by Amber Stokes
Bleeding Heart
By Amber Stokes
Copyright Page
Seasons of a Story Publishing
www.SeasonsofaStory.blogspot.com
Kindle Edition | Copyright © 2013 Amber Christine Stokes
All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover design: Lena Goldfinch at Stone Lily Book Designs
Cover images: Nikki Bidgood (model photo), Mtilghma (California landscape), Dale (bleeding heart photo)
Praise for Bleeding Heart
“From first word to last, the characters, the story, the premise of Amber Stokes’s debut novel captivated and intrigued me. This was no simple romance. Bleeding Heart speaks to anyone who has ever loved and lost.”
~ Elizabeth Ludwig, Author of No Safe Harbor
“A tender, heartfelt story with a maturity and emotional intensity well beyond that of a debut novel, sure to please readers and reviewers alike!”
~ Laura Frantz, Author of Love’s Reckoning
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Praise for Bleeding Heart
Table of Contents
Dedication
Lamentations 3:41
Prologue
Part I: At My Cry
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II: Fear Not
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Part III: The Causes of My Soul
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Discussion Questions
Acknowledgements
About the Author
More Books in “The Heart’s Spring” Series
Dedication
For my Heavenly Father. Thank you for showing me what love is.
And for my daddy. Thank you for challenging and encouraging me.
Lamentations 3:41
“Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.”
Prologue
Breaking someone’s heart should be considered a crime. That would make Elizabeth Lawson an outlaw and Joe Clifton the victim. And that wasn’t a far stretch in Joe’s mind. She had rounded up his heart, branded her name across it when it should never have belonged to her, and then left him high and dry. Still, he was getting sick of hanging around the scene of the crime. He just didn’t know where else to go.
Lake Tahoe had once been his favorite get-away destination, a place where he could go to just sit back and enjoy the view of water as clear as a shined-up mirror. Now those crystal depths and the unmoving boulders along the water’s edge taunted him, bringing back memories of a happy proposal and another less-than-happy scene where his heart was handed back to him on a silver platter – bruised, broken, and bleeding.
He didn’t want to make any more memories like that. So he made a promise to himself: He would never let anyone break his heart again.
Part I: At My Cry
“I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.”
Lamentations 3:55-56
Chapter 1
Virginia City, Nevada
Summer 1886
There was no way on God’s brown desert dirt that Sally Clay was going to marry Rufus O’Daniel.
As she hurried through town to the train station, Sally thought about how she was now in the same predicament she had been in three years ago, back when her whole world had broken into pieces as numerous as the sagebrush bushes on the hillsides. It didn’t matter that Rufus was one of the wealthiest men in the whole state of Nevada – a silver baron who knew when to stop mining while others squandered their wealth away trying to make the earth give up more riches than it contained. She was through with men’s tricks. This time, she was going to be the one to leave.
As much as she hated Jacob Lawson for selling his business and leaving her jobless, she recognized a glimpse of freedom when she saw it – and perhaps a foretaste of sweet, sweet revenge. The details were still undetermined, but the man had it coming to him – and soon.
Over two weeks had passed since she had been booted from her room on D Street, in “Sporting Row.” She had spent most of her money, as well as some feminine persuasion toward the right man, on staying at the hotel for that time. The quiet and the independence were far more of a luxury than the fancy furnishings and the modern conveniences. But Rufus wasn’t taking “no” the way she intended him to, and the desire to bolt had been building up inside of her for a long time. Now she was finally going to give in to the urge.
Spotting a familiar face in the line at the station’s ticket counter, she rushed to his side. “Joe?” She touched his arm and put on her best desperate look. It wasn’t too much of a challenge at this moment.
Disgust followed on the heels of recognition in his dirt-brown eyes as he looked down on her. “Whaddya want, Sally?”
She countered his question with one of her own, leaning in ever so slightly as she had been taught. “Where ya headed?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of yer business.”
Peering around his tall frame, she saw another familiar face. For the first time since the day she found herself begging Jacob for a job, shame burned through her. It was a rare day when she blushed with embarrassment.
The red-headed, rail-thin Cornish miner – with the strange accent that alternated between lilting Irish and the familiar choppiness of the American West – didn’t say a word, but she saw suppressed anger, and perhaps a hint of pity, glaring back at her. She nodded in acknowledgement, and turned her pleading gaze back to Joe.
“I know you don’t owe me any favors, but you and Jacob were friends for a long time. And with Jacob leavin’ and all… Well, I’m out of a job.” She swallowed, longing for some water and a moment to plan the rest of her speech.
“So?”
She flinched. It shouldn’t cut her anymore, these rejections. But they did. Tears welled up in her eyes – real ones, if anyone here at the train station could believe that.
“Please – I’m bein’ pursued by a cruel man, and I need some help getting out of this two-bit town. Just a little bit of money and some company for as far as yer headed.” She knew the word “company” was a mistake as soon as it slipped past her lips.
Joe’s eyes turned rock-hard, and he shook his head vehemently.
Grasping his arm tighter, she let the tears flow down her cheeks, not caring at the scene she was making. It hadn’t taken long to get over the desire to please society. They had rejected her, and so she rejected them by refusing to follow their unspoken rules.
“I don’t mean it that way, Joe. Please! I won’t be any trouble.”
Then he had the nerve to laugh.
Pushing him away, she spun on her heel and marched out of the station. She still had some pride.
As she
forced her way through the crowd and out the door, her heart sank. Rufus O’Daniel stood across the street, staring right at her with eyes that promised retribution and enslavement – a frightening look that had haunted her dreams for far too long.
***
Joe clenched his hands in frustration as he watched Sally storm out of the station to rain her tears on some other poor sap.
“Of all the nerve! That woman thinks she can just waltz right in here and make demands as if she means somethin’ to me.” He outwardly fumed, but somewhere buried deep in his soul was a connection he hadn’t expected. Jacob’s girls were hardly Joe’s friends, but the fear he had seen in Sally’s eyes surprised him. He was acquainted with her well enough to know that she was a strong woman who always seemed to get what she wanted – including the man who stole Elizabeth, or so Joe had heard. Fury slithered through him at the thought that Elizabeth still chose David over him, despite the situation with Sally.
“That gal sure does ‘ave nerve, an’ no mistakin’ that.” Myghal stood next to Joe with his arms crossed across his thin chest. Yet there was something in his expression that spoke of uncertainty.
“But…?”
Myghal looked askance at him. After a moment, he admitted, “There’s somethin’ botherin’ me ‘bout the whole thing.” His lips quirked as he added, “I’ve always been a bit soft toward a damsel in distress.”
“I think yer just soft in general, Mih-gall.” Genuine gratitude edged out his anger, coupled with a smile at the sound of the butchered, “Americanized” version of Myghal’s name that everyone used. “If you hadn’t told me about this opportunity in California, I think I might’ve gone mad with restlessness. I need to get out of here.”
His last statement brought Sally’s big, blue, tear-filled eyes to mind. She had said the same thing, talking about her need to leave Virginia City. If there was one thing he could understand, it was the powerful, aching need to escape the past. Perhaps he should lend Sally a hand, help her get a fresh start.
“I don’t owe her anythin’.”
“No one said ya did,” Myghal replied gently. “’Course, I don’t owe you nothin’, either, an’ that’s a fact.”
Joe smirked and ran his thumb and forefinger over his moustache. “No, I don’t suppose you do.” If he was honest with himself, he was still skeptical of Myghal’s kindness, knowing how close Myghal had been to David. But whatever the man’s motives, he held out hope in all its shining glory, and Joe lacked the heart to resist. “Fine, I’ll go see if I can find her. You stay here an’ buy three tickets to Reno, and then on to San Francisco.”
“Yessir.” Myghal gave a mock salute, but his grin told Joe who was really getting his way.
With a sigh, Joe stepped through the crowd and walked out the door, practically plowing over Sally, who stood frozen outside the building. He gripped her arms to keep her from falling face-first into the dusty road.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” When she failed to respond, not even grumbling about his clumsiness, he asked, “Is everythin’ all right?”
She shivered, causing Joe to involuntarily rub her arms in a comforting gesture. “What’s wrong?”
Following her gaze, he saw a man wearing a suit and top hat, apparently not letting the first of the early summer heat get the best of him, staring almost menacingly in their direction.
“Is that Mr. O’Daniel?” Joe doubted the man knew him, but he certainly knew of the man – as did everyone else in Virginia City. He was the epitome of what all the miners strived to be – rich.
Finally, Sally replied, “Yes.” With a shake of her head and a toss of her bright blond hair, she tore out of his grasp and took off running uphill in the opposite direction of Mr. O’Daniel. Joe’s surprise gave her a head start, but after a moment he sprinted after her.
“Sally! Wait!”
As he gained on her, he realized she was heading for D Street. Before she could find shelter in any of the shabby buildings, he reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her to a stop. She screeched and slapped at his hand.
“You let me go this instant, Joe. I don’t want to hear ‘bout yer high and mighty ways and how a gal like me ain’t fit company for an upstanding gentleman like you.” Placing her free hand on her ample hip, she added, “It took a lot for me to beg like that, and well you know it. I don’t need you shovin’ my past in my face.”
Taking a deep breath and gripping her arm just a bit tighter, he replied, “Confound it, woman. I only came out to concede defeat. You can come with us to California.”
Her eyes widened and her arm went slack. “I-I can?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’re headed to Eureka on the coast, so we’ll take you that far, if you have a mind to head north.”
She nodded and ducked her head.
“Well, come on then.”
He let go and offered her his arm, like she was a real lady instead of a soiled dove. She didn’t hesitate to tuck her hand close to his side. Their gazes met for a moment, and for the first time since he had known Sally, she looked meek and thankful. He wasn’t fooled by her act, but it still felt good to do the right thing – and to get her away from that O’Daniel fellow who had eyed Sally like a shiny, red apple that was his for the taking.
***
Rufus O’Daniel was never denied anything until the day Sally Clay refused his marriage proposal. She had known the chunk of pride he was forced to swallow when he bent down on one knee and asked her. And she still threw his proposal back into his face. The ungrateful, pathetic wench.
His wealth came from silver, but it was Sally’s gold hair catching the light as she boarded the train that made him hunger for things silver couldn’t buy. He watched her smile at Joe Clifton, brother of Seth Clifton who owned a ranch in a nearby canyon, before disappearing from his view. Obviously, he was not a wealthy man, but still a threat. It was just like Sally to wile her way into Joe’s good graces and skip town as if Rufus O’Daniel, the silver baron, was a scorned lover to be left in the dust.
Spotting a couple of young miners about to pass by him, their torn clothes covered in dirt, he roused from his bitter thoughts. He clamped a hand on one of the men’s shoulders, effectively stopping them both in their tracks, relishing the wariness in their eyes and the one man’s fisted hand. They should be cautious.
Resisting the urge to wipe his hand with the handkerchief in his coat pocket, he got right to the point. “You men know Joe Clifton?”
“Yessir,” one answered, scratching at his disgusting excuse of a beard as he tilted his head in question. “What ‘bout him?”
“He’s about to leave on that train heading to Reno. If you men are interested in a job, I will pay you handsomely for your time.”
Greed sparked in their eyes, and he knew they would listen well. He gestured to a nearby alley and waited for them to precede him into the gap between two ramshackle houses before he followed, effectively closing them in.
“A young woman of ill repute is traveling on that train with Joe and a local miner. I have it on good authority that the lady is heading north, possibly to Oregon. However, she is suspect in a crime and is supposed to remain in my custody until the date of the trial. If you would be so good as to bring her back to me” – he pulled out some bills with a nonchalant air – “I will make it well worth your while. I would go after her myself, but I have more important business to attend to here.”
The one with the beard shot a filthy hand out, but the other man asked with skepticism, “Don’t we need to be deputized afore we go huntin’ criminals?”
Rufus loosed a hearty laugh. “Boys, you have much higher hopes for this godforsaken country west of the Mississippi than anyone else in this mining town.” Looking them both straight in the eyes, he added, “No, gentlemen. If we expect the law to be enforced here, we need to take it into our own hands.”
He counted out some of the bills slowly, patiently. The bearded man practically bounced on his toes, while the other stood as still a
s a support beam in a mine shaft, perhaps afraid to move and watch his dreams crumble beyond reach. Rufus smirked, enjoying the feeling of finally being the one to have all his dreams in hand. Well, almost all…
He pressed the cash into the bearded man’s hand. “When you bring Sally Clay back here to me – alive – then I will double that amount. Do we have an understanding?”
Both men nodded, the money soothing all their doubts away, as Rufus knew it would. They rushed to the train station, the bearded man elbowing past others in line and the other never taking his gaze from the bearded man’s money-stuffed hand.
He smiled as he turned away from the ridiculous scene. He should never have let himself become so dependent on just one woman to satisfy him, but no matter. She would be his.
Chapter 2
California looked like gold as it sped by the window of the train. The summer-warmed hills of the interior might seem dry and barren to some, but to Sally the tan interspersed with some light green spoke of promise. A desire to begin anew rushed up from her heart, but it was a foolish notion. She would never break free from the sins of her past, nor would she be able to find peace until she confronted the reason she was out here in this beautiful but savage land in the first place. The admission caused an ache so deep she was sure she felt it in her bones.
“It’s nice to get out of the Nevada desert, isn’t it?”
She glanced over at Joe, but he just stared out the window, and she wondered if he had even uttered the question. The words sounded hopeful, but she could tell they were hollow inside, empty of life. For what reason, she could never guess. Nor did she want to try.
“Here.” The man named Myghal handed her his tattered coat.
She shook her head. “I don’t need it. I’m not cold.”
“It’s not for the cold.”
Her hand went to her neck, then slid down to where her fingers brushed her collar bone. She squinted up at him through her long lashes and smiled – a slow, seductive smirk that came as naturally to her now as her girlish giggles used to do. “My dress bother you, Myghal?”
