Trail of Longing (Hot on the Trail Book 3)

by Merry Farmer

  Her mother and Dean both looked forward to see what she had seen. There, rushing toward them from the outskirt of the fort, was her father. Mrs. Sutton yelped with joy.

  “I suppose you’ll get to ask Mr. Sutton what he thinks sooner rather than later,” Dean said. “Or should I call him Father?”

  Her mother didn’t answer. She broke into a run, rushing to greet her husband. He held out his arms for her, and when they came together in a bear hug, both of them exclaimed with wordless delight.

  “It feels like I’ve been waiting forever,” her father said, kissing her mother over and over. “I’ve missed you so much. And you too, my sweet Emma.”

  He kept one arm around her mother as he drew Emma into a three-way hug. When he let her go, he kissed her mother with enough passion to bring laughter right up from Emma’s soul. She glanced to Dean, seeing the same kind of love reflected in his eyes.

  “Wait,” her mother said at length, breathless from her husband’s kiss. “Where is Alice?” she glanced this way and that, as if Alice would appear out of the hills. Emma looked as well.

  “Ah,” her father said. “She’s not in the fort at the moment. She left on something of… of an urgent errand.”

  “Oh dear.” Her mother clapped a hand to her heart. “Is she all right?”

  Her father smiled. “Yes, my dear, I think she might just be all right. You see, there’s a young man….” Emma and her mother both grew wide-eyed at the revelation. “But I’ll save that story for later,” her father said, disappointing them both. He broke away from the two of them and stepped forward to Dean. “Dr. Meyers, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”

  “The pleasure is all mine.” Dean took his offered hand and shook it. “Sir, I need to talk to you as soon as possible.”

  “Emma and Dr. Meyers are engaged,” her mother blurted the news with a delighted clap of his hand. “Of course, you’ll have to give your approval, but oh, Arthur, wait until you hear all the wonderful things Dean has done.”

  Emma’s father chuckled at his wife’s exuberance. He turned to Emma. “And you, my dear. What do you think of this young man’s suit? Have you accepted it?”

  “Yes, father.” Emma beamed. She hugged her father, then moved to take Dean’s arm. “He truly is the most wonderful man.”

  “And do you wish to marry him?”

  “I do.” She gazed up into Dean’s eyes, smiling with all her heart. “I absolutely do.”

  “Then that’s good enough for me,” her father said. “I trust my girls to know their minds,” he added for Dean, then slipped his arm around Emma’s mother’s waist. “They were raised by a woman with a fine mind of her own, after all.”

  “Yes, they were,” Dean agreed with a smile. “And I’m glad for it.”

  Wait! No! Come on, Merry! You can’t just end it like that. What about Katie and Aiden? Did Aiden ever catch up and rescue her? Will they ever see Dean and Emma again?

  Don’t worry. Katie and Aiden’s story, Trail of Dreams, is coming on February 16th. You can preorder it now here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SOX6Z5O

  All right, that’s all well and good, but what about Alice? Why isn’t she at Ft. Bridger? What was that “urgent errand” she went on and who was the young man who went with her? And will she ever recover from Harry’s death and find love again?

  Never fear, all those questions and more will be answered in April with Trail of Destiny. And guess what?

  If you’d like a reminder when Trail of Dreams and Trail of Destiny are published, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/RQ-KX

  Keep clicking for a sneak peek….

  About the Author

  I hope you have enjoyed Trail of Hope. If you’d like to be the first to learn about when the next books in the series come out and more, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/RQ-KX And remember, Read it, Review it, Share it!

  Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats, Butterfly and Torpedo. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have topped the Amazon and iBooks charts and finalled in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.

  You can email her at merryfarmer20@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter @merryfarmer20.

  Merry also has a blog, http://merryfarmer.net,

  and a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/merryfarmerauthor

  Acknowledgements

  I would never be able to do what I do without the help of some fabulous people. I’d like to thank my amazing beta-readers, Keira Montclair, Margaret Brashears, and Lola Grace Stevens for their amazing suggestions and advice. I have to thank my fabulous editor, Aven Rose, once again for helping me go beyond what I thought I was capable of. And finally, where would I be without the Mistress of Badass herself, my publicist Anne Chaconas, and the whole Badass Marketing team.

  And a special thank you to the Pioneer Hearts group! Do you love Western Historical Romance? Wanna come play with us? Become a member at https://www.facebook.com/groups/pioneerhearts/

  Keep clicking for a preview of the next Hot on the Trail book, Katie and Aiden’s story, Trail of Dreams….

  Trail of Dreams

  By Merry Farmer

  Chapter One

  Nebraska Territory, 1863

  As far as Katie Boyle was concerned, the Oregon Trail was a slice of heaven on Earth.

  “I love the sky,” she commented in her thickest Irish brogue to her new friend, Emma Sutton. The two of them walked together, arm in arm along the hard-packed dirt of the trail. “I love the grass too. It’s the tallest I’ve ever seen and it rolls like the waves of the ocean.”

  “Mmm hmm,” Emma replied, eyes downcast, cheeks pink in spite of the hat that shielded her face from the sun.

  “It’s a fair sight better than the actual ocean,” Katie went on, peeking at Emma from the corner of her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as sick as I was on the ship that brought us over from Ireland.”

  “Oh?”

  “Aye. The way it rolled and tossed on the waves? Well, I didn’t think I’d make it to America. I cursed me mam, cursed the heavens, and you can be sure I cursed Aiden Murphy most of all.”

  “Aiden?” Emma flushed and stole a glance behind them.

  “I’m sure it’s his fault somehow,” Katie teased, twisting to look where Emma was looking.

  Aiden walked with Dr. Dean Meyers several yards back. Katie noticed with an arched eyebrow that Aiden had a spring in his step and a cocky angle to his shoulders. The afternoon sun shone down on his dark hair, lending a sparkle to his blue eyes. He wore his fiddle in its case slung across his back, as he had since the moment they’d all set foot on the road that led from their humble village of Ballymote, all the way to America and the trail they walked now. Aiden caught her watching and winked. Katie promptly ignored his audacity and the flutter in her gut.

  She glanced to Emma, but her new friend had missed the entire impish display. Emma had eyes only for Dean Meyers.

  “He’s a brazen beast, isn’t he?” she asked, referring to Aiden.

  “He’s lovely,” Emma replied, staring straight at Dean. The moment he glanced up and met her eyes, Emma snapped to face forward.

  Katie did her best to hide her smile. She’d only known Emma for a short time. Not much more than a week ago, the wagon train Katie and her family were traveling with had come across Emma and her mother and Dr. Dean Meyers at a lonely way station. They’d been there for a week as Emma’s ankle healed from an injury sustained in a tornado.

  A tornado. The very thought of it set Katie’s heart pounding. She could only imagine how exciting it all had been. Between the little Dean had said and the looks he and Emma had been exchanging for t
he last week, Katie surmised there was more to the story than met the eye. No matter how much she hinted and pried for more information, Emma had said little about it. Bless her, but Emma said little about anything. At least she didn’t mind if Katie talked until she was blue.

  “I still think you should march right up to that man and kiss him, bold as brass,” she said, tilting her face into the sunlight.

  “What?” Emma gasped, clutching her arm tighter. “I could never!”

  Katie laughed. “I don’t suppose you could, but wouldn’t it make a sight? I’m sure half the old biddies in this wagon train would clutch their chests and drop dead of a heart attack. I’d be glad though,” she finished.

  “You would?” Emma blinked.

  “Yes, and why not? Love is a beautiful thing, and watching two young people fall head over heels down the hill of love to the valley of bliss is a rare treat.”

  Emma blushed darker. “If only that were possible.”

  “And who says it’s not possible?” Katie asked. She hugged Emma’s arm tighter. The laughter of children—some of them likely her younger brothers and sisters—rang up and down the line of wagons and a light breeze blew the rich scent of earth and grass across their path. How could anything not be possible?

  “My mother,” Emma sighed, shoulders sagging. “You know she has it in her mind that I should put Dean aside and give all of my attentions to Russ Sandifer.”

  Katie’s lips twisted in a bitter sneer. “That great lummox.” She knew too well the fuss Mrs. Sutton was making over the blustery, arrogant doctor that had joined their wagon train in Independence. What she didn’t know was why a woman who seemed to be in all her right mental faculties would toss a peach like Dean Meyers over for a pit like Russell Sandifer.

  Emma heaved another sigh and lowered her head to stare at the toes of her and Katie’s shoes as they poked out from under their dusty cotton skirts as they walked. It didn’t take much for Katie to see how deeply her friend was hurting over the entire confusing thing.

  “Ba! I hate to see you so fussed over the situation,” she said. “No girl as pretty and as smart as you are who has a man like your Dean pining for you should be thwarted by something as common as a mother.”

  “Mother has been through so much,” Emma argued.

  Katie cut her off with a sniff. “All mothers with bright-eyed children have been through so much. My own mam struggled through the Great Famine while trying to raise more than half a dozen children, all while my father sweat and toiled to put food on our plates.” She shook her head, It wasn’t something she liked to think about. They’d come to America precisely so they wouldn’t ever have to think about it again.

  She brushed her free hand through the air as if to clear the past. “You’re not the only one whose mother thinks they know what’s best for them where men are concerned,” she confided.

  “Oh?” Emma perked up a bit.

  Encouraged, Katie went on. “Aye, she’s had it in her head since I was knee-high that I should fall in love with and marry Aiden. Aiden!” She snorted. A swirl of something unwelcome filled her gut.

  Emma started to glance back at Aiden and Dean walking behind them, but stopped herself. “Aiden seems like a perfectly acceptable young man.”

  “And that’s his problem,” Katie insisted. She took a breath. “Aiden and I have known each other almost since the day we were born. He’s only a few months older than me. His mam and mine have been thick as thieves and just as crafty since their school days. Right from the cradle, they determined that Aiden and I were meant for each other.”

  “How romantic.” Emma smiled.

  “It is not romantic,” Katie growled. “It’s been a bloody big nuisance. Imagine, my whole life, everywhere I go and everything I do, Aiden has been there. He was there when we were young ones, skipping stones in the pond and chasing after foxes in the fields. He was there when we sat in that great, drafty school having numbers and letters and history pounded into us. And he’s been there, cheeky as a beggar, playing right into our mam’s schemes by bringing me flowers and playing on that blasted fiddle outside my window at all hours of the day and night. Why, when Da and Mam decided to pull up roots and move to America, he convinced his entire clan to come with us, just so he could continue to bother me.”

  Emma listened to the speech, her mouth dropping open more with each word. When Katie finished and tipped her head up, Emma said, “But that’s the most beautiful story I’ve ever heard.”

  “Ha!” Katie laughed. Her heart beat faster, but she did her best to ignore it. “It’s a dull story at that. Can you imagine what it’s like to have a rogue like Aiden shadowing your every step, never leaving your side?”

  “It would be wonderful,” Emma sighed.

  “Aiden is dull as toast,” Katie protested. “I don’t want a boy everyone expects me to marry, a boy who I used to catch frogs with. I want adventure. I want excitement. I want to explore and discover and fly. There’s so much more to this wide world than the town and the people you’ve had around you your whole life. I want passion when I fall in love.” She grabbed Emma’s arm with both of her hands, her whole body vibrating with the force of her longing. “I want to fall in love with a valiant hero, a man who will risk life and limb to save me and… and rescue me from a dragon.”

  She was so wrapped up in the image she painted for herself that she almost didn’t hear when Aiden called out, “There are no dragons in America” behind her.

  Katie jumped, flushing with heat at the sound of his voice. She told herself it was embarrassment at being caught pouring her heart out where others could hear. Letting go of Emma’s arm, she twisted to glare at Aiden. “Shut your gob, Aiden Murphy,” she snapped at him.

  Aiden, being Aiden, only beamed at her. “Now why would I do that when you’re talking nonsense and need to be set straight, a ghrá?”

  “Ack! Don’t call me that,” Katie growled. She faced forward once more and kept walking, but her skin prickled as though she’d given herself away.

  Other Works by Merry Farmer

  The Noble Hearts Trilogy

  The Loyal Heart

  The Faithful Heart

  The Courageous Heart

  Montana Romance

  Our Little Secrets

  Fool for Love

  In Your Arms

  Somebody to Love

  Sarah Sunshine – A Montana Romance Novella

  The Indomitable Eve – A Montana Romance Novella

  Seeks For Her – A Montana Romance Novella

  Hot on the Trail

  Trail of Kisses

  Trail of Hope

  Trail of Longing

  Trail of Dreams (coming February 2015)

  Trail of Destiny (coming April 2015)