Jubilee's Journey (The Wyattsville Series)

BOOK: Jubilee's Journey (The Wyattsville Series)
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JUBILEE’S JOURNEY

 

The Wyattsville Series – Book Two

 

 

Bette Lee Crosby

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover Design:

Valentine-Design.com

Copyright 2013 by Bette Lee Crosby

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewers who may quote brief passages for a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal. 

 

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on life experiences and conclusions drawn from research, all names, characters, places and specific instances are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. No actual reference to any real person, living or dead, is intended or inferred.

 

ISBN #978-0-9891289-3-3

 

BENT PINE PUBLISHING

 

Port Saint Lucie, FL

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Note From Author

 

Dedication

 

As It Was

 

Cruel Winter

 

And Thus It Happened

 

Many Miles Away

 

Paul

 

Looking For Anita

 

Angry Faces

 

Olivia Doyle

 

Girl On A Bench

 

Ethan Allen

 

Late News

 

The Hospital

 

The Next Day

 

Olivia

 

Thinking It Through

 

Jubilee Jones

 

The Bad Place

 

Two To Go

 

Olivia

 

In The Wee Hours

 

Reaching Out

 

Jack Mahoney

 

The Long Weekend

 

Olivia

 

Following A Trail Of Breadcrumbs

 

Miami Beach

 

Turner’s Turn

 

Olivia Doyle

 

Verdict Before Trial

 

Hector Gomez

 

Jubilee’s Choice

 

Ethan Allen

 

According To Bertha

 

The Road To Remembering

 

Jack Mahoney

 

The Sign

 

Jubilee

 

Front Page

 

The Bread Basket Café

 

The Alcove

 

Olivia

 

When Monday Comes

 

Ethan’s Gift

 

The Awakening

 

The Final Shot

 

Visiting Anita

 

Olivia

 

Jubilee’s Journey

 

Plea For Help

 

The Telling Story

 

The Carmella Encounter

 

The Homecoming

 

Olivia

 

Future Plans

 

Clara

 

No Children Allowed

 

Dinner Guests

 

The Meeting

 

Finding Family

 

And It Came To Pass…

 

Additional Novels by Bette Lee Crosby

 

 

 

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

 

 

For I know the plans I have for you declares The Lord…

 

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

 

plans to give you hope and a future…

 

Jeremiah 29-11

 

 

Writing a novel is never easy; writing a novel that explores the truth of people offers an even greater challenge and I could not have done it alone.  Every day I thank Our Heavenly Father for blessing me with the talent to do this and providing the daily inspiration that motivates me to write stories about the good and bad of life. I hope you’ll forgive me when my characters use profanity; it’s part of who they are. Without exposure to the darker aspects of humankind, there is no barometer by which to measure the goodness, generosity and love we have all been gifted with.

 

I want to thank the people who have contributed to this book. I am extremely grateful to Naomi Blackburn for her guidance on storyline and manuscript evaluation. She is an amazing talent with a sharp eye for quickly identifying the flaws in a character or storyline. I also want to thank my Editor Ekta Garg, a genius in her own right. Ekta rights my wrongs without ever losing sight of the Character’s Southern voice. A special thank you goes to Coral Russell for the million and one things she does to keep the promotion schedule running smoothly. Coral is not only my Literary Assistant, she is my right arm and I would be lost without her.

 

I would be extremely remiss were I not to thank Kathleen Valentine of Valentine-Design.com for the beauty of this cover and for creating a unique brand that I shall carry forward. She is a most talented designer with a uncanny ability to capture the essence of both story and author.  I also owe a debt of gratitude to Daniel Blanchard for formatting this book and making it user friendly in all e-book venues.

 

A very special thank you goes to all the Gals at my BFF Clubhouse, a fan club that is more about friendship than you might think possible. I have been extremely blessed in knowing each of these gals. They are avid readers, astute listeners, caring friends and an unending source of inspiration. The ladies in this group are so supportive and special that I find myself sprinkling their names throughout many of my books. 

 

Lastly, I thank Dick, who simply hates when I refer to him as Richard. He is my husband, my life partner, my business partner and my reason for living. He listens when I need someone to listen, and offers sage advice when I tend toward irrational. I am truly blessed in working with, living with and loving such a husband.   

 

 

 

For The Pence Family

 

Who showed me the joy that comes

 

with believing.

 

 

 

As It Was…

 

O
n an icy cold November morning in 1956, Bartholomew Jones died in the Poynter Coal Mine. His death came as no surprise to anyone. He was only one of the countless men forever lost to the mine. They were men loved and mourned by their families, but to the world they were faceless, nameless people, not worthy of mention in the
Charleston Times
.

Morning after morning those men descended into the belly of the mountain, into a world of black dust that clung to their skin with a fierceness that no amount of scrubbing could wash away. In the winter the sky was still black when they climbed into the trolley cart that carried them into the mountain. And when they returned twelve hours later, daylight had already come and gone.

None of the men complained. They were the lucky ones, they told one another. They were the ones who slept easy. Their family had food on the table and coal for the stove when winter blasted its way across the ridge of the mountain.

At one time Bartholomew thought he could beat the odds, break the chain of events that carried itself through generation after generation. His daddy had grown up in the mines, starting when he was barely big enough to carry a bucket of scrap coal from the chute to the hopper. His granddaddy had done the same. It was the way of life, a dirty, lung-polluting job handed down from grandfather to father and ultimately to son.

But Bartholomew had different plans.

In 1932 he left home to join the navy. “Go,” his daddy said happily. “Go and don’t ever look back.” A life built on a hunched back and blackened skin was not something any man wished for his son, and even though it meant he might never see the boy again he was glad.

After two months of basic training Bartholomew was assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard and for the next six years he loaded and unloaded machine parts on the ships that sailed in and out of the port.

Norfolk was where he met and married Ruth.

It was love at first sight. Ruth was in town visiting her sister, and as fate would have it he happened to be standing in back of them while the girls waited to buy tickets to see “The Big Broadcast” with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. To Bartholomew’s eye Ruth was far prettier than Dorothy Lamour, and he said so ten minutes after they’d struck up a conversation. 

“Aw, go on,” she’d said with a smile.

As they eventually made their way down the aisle of the strand, Bartholomew followed the girls. Before they’d gone nine rows in Ruth pointed to a spot with three empty seats together. “Let’s sit here,” she said. She looked back at Bartholomew, an invitation in her smile. 

After the movie Bartholomew took Ruth and her sister, Anita, for ice cream sodas. Before it came time to pay the check, he was in love. Forever, eternally, and deeply in love. With her soft brown eyes and lips that fairly begged to be kissed, Ruth was as warm as a wool coat on a blustery day.

 

BOOK: Jubilee's Journey (The Wyattsville Series)
8.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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