An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance
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About this ebook
Joshua Gates did not expect to find a girl sleeping in his stables.
Working in the stables of his brother's farm, Joshua was more than surprised to find a young, unmarried, pregnant woman sleeping in the hay. After speaking to the girl, Eliza Howlstead, he realizes the true danger of her situation, and he allows her to stay hidden in the stables. As the weeks pass, it becomes more and more difficult to hide her from his brother. And those she is running from.
Eliza Howlstead didn't intend to stay in the stables.
When she slipped into the barn on the Gates ranch, she only intended to sleep the night and move on at first light. But, she was so tired of running from her abusive father that her body simply gave out. When she woke and found a stocky, blond haired, blue eyed boy staring down at her, she fully expected to be thrown back out onto the open road. She could never have anticipated the kindness Joshua Gates would show her or how strong her feelings for him would become. Still, she knows she must leave him eventually. Preferably before her baby is born. But, as the time comes closer, she wonders if she will have the strength to do what she must.
This is a standalone short story with no cliffhanger!
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An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance - Johanna Jenkins
An Unusual Arrangement
Prologue
Eliza
He was coming for her .
That was the only thought running through Eliza Howlstead’s mind as she slumped down against a large oak tree growing along the side of the road.
Her father would come for her. If not her father, then the other man. The one she didn’t dare to think about. The one who had helped her father beat her bloody when they’d discovered her...condition.
She rubbed one hand over her swollen stomach and felt the tiny foot, growing inside it, kick in discomfort.
I know, little one,
she whispered to the child in her belly. I’m tired too. But, we have to keep going.
Eliza took in a deep breath and looked towards the dimming light along the brown dirt road. With a resigned nod, she forced her aching, swollen feet to march, once again, along the path.
She had been walking since first light that morning. Since she slipped out through the back door of her father’s house and began to run down this western road.
She’d given up running a little after dawn. But, she didn’t dare diverge from this path.
There was a town at the end of this road. There, Eliza hoped, prayed, she might find shelter. Possibly at a local church. Maybe a good Samaritan would take her in.
Anything would be better than the fate that would await her at her father’s home. The home where her father had promised to tear her child from her arms as soon as he was born.
Just a little further,
she whispered half to herself and half to the child in her belly.
But, as she reached a small signpost that marked the way towards town, she realized that was a lie. She still had three more miles to walk before she reached even the edge of town.
The sun was shrinking fast behind the horizon. Eliza knew that she could not continue walking in the dark. She had no lantern, nothing to light her way. And, in her condition, she was likely to fall and harm either herself or the baby. Possibly both.
Though she feared any attempt to slow her gait or stop, her swollen ankles and aching feet told her as surely as the light disappearing in the sky that she could not go on any further.
She looked to either side of the road. There was nothing but corn fields and cow pastures as far as she could see. No houses where she might ask for shelter. Not even a barn she might sneak into to spend the night.
That was when she heard it.
The clomping of hooves pounding against the ground.
She froze and listened. The horse was large. In her mind, she could see the fierce black creature ridden by Charlie Sanders, the bounty hunter her father knew well. The one he had promised Eliza to in marriage.
Whoa!
a loud voice cried around the bend.
At the sound of the voice, she began to run. She could not see the horse or be sure of its true rider, but neither could she take the chance.
Finally, as she rushed along the road, she spied a small brown, barn-like structure not far off.
She made her way towards it, running as fast as her swollen stomach, feet, and ankles would allow her. She reached the building just as the clomping of hooves sounded behind her again on the road.
Again, without checking behind her to see the identity of the follower, she threw herself behind the building so that she was hidden from the road. She remained pressed against