Lucy
by Zina Abbott
Prairie Roses Collection
“I should have gone.” Lucy hung her head and studied the ground on which she stepped. If I had gone, too, I could have taken care of Noah and Isaac for Papa. As much as she had not cared for her stepmother, Lucy had always loved her little half-brothers. When her father gathered his new wife and two sons and left Kansas, she had grieved their loss as much as she missed her papa.
“We cannot worry about what might have been, Lucy. Your father only knew that, along with everyone who raced to California in search of gold, word had filtered back that there was plenty of good farmland there, too. That was what he was after. However, with so many gold-seekers, and considering how greed brings out the worst in people, I feared it might be more dangerous than staying in Kansas. You did not wish to go. I worried that if you left, not only would your life and virtue be in danger, but you could not achieve your dream of gaining enough education to teach school.”
“That is true, Aunt Caroline. However, once Papa worked for that freighter in Genoa long enough to recover from his ordeal, and then followed the man’s advice to help his now-wife with her farm, things have worked out well for him. At least, that’s what he says in his letters. There are several children where he lives now in California—five from his own household.” Besides Noah and Isaac, Lucy’s thoughts turned to her step-sister, Susan, and her step-brother, Tim, she knew only through her papa’s letters. I have a half-sister, Alice, I’ve never met. “They would benefit from attending a school close by. If I had gone—”
“It
does no good to fret over what could have been in life, Lucy. The decision was made. We must accept it and move
forward.
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