by Indiana Wake
The Arms of a Better Man
A Love to Last A Life Time
Indiana Wake
Fair HAVENS BOOKS
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
The Second Chance Bride – Preview
35 Sweet Western Brides Preview
Also by Indiana Wake
About the Author
©Copyright 2018 Indiana Wake
Introduction
Who doesn’t want a love to last a lifetime?
My name is Indiana Wake and I write sweet and inspiration historical western romance. When I say inspirational I like my books to contain a message of hope over adversity.
I am a number one bestselling author in many categories and have been inspired by the courage of the ladies who went west during the perilous 1800’s.
You, my readers have also inspired me with your many comments and kind words and you told me you would like some longer books. This book is a 55,000 word long novel and I hope you will enjoy it.
It is a standalone book and a complete story but is the third book in a family saga that covers 3 generations. In this book Katy Lacy has grown up to be a quiet and studious woman. When she spies a mysterious man looking out of the plains she feels something.
Only Arlon is not looking for love or company after all his injuries make him repulsive.
Can a young soul heal a wounded soldier and find love in the process read on to find out.
Read on to find out.
I hope you enjoy this book.
God bless,
Indiana Wake
This is the third book in the Love to Last a Life Time series. The first book The Second Chance Bride tells Grace’s story as she arrives having lost her husband on the Oregon Trail. Each book can be read alone and is a complete story.
The second The Love in his Heart follows Janet Lacy as she is swept off her feet by a fast talking cowboy. Could love be closer to home and will she ever see what is before her?
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Chapter 1
“Come on, Katie, come to the barn dance with me and Jimmy. Mama said she’d have the kids for the night.” Janet Dalton leaned heavily on the service counter in the lumberyard and studied her sister closely.
“I don’t know, there’s just something about the barn dance that wears me out. You and Jimmy go, I’ll stay with Mama and watch the kids.” Katie could feel the familiar sense of exasperation, knowing that she would have to find some way to explain something she hardly knew how to put into words.
She didn’t have anything in particular against the town barn dance, it was just socializing in general. She struggled to enjoy it and always had, and instead of finding it relaxing as many others did, she felt herself under the pressure of a great weight.
But when one had an older sister as lively and bubbly as Janet Dalton, who still enjoyed the town barn dance despite being thirty and having two children, it was hard to find the words.
“No, I want you to come. Look, honey, you can’t just hang around here the rest of your life.” Janet had her hands on her hips now as if taking a big sister tone was going to help her cause.
“I’m not hanging around here, Janet, I work here,” Katie said and rolled her eyes. “And I’m not here all the time.”
Katie had been working in her father’s lumberyard for years already. Even when she was still at school, she spent a lot of time following her daddy around, easily picking up all there was to know about the lumber business.
As far as Katie was concerned, her father could have been in any business at all and she would have found some merit in it. She liked to learn, and to be doing something. And even when it was quiet in the lumberyard, it gave Katie time to sit down and do what she liked to do best; to read.
“All right, I said the wrong thing. But you never go out and you don’t seem to have any friends. Katie, it just breaks my heart,” Janet said, finally telling the truth.
“I always did have friends, Janet, but they chose to leave me.” Katie shrugged. “I’m not saying I blame them, I suppose we just didn’t really have anything in common after we finished school. And it’s not like I don’t ever see them. Just last week, I passed the time of day with Carly Tunney down in the diner when I was in town.”
“I’m sure you have plenty in common if you think about it.”
“Like what? All they are interested in is finding a good man to marry so that they can settle down at the earliest opportunity. And finding that man means barn dances, hovering about the diner, going just about anywhere that young men congregate. And it just isn’t what suits me, that’s all.”
“Katie, you’re so pretty, so beautiful, that you’re the talk of this town.”
“That’s real nice of you to say, but I reckon I’m more the talk of the town for not being as much a part of it as everybody else.”
“Because any other girl in town would give their right arm to be as beautiful as you. And they’d be out at the town barn dance every second Saturday without fail. I just wish that you could enjoy what you have and make the best of it all.”
“How many times have we had this argument, Janet? Don’t you understand, making the best of it all is different for every person. And I’m starting to get real tired of having to apologize for the person I am. If it isn’t troubling me, it shouldn’t be troubling you.” It was not in Katie’s nature to snap, but she really had provided justification after justification for her own character.
She wouldn’t have minded if she was hateful or spiteful, scheming or conniving, ignorant or rude. As far as she was concerned, she sure would have to provide an explanation for being any one of those things. But to be a quiet girl who was studious beyond the schoolroom, happy to work in her father’s lumberyard, and with a solitary nature, did not strike her as something which demanded explanation.
“Honey, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Janet said gently, and Katie was relieved that she had not been hurt by the sudden change in tone. “I guess I just wish that you took more of a part in the world.”
“I do. I walk in nature for miles, I ride Daddy’s horses all over the place, there’s not a part of the surrounding area I don’t know. And I read about everything, not just Oregon but the wider country, the wider world, the war that we all seem to forget about here. Why is it so wrong that nature and learning be my fascination instead of pretty dresses, barn dances, and nice young men?” Katie sighed. “I am a part of the world, Janet, it’s just my world. It’s just my way of doing things.”
“And I guess I should stop trying to make you more like me.” Janet smiled and reached across the counter for Katie’s hands. “I’m sorry I keep at you. I guess I should listen to everything you say and take you at your word, huh?”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” Katie laughed.
“I guess so.” Janet laughed too, her bright blonde curls bouncing about her shoulders as she did so. “But it really would be nice for me if you joined me and Jimmy just once at the barn dance. I like to dance with you and have fun with you.”
“And I love those things too, Janet. But what I do not love is having young
men pestering me all night for dances I don’t want.”
“You really are your own person, aren’t you? To any other girl in town, young men lining up to dance with them wouldn’t be a complaint.” Janet continued to laugh, and Katie relaxed, knowing that her sister wasn’t renewing her attempts.
She had understood, if only a little, and was going to back off for a while.
“I know, but I just can’t make myself feel any differently about it. You see, they don’t just ask and accept a polite no. They hover about and ask you why you don’t want to dance with them, trying to make you feel awkward so that you’ll give in. And that’s what I don’t understand, what is it with young men? Why would they want to persuade somebody to dance with them? Surely, it’s better to dance with somebody who actually wants to dance with you, not somebody who is just too scared to hurt your feelings.”
“That’s just young men. You know, they’re not all like that. One day you’ll find one who suits you really well, Katie, I just know you will. And when you do, I reckon he’ll be just about the best young man in all of Oregon.”
“That’s real nice of you. Maybe I will come to the barn dance with you and Jimmy just one time,” Katie said, wanting to do something nice for her sister but knowing that she wouldn’t particularly enjoy it.
“So maybe you’ll come to this one?” Janet said and raised hopeful eyebrows.
“Yes, all right,” Katie said and smiled, despite already feeling anxious about the whole thing.
Katie had waited out the rest of the afternoon in the lumberyard, even though her father, Josh Lacey, had told her that she could run back to the house and spend the afternoon with her ma and sister and the little ones.
But the idea didn’t excite her as it normally would have done, for she was feeling flat after her conversation with her big sister. She knew that Janet cared for her so much and she couldn’t be more grateful for that care if she tried. She’d always looked up to Janet, always loved her, and she loved Jimmy equally.
Jimmy was more than just a brother-in-law to her, he was more of a brother. He’d been around the family for Katie’s entire life and she wouldn’t easily hurt the feelings of either him or her sister.
But she didn’t want to go back to the house to talk about the barn dance or have her ma say everything that her sister had already said to her. The way they worried about her was touching and exasperating at the same time.
For she knew that the only thing that would stop them worrying about her future would be if she took up the reins of life in the same manner everybody else did.
Katie knew she was different, she always had been. Even as a child she’d taken delight in curious pastimes. She had always been interested in growing things, ever since her ma had given her a handful of sunflower seeds to sow when she was a little girl.
These days, the garden of the Lacey household was something of a talking point to whomever visited them. Katie had cultivated the most awkward shrubs, the most delicate flowers, and had even gone out of her way to find unusual species here and there along the way. And in amongst it all were the brightest, boldest blooms imaginable.
But as she got older and her interest grew, Katie realized that she didn’t really have anybody to discuss her pastimes with. No other girls of her own age were interested in botany or reading.
“Daddy, I reckon I’m just going to take one of the horses out for a while,” Katie said, wanting to be away from the lumberyard for a piece but not wanting to go back to the house either.
“You don’t want to join your ma and sister?” he asked and raised his eyebrows.
“I guess I’m not feeling up too much, Daddy. I won’t be great company.”
“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”
“I’m sure they wouldn’t,” Katie said and laughed. “They much prefer me defenseless.”
“All right, I get it.” Josh laughed, knowing well how his wife and daughter liked to interfere just a little. “Just don’t let them see you saddling the horse or I reckon you’ll hurt their feelings.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” Katie said and took her thick cream apron off and hung it up on the hook behind the counter.
She put her arms around her father’s neck on the way out and kissed his cheek in silent gratitude for the fact that he understood her better than anybody.
Just as her father had recommended, Katie stealthily saddled the horse and walked him quietly away, choosing a path which led from the back of the lumberyard down to the river.
It was a very fine afternoon; summer was definitely on its way and it was warm enough for her to go out without the shawl.
She rode the horse gently along, not in a hurry to be anywhere at any time. They went along at a walking pace and Katie felt herself instantly soothed by the rushing of the river and the birdsong all around her.
But however much she wanted to, Katie couldn’t outrun her sister’s conversation altogether. The fact was that she hadn’t been entirely truthful. Yes, her life was as she chose, but she did feel lonely at times. Not lonely enough to change who she was to fit in with everybody else, but lonely nonetheless.
She knew that what she really wanted was somebody who understood her entirely, somebody whose character would hold great interest for her. No doubt that was what everybody wanted in the end, however it was they chose to live.
Katie had been riding out for about fifteen minutes when she spotted somebody in the distance. It was a man standing several hundred yards ahead of her on the riverbank, gazing out across the wide expanse of water to the pine trees on the other side.
He was so still that he drew her attention, his very stillness seeming almost an activity in itself for she thought it must have required great focus.
She could barely make him out, and she had slowed her horse to a gentle stop while still some distance away. After all, there was nothing familiar about him and she realized that she ought to exercise a little caution, even if it was still full daylight.
As far as Katie could see, the man had thick fair hair, blonde perhaps, and was tall. He was wearing dark trousers and some kind of plaid shirt; standard clothing for men who lived and worked in the area.
Beyond that, she could see nothing else; no facial features, nothing to truly indicate his age. He was straight-backed, so she guessed he was somewhere between twenty and forty, if that was anything to go on.
But there was something about the way he stood so still, so contemplative as he stared out across the water. It was mesmerizing to Katie as she sat almost as still on her horse and wondered what he might be thinking about. For surely a man who stood so still and stared so distantly must have something on his mind.
If he didn’t have worries, then perhaps he had deep thoughts. Either way, she imagined that he was almost unaware of his surroundings as he stared vaguely into the distance.
And then, as if he’d suddenly sensed her presence, he turned sharply, and Katie sucked in her breath.
Her sudden disquiet made the horse just a little skittish and he began to pad the ground nervously.
But she soon soothed him with her gentle voice and quietly convinced him that all was right with the world.
With her horse back under control, she looked back down the river to where the man stood, still looking at her.
She wondered if she ought to wave, but perhaps that was not a good idea since she was still sure she did not know him.
She felt silly just sitting there, her horse now still. She lightly rattled the horse’s reins and he began to slowly plod again. She didn’t want the man to think that she had sat there and silently watched him, even if that was exactly what she’d done.
But no sooner had she begun to move, than the man did also. And he did not come towards her but turned to make his way off the riverbank and back to the higher ground of the plains above.
It was then that she saw how he walked and, once again, she sucked in her breath. She was sure now that the man was young, certainly somewher
e in his twenties, and he had just about the worst limp she had ever seen in her life.
His progress was slow since his left leg seemed to do all the work while his right trailed along behind, strong enough to bear his weight but not much else.
And even though he made slow progress, the way he periodically peered over his shoulder to see if she was any closer, made her realize that he was determined to be gone.
She slowed her horse again, knowing that he ought to have the right to get away if that was what he truly wanted. But the moment he was out of sight, Katie wished that she had managed to encounter him properly. She wanted to apologize for disrupting his solitude, because she knew exactly how it felt to need it.
But by the time she reached the place where he had stood, there was no sign of the man at all.
Chapter 2
“Thank you, Daddy,” Katie said, when her father helped her and her mother down from the wagon.
She could see already that the congregation was going to be a large one that day, given the number of wagons and people still milling about outside the little church.
“Oh look, there’s Jimmy’s wagon,” Grace said and pointed. “But there’s no sign of them. I reckon Janet and Jimmy are already in the church.”
“Well, let’s hope Kyle and Jane are a little quieter than they were last week,” Josh said and laughed.
Katie smiled, remembering how her niece and nephew had chattered their way through the previous Sunday’s sermon, much to the amusement of all around them. Even the Reverend had allowed himself a smile now and again as Janet desperately tried to control her little ones.
