn’t bring back her Indian family, then there was no point in it.
However, as Adam was a marshal and it was his duty to seek justice for the innocent Indians, she wouldn’t say anything.
“I need you to believe that all the men will be tried and prosecuted. You need to have fate in the law. It will come through for you, I assure you.”
Olivia twirled the skirt of her dress in her hands. She didn’t even believe in humanity anymore let alone the law. If men who had blood running through their veins could think nothing of killing children, then it meant there was nothing to believe in anymore.
She had always held on to the belief that good surpassed evil. And that no one couldn’t change, as long as they came in contact with Christ. But now, she was beginning to rethink if everyone can be saved.
Jesus came to die for everyone but it depended on man accepting Him as their Lord and savior. The men who had destroyed her people definitely had not accepted Christ and she was beginning to think they never would.
Have faith, Olivia.
“Are you all right?”
Olivia recognized that she had let her musings to make her oblivious of her surroundings.
She simply nodded as Adam waited for an answer.
“There you are my darlings.”
Cora breezed out of the house with two tall glasses. Smiling, she handed one to Olivia and the other to Adam.
“Thank you, Cora.” Olivia sipped from the peach drink.
Adam also thanked his foster mother.
