The Heart's Frontier
Page 26
The thought flooded her with guilt. Bishop Miller would accuse her of vanity.
And he would be right.
“We were talking about you, not me,” Emma said. “So Daniel smells of onions. What of Samuel Schrock?”
“He’s too young. He’s barely past his sixteenth birthday.” Rebecca avoided her sister’s gaze by adjusting the placement of a plate at the long table. “And besides, he’s taken with Amy Bender. I saw them walking together after church last Sunday.”
“There’s always Amos Beiler,” Maummi said as she set the plate of tomatoes on the table.
Rebecca didn’t bother to hide her eye-roll this time, nor did she suppress a loud groan, which made Maummi cackle.
Tenderhearted Emma’s brow creased with compassion. “Poor Amos, raising those children on his own. They need a mother, and he needs a wife.”
“He isn’t raising them on his own. Mrs. Keim tends them while he works the farm, and his sister-in-law is teaching the girls to cook and keep house.” Truth be told, the oldest Beiler girl was already a better cook than Rebecca, but she saw no reason to say so.
“I know, but that’s not the same as having a mother.” Emma’s gaze slid toward Maummi. “Or a grandmother.”
Their mother had died when Rebecca was a baby, and Maummi was already living with them, having moved to Apple Grove with Papa and Mama and young Emma to help establish the farm. Rebecca tried for a moment to imagine what her life would have been like without Maummi. The idea wasn’t worth considering. With a rush of emotion, she crossed the room to stand beside the older woman, and smiled as she touched her sleeve with a gentle gesture.
“You’re right. It’s not the same.”
Maummi grunted in acknowledgment of the rare display of affection. As a rule, the Amish showed their care for one another through hard work and service, not through physical gestures, but Maummi prolonged the contact by lingering a moment before moving away to pick up a bowl of sauerkraut salad from the counter.
“Well, perhaps Amos will find a wife soon.” Emma cast an anxious gaze over the table. “Everything is ready. I hope Papa will like my beef-and-noodles casserole.”
Emma tried so hard to please Papa, as though food could overcome the pain of having his oldest daughter leave the Amish way of life. Not that he ever said a word, but Rebecca had seen the hurt in his eyes when he watched his grandson at play, and she knew he deeply regretted the fact that Lucas was being raised in a different faith.
“At least they are Christian,” Maummi had said more than once.
“I’m sure he will,” Rebecca assured her sister. “Do you want me to call them in?”
Emma nodded and bent over the table to lift the cover from the butter dish. “Oh, Maummi, I am supposed to pass along a greeting. Mr. McCann stopped by last week.”
Rebecca stopped halfway to the door. McCann was the cook on the cattle drive where Emma had met Luke and she had met Jesse.
“Him. The man didn’t know a spice from a weed until I taught him.” Maummi waved a hand in feigned dismissal, though Rebecca saw a spark of interest in her hooded eyes. “Happened to be nearby, did he?”
“He was on his way south to join a cattle drive. He’d been cooking for a restaurant over in Abilene, but he said he missed the trail.” Emma removed another lid, this one covering a dish of apple butter. “He stayed for supper and entertained us with tales of life in town and news of some of the old team. Remember Charlie? He married and bought a place down in Arizona territory last year. And Griff moved down there to help him get set up.”
Excitement sparked along Rebecca’s spine. These men were all friends of Jesse’s.
She adopted a casual expression. “Did he mention anyone else? Like…” She swallowed, and schooled her voice. “Like Jesse Montgomery, maybe?”
Emma looked up. “Yes, he did. Luke asked, of course, and Mr. McCann said he’d heard that Jesse had settled over near Lawrence. He wasn’t sure what he was doing there.” She shook her head, disbelief on her features. “Luke could hardly believe it. He thought Jesse would never leave the trail.”
Lawrence! Rebecca’s pulse kicked into a gallop and her head went light. Jesse, her one true love, was in Kansas. On the other side of the state from Apple Grove, true, but Lawrence was a far sight closer than Texas.
A nagging thought tugged at her soaring heart. If he lived in the same state as she, then why hadn’t he come to her? He knew where she lived. Not a day in the past four years had passed without her thinking of him. Had he forgotten her?
She set her jaw and tilted her chin. Well, if he had, then maybe he needed a reminder...
“Rebecca?”
Emma’s voice drew Rebecca from her ruminations. She realized her sister and grandmother were both watching her with curious expressions.
Emma smiled. “Are you going to call the men in?”
“Oh! Yes. I will.”
Rebecca turned toward the door, a plan—devious to be sure—already forming in her mind.
Other Books by Lori Copeland
He touched her heart as no other man ever had…Would she be willing to wait for him?
Summer, 1865—In the months just after the end of the Civil War, old ways of life are changing in the South. At a plantation in North Carolina, three young women are determined to leave everything behind for an unknown future without an evil uncle or cousin.
But Beth Jornigan, her sister, Joanie, and their friend Trella encounter trouble from the very start. A fire racing through dry cotton fields almost ends their journey before it has a chance to begin. Fortunately, soldiers on their way home rescue them just in time. Only these brave young men don’t want the trouble that lovely, defenseless women will surely bring. They are more than ready to do nothing but put the war behind them, eat fresh-baked pie, and drink sweet tea surrounded again by their families.
And yet both the men and women discover that God sometimes has other plans than the ones we hold dear, and embracing those plans just may be an adventure and a chance for all of their dreams to come true.
The intersecting lives and tales of these engaging characters and those they meet along the way create an uplifting story of tested faith, growing seeds of love, and the challenge and gift of believing in God’s promise of a future and a hope.
What are you going to do, McAllister? Put your life on hold forever and let a woman like Ragan slip through your fingers so you can pursue scum like Bledso?
Johnny knew Bledso wasn’t worth a hair on Ragan’s head. Why couldn’t he let it go and just get on with his life?
Convicted of a bank robbery he didn’t commit, drifter Johnny McAllister is sentenced to do time in a rehabilitation program in the home of Judge Proctor McMann, a gentle, wise soul who believes in second chances.
Johnny’s aim is to be a model prisoner. He hopes to be released early to return to his life’s mission: to find and kill Dirk Bledso, the man who wiped out his family 16 years before. Johnny has planned for everything…except his encounter with Ragan Ramsey, the judge’s beautiful and kind housekeeper, and his involvement with the generous folks of Barren Flats.
Can this would-be outlaw let go of his hate and anger and embrace something better—something he can’t yet see?
A tender romance that shows how even the hard law of the West doesn’t stand a chance when God’s mercy, warm friendship, and true love come to reside in a lonely man’s heart.
The corner of Cade’s eye caught a glimpse of a redheaded woman entering the drugstore. His quickening heartbeat caught him off guard. For a moment he thought it was Zoe. It wasn’t. He settled back in the saddle, grinning. Zoe Bradshaw. Now there was a woman not easily forgotten.
Famous bounty hunter Cade Kolby is forced off the trail to decide the fate of his late sister’s orphaned children. He’s not only returning to his hometown and nieces and nephews but also to a fiery redhead he loved and left 15 years ago.
The last person Zoe Bradshaw wants to see is Cade, but she does
want to raise her best friend’s children as her own. So she tries to be polite, if cool, even as the attraction between them flares up again. Only this time, Zoe is determined not to let Cade get close to her heart.
But the townsfolk have other ideas. They want to see the little orphans with a mother and a father, and they form a plan that includes the possibility of a kiss…
A tender romance that shows how even the hard law of the West doesn’t stand a chance when God’s mercy, warm friendship, and true love come to reside in a lonely man’s heart.
“You can’t let one woman ruin your whole life, son,” the old foreman said. “You got to pray harder and ask that the good Lord will send the right woman. You got to produce an heir.”
Walker thought he had plenty of time to worry about marriage and kids. After Trudy’s betrayal, it would be a cold day in July before he gave his heart to another woman.
Abandoned by his fiancée just hours before their wedding, Walker McKay is determined to never let a woman near his heart again. Then a near-fatal accident makes producing an heir to the ranch a high priority. Beginning all over and courting someone new is out of the question, so he’ll have to find a wife another way.
Wealthy railroad heiress Sarah Livingston wants to be married, but her suitors are either fortune hunters or deemed unsuitable by her unreasonable father. When the opportunity comes to take the place of a mail-order bride, she believes she’s found the answer to her husband problem and grabs it with both hands.
Will Sarah’s deception and Walker’s wounded heart keep them from finding what they are both looking for? Or will they discover that they are, after all, truly meant for each other.
A tender romance that shows how even a wounded past does not stand a chance when God’s mercy, warm friendship, and true love come to reside in a lonely man’s heart.
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