Seeds of Change (Leah's Garden Book #1) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Lauraine Snelling

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175 pages

English

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Larkspur Nielsen is ready for a change. Her parents have passed on, and her older brother is successfully running the family business. She bristles at the small-mindedness that permeates life in her small Ohio community, and she sees little chance of a satisfying future there. She has a little money saved, and after turning the tables on a crooked gambler who had fleeced several locals, including her younger brother, she can stake a new start for herself and her three sisters.As the gambler's threats of revenge echo in her ears, she and her sisters head to Independence, Missouri, to join a wagon train bound for Oregon. Knowing that four women traveling together will draw unwanted attention, Larkspur dons a disguise, passing herself off as "Clark" Nielsen, accompanying his three sisters. But maintaining the ruse is more difficult than Larkspur imagined, as is protecting her headstrong, starry-eyed sisters from difficult circumstances and eligible young men. Will reaching their goal prove too much for them?

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Christianity

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 juin 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493429783
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0384€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Cover
Half Title Page
Books by Lauraine Snelling
L EAH ’ S G ARDEN
The Seeds of Change
A Blessing to Cherish
U NDER N ORTHERN S KIES
The Promise of Dawn
A Breath of Hope
A Season of Grace
A Song of Joy
S ONG OF B LESSING
To Everything a Season
A Harvest of Hope
Streams of Mercy
From This Day Forward
An Untamed Heart
R ED R IVER OF THE N ORTH
An Untamed Land
A New Day Rising
A Land to Call Home
The Reapers’ Song
Tender Mercies
Blessing in Disguise
R ETURN TO R ED R IVER
A Dream to Follow
Believing the Dream
More Than a Dream
D AUGHTERS OF B LESSING
A Promise for Ellie
Sophie’s Dilemma
A Touch of Grace
Rebecca’s Reward
H OME TO B LESSING
A Measure of Mercy
No Distance Too Far
A Heart for Home
W ILD W EST W IND
Valley of Dreams
Whispers in the Wind
A Place to Belong
D AKOTAH T REASURES
Ruby • Pearl
Opal • Amethyst
S ECRET R EFUGE
Daughter of Twin Oaks
Sisters of the Confederacy
The Long Way Home
A Secret Refuge 3-in-1
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2021 by Lauraine Snelling
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2021
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—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-0-7642-3569-6 (trade paper)
ISBN 978-0-7642-3570-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-7642-3571-9 (large print)
ISBN 978-1-4934-2978-3 (ebook)
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Dan Thornberg, Design Source Creative Services
Author is represented by the Books & Such Literary Agency.
Dedication
I dedicate The Seeds of Change , and the rest of the L EAH ’ S G ARDEN series, with great love and admiration, to Wendy Lawton, agent extraordinaire, deep friend, sister in Christ. She has made my life richer on so many levels. Another of God’s gifts to me.
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page
Books by Lauraine Snelling
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Epilogue
About the Authors
Back Ads
Cover Flaps
Back Cover
Epigraph
Forsythia
Because it flowers in late winter or early spring, forsythia stands for spring sun and anticipation. After the cold of winter, we are all longing for the sun, and the bright gold of first-blooming forsythia cheers us beyond measure.
Forsythia is a shrub, and branches can be easily forced by cutting them on the diagonal, placing them in a tall vase or bucket of water, and checking them daily.
Nothing says spring is almost here like the bright, cheerful forsythia.
1
L INKSBURG , O HIO M AY 1865
I truly hate that man.”
“Lark, you know Ma said we should never hate anybody.” Larkspur’s sister Forsythia, third of the Nielsen daughters, spoke out of the side of her mouth, the way they had learned so as not to be heard by anybody else. Especially in church. Forsythia had spent a good part of her young life trying to keep her older sister out of trouble.
Larkspur refocused her attention forward, clenching her fingers in her lap to keep from leaping out of the pew.
Deacon Wiesel raised his Bible, the pages rippling from the force of his shaking. His voice nearly tore the hinges from the doors. “Women, if you are indeed following God’s Word . . .”
Larkspur watched the red of his face deepen. Perhaps a heart attack? A stroke?
“You are ordered to submit to your husband’s every utterance. God says so, right here.” The words thundered, and spittle spattered the pulpit. “If you are not married, your father is in charge. For too many of you, your mouth is your biggest sin.” Little pig eyes slit nearly shut, he stared right at Larkspur as if daring her to speak.
Lark returned stare for stare, knowing she was aggravating the deacon but no longer caring. According to him, women should never raise their eyes—only a downcast posture was proper.
Forsythia laid a gentle hand on Larkspur’s shaking knee, and Lark felt an elbow digging into her left side. Her sister Delphinium was only reminding her that were their mother here, she would be mortified by the actions of her eldest daughter. Surely she had taught her daughters better than to let their emotions show like this in church. But then, Ma had never met Deacon Wiesel or watched him drive their dear Pastor Earling to his deathbed. At least, Lark sure found it suspicious that the two men had gone for a buggy ride and only the deacon returned alive, lamenting that their pastor had died in an accident. But how had Wiesel survived a runaway horse and Pastor Earling hadn’t? And if their mother could see how the weasel took out his furies on his wife . . .
Lark glanced at Climie Wiesel, cowering in a forward pew. Bruised, bones broken, terrified he would one day abuse their dreamed-of children, Climie made excuses for her husband whenever she and Larkspur talked. But they all knew that Climie had lost that last baby and those before because the deacon beat her so badly. When Wiesel got liquored up, there was no stopping him. They all knew that, but their mother had gone on to heaven before Climie started taking refuge with the Nielsens when her husband went deep in his cups. Sadly, often not soon enough.
Something had to be done. After the accident, Deacon Wiesel had taken over, ignoring all efforts of the other church leaders to find a new pastor. Larkspur tried to shut down her mind by running through multiplication tables. It didn’t help. She tried adding columns of three numbers. Nothing helped. She raised her head when she no longer heard the weasel haranguing them with the Bible verses.
But he was staring right at her. “Women, obey your husbands, for that is the word of the Lord.”
For Forsythia’s sake, Larkspur stared down at her clenched hands. She was shaking so hard the entire pew shuddered. Thank heaven I am not married, and if all men are like you, I never will be.
At a faint thud from the front of the church, Larkspur looked up.
Climie had slumped over in the pew where she sat. Fainted from the sheer force of her husband’s hypocrisy?
Lark half rose to go to her.
“Young woman,” Deacon Wiesel fairly roared, “sit down!”
“Your wife, sir.” Lark shook off Forsythia’s restraining hand and stood to her full stature, taller than the deacon himself if he hadn’t been in the pulpit. “She’s fainted.”
“She has merely fallen asleep. You should concern yourself with hearing the word of the Lord and leave my family to me.”
Mrs. Smutly, the woman on the piano bench who thought Deacon Wiesel ordered the sun to rise in the morning, gave a firm nod and cast a disapproving glance at the slender woman collapsed in the front pew.
Lark once again matched Wiesel glare for glare, then pushed past her two sisters and strode up the outside aisle toward the exit as if she were stomping ants. She ignored the scowls she could feel stabbing her and let the outside door click shut behind her. Shaking her head, Larkspur sucked in a deep breath, pausing at the top step to inhale the clean, quiet air.
“‘Onward, Christian soldiers . . .’” The closing hymn floated out through the walls and windows, giving no hint of what had gone on inside.
Or what was going on inside of her.
She had to get away before the congregation was released from the evening service. Deacon Wiesel would make his way up the aisle to stand at the door and greet everyone, and she didn’t want to be here when that happened.
Starting down the walk to the street, she heard her siblings exiting behind her.
“You’ve done it now.” Her brother Anders, the eldest of the Nielsen clan, joined her. “I’m going back to the store. You’re welcome to join me. Dealing with numbers always calms you down.”
Larkspur shook her head. “If someone came in, I might bite their head off.”
“Why can’t you just ignore him? Or stop going to church?”
“That would really do it. Both Pa and Ma would be shuddering in their graves.”
“Wait, Lark,” Delphinium, next in age below Larkspur, called from behind them. “Let’s walk together.”
“I don’t think you want to hear or even feel what I am thinking, Del.”
“We know what you’re thinking, but it doesn’t do any good.”
“Look, several of us from the board have written to the head church office requesting that they send us a new pastor,” Anders said. “Till then, we’ll have to ignore him.”
“Ignore when his poor abused wife keels over in the front pew?” Lark demanded.
Anders stopped at the wooden porch of Nielsen Mercantile, which had been started by their father. “So what are you going to do, then?”
“I’m going home, that’s what I’m doing.” Larkspur turned to her sisters. “You can go back there and make nice with everybody, but I’m finished.” She stomped ahead of them, the other three trailing behind.
“What are we going to do?” Delphinium whispered. “When she gets like this, she won’t back down.”
On the corner of the next block, rowdy piano music poured out of the swinging door of a saloon, inviting passersby to come on in. The sisters automatically stepped off the boardwalk to move to the other side of the street.
“Deacon Wiesel already blames Lark for all his problems. He thinks she influenced Climie and turned her against him. Now he’s going to come after us, and if he doesn’t do that, he’ll at least tell ev