Horse With No Name by Alexandra Amor Read Free Book Online

like
there were birds trapped inside his chest anytime he thought of his
future. By thirteen he had started talking to his brothers about
it, wondering if they felt the same way. They looked at him like he
had two heads. His oldest brother, Daniel, was courting a girl and
planning to marry her. The look of peace and satisfaction on his
brother’s face whenever he talked of his future made Merrick
question his own sanity. Why couldn't he feel that way? It would be
so much easier if he did.
    He waited for the feeling of panic to go
away. Waited to feel like Dan did, and like Michael did as well,
who’d married a year after Dan. Waited to feel secure and satisfied
and pleased with the bounty that surrounded him. For it was true
that the Merrick farm was one of the most successful in the valley.
Callum Merrick often repeated the story of starting out with
nothing and buying his first small plot of land with the wages he'd
scraped together working several jobs. The elder Merrick had worked
incredibly hard and had prospered. The man didn't know the meaning
of a day off, or even an hour. And he’d married a woman with a work
ethic just like his. They were good people. Not affectionate or
nurturing - who had time for that? But Jack Merrick had known he
was loved.
    So why did he want to leave it all
behind?
    He had never been able to reconcile that
question inside himself. It just was.
    The day after he turned sixteen, he kissed
his mother goodbye, knowing it was not likely he would ever see her
again. She was the only one he told that he was leaving. He felt
she deserved to know; he couldn't just up and disappear on her.
    She was shattered, naturally, but she didn't
seem surprised. She brushed a strand of his dark, curly hair out of
his eyes and touched his cheek. "You'll do very well," she said,
"you're just like your father."
    Merrick was stunned. For his entire childhood
he had wondered why he could not align himself with his father's
dream. He assumed it was because they were so different.
    June Merrick saw the confusion in her boy's
eyes and chuckled. "How d'ye think we ended up here, son? Your
father's a dreamer, too. He wanted better things for himself than
working for his old man in Aberdeen. This farm and this family is
his dream. Now you must go find your own."
    So he had left with his mother's blessing,
which fueled him for many cold and hard seasons. It was a long and
difficult way from Ottawa to British Columbia, and it had taken him
four years to get there. But the moment he stepped onto the dock in
what was then called Granville, he knew he was home. Somewhere in
this new, wild place was the thing he'd been searching for.
    It was a twisty, uncertain road from farmer's
son to police constable, and he fell into the job by accident. But
it suited him perfectly and he was grateful for it every day. He
loved the responsibility he felt for the town and its people; the
courageous, the lost, the searchers, and the slightly mad. He loved
that every day was different and totally unpredictable. The routine
of the farm had nearly killed him with boredom, but here he was
never bored.
    Especially not since Miss Julia Thom had
arrived. Now there was a burr under his saddle blanket. He was not
practiced with women, that much was for certain. His wife,
Charlotte, who he'd accidentally fallen in love with, had been
strong-willed, but this trait had been paired with a pleasant and
peaceful nature. When she died eighteen months earlier, Merrick had
been devastated. But he had borne the loss with a grim Scottish
determination that his father would have been proud of. The
constable didn't miss a day of work. And strangers coming into town
would never know he'd suffered such a blow.
    In the past six weeks since Julia Thom
arrived in Horse, Merrick spent a fair amount of time being annoyed
with her. She had helped him solve the puzzle of a break-in at the
Mitchell's general store, for which he was equal parts grateful and
irritated. The