Living Again

Prologue

18th March 1926

      The horse galloped down the track into the orange glow on the horizon where the sun had set just minutes before. The woman's long blonde hair streamed out behind her in the breeze.

"Hold up, Mary," the man shouted as a second horse galloped down the trail after the woman.

After several minutes he caught up to her where she had stopped at the edge of a cliff.

"Look at this view, Thomas," she said gesturing towards the distant hills which were gradually becoming hazy in the fading light, "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yes, it's beautiful," he replied, "We're lucky to live out here in the countryside away from the city, but now we better be getting back before it gets too dark. Mother and Father will be wondering where we are."

"I'll race you back," she called as she turned her horse and galloped back the way they had come.

"Slow down," Thomas shouted after her, "Or you'll take a tumble in the dark."

But Mary just laughed and rode on.

"That sister of mine," Thomas grumbled to himself, "Never listens to a word I say."

He rode his horse at a more sedate pace back down the trail, watching for the beckoning lights of the homestead in the distance.

Then something caught his attention. A light moved across the darkening sky ahead of him, then faded away. A moment later a brighter second light appeared, then two more fainter ones moving in the same direction as the first two.

Shooting stars, he thought. No, wait a minute. We learned about this years ago back in science class at school. They must be meteors. Tiny bits of rock which burn up in the sky as they fall to earth, but I've never seen so many at one time.

Thomas was so intent on watching the sky that he almost didn't see the horse struggling on the ground in front of him, trying to get up. He gasped in shock. Mary's horse had taken a fall. She had been riding it too fast in the darkness, but where was Mary?

He jumped off his horse and looked around. "Mary, where are you?" he called.

There was no answer. Frantically he started running back and forth on each side of the trail trying to find his sister. Then his worst fears were realised.

Mary was lying on her back off the side of the trail where several rocks jutted from the ground. She must have hit her head on one as she tumbled from her horse.

He felt for a pulse, then put his ear to her chest to try and hear her breathing. There were no signs of life.

He sat by her side weeping for his sister until his father and two farm hands, who had been searching for them, finally arrived.

Author's Note
Yes, I know it's a sad start, but there are many twists and turns to follow in this romance laced with mystery and intrigue.
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