You may write to Jane at: 99997 Starvation Lane, Moro, OR 97039 or visit her Web site at www.jkbooks.com.
The following is an excerpt from Jane Kirkpatrick's
What Once We Loved
Book 3 in the Kinship and Courage series
Available in stores fall 2001
1854
It was as soft as a lamb's ear, as sweet as Mei-Ling's honey. Ruth Martin had never been kissed like that, not in all her twenty-five years. His lips were tentative at first, like a colt just learning to stand. His hands on either side of her face felt warm, his fingers mere butterflies at her ears. She smelled leather, and then his tentativeness moved to something firmer, something safe and as strong as the log corrals that bound her horses. She drifted like a leaf caught in the backwater of a stream. He moved closer, and she became aware of the distance between their bodies even as their faces touched. A sound of surrender gathered at her throat, stopped the air that flowed.
Ruth pulled back, opened her eyes and stared at the blue of his, surprised once again at the smoothness of his face. As she stepped back, his wide hands traced down her cotton-covered shoulders, lingered at the crook of her bare elbow, reached to clasp the palms at her side. She offered one. With the fingers of her free hand, she touched at the knot of hair caught beneath the brim of her wide hat. She felt rattled, uncertain. She rubbed at the back of her neck, swallowed, gathered her breath, her thoughts, her senses. “You're much too … This isn't…”
He put his finger to her lips, quieted her, and she looked at him again, perhaps for the first time. She saw goodness in that face, with more experience than she credited him. Wisdom. And strength. “My Irish grandmother, on my mas side, used to say ‘Better one good thing that is, than two good things that were, or three good things that might never come to pass.’ This is a good thing, Ruth. Something rising from all the bad. We dont know what'll come of it or if it'll wipe out what's gone before.” He kissed the back of her hand as he held it. “But we can accept this, just as it is.”
A quail clucked in the manzanita bushes, and her eyes moved there to watch the mother hover her covey out of sight. The air smelled rich with pine scents, and behind him she could see a spring burbling out of the side of the Oregon hillside that marked this place as home now. He lifted her chin and moved to bring her eyes back to his. The leather and smell of his boiled shirt blended with the memory of this first kiss, and she felt herself blush.
“It's a gift, our having this moment,” he said. “Along with finding a spring near a meadow. That promises good, God willing.”
She nodded and smiled up at him, feeling young and inexperienced, not a mother and an auntie.
“Come on, lets go get us a drink,” he said and pulled her along, a gentle bear leading her. “Nothing more refreshing than spring water.”
Savor the moment, she told herself. Hang on to the promise of a spring. It was a gift she could have. She just had to learn to receive.
JANE KIRKPATRICK
JANE KIRKPATRICK is the author of eight books, including two non-fiction titles and six novels. A Sweetness to the Soul, her first novel, earned the Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center as the Outstanding Western Novel of 1995. All Together in One Place is the first book in her Kinship and Courage historical series.
A Wisconsin native, Jane holds advanced degrees from that state's universities and is a licensed clinical social worker and former mental health director. She continues to consult with Indian tribes in Oregon and non-Indian communities, encouraging families and children with special needs. She speaks often at retreats and conferences throughout the country about the power of faith and stories in our lives. Jane has two stepchildren, and she and her husband of twenty-four years live with their two dogs on a remote ranch they “homesteaded” on the John Day River in eastern Oregon.
Jane welcomes your comments about how her stories have touched your life. She can be reached at the address below or at her Web site, which she accesses via the seven mile phone line she and her husband and friends buried (twice!).
99997 Starvation Lane
Moro, OR 97039
http://www.jkbooks.com
NO EYE CAN SEE
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
A division of Random House, Inc.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from
the King James Version of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked
(NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by
permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance
to actual persons or events is coincidental.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Marv Ross for the use of What We Left Behind,
copyright© 1992.
eISBN: 978-0-307-55336-2
Copyright © 2001 by Jane Kirkpatrick
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Date
Kirkpatrick, Jane, 1946—
No eye can see / Jane Kirkpatrick.— 1st ed.
p. cm. — (The kinship and courage historical series; bk. 2)
1. Women pioneers—Fiction. 2. Blind women—Fiction. 3. California—
Fiction. 4. Widows—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.I712N6 2001
813′.54—dc21
00-043869
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Praise for No Eye Can See
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Eye for an eye
Chapter 2 - A satchel named desire
Chapter 3 - Jane randolph's choice
Chapter 4 - Breaks
Chapter 5 - God's footstool
Chapter 6 - Looking up
Chapter 7 - Knight of the whip
Chapter 8 - Wide-eyed
Chapter 9 - Set free
Chapter 10 - See what I see
Chapter 11 - A golden spoon or a wooden leg
Chapter 12 - Gifts given
Chapter 13 - Being kept
Chapter 14 - Clouded eyes
Chapter 15 - The devil's mill
Chapter 16 - Tearing down the devil's mill
Chapter 17 - Sharpening
Chapter 18 - Journey into purpose
Chapter 19 - Unbound
Chapter 20 - Adequate to embark
Chapter 21 - Kin
Epilogue
Author's Notes and Acknowledgments
Jane Kirkpatrick
Copyright
No Eye Can See Page 39
