“Sure she writes, and she sounds as loving-hearted as she ever did.”
“Then put away your fears of tall, dark city men.” Red smiled. “Tell me more about the town. What do the men do for a living?”
“My father is the only doctor in town. I guess I told you that before. Then there’s the owner of the general store and the parson and the blacksmith. Most of the other men are farmers. It’s just like any country town.”
Tim reached for a handful of sand and let it trickle through his fingers. “My father worked so hard he never had time for me or the twins. That grieved him sorely, I’m afraid.”
“That’s the way with doctors.”
The two men finished dressing and turned away from the stretch of peaceful beach and the limitless ocean.
They walked to the boat and dragged it through the slime. Red stepped in and sat in the stern. Tim took the oars.
Not a breath of air was stirring the trees. One of Tim’s oars smacked the water, and a white egret flapped suddenly into the air from a saffron-colored tidal pool, flickering white against the bluish Spanish moss that clung to the trees along the shore.
CHAPTER TWO
The moon came up above the cooking fires and shimmered behind the heat that was still held by the sands of St. Helena Island. Mosquitoes rose from the swamps and pools and sluggish rivers to the west.