Chapter 27
Never the Same Again

Eight or ten miles from Miracle, Zack and Little Wolf galloped on ahead.

By the time we reached town, word of our coming had spread and a dozen or so people were hanging around doors and windows, hoping for a sight of the new Mrs. Hollister-to-be.

But Pa wanted none of their gawking faces. At the first sight of them, he could tell what they were up to. He lashed the reins and shouted to the horses, and we flew down Miracle’s main street like a black blur. I hardly had time to show Katie two or three buildings, and we were already out the other end, crossing the creek, heading round the bend and starting the long circular climb toward our place.

He slowed down after that, but it was still a bumpy, clattering ride up the hill, across the creek two or three more times, to the claim. We were glad to be home when we heard Pa’s “Whoa!” and felt the horses come to a stop.

“Well, here we are!” said Pa, climbing down from the front and opening the door for us.

Katie stepped out, glanced around, and drew in a deep breath with a look of satisfaction. Just then Uncle Nick walked up.

“Nick, this here’s Miss Kathryn Morgan,” Pa said, as he tied up the two horses to the hitching rail.

Uncle Nick looked Katie over, with not a frown exactly, but a serious expression, and certainly not a friendly one.

“I’m happy to meet you, Mr. Belle,” said Katie. “I hope we can be friends. The children have been telling me all about you!”

Uncle Nick didn’t say anything.

“And they’ve been telling me about your sister,” Katie added. “They’re very fond of her, you know. And I hope you don’t think I will ever presume to take her place.”

Uncle Nick’s face seemed to brighten just a little. “She was a fine lady, Aggie was,” he said, speaking to her for the first time. “She made Drum here a fine wife.”

“I am so sorry she didn’t make it here with the children,” Katie replied. “I only hope I can be half as good a wife as she was. I just want to be a help to you all here.” She sure knew how to make herself pleasing!

Uncle Nick gave her another look, a little longer one this time, then threw his glance in Pa’s direction. “She might do after all, Drum! She ain’t no Agatha Belle, but you mighta done okay for yourself!”

Before Pa could answer, Katie said, “I thank you kindly for your approval, Mr. Belle. I will take that as a compliment!”

“Corrie, take Miss Kathryn inside and show her the place while we get the bags down,” Pa said. “Zack, get up on top there and untie that rope.”

Katie and I went inside, followed by the three younger ones. Zack helped Pa. Little Wolf had galloped off over the hill to his place just outside Miracle. I don’t know where Uncle Nick went. We didn’t see him again till suppertime.

It was about four-thirty in the afternoon when we got home. The sun was just thinking about settling down over the hills downstream. So the first thing we did was to start making supper. It reminded me of Christmas day with all three of us girls and Katie in the kitchen at the same time. Pa stuck his head in the door to say, “I’m taking the carriage back to the Freight Company. I’ll be back inside forty minutes.” I thought it was funny that he’d leave again so soon after getting home. And it was curious, too, that he didn’t mention Mrs. Parrish’s name about the carriage. But I hardly had a chance to think about it more, and before I knew it he was back and we were ready for supper.

Pa had halfway fixed up his and Uncle Nick’s room for Katie to stay in after she got there. He didn’t really do much except take their stuff out. He and Uncle Nick were planning to stay in the barn until the wedding, which didn’t please Uncle Nick too much. He’d said that he didn’t see why Pa didn’t just put her up in a boardinghouse in town someplace instead of turning them out of their own home. But Pa said they couldn’t tell what kind of woman she was if they were always having to ride into town to fetch her every day. If anyone needed to stay in town, Pa’d said, then Uncle Nick could. Uncle Nick went off in a huff, but he didn’t go to Mrs. Gianini’s, and that first night he was out sleeping in the barn with Pa. It was a good thing summer was coming and most of the cold weather was past.

Well things were sure different around here after that. And I realized they’d never be the same again.

There wasn’t much actual talk about the wedding—not at first, anyway. It was more or less taken for granted, and we just went about living our lives every day, knowing it was out there and the day was steadily approaching. I knew Pa’d been planning on having the ceremony sometime in June, after Katie had been here about a month. He told Uncle Nick once that he figured “a month was long enough to find out if she’s gonna take to the kids or not.”

In Pa’s mind, the marriage was still just mostly for us. But I knew he wanted to make the best of it for himself too, as long as it was something he felt had to be. I didn’t know what day Pa was thinking of, but I figured it would be in the middle of June, probably on a Sunday after the church service was over.

He’d went into town a week after Katie got to Miracle to see Rev. Rutledge. I figured it was about the wedding plans.