So he simply wouldn’t ask. “The trains are quite well protected these days. I’m sure Reagan and Charlotte will be fine.”
She straightened and dusted at her skirt. “Yes. I know. I’m certain you are right.”
“And that gang of outlaws has been quiet for several weeks. Joe and I think they must have moved on to a more lucrative area. The bank will be fine.”
He swallowed. Had she heard the hesitation in his voice? Because the truth was more like hoped. Hoped they had moved on. Hoped the bank would be fine. They shouldn’t have any trouble there for a while anyhow, because it was still being built and had no money or even a vault yet.
She fidgeted and glanced toward the rapidly setting sun. “That’s good.”
He felt her worry as palpably as if she had screamed it aloud. And if he was honest, the concern echoed in his own heart. It was why he’d urged her back to the wagon so quickly after the delayed departure of the train.
It would be dark inside five minutes, and they still had a good thirty minutes till they arrived back in town.
Maybe he could take both their minds off it with conversation. “So, what do you plan to do with your time while Reagan and Charlotte are away?”
Jacinda smiled at him and he knew she had immediately perceived what he was up to. “Charlotte’s material that she ordered for their drapes arrived just the other day. I suppose some of my time will be spent in getting those sewn up for them.”
“And how are they settling in at old man Jonas’s place?”
She tipped her head. “Well, I think. His son was relieved to sell it to someone who would care for it after Mr. Jonas’s funeral.”
“I’m sure your house seems empty now that they’ve moved out?”
Jacinda cleared her throat. “Yes. But I don’t mind being alone so much.”
Ah, yes. He’d wandered too close to the taboo. “I suppose it is easier to keep everyone at arm’s length when you can keep your distance from them.”
He jutted his jaw to one side. He hadn’t meant to say that.
Her mouth dropped open. “Zane Holloway! Whatever you might—”
A puff of gray dust kicked up in the roadbed before them. The horse neighed and reared. The echoing sound of a rifle shot bounced along the steep hills on both sides of the road.
Someone was shooting at them!
“Jac! Get down!” Zane grabbed her arm and urged her to the floorboards at his feet all while trying to maintain his grip on the reins and get the horse back in line. They were going to have to make a run for it!
But just as the horse’s hooves hit the road once more, another bullet slammed into the ground.
“Whoa!” Zane tried to keep his voice steady to calm the panicked horse.
Jacinda cowered next to his leg, but when he glanced down, he did a double take. She had a pistol held at the ready in her hand and was searching the surrounding hills with a practiced eye.
“Don’t move!” A voice called out of the darkness on the hillside to their right.
Jacinda pointed her gun in that direction and Zane reached down to slowly cover her hand.
She looked up.
He shook his head.
They couldn’t just go shooting at voices in the dark until they learned more.
She gave him a nod of understanding.
“We don’t want any trouble!” Zane called.
“Well ain’t that just dandy? ’Cause we don’t want no trouble neither…just your money!”
Several voices laughed, each coming from a different direction.
Zane swallowed. They were surrounded.
“Zane?” Jacinda whispered. “What are we going to do?”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and raised in Malawi, Africa. Lynnette Bonner spent the first years of her life reveling in warm equatorial sunshine and the late evening duets of cicadas and hyenas. The year she turned eight she was off to Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school in Kenya where she spent many joy-filled years, and graduated in 1990.
That fall, she traded to a new duet—one of traffic and rain—when she moved to Kirkland, Washington to attend Northwest University. It was there that she met her husband and a few years later they moved to the small town of Pierce, Idaho.
During the time they lived in Idaho, while studying the history of their little town, Lynnette was inspired to begin the Shepherd’s Heart Series with Rocky Mountain Oasis.
Marty and Lynnette have four children, and currently live in Washington where Marty pastors a church.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Epilogue
Excerpt
Beauty From Ashes Page 29
