How Mother and Edward would jeer! The minister of the most prestigious church in San Francisco summoned to a cow town by an illiterate ne’er-do-well? It was almost more than even Josh could comprehend, yet a flutter of anticipation stirred inside him. What if God was using Red Fallon to carry out His purposes in Madera—and in Josh’s life?
The family meeting continued amid protests from his mother that cut Josh to the heart. She ended with a final thrust. “We had this discussion nine years ago, Joshua. I gave in to your whims. I admit things have turned out better than I ever expected. However, if you even consider this outrageous proposition, there will be consequences.” She swept out of the library.
When Josh closed his bedroom door for the night, he couldn’t shut out the feeling that he stood at a crossroads. For the second time that day, he knelt beside his bed. “Father, my heart feels heavy enough to crush my chest. Please give me peace.” He waited. Instead of peace, conviction came. He owed it to God to take Red’s plea seriously.
“Lord, I need to know if this is Your will. It means bucking Mother, but I’ll contact Red and see if the church board wants me to come preach. If they do, I’ll arrange for a leave of absence and go to Madera…then leave the future in Your hands.”
Once in bed, Josh stared out his open window at the starless sky until his vision blurred. He fell asleep with Red’s words echoing in his heart.
“We need you. Bad.”
How long had it been since anyone at Bayview Christian had spoken those words?
Chapter 4
June 1892
Madera, California
Ellie halted her paint mare beneath a huge oak tree on the wide promontory overlooking the Diamond S Ranch. She slid from the saddle and dropped the reins. Trained to being ground tied, Calico nosed Ellie’s shoulder then found a sparse patch of grass and began to graze. Ellie walked to the large boulder where she had spent many happy hours and sat down. Her heart swelled. She never tired of the view. She never would. Not if she lived on the ranch seventy years instead of the seven she’d already been there.
She flung off her sombrero and ran a hand through her hair. Thank goodness it had finally grown long enough to turn under at the nape of her neck! Ellie remembered sobbing when she recovered enough from pneumonia to comprehend she’d been shorn like a lamb.
“Young lady, you don’t realize how sick you’ve been. Sick and out of your head a lot of the time,” Doc Brown had told her. “Any doctor worth his salt orders long, heavy hair to be cut in severe cases of pneumonia.”
His explanation didn’t console Ellie for losing her dark tresses. “I don’t see how cutting a person’s hair can help.”
“Well, it does,” he said. “High fever and the hair’s weight sap a patient’s energy.” Doc’s voice softened. “We were doing everything we could to save your life, Ellie.”
Now she whispered, “Thank You, Lord, for sparing me. I’m just happy to be alive.” She turned her attention to her surroundings. Could any spot on earth be lovelier? The rocky outcropping high above the Sterling ranch offered a bird’s-eye view of rangeland, vineyards, orchards, and the San Joaquin River. Nothing disturbed Ellie’s solitude except an eagle circling in the sky and the bawling of cattle far below. She laughed and tried to pick out Timmy from among the riders tending the herd. “Oops. He’s Tim, not Timmy now,” she told Calico. No wonder. At fifteen, her brother topped her five-foot-six inches by half a foot.
Ellie flung her arms to the sky, heart bursting with joy. “Thank You, God!” she cried, feeling as free as the eagle above her. She’d never dreamed she could be this happy. She reveled in the moment, wishing she could hug it to her heart and keep it there forever. But when a cloud drifted across the sun and cast a shadow over the smiling land, she stared unseeingly into the valley.
“Seven years, Lord. So much has happened! And much more to come.” She drew her knees to her chest and laughed. “Including the fiesta.” Excitement spurted through her. Needing someone with whom to share her excitement, Ellie glanced at Calico. Long experience had shown the mare to be a safe confidante.
“Folks from Madera and the neighboring ranches will come this afternoon for games and races and a barbecue supper.”
Calico stopped grazing and looked mildly interested. Ellie continued.
“It’s so hard to believe all the hustle and bustle at the ranch is for me! It’s Solita’s doing, you know.” She pitured the Sterlings’ diminutive Mexican housekeeper. Solita had planted her hands on her apron-covered hips in the spotless ranch house kitchen and announced in a voice that brooked no opposition, “Senorita Ellie will only have one eighteenth birthday. We will make una gran fiesta for her, Senor Mateo.”
Ellie chuckled. Matt Sterling might own the Diamond S, but Solita ruled him and everyone else with a kind but unyielding hand.
Drifting shadows reminded Ellie she wasn’t accomplishing the purpose for which she’d ducked out on the fiesta preparations and ridden to the promontory. A sigh started at her toes and crawled up. Where should she begin her journey from the past? At the St. Louis station when her father put her and Timmy on the westbound train and turned away without a backward glance?
“No!” Ellie shivered in spite of the warm day. She wrapped her arms more tightly around herself. Reliving that moment brought back feelings better left buried. Only then could she hold back the bitterness toward Gus Stoddard that lingered after all these years. “I’ll start with when we arrived in Madera….”
Heart beating double time, eleven-year-old Ellie took Timmy by the hand and slowly stepped down from the train, hating to leave the frail security it had afforded on the long journey west. What if Sarah and Seth don’t want us?
A welcoming voice called, “Where are Ellie and Timmy?” The next moment, Ellie was in Sarah’s arms, with Seth lifting Timmy off his feet and swinging him around in a circle.
“Thought you’d never get here, old man,” Seth said.
“Where are the mountain lions?”
Ellie caught the fearful glance Timmy sent around the station.
Seth looked puzzled. “Up in the mountains where they belong. What made you think we have mountain lions in Madera?”
Timmy bit his lip. Ellie suspected it was to hide its trembling. “Pa said if we didn’t mind, he’d send us out here and we’d get eaten up by mountain lions.”
“I told him I wouldn’t let it happen,” Ellie put in.
“We won’t either,” Sarah promised. “You may never even see a mountain lion. Now, get in the buggy so we can go home. It’s ten miles, and it looks like rain. We got more than our fair share this past February, and it looks like a few more drops might be headed this way.” She laughed. “I like a sprinkle now and again, but it’s nicer being inside looking out than outside when it pours!”
The tight knot in Ellie’s chest loosened. It didn’t sound like Sarah and Seth were angry with Pa for sending her and Timmy. She climbed into the buggy. Sarah took her hand, and Ellie gradually relaxed against her stepsister’s shoulder. Soon the pitter-patter of raindrops on the top of the buggy lulled her to sleep.
A gentle shake awakened Ellie. How different from Gus’s usual bellow: “Git up, girl. There’s work to be done!”
Ellie slowly opened her eyes. She blinked. The sun had come out over a distant hill. Its rays mingled with the light rain and produced the most beautiful rainbow Ellie had ever seen. It arched the sky, and one end rested on a hacienda-style ranch house. Yet the rainbow shone no more dazzling than the love in Sarah’s face. Both shouted home.
Sarah put an arm around each of the children and softly said, “Welcome to the Diamond S. We sometimes call it Rainbow’s End. We don’t believe in leprechauns, and we don’t have pots of gold, but we have far greater treasure here: happiness.”
“And no mountain lions?” Timmy prodded, with a big-eyed glance at the corral filled with horses and cowboys.
Seth’s blue eyes twinkled. “No mountain lions, but I’m as hungry
as one. How about you, buckaroo?”
Timmy nodded and hitched his too-big pants farther up onto his stomach. His thin face lit up with anticipation. But Ellie continued to watch the rainbow until its glorious colors faded and disappeared before following Seth and Sarah into her new home….
Other memories crowded in on Ellie and demanded her attention, so many she could scarcely contain them. After all the turbulent years with Pa, she and Timmy had found a home that long-ago day. A home and seven years filled with love.
Faces trooped through Ellie’s mind like soldiers on parade: Matt, Sarah, and their two boys, Caleb and Gideon. Seth, Dori, and their adorable twin girls, Susannah and Samantha. Curly and Katie Prescott, with their children Riley and Kathleen. A bevy of laughing Mexican children who called Ellie Senorita and giggled when they saw her.
Vaqueros and vineyard workers. People at church in Madera.
Last of all, Solita’s smiling face gladdened Ellie’s heart. A lump parked in the girl’s throat. Solita, little sun, healer of bruises and bringer of sunshine to all. How many tears had been shed on the housekeeper’s apron? How many times had the wise woman offered comfort without ever speaking a word? The touch of her work-worn hand on Ellie’s head soothed away childish hurts like salve on a wound.
Calico nudged Ellie, as if reminding her they needed to head back to the ranch. But Ellie could not go without another prayer of thanks for one of the most important days of her life. Heart overflowing, she slipped from the rock and knelt.
“Lord, thank You so much that Gus allowed Matt and Sarah to adopt Tim and me. Matt never told us how he knew I hated being a Stoddard. Perhaps he guessed.” She thought of the seemingly endless time she and Timmy had waited for Matt’s return from St. Louis. Before he left, he had told the family, “I don’t trust doing this by mail. I’m going to sew Gus Stoddard up so tight that if he ever decides to renege on his bargain, he won’t have a legal leg to stand on.”
Ellie never asked, but she suspected Matt had paid Gus for her and Timmy. The important thing was they’d been set free. Tears gushed. The first time Matt introduced her as Ellie Sterling, she’d nearly burst with pride. She still did. As the adopted children of one of the richest ranchers in the valley, she and Timmy could “walk tall,” as Matt said, and hold their heads high.
Calico shoved her nose against Ellie’s shoulder, obviously wanting attention. Ellie patted the mare’s neck and obliged. “That’s just what I’m going to do when I sing in church tomorrow,” she told her faithful horse. “Hold my head high, even though I’m scared out of my wits.” Calico whinnied and tossed her mane. “I just hope I don’t faint and disgrace the family.” Ellie grimaced. “Now where did that horrid thought come from? I’ve sung in church before.” She grimaced. “Just not when a new preacher will be here. Maybe I should tell Matt to get someone else.”
God gave me a voice and expects me to use it. Am I going to let the minister of some fancy church keep me from glorifying God with my talent?
Ellie felt a wave of shame crawl up from the bandana around her neck. “No, but I’d better practice.” She snatched up her sombrero, jammed it onto her head, and swung into the saddle. A quick touch of her heels to Calico’s sides sent the two of them on their way. Ellie opened her mouth and sang the song she had made her own, each note crystal clear:
“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.”
It is well, echoed back from the wooded hills.
With my soul…The echo came again, and Ellie’s voice soared in triumph. “It is well, it is well with my soul!”
Filled with the joy of living, Ellie sang the second and third verses then poured her heart into the final stanza:
“And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.”
The final note shimmered in the still air. Ellie leaned forward and called in Calico’s ear, “Run!” The mare leaped forward. Ellie bent low, exulting in the feel of wind whipping against her face. A glance at the sky showed she had stayed far too long on the promontory. If she didn’t get home and into the lovely yellow dress and white mantilla Sarah had bought her, the fiesta would start without the guest of honor!
Ellie reached the ranch house, skidded to a stop by the corral, and dismounted. Then she tossed Calico’s reins to one of the hands lounging against the rail. “Take care of her, will you, please?”
He doffed his Stetson and gave her a wide grin. “Sí, senorita.”
A small tornado in a cowboy suit raced toward her. “Hey Aunt Ellie,” Caleb shouted, “where’ve you been? Folks are comin’, and everybody’s ready but you. Even Uncle Tim.” He pointed toward a group of men standing nearby.
“Oh dear! If Tim’s ready, then I really am late!” Ellie started toward the house at a dead run, then glanced back at the sturdy boy trying to keep up with her. “Thanks, partner.” She started to whip around but her momentum carried her forward. She lurched for a few more steps and tried to ignore the muffled laughter she suspected was incited by the spectacle she was providing.
Tim confirmed her suspicions by hollering, “Hey Ellie, looks like you have two left feet. Don’t ask me to square dance with you!”
She ground her teeth, wanting to throttle her brother. Wasn’t it humiliating enough to stagger like a newborn calf or a rowdy cowboy on a Saturday night spree? The last thing she needed was for Tim to call more attention to her plight!
Ellie made a final desperate effort to regain her footing. Just when she thought she’d make it, disaster struck again. One foot slipped. She lost her balance and pitched forward. Her arms flailed but could not stop her from falling. A heartbeat later, she crashed smack-dab into a large, immovable object. Ellie hit so hard she reeled backward.
Strong arms closed around her.
Furious at her clumsiness and even more with Tim, Ellie jerked free. She looked up.
And up.
A stranger towered over her. A stranger wearing a broad grin, whose gray eyes were alight with amusement.
Chapter 5
Ellie gaped at the man looming over her. Her hands clenched. How dare he look as if he was ready to join in the raucous laughter coming from behind her? She reared back to escape the stranger’s amused gaze—and ran head-on into Caleb.
He clutched at her and let out a warning yelp, but it was too late. Thud. They landed on the hard ground in an ignominious heap.
“Ow! Get off, Aunt Ellie. You’re breaking me!”
Embarrassment gave way to concern. Ellie rolled over and sat up. “I am so sorry,” she told her nephew. “Are you hurt?”
“Naw.” Caleb scrambled to his feet. He frowned and flexed his arm. “Uh, not bad.”
“Let me look.” She rolled up his plaid sleeve and inspected his elbow, but after a quick glance, Caleb squirmed and protested.
“Let me go, Ellie. I ain’t bleeding. Solita says if you’re hurt much, you bleed.” He tugged his shirtsleeve back down and grinned at her.
Relief flowed through her. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”
Caleb gave her a gap-toothed grin and announced with childish candor, “You better get cleaned up. You’re a mess.” He brushed dust off his shirt and trotted away, leaving her sitting on the ground.
Caleb’s comment on Ellie’s appearance brought a fresh surge of humiliation, interrupted by a deep voice from which all trace of merriment had fled.
“May I help you?”
Viewed from her lowly position, the tall stranger who blocked the summer sky took on mountainous proportions. The words you’ve done quite enough trembled on Ellie’s tongue. She bit them back. The man was in no way to blame for her mowing down Caleb. Ellie wordlessly took the hand he offered
, noting its strength in spite of her agitation. “Th–thank you,” she stammered.
When she managed to get back on her feet, Tim’s laughter-choked voice tightened her lips into a straight line. Ellie freed her hand and whirled, intending to get even with her brother if it was the last thing she did. He forestalled her—and made matters worse.
“You probably haven’t been properly introduced, even though I see you’ve already run into our visiting minister.” Mischief danced in Tim’s brown eyes. “Reverend Stanhope, meet my sister, Ellie Sterling.”
Minister? Reverend? Ellie shut her eyes, wishing the hard-packed earth would open and swallow her.
The stranger laughed. “Make that Pastor. Better yet, Joshua or Josh. I’m not much on formality.” A puzzled expression crept into his gray eyes. “Are you the Miss Sterling who will be singing in church tomorrow?”
Ellie couldn’t have answered if her life depended on it.
Not so Tim. “Yup.” He smirked. “We’re all mighty proud of our Ellie’s singing.”
Why must he babble like the brooks that tumbled down the mountainside to the rivers below? Ellie wondered, wishing her brother were in China or Timbuktu—anywhere far enough from the Diamond S to keep him from adding to her misery.
“Then we’ll be in for a treat,” Josh said. “What will you be singing, Miss Sterling?”
Her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth.
“Call her Ellie,” Tim urged, “although folks around here call her the Sierra Songbird.”
Ellie had never been more embarrassed. Why did Tim have to brag on her? Now she’d be more nervous than ever, singing in front of the visiting minister. Josh’s understanding look helped. His expression plainly showed he knew all about younger brothers. It helped to restore a tiny bit of her dignity.
“I’ll settle for ‘Miss Ellie,’ if that’s all right with her,” Joshua said.
“Sure it is.” Tim patted Ellie’s shoulder. “Caleb’s right. You’re a mess. Get a move on if you’re gonna put on some fancy duds before the fiesta starts.”
California Romance Page 33
