5
BRODY
I was standing at the pump sink washing the breakfast dishes while Mason showed Laurel our collection of books. Our library wasn't extensive, but something should interest her on a snowy day. The idea of spending it with her was a perk neither I nor Mason, had anticipated. She was a perk we had not anticipated.
The story Laurel told was a mixture of truth and lies. It was obvious to me, and Mason as well, that she was hiding something. Her name was Laurel. She'd told us when we first brought her in from the cold without a chance to think. I believed she was intended to marry a man not of her choosing. I believed her father had made a business arrangement of it. But that was all. There was no man named Hiram Johns in Simms or even in the outlying areas. No one moved into the area
