A Promise for Spring
A
Promise
for
Spring
Books by
Kim Vogel Sawyer
___________________
Waiting for Summer’s Return
Where Willows Grow
My Heart Remembers
Where the Heart Leads
A Promise for Spring
A
Promise
for
Spring
Kim Vogel
A Novel by
Sawer
A Promise for Spring
Copyright © 2009
Kim Vogel Sawyer
Cover design by Brand Navigation
Cover photography by Steve Gardner, PixelWorks Studios, Inc.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-7642-0507-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sawyer, Kim Vogel.
A promise for spring / by Kim Vogel Sawyer.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7642-0507-1 (pbk.)
1. English—United States—Fiction. 2. Ranchers—Fiction. 3. Kansas—Fiction.
4. United States—History—1865–1898—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3619.A97P76 2009
813'.6—dc22
2008042960
For KATHY, of course.
You were there when the seed blossomed.
CONTENTS
“T
HE
LORD
IS MY SHEPHERD
;
I
SHALL NOT WANT
.
H
E MAKETH ME TO LIE DO WN IN GREEN PASTURES
:
HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL WATERS
.
H
E RESTOR ETH MY SOUL
.”
P
SALM 23:1–3A, KJV
May 1874
N
EXT STOP—MO-O-O-ORELAND, Kansas . . . Next stop, Moreland!”
Emmaline Bradford’s heart pounded in the top of her head.
Moreland . . . My stop . . .
She peeked over her shoulder and watched the conductor move slowly up the aisle, his gait swaying with the motion of the train. When he reached Emmaline’s seat, she held out her gloved hand and whispered, “E-excuse me, sir.”
The conductor paused, his feet set wide, and peered down at her. The gray hair of the man’s bushy eyebrows splayed out in every direction, nearly covering the top half of his round spectacles. It gave him a fierce look.
Emmaline licked her dry lips. “Can you tell me . . . how much longer to Moreland?”
He pulled on a loop of chain hanging across his well-filled brocade vest, freeing a gold pocket watch from its hiding spot. A flick of his broad thumb opened the cover on the gold disk. He squinted at the watch’s face for a moment, causing his thick brows to slip briefly behind the circles of his eyeglasses. Then he gave a brisk nod of apparent satisfaction and his face relaxed. “Less’n fifteen minutes, miss.” He gave a single, emphatic nod. “Yes, miss, oughtta be pullin’ into Moreland right on schedule—three-fifteen on the dot.”
Emmaline’s stomach turned over, and her palms grew moist within the confines of her cotton gloves. “Th-thank you, sir.”
The conductor tipped his hat before moving on.
Less than fifteen minutes and she would step off this train into a new life. For nearly eight weeks she had traveled, dreading this moment, and now it was upon her. The high, white muslin collar of her dress choked her, and she slipped one glove-covered finger beneath its edge and pulled, trying to give herself room to breathe. It didn’t help. She gripped her hands together and pressed them into her lap. Tears stung behind her nose, but she set her jaw against them. Crying would accomplish nothing.
Oh, why was she here on this foul-smelling train, covered in coal dust, heading to what was sure to be some cheerless hovel on an empty plain? She looked out the window again, her heart sinking in despair at the sight of the nearly treeless, rolling plains of dry brown grass. No green meadows or fields of daisies or cobblestone streets like at home.
Despite her efforts to refrain from weeping, a tear slipped free of its perch on her lower lid and trailed down her cheek. The strong breeze coursing through the open window dried it before Emmaline had a chance to sweep it away. Oh, how she missed her home.
It hadn’t been her idea to leave Yorkshire County in England— it was Father’s. Mother hadn’t wanted her to go, either. But Father had insisted it was best, and when Father insisted, everyone had to agree or be made to feel miserable.
Well, Emmaline reasoned as she blinked rapidly against more tears gathering in her eyes, she could not possibly be more miserable in England facing Father’s disapproval than she was right now, sitting in this uncomfortable berth, facing a bleak future in a bleak land with a man she hadn’t seen since she was a child of seventeen. What had Father been thinking to send her here?
In a pocket hidden in the seam of her wide skirt she carried the letter that had started it all. Father had said, “Take it with you, Emmaline, and show it to your Geoffrey in the event he should not recognize you.” The way he’d said “your Geoffrey” had sent a knife of terror through her breast. Father must have seen the fear in her eyes, because he added in a surprisingly kind tone, “I do not believe there will be a question, Emmaline. It is merely a safeguard.” And she had nodded in unwilling acquiescence, not daring to tell Father what she truly feared. How could she think of this stranger as “her” Geoffrey? She barely remembered the man!
If perchance he should fail to recognize her, would she be allowed to return to her beloved England? Every night since Father had made his announcement that Great-Uncle Hedrick would accompany Emmaline to America to become, at long last, the bride of Geoffrey Garrett, she had prayed fervently. Prayed for release from the arrangement made when she was too young to fully appreciate the consequences. Prayed for understanding from Father. But Father had never wavered in his resolve to send her away.
“A Bradford honors his word,” he’d insisted, ignoring Emmaline’s tearful pleas. It hadn’t seemed to matter that Geoffrey had not honored his word. Hadn’t he promised on the day he set sail that he would return in a year’s time to exchange wedding vows in the little chapel their families had attended? But five years slipped by, and then instead of returning, he had merely summoned her with the directive that they would wed in Kansas. They would live in Kansas. Away from family and friends.
During each leg of the journey, she had begged God to allow her to turn around and go home again. Still the ship and the trains had moved her relentlessly toward Kansas and her waiting groom. Groom—what a frightening word that was. Better she should say her “waiting stranger,” for that is what Geoffrey Garrett was—a complete and utter stranger!
“Prayers are no more effective than tears,” she moaned softly, clutching the letter in her pocket with trembling fingers. “Neither prayers nor tears do any good.”
She quickly brought up her fingers to swish away the moisture on her cheeks. Taking her hands from her face, she looked at her gloves and wanted to cry again. Dust had changed the once-pristine whiteness to a dingy gray. With dismay, she realized that she must be covered from head to toe in the awful dust emitted from the coal-burning engine. She consoled herself with the thought that at least on her black dress it would be less noticeable than on her gloves.
What a sight I must be
.
Perhaps Father was wise to send the letter
with me—Geoffrey might indeed have difficulty recognizing me under this
covering of soot.
The conductor weaved his way down the aisle again, calling in a deep tone, “Next stop is Moreland, folks.”
Moreland. Where Geoffrey would be waiting.
Pressing her hand to the square of paper in her hip pocket, she closed her eyes and prayed once again for deliverance.
Geoffrey Garrett stood in the stiff Kansas breeze, his focus on the parallel lines of track disappearing over the horizon. His heart thrummed rapidly. Each passing minute brought her closer. Emmaline—the daughter of his father’s best friend, the sweet girl who had filled his dreams since he left Yorkshire County five years ago, the woman who would be his bride.
The broadcloth of his best suit felt strange after wearing well- worn work trousers and cotton shirts for so long. He fought the temptation to remove the string tie and open the top button of his cambric shirt. But how would Emmaline recognize him if he were dressed as a common ranch hand? She would need to see Geoffrey Garrett, the gentleman. Then she would know she had reached her groom.