Back Roads to Bliss (Saskatchewan Saga Book #6): A Novel (37 page)

Those who had met him and might know, shaded their eyes. “Sure looks like it. He said he might show up; he had to check on
Grandma Jurgenson first. She’s under the weather, the boys said when they rode up.”

Allison righted the cup of a careless child and refilled it with milk.

“Whoa!” The plodding horse pulled up and came to a stop, and someone hurried over to greet the pastor as he dismounted, to ask him if he’d eaten, to urge him toward the table.

Allison, napkin in hand, was cleaning the face of the youngest Polchek when Georgina, with the pastor in tow, stepped to her side, called for her attention.

“Allison, I want you to meet our preacher, Ben Brown.”

Allison looked up. And up. And blinked into the sun shining behind the tall man’s head, giving him a halo of sorts, an other-worldly appearance, as though from a different time and place.

“It’s you!”

There was, in the preacher’s voice, a ring of exultation such as a prospector might use when he struck gold, holding it aloft and publishing his find to the world. A ring such as a father might use when he holds in his arms his first child. A sound that a shepherd might make rejoicing over a lost sheep.

A hand, two hands, reached out to Allison. Two warm hands gripped the ones she automatically, numbly extended. Two hands drew her close.

“It’s you,” the voice said again, exultant, fraught with feeling, rich with emotion. “I’ve prayed; God alone knows how I’ve prayed . . .”

It was unreal; it was wonderfully, marvelously real. By the grip of the hands, holding hers and not about to let her go, Allison counted it real.

For a brief moment she had the sensation of yesterday falling away as though it had never bound her; of tomorrow stretching out to the horizon and promising fulfillment with blessings and bliss beyond measure; of today, and happiness held—sure and secure—in the palm of her hand . . .

Ebenezer.

Ruth Glover
was born and raised in the Saskatchewan bush country of Canada. She has written many poems and books, including the Wildrose series for Beacon Hill. Ruth and her husband, Hal, live in The Dalles, Oregon.