He'd been a different person six years back. Abigail had told him, with the same harsh dismissive tone, she would no longer see him, after a year and eight months of seeing each other regularly and talking of a shared future.

Could recall in sharp detail when the woman had told him he was not a suitable suitor for her daughter. Bingham, to be sure-complained, her voice grating with displeasure that made Ben's nerves twitch. She helped her mother to her feet and dusted her skirts off. The bitterness he'd once felt at being rejected because he couldn't provide those things had dissipated, leaving only regret and caution. What was she doing here? She'd not find a fine, big house nor fancy dishes and certainly no servants on this trip. The sun glowed in her blond hair and he knew, though he couldn't see her face, that it was Abigail.

He'd succeeded in putting that young woman from his mind many years ago. Making the comparison sparked by the wagon driver worse, she even sounded just like Abigail. 'Mother, are you injured?' A young woman ran toward her mother. He liked the idea of moving West but there had been times he felt as out of control as that woman. She looked like a chicken trying to fly and she landed with a startled squawk on pillows and bedding.īen's amusement ended abruptly. A woman followed amid a cascade of smaller items, shrieking, her arms flailing. When it hit the ground the legs snapped and flew in four different directions. A chest toppled out the back, followed by a wooden table. The first wagon leaned drunkenly on one corner. The rear wheel broke free and wobbled across the ground, coming to rest against another wagon. The man must have given the wrong command because the oxen jerked hard to the right, yanking the wagon after them. Bingham would look mighty strange fluttering a lace hankie and expecting someone to serve her tea in a covered wagon. He would never subject himself and his wife to the trials of this journey. If the man struggling with his oxen didn't look like Abigail's father, he didn't know a cow from a chicken.

Wagon train reunion linda ford