Daylight Comes by Judith Miller Page B

to accompany Moses to Hill City? One could never be sure with Aunt Lilly.
    Lilly glanced across the table at Jarena. “I’m certain Truth won’t feel up to making the journey in her condition, but perhaps you’d be willing to accompany me, Jarena. Thomas won’t mind the fact that you want to spend time with me, will you, Thomas?”
    Without waiting for a response, Lilly continued to formulate her plan. Truth waited and watched as Jarena and Lilly outlined their journey. Pained and somewhat confused about the fact that they’d just assumed she wouldn’t want to join them for the trip, Truth motioned for Moses to join her in the kitchen.
    “I believe I’ll go with you to Hill City. I’d like to see the Boyles before we move to Topeka, and this may be my final opportunity.”
    Moses looked delighted, but Truth didn’t fail to notice Aunt Lilly’s frown when they returned to the dining room and she heard the news. Clearly, Lilly wanted to spend time alone with Jarena and likely surmised Truth would listen in on everything they said. And she would! Truth was curious to discover how and when Jarena and Lilly had developed this seemingly close relationship. So far as she knew, the two women hadn’t even been corresponding.
    After breakfast, the four of them loaded into the wagon, and Jarena held out her arms to take Jennie from Thomas’s arms. With an air of authority, Lilly pushed Jarena’s arms aside. “Surely the child would be more comfortable at home with Grace or her father.”
    Truth turned from her seat up front and gave her aunt a wry grin. “Why, Aunt Lilly! I thought you enjoyed children. Isn’t that why you’re going to Hill City? To reunite with the Nelson youngsters?”
    “I’m thinking of Jennie, not myself. It’s chilly and she’ll likely catch her death of cold if she’s out in this weather.”
    “There are blankets, and Jennie would much prefer being with her mother,” Truth pointed out. “Besides, the sun is out and it’s going to warm considerably. Don’t you agree, Jarena?”
    “Yes. Besides, I wouldn’t consider leaving her behind.” Jarena settled the child onto her lap and leaned from the buggy to kiss Thomas good-bye. “You can help me if Jennie becomes fussy, Truth.” Jarena giggled as she playfully tapped her sister’s shoulder. “You’ll need the experience more than Lilly.”
    When the baby was settled, Moses flicked the reins, and they headed out of town. Apart from the clopping of the horses’ hooves on the hardened dirt road and Jennie’s gurgling coos, silence permeated the buggy. The open plains soon spread before them like a painted canvas portraying the change of season. The prairie grass had turned to a dull shade of brown, and the curled, dry yellow leaves from an occasional cottonwood crunched beneath their wagon wheels. Rather than a full palette of autumnal colors, the canvas presented a stark, barren beauty all its own—one that Truth had grown to love. She leaned back against the seat and inhaled the prairie’s grassy scent and the musky aroma of the fallen leaves.
    While the buggy rolled along the well-worn path, bits of conversation drifted to her from the rear of the carriage. Truth shifted in her seat and strained to hear. The slight breeze carried the conversation directly to her ears, and she unashamedly eavesdropped as Jarena questioned Lilly about her life in Colorado. And Lilly, always so secretive in the past, seemed eager to tell of her escapades. Strange!
    Truth managed to discern that Lilly had received word from a woman in New Orleans that Bentley Cummings had contracted a lung disease. Truth wondered if he was alive or dead, but Lilly hadn’t said. It would be nice to know, for Mr. Cummings had placed a bounty on Lilly’s head for the kidnapping and death of his child back in New Orleans.
    Truth vividly recalled her first meeting with Mr. Cummings. They’d been on the same train when Truth and Silas had whisked Macia Boyle away from