The day was warm, the air resinous with the scent from the pine trees a long-lost Dallsten had planted. Normally she would have strolled along the path, watching for red squirrels scampering up the bark, for roe deer leaping away through the green. But the farther along the path Samantha walked, the more her feet slowed. She wasn’t physically tired, but she felt as if she carried the weight of the fells on the shoulders of her cambric gown. She seemed to be hurting everyone around her, when all she wanted was to end the cycle of blame and hurt. Tears stung her cheeks. Oh, Lord, You carried a much bigger burden. Won’t You help me carry this one? For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. That verse again? She’d always struggled with it. Growing up in privilege should have made her burden light indeed, yet it always seemed worry lurked behind her. Why was her father so often gone?
