Rocky Mountain Dreams & Family on the Range Danica Favorite (warren buffett book recommendations .txt) 📖

look down the road, she felt sure the coast was clear and galloped out of town. She passed the Paiute settlement on the way and waved.

The sight of the dogs, the misplaced tents and the run-down people filled her with sadness. But for her Irish father and renegade mother, she might be weaving baskets for an income and living in a canvas tent that would never be her own.

The horse’s even movements lulled her into deep thoughts of the past. She’d been thirteen when her mother dropped her off with Trevor’s mom, at the house of ill repute she’d owned.

Although she’d known Trevor since she was a wee one, her mother’s constant moving had kept them in sporadic touch. When her da had disappeared and the men in her mother’s life had started looking at Mary, she’d dropped her off for safety with Trevor’s mom and gone in search of Da.

That choice had forged a loyalty between Mary and Trevor that had kept her safe until she was eighteen. Until Trevor’s mother had grown impatient with Mary’s decision to be the house seamstress and nothing more. Until she’d seen the growing bond between her son and her friend’s daughter. Until her jealousy had forced her to do the unthinkable....

Mary blinked and urged her horse to move faster, wishing the hot air against her skin could melt the memories that blistered her heart and twisted her stomach. She glanced at the sky. It must be nearing three o’clock. She would go home, make a meal, help Lou, and then she’d have to speak with Josie to explain what must happen soon.

Would the little girl understand?

Mary felt sure she wouldn’t. Every day it seemed the pressure on her shoulders grew heavier. It had taken Gracie leaving and Lou being home to make her see how much she longed for family. After her self-induced seclusion of twelve years, the need for family and belonging bludgeoned her senses and as Lou had said, twisted her priorities.

It had been wrong for her to try to keep Josie for so long. A little girl needed her mother and for all she knew, Josie’s mother had been frantic with worry. Powerless to change anything since she was ill.

Oh, Lord, forgive me.

Keeping Josie from her mother was the biggest mistake Mary had ever made. How could she have been blind to it for so long? Thinking only of her own desires and not another’s?

This must be fixed. Tomorrow she would leave with Lou and do what must be done. It was time to put her trust in the God who had saved her from wicked people, who had filled her with peace.

A hawk swooped ahead, gliding through the sky in search of food. Like that bird, God would care for her and tend to her needs. She must believe it.

And it started with thanks, something she’d sorely neglected since Lou had returned with his injury and since she’d been busy taking care of Josie.

The hawk disappeared from view, its majestic red-tipped wings spread in splendor against the azure sky. Mary lifted her face upward, feeling the graze of sunlight against her skin, and began a song to praise her King.

Her voice echoed, rising and falling, filling the desert around her, reaching, she hoped, the God she loved. As she neared the hidden trail that wound carefully to the ranch’s secluded location, her voice tapered with the end of the song and she slowed the mare to a stop.

She took a deep breath. Filled her lungs with the scents of sage and pine, listening to the sounds of summer birds calling to each other across the rugged landscape.

As she sat there, another sound filtered through to her hearing, a different sound. A sound that didn’t fit.

She froze, patting her mare to soothe the sudden dance she did with her hooves.

The sound came again. A steady clop, like the muted sounds of covered hooves.

Her breaths shortened as panic began to claw up her breastbone, rising and grabbing her, reaching to her throat and clutching it in an unbreakable vise.

Someone had followed her.

Chapter Twelve

Somehow Mary managed to keep calm and continue onward. She dodged the main, albeit camouflaged, trail and instead guided the horse down a steep embankment into a gnarled, woody area. The steep hills and shrubbery provided decent enough cover if she stayed within shadows and kept to the sides of the range, which in some places rose to over a thousand feet.

The ranch was nestled in a deserted area that was almost like a valley. The Steens Mountains loomed on one side, and the surrounding desert provided natural protection against human intruders. When Trevor had first brought her to the ranch, she’d been in shock from the kidnapping and hardly noticed her surroundings. As months passed, though, the encircling natural formations began to be her peace, to comfort and protect her. But they never did warm the chill in her soul.

It took a special kind of person to do that. She smiled as she navigated a particularly rough patch in her detour. Miss Alma’s presence had changed the way Mary looked at life and though it took time, eventually she’d been able to trust others and find joy again.

Fear hadn’t been her companion in so long that now when it reappeared, she wasn’t sure what to do. Praising God had helped...until she’d heard someone following her.

For the first time in years, her faith was being tested in a large, unanticipated way. She deliberately slowed her breathing, willing her heart rate to follow.

Nothing stood out, though. Just familiar horse noises from her mount. Once she was sure no one had followed her onto this new path, she forged ahead and willed the old memories to stay at bay.

“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” She uttered the verse beneath her breath. And then she felt strong emotion welling within her, a hot arc of anger that someone