A Shelter of Hope
A Shelter of Hope
Copyright © 1998
Tracie Peterson
2005 edition
Cover print/photograph credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit
Publishing Company Collection
Cover design by Melinda Schumacher
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 978-0-7642-0048-9
Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:
Peterson, Tracie.
A shelter of hope / by Tracie Peterson.
p. cm. —(Westward chronicles ; 1)
ISBN 0-7642-2112-4 (pbk.)
1. Women pioneers—Fiction. 2. Waitressess—Fiction. 3. Wyoming—Fiction. I. Title.
II. Series: Peterson, Tracie. Westward chronicles ; 1.
PS3566.E7717 S54 1998
813'.54—dc21
00-503040
CIP
Dedicated to my son
Erik
God gave you to bless me,
to teach me trust,
to open my imagination and
show me a new way of seeing things.
But most of all,
God knew that as my last born,
you would complete our family
in a very special kind of love.
I’ll love you forever.
Books by Tracie Peterson
A Slender Thread
•
I Can’t Do It All!
**
What She Left for Me
•
Where My Heart Belongs
A
LASKAN
Q
UEST
Summer of the Midnight Sun
Under the Northern Lights
•
Whispers of Winter
T
HE
B
RIDES OF
G
ALLATIN
C
OUNTY
A Promise to Believe In
T
HE
B
ROADMOOR
L
EGACY
*
A Daughter’s Inheritance
•
An Unexpected Love
B
ELLS OF
L
OWELL
*
Daughter of the Loom
•
A Fragile Design
These Tangled Threads
Bells of Lowell
(3 in 1)
L
IGHTS OF
L
OWELL
*
A Tapestry of Hope
•
A Love Woven True
The Pattern of Her Heart
D
ESERT
R
OSES
Shadows of the Canyon
•
Across the Years
Beneath a Harvest Sky
H
EIRS OF
M
ONTANA
Land of My Heart
•
The Coming Storm
To Dream Anew
•
The Hope Within
L
ADIES OF
L
IBERTY
A Lady of High Regard
•
A Lady of Hidden Intent
A Lady of Secret Devotion
W
ESTWARD
C
HRONICLES
A Shelter of Hope
•
Hidden in a Whisper
A Veiled Reflection
Y
UKON
Q
UEST
Treasures of the North
•
Ashes and Ice
Rivers of Gold
*
with Judith Miller
**
with Allison Bottke and Dianne O’Brian
TRACIE PETERSON is a popular speaker and bestselling author who has written more than sixty books, both historical and contemporary fiction. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.
CONTENTS
Wyoming Territory 1883
DARKNESS ENGULFED Simon Dumas like a protective blanket, cobwebs clinging to her hair and skin. Normally the ten-year-old would have been fearful of such things, but not now. Retreating farther into the embrace of blackness under the rope-tied bed of her parents, Simone listened to the sounds that filled the otherwise silent April night.
Sounds of pain. Sounds of misery and anguish.
A scream tore through the air, and Simone threw her hands over her mouth to stifle her own cry. Silently she prayed that God would put an end to the hideous nightmare.
“You are a miserable excuse for a wife,” a man’s voice bellowed.
“But, Louis,” the woman pleaded, “the baby needed my attention. I’ll have your supper in but a moment’s time.”
A loud crash left Simone little doubt that her father was hurling furniture at her mother. Even her hands, tightly clutched over her ears, could not block out the sounds of his drunken attack. Her mind sought to remember the French fairy tales her mother often told, but it did little good. She even tried drawing to memory the Bible verses her mother had helped her learn in her studies.
“‘I am the way … the life … the truth …’” Simone’s recitation fell silent as the unmistakable sound of her mother’s crying blended with that of the howling screams of her baby brother. Simone stifled a cough, lest her father hear her. She was barely over a bout of measles, and it had taken all of her strength to simply crawl beneath the bed.
“If you can’t make that brat be quiet,” her father yelled over the din, “I’ll tie him to a papoose board and hang him from the nearest tree.” Simone could not understand why the baby’s cries made her father so furious. He was, after all, so very little. Crying just seemed a natural thing.
“You’ll not take my child into the woods,” Winifred Dumas screamed back, and Simone could hear the sounds of scuffling.
“I ain’t taking lip from my woman. You’ll do as I say,” her father demanded.
“Leave the baby alone!” her mother screamed, and Simone cowered back as far as the log wall would allow. Now would come the worst fighting of all. Her father would remove his belt and whip her mother repeatedly until only a heap of torn clothing and bloody wounds remained. And when her father was done with her mother, he would no doubt come looking for Simone.