A Journey of the Heart Collection
A Heart's Disguise
© 2015 by Colleen Coble
A Heart's Obsession
© 2015 by Colleen Coble
A Heart's Danger
© 2015 by Colleen Coble
A Heart's Betrayal
© 2015 by Colleen Coble
A Heart's Promise
© 2015 by Colleen Coble
A Heart's Home
© 2015 by Colleen Coble
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansâelectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherâexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.
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Scripture quotations are from
The Holy Bible
, King James Version.
Scripture quotations found in
A Heart's Home
are taken from the
Holy Bible
, New Living Translation. © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Publisher's Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
e-collection ISBN: 978-0-7180-3572-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data is available upon request
D
ear Reader,
I can't tell you how excited I am to share this story with you! It's the first series I ever wrote, and it will always be special to me because writing was how I dealt with my brother Randy's death. You'll see a piece of my dear brother in Rand's character throughout this series. These four books were originally titled
Where Leads the Heart
and
Plains of Promise
. They haven't been available in print form for nearly ten years, so I'm thrilled to share them with you.
When my brother Randy was killed in a freak lightning accident, I went to Wyoming to see where he had lived. Standing on the parade ground at Fort Laramie, the idea for the first book dropped into my head. I went home excited to write it. It took a year to write, and I thought for sure there would be a bidding war on it! :) Not so much. It took six more years for a publisher to pick it up. But the wait was worth it!
This series seemed a good one to break up into a serialization model to introduce readers to my work. Even in my early stories, I had to have villains and danger lurking around the corner. :) I hope you enjoy this trip back in time with me.
E-mail me at [email protected] and let me know what you think!
Love,
Colleen
C
ONTENTS
Â
Â
D
EDICATION
In memory of my brother Randy Rhoads, who taught me to love the mountains of Wyoming, and my grandparents Everett and Eileen Everroad, who loved me unconditionally. May you walk those heavenly mountains with joy.
W
ABASH
, I
NDIANA
, O
CTOBER
1865
A
utumn's chill matched Sarah Montgomery's heart. The war had taken so much from her, and it seemed impossible for life to ever get to a hopeful place. The scent of turning leaves lingered in the air as she sat on a porch rocking chair beside her father, who was huddled in a blanket. Her bustle bunched under her uncomfortably, but she wanted to be close to her ill father for as long as possible before Ben arrived.
The sun lingered on the horizon, casting rays of gold and red across the Indiana sky. In the distance, she could see the silhouettes of the workers in the field as they tossed the last of the ears of corn into the wagon behind the horses.
“Bed sounds better than a party.” She stifled a yawn. “I'm getting tired of dances every night, though I can't begrudge everyone's revelry.” The Union was preserved, but the price had been so high. Scarcely a family in the county had been spared the loss of a loved one.
Her father coughed and tugged the blanket higher on his chest. “I'm glad you're beginning to enjoy life again. Rand wouldn't want you to grieve.”
“No. No, he wouldn't.” But what no one seemed to understand was that her fiancé's death in the war had left a hole that couldn't be filled. Not ever.
His cold hand clamped down on her wrist. “I need to see you settled before I die, Sarah.”
She flinched. “Don't talk like that, Papa.” She couldn't bear to lose himânot when she'd already lost so much.
He rubbed his forehead. “You heard the doctor as plainly as I did last week. This old ticker isn't going
to hold out much longer. I want you to marry Ben Croftner. He'll be a good husband to you.”
Sarah wanted to bolt from the porch, to hide herself in the dusty golden stalks and forget her father's request. “Ben isn't Rand. I don't think I can do it.”
“Rand is never coming back, honey. Do you want to live here in this house with Wade the rest of your life?”
She looked down at the bowl of corn in her hands. “No.”
Her older brother thought he always knew best, and the two of them had never gotten along. “What about Joel?” She'd raised her eight-year-old brother from infancy when their mother died in childbirth. Any future she might plan had to include Joel.