Sweet Boundless (Diamond of the Rockies Book #2) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Kristen Heitzmann

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156 pages

English

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Newly married Carina DiGratia Shephard longs to make a home for herself and her husband, Quillan, in the rugged mining town of Crystal, Colorado. Quillan, however, has turned away to confront the haunting pain of his troubled childhood. Out of her loneliness, Carina opens a restaurant, and through its success soon attains the independence and identity she has long sought. When Carina is attacked in retaliation for her kindness to the destitute families of miners, everything changes. Will Quillan exchange his bitterness for the forgiveness of God in time to save their marriage?

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Historical romance

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 mars 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441204578
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0259€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Sweet Boundless
DIAMOND OF THE ROCKIES

The Rose Legacy Sweet Boundless The Tender Vine

Twilight A Rush of Wings The Still of Night Halos Freefall The Edge of Recall

Secrets Unforgotten Echoes
www.kristenheitzmann.com
KRISTEN HEITZMANN

Sweet Boundless
Diamond of the Rockies book 2

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Sweet Boundless Copyright 2001 Kristen Heitzmann
Cover design by Jennifer Parker Cover photography by Mike Habermann Photography
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
ISBN 978-0-7642-0714-3
The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:
Heitzmann, Kristen. Sweet boundless / by Kristen Heitzmann. p. cm. - (Diamond of the Rockies ; 2) ISBN 0-7642-2382-8 (pbk.) 1. Woman pioneers-Fiction. 2. Mine accidents-Fiction. 3. Married women- Fiction. 4. Colorado-Fiction. I. Title. PS3558.E468 S93 2001 813 .54-dc21 2001001302
To Al and Mary Jane Heitzmann for the gift of my husband
With your whole heart honor your father; your mother s birthpangs forget not. Remember, of these parents you were born; what can you give them for all they gave you?
Sirach 7:27-28 The Apocrypha
CONTENTS
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Acknowledgments
ONE
The rosy kiss of the sun on the newborn day is God s own touch upon His world.
-Carina
IT WAS MAE S IDEA. With Berkley Beck, the Carruthers, and all the roughs hung by the neck, why shouldn t the house be hers? Carina stared at the small clapboard house caught between Mae s boardinghouse and Fletcher s Stationery. It was plainer than it had appeared in the illustration-no chimney, no gingerbread trim, no shrubs, and only one window. Hardly the dream house she had thought she d purchased. Never mind that the deed was a forgery and the sale a fraud.
Carina figured her claim was as good as any, however. And in a city where claim jumping was a sport, no one had jumped that claim, not since its last inhabitants had been choked to death at the end of a rope. Carina cringed, the sight imprinted on her memory. All those men hanging like hams from the rafters of the livery. Oh, Signore . . .
She crossed herself, then brought a hand to her throat. How close she d come to joining them. Thoughts of that night two months ago still raised the flesh on her spine. But now the sun was shining sharply through the dust-clouded air, and the noise of commerce was all around her. No torches, no shadows, no vicious hollers to get Beck s woman.
If anyone still thought her that, they didn t say it to her face. Tempers were short in Crystal, but so were the memories of heinous deeds, especially their own. No one spoke of that night. Just days after the bodies had been cut down and buried, the men were about their business as though none of it had happened.
If only she could put it away so completely. Carina wrapped herself in her arms. She was not yet thick-skinned enough for that, but she was trying. Crystal demanded it. Only the hardy survived a place like Crystal, Colorado. And even then it took a bit of luck.
Had she not been dubbed Lady Luck? Dubbed by Joe Turner and the host of miners who believed it was by her hand he d found wealth and glory? Maybe taking a shovel to one piece of ground instead of another was nothing more than luck, but most of life didn t work that way. Every choice had a result. Why else would she be standing on a rutted street before a shabby house and imagining?
She tipped her head back and looked again at the house. With scarcely four feet between its side wall and Mae s kitchen and the long yard behind . . . She considered the possibilities. It could work.
Pardon me, ma am.
Carina turned and looked into a broad, pleasant face. Brown eyes, brown hair, square jaw, high forehead. A look of intelligence. Yes?
Could you tell me where to find Mr. Shepard? Mr. Quillan Shepard?
She stared at the man. Tell him where to find Quillan Shepard? She was the last one to ask. After all, Quillan was just her husband.
I have a letter here to meet him at Mae s boardinghouse. He held out the paper.
Carina s heart jumped. Two months had passed since Quillan had left. After the first month, he d sent money to Mae for Carina s keep but hadn t come himself. Did this man s letter mean Quillan was returning?
This is Mae s. Carina gestured toward the two-story structure beside the little house. When were you to meet him?
Well, today.
Today!
He said in the letter I might find a room at Mae s.
Then you ll be staying. And Quillan might be, too. . . .
If we conclude our business positively. The man removed his hat. I m Alex Makepeace, mining engineer. He held out his hand.
Carina took it. And I m Mrs. Shepard.
His eyes widened. Well, now. It seems I m on the right track. Is your husband home?
No.
Alex Makepeace filled his chest with mountain air, then choked. He would learn not to do that in Crystal s streets where the dust was thick. With a hand across his mouth, he cleared his throat. Then I ll see about a room.
There s no vacancy. Except . . . Didn t this make her decision for her? As a matter of fact, there s one room being relinquished today. You re in luck, Mr. Makepeace.
Please call me Alex. I hope to be working closely with your husband.
She half smiled. Then you don t know my husband.
Alex Makepeace surveyed her. Has he fangs and claws?
Carina laughed. No. But if he works closely with anyone, it s news to me.
Ah.
Now we d best see Mae together. The room being vacated is mine.
Ma am!
She smiled. Don t worry. I m moving into this fine house next door. Carina waved her arm. Who could ask for more?
They shared a laugh; then he sobered. Truly, Mrs. Shepard, I can t take your room.
Well, you d better. It ll be filled before the cot cools. She would never have said something like that four months ago. But that was when she d learned that it was literally true. In fact, she had stolen her room from Joe Turner, whose deposit was already down. Well, not she; Berkley Beck had stolen it for her.
Carina sighed. Too much had happened in four months time. She led the way up the front stairs, still hardly weathered, having been so recently replaced after the flood removed the old ones. Mr. Makepeace jumped ahead and held the door. Carina walked in.
Mae was at the desk, doing her books. Nearly a foot of blue dress fabric extended on each side of the chair back. Mae had lost no weight while she recovered from the bullet wounds she had received. But then, while Mae was laid up, Carina had fed her on pasta and bread and good Italian cheese-until the ingredients Quillan had brought her ran out.
Mae looked up, but the rolls of flesh still connected her chin to her chest. Well, what is it?
Mae, this is Alex Makepeace, Quillan s mining engineer.
He started to protest that nothing was settled yet, but Carina interrupted. He needs a room, and I told him he could have mine.
Mae widened her violet eyes. You re taking the house?
Why not? I bought and paid for it. Along with any number of people with deeds exactly like hers. But in Crystal, possession was nine-tenths of the law, and everyone else believed it haunted. I ll be packed and out in an hour. It would take ten minutes, thanks to her husband, who had rid her of all her belongings.
Of course, he had done what he had to, clearing the road of her broken wagon and its contents so that he and others might pass. And he hadn t been her husband then. It had been their first encounter. Bene .
The difficult part would be making the house livable. She cringed at the thought of Walter Carruther and his foul brothers who had lived there. If anyone could haunt a house, they could. And she had seen enough of them in life, grazie . She didn t need ghosts to remind her. Still, the house was hers.
Mae heaved herself to her feet. I ll need your name in the book there, a deposit, and the first week s rent. Rent s due at the front end every time. It was her standard proclamation, in case they met with an accident so permanent Mae could not collect.
Carina left them to handle the details and climbed the stairs and entered the canvas-walled cubicle only slightly larger than a horse stall that had been her home these last months. Though she d been desperately lucky to find it, she wasn t sorry to leave it.
Only through her diligence had she not acquired lice from the thin mattress on the cot. And the small toffee-colored topo , whose acquaintance she d made her first morning there, skittered regularly across the floor and under the door. No cats, Berkley Beck had told her. No cats lived in Crystal to limit the rodent population.
Bene. Fine. She had learned to live with things as they were. She took from under the bed a carpetbag and black leather satchel. The satchel was heavy with Nonna s silver, the books she d rescued from the mountain, and the letters and photographs she d brought up with her, mementos of a life so different from now. It also contained the sea green gown she d worn for her wedding.
Carina thought of the gown. Like the ceremony for which she had worn it, it was not what it had once been. Though she d carefully brushed the silk and repaired the remaining lace, most of it had been torn off and thrown away. Still, it was maybe not past saving, and her other clothes were few enough, the trunkload she d brought having landed in the creek far beneath the cliff, a