High Desert Haven (The Shepherd's Heart) (45 page)

Raising one hand to stop his questioning, she said, “I can’t talk about this right now. I’m going to miss the train if I stay here any longer.” Picking up her skirts with a rustle of satin, she started out of the room.

He sighed. “I’m coming with you. Just let me get the buggy for you.”

She spun around. “You can’t come with me! You’re already just about done in.”

Tears still blurred her vision when he stepped towards her. “Ria.” The word was a soft caress. He reached up, cupped her face, and traced her cheek with his thumb. “I know my job scares you.”

She closed her eyes and forced herself not to tilt her head into his touch as she whispered, “I wouldn’t be able to stand it, if…something happened and….”
If only that were all of it.

He released a soft breath. “I don’t have an answer for that except I know God is in control of the future, and I won’t leave this world until it’s my time to go.” He paused and when she remained silent he continued. “Your words give me hope, though.”

She looked at him, rolling her upper lip between her teeth.

He grinned. “I didn’t know if you could care for me at all. Gives me hope that you wouldn’t be able to stand it if something happened to me.” He winked. “That’s a start.” His thumb caressed her cheek again, wiping away a tear that had spilled over. “Can you leave the future up to the Lord and at least give us a chance to get to know each other a little better?”

Silence filled the room. She didn’t know how to tell him that she didn’t think she could trust God with her heart. It was already in so many shattered pieces, she didn’t know if even God could put it back together. “There’s so much you don’t know about me, Rocky.”

“Mmmhmm. That’s why I want to spend more time with you.” He stepped back. “I’ll go get the buggy and you can give me your answer when you are ready.” Stopping at the door, he looked back. “I do know enough about you to know that everything I learn is only going to make me care more for you, not less.”

Victoria watched him walk out of the room, then her eyes slid shut. If only she could believe that were true. Once Rocky found out her parents hadn’t even wanted her, he might not want anything to do with her.

The train shuddered to a stop in the station with a huge puff of hissing sound. Miss Nickerson bustled down the aisle. “Come on children. Gather your bags. Quickly now.” She clapped her hands twice.

ChristyAnne helped Mera hop off the seat and slip on her coat, then she climbed up to stand on the bench so she could reach their bags in the overhead compartment. Mera stepped out into the aisle and turned, waiting for ChristyAnne to hand her one of the small suitcases they’d each been given before the trip west.

A large man with a thick drooping mustache, barreled up the aisle. He wore a round bowler hat that looked oddly small on his large round head, and clouds of cigar smoke spewed from his mouth.

How could he stand the smell? She wrinkled her nose as a gray waft enveloped her.

Without so much as pausing, he smacked Mera’s arm with his cane, pushing her aside as he hurried by, grumbling under his breath about the vile-blooded offspring of no-goods who couldn’t’ take care of their own children.

Mera rubbed her arm, large tears pooling in her big dark eyes as she watched him disappear out the door of the rail car. “That huht me!” Her lower lip pooched out.

ChristyAnne glared out the window as the fat man retreated and then handed Mera her little bag. “I’m sorry, Mera. I’ll give it a kiss in a minute, but first we have to hurry off the train or Miss Nickerson is gonna get mad at us.” She pulled her own case down. “Come on. Let’s go.” She hopped off the bench.

Mera toddled along in front of her, clutching her suitcase with both hands up near her chest. A kind-looking man in a cap smiled and helped Mera down the train steps.

“Much obliged,” ChristyAnne mumbled as she stepped down into the gravel of the train yard and adjusted her black sweater. She swallowed, pressing down her anxiety, and squatted in front of Mera to straighten her clothes. She had to make sure they both looked especially good.

Off to her right Miss Nickerson was admonishing the children to stay together, smile, be polite, speak only when spoken to, and the rest of the list of things they’d all heard at every train stop where they had been looked over since New York.

Mera’s eyes were wide as she took in the hustle and bustle of the station, her small case on the ground beside her. In front of them was the depot building. A large round clock on the wall facing them proclaimed with bold black hands that it was five o’clock. Down the platform a ways, a boy about her age hawked newspapers and another offered to shine the shoes of anyone who passed his way. A man trundled by with a big stack of trunks and boxes on a rolling cart. One wheel needed some grease. It was squealing louder than Betty-Lou from back home had the time her arm got busted when she fell off the swing. The mean fat man in the bowler pushed the boy selling newspapers aside with his cane and tapped some of the ash from his cigar into the chipped, tin, change-cup of the shoe-shine boy.

“ChristyAnne!” Miss Nickerson jerked her hand in a motion to indicate she should pay attention and hurry-up all at the same time. The rest of the children were already in the single-file line headed for a small platform she could see just inside the depot doors.

Giving Mera’s jacket one last dusting, ChristyAnne bent and kissed her little sister’s arm, then captured her attention with a touch to her chin. “’Member to smile, ’kay?”

Mera nodded. “An’ fold my hands.” She mimicked the gesture ChristyAnne had taught her in hopes that their good behavior would win them a place to live. Together.

“Good. Now,” ChristyAnne hefted both their cases, “come on.”

Inside, the children all set their bags in a corner and climbed up onto the platform to stand in two rows facing a gathering crowd. ChristyAnne made sure she was standing directly behind Mera. Miss Nickerson began her remarks. She always said what wonderful hard-working children they were and that none of them would be any trouble, and if they were the Children’s Aid Society would take them back, so ChristyAnne didn’t pay attention to what she said. Instead, she scanned the crowd. Was there a new family waiting for her and Mera here? Off to one side of the crowd was a tall man in overalls. His wife stood beside him with a small frown on her face. They looked nice enough, but as soon as Miss Nickerson stopped talking they turned around and headed for the outside doors.

ChristyAnne sighed. That was the way of it. A lot of people just came out of curiosity to see what the orphan train was all about. Two men stepped forward. They looked like brothers. One bent and smiled at Jasper, one of the twins, while the other focused his attention on Jason. ChristyAnne swallowed. It looked like the twins were gonna be split up. But as Miss Nickerson gestured them over to the corner where her assistant would fill out the paperwork, ChristyAnne heard one of the men say, “We live on neighboring farms, so they’ll be able to see each other often.” She sighed. That brought some relief. At least the brothers wouldn’t lose track of each other. She turned to scan the crowd once more and blinked. The fat, mean man with the mustache was talking to Miss Nickerson!

“Sure, a fine dairy ve haf as you know. I vas talking to your father, yust the other day, and he told me a yob you had taken vith the Children’s Aid Society. Yes, my vife vould for some company be happy. Yust come out once you are done here. Ve vill look forward to haf you to dinner, ya!”

“Why thank you, Mr. Vandenvort.” Miss Nickerson patted the hair at the back of her head and adjusted her flowery hat. “It has been an honor to help these children find homes, but I have to say it is very nice to be home! And I would be happy to come to dinner tonight.”

ChristyAnne suppressed an eye-roll at her simpering tone.

The man nodded. “Good. The vife I will let know. Now, I need to vork in my dairy a strong young gal. Yust one.” He blew a ring of smoke towards the ceiling and turned to scan them all with watery blue eyes.

“Well! I have just the one!”

Miss Nickerson turned and looked directly at her, and ChristyAnne’s heart dropped with the speed of a stone.

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Also Coming Soon…

He broke her heart.

Now he’s back to ask for a second chance.

Heart pounding in shock, Sharyah Jordan gapes at the outlaw staring down the barrel of his gun at her. Cascade Bennett shattered her dreams only last summer, and now he plans to kidnap her and haul her into the wilderness with a bunch of outlaws…for her own
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Cade Bennett’s heart nearly drops to his toes when he sees Sharyah standing by the desk. Sharyah Jordan was
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Now was probably not the time to tell her he’d made a huge mistake last summer….

Two broken hearts. Dangerous Outlaws. One last chance at love.

Step into a day when outlaws ran free, the land was wild, and guns blazed at the drop of a hat.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born and raised in Malawi, Africa. Lynnette Bonner spent the first years of her life reveling in warm equatorial sunshine and the late evening duets of cicadas and hyenas. The year she turned eight she was off to Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school in Kenya where she spent many joy-filled years, and graduated in 1990.

That fall, she traded to a new duet—one of traffic and rain—when she moved to Kirkland, Washington to attend Northwest University. It was there that she met her husband and a few years later they moved to the small town of Pierce, Idaho.

During the time they lived in Idaho, while studying the history of their little town, Lynnette was inspired to begin the Shepherd’s Heart Series with Rocky Mountain Oasis.