Prologue
Rebekah
* * *
“Did anyone see a flash of fiery red hair go through here?” Adam asks.
I crouch down behind a hay bale in the barn, trying to stifle my giggles.
Aaric, Adam’s identical twin, looks up from where he’s tending to Bessie, their cow, and shrugs. “We might have a fox in the barn. I’ve seen it a few times. But it moves so fast I can’t catch it.”
I peer out of my hiding spot to watch Adam rub his chin as if he’s not sure what to make of the mane of fiery hair he saw flash by.
It’s a silly game we play. I sneak over to the Gallant homestead once or twice a week, and the two sons who still live at home pretend not to notice me.
I’m just a kid to them, a scrawny ten-year-old girl with long, messy red braids and freckles.
At eighteen, Adam and Aaric are the youngest of the Gallant sons. They are full-grown men. Not kids at all. But they’re kind to me. And they make me laugh. They will go away to college soon, like their brothers all have, and I will be left on this mountain alone. The thought makes me so sad, but I shake it away. I still have months until that happens.
“Do you suppose we should set a trap?” Adam asks. “Maybe one of the ones we use for squirrels. That would catch a fox, wouldn’t it?”
“Might snap its leg in half, though,” Aaric points out.
I cringe at the visual. I certainly don’t want my leg to snap in half.
“Maybe it’s a golden retriever. We wouldn’t want to harm a dog,” Adam muses.
He’s so goofy. As if there could be a dog around these parts that no one is aware of.
Adam faces his brother again. “I’m about to head into the house. Mom was making banana bread this morning. Smelled so good. Maybe I should bring a piece out here. We could use it to lure out the red fox.”
Aaric smirks. “No way. Don’t waste Mom’s delicious banana bread on a wild animal.”
My stomach grumbles and my mouth waters at the thought of eating Mrs. Gallant’s banana bread. I didn’t have any breakfast this morning. My tummy is achy.
Mama says my sister, Hannah, and I need to learn patience. She’s got something planned for lunch. We should count our blessings that we live off the land and can provide for ourselves. She often refers to something in the Bible about gluttony. I don’t even know what that means or why Mama would quote the Bible since we’ve never been to church.
I don’t know if I’d call living off the land a blessing, either, since it’s midmorning and I’m having pains in my tummy, but I never say anything. My father gets furious when Hannah and I complain. He has forbidden us from setting foot on the Gallants’ property, but I sneak over here anyway because it’s my only source of entertainment. Plus Mrs. Gallant feeds me.
I’ve heard my father telling Mama that Hannah and I will end up with highfalutin ideas and think we’re entitled if we’re exposed to the Gallants. He says they’re too big for their britches and no one needs the kind of wealth they have. It will rot our minds.
I think my father is wrong.
“Well, I guess I’ll head to the house,” Adam says dramatically. “I suppose if there is a fox around here, it will trot along behind me when it smells that banana bread.”
As he saunters toward the barn door, I pop out of my hiding place, giggling wildly. “It’s me! I’m the fox!”
Adam pretends to be surprised as I skip toward him. “Well, I’ll be… It’s not a fox at all. It’s that little firecracker from the next homestead.”
When I reach him, he grabs my braids and gives them a playful tug before wrapping his hands around my wrists and spinning in a circle until my feet come off the ground. I’m flying. It’s my favorite sensation in the world. I feel so free with my braids whipping me in the back and the breeze blowing across my face.
Adam is careful when he slows and finally sets me on my feet. He nods toward the main house. “Come on, little firecracker. Let’s rustle you up some banana bread. There’s nothing my mom likes more than to fill the belly of cute little red foxes.”
As I bounce alongside him in order to keep up, my heart beats rapidly. Adam is the kindest person I’ve ever met. I may be a kid, but I know a kindred soul when I see one.
Someday, I’m gonna marry Adam Gallant. Then I can move to his homestead, where there’s always food and laughter. I just need to grow up faster.
One
