Taking a Leap of Love: An Inspirational Historical Western Romance Book Read online

  Taking a Leap of Love

  AN INSPIRATIONAL ROMANCE NOVEL

  LILAH RIVERS

  Copyright © 2019 by Lilah Rivers

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  Taking a Leap of Love

  Table of Contents

  Taking a Leap of Love

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  A Love to Heal a Broken Heart

  Introduction

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Taking a Leap of Love

  Introduction

  Bella Archer’s family has only been living in Nebraska for a year, but they have built a good life for themselves already. The only problem? They have been caught in an inevitable conflict with the local ranchers, especially with the Callahan family, their arch-rivals. Caught in this dangerous situation, Bella has been missing romance in her life... until one fateful day, she rescues a handsome man by the creek only to realise that he’s the only man she is forbidden to be with. Will she follow her heart and trust him, or will her family be an obstacle in her happily ever after?

  Josh Callahan is working on his family’s small but thriving cattle operation. He’s not blind to the tensions that have arisen between the local ranchers and the homesteaders, but his father is representing the former and he needs to be on his side. A surprising meeting with his rival’s daughter will surface feelings he didn’t know existed inside him. When he realizes that he can’t stay away from her, will he find a way for them to be together?

  A tense western tale of heart-stopping drama, where only faith and love can pave the way for a happy ending. Will this new love be crushed by a feud that goes deep into the earth or will it rise and conquer all?

  Chapter 1

  Bella Archer stood with her family in a vast Nebraska field, the buildings of Barnock small in the distance. Her father Elroy and her mother Sybil walked on each side of Bella through that wide, flat plain, hazy and dark under a midnight moon.

  The twins, Dean and Jonah, stood on the outsides of the family line, flanking the more vulnerable members. They were always ready for a fight, but in this case Bella was glad; she felt certain that she’d need their protection.

  Bella was tired, as if she’d been walking all day. Trying to review her memory, Bella tried to recall how long they’d been out there, how long and how far they’d been walking, but she couldn’t.

  A week, she wondered, two, a month or even more?

  A timber wolf howled in the distance, sending a chill up Bella’s spine. She reached out, her mother taking her hand. Though now eighteen, Bella still often felt like a child, like her daughter’s little girl. It was something else she was rarely grateful for, except at times like those. They held tight as they walked on, another wolf howling.

  Bella looked at her father, who wore a determined grimace on his aging face. He was as handsome as he’d ever been, but time and struggle were taking their tolls, brown hair graying, wrinkles getting deeper. But Bella was glad to see him aging, knowing the dreadful possibility of the only alternative.

  Cougars, those wolves, road agents and bandits, Comanche and Arapaho and Pawnee; misadventure was everywhere in that part of the country, so different from their lives before, back in Illinois.

  But those lives seemed like a dream to Bella, and there was no way back to them. But there also seemed to be no way forward. They could only walk, trudging through the darkness toward the light.

  But there wasn’t any light.

  A low rumble rose up from the distance, Bella looking around the haze to see nothing around them. Her mother looked too, father and brothers on the alert. It could have been any number of things, but there was only one thing that concerned Bella, and she could see by the cramped expressions on her father and brothers’ faces that they were expecting the same thing.

  “It’s a stampede,” Dean said, looking around, clutching a rifle Bella hadn’t noticed in his hands before. But there was no way he or even both twins, no way a whole army could shoot their way out of a cattle stampede.

  The rumble got louder, Bella’s stomach turning with nerves. The ground started to shake under her feet, unless it was her imagination; which Bella was hoping and praying was true.

  But she knew that it wasn’t.

  Bella looked at her mother for silent reassurance, but suddenly her mother wasn’t standing there anymore. Bella looked around again, her brothers and father also gone. The rumbling got louder still, and the ground was shaking, there was no doubt about it.

  Bella could barely stay on her feet. But spinning to look in every direction, Bella didn’t know where the stampede was coming from or where to run for shelter. She called out for her mother, but no answer came back. She ran a few feet in the other direction and shouted for her father and brothers, but she was entirely alone. Bella was lost, she was frightened, and she was about to be crushed to death.

  Bella’s heart was pounding, her mouth dry. She took to running but fell to the ground, the earth shaking, rumbling terribly loud in her ears, all around her. Bella tried to stand, but the chaos and turbulence around her were too much to bear, too much to recover from.

  And they were coming, any minute and en masse, numbers and weight and power enough to crush her and the rest of the Archer family, if they weren’t dead already. Bella tried to cry out for them, but she was suddenly breathless.

  She tried to r
each out, but her arms felt like they were made of marble, heavy and immobile. She was trapped, pinned, and she could almost hear the grunts and moans of the cattle as they bore down on her, a thousand giant creatures acting as a single, crazed creature; beyond reason, beyond control, knowing nothing but to charge ahead, fast and hard.

  Bam bam bam!

  Bella Archer sprang up out of her troubled sleep, eyes springing open.

  Bam bam bam!

  She’d heard that knock before; too many times, too often, too recently. She’d only been dreaming before, not the first time she’d been visited with such vision in the night. But the nightmare she’d just been rescued from was only to be replaced with the nightmare that was unfolding in her waking world, one day at a time.

  Bam bam bam!

  Bella already knew what was going to happen, who was on the other side of that door. She pulled over the covers and turned, legs over the side of the mattress. The front door opened on the other side of the house, her father’s voice muttering words she couldn’t quite hear.

  She didn’t need to hear them.

  Bella had prayed that it wouldn’t happen again. She knew that each time they went out, there was a danger that one or more of them wouldn’t come back. She knew they had to go, that their choices seemed to be ever-dwindling, and their enemies were multiplying just as quickly. But those familiar raps kept falling on the door; despite her prayers, despite her pleas. Bella knew God had a plan, but she’d seen the way His plans had worked out before, and they often carried a heavy price, one Bella couldn’t bear for her family to have to pay.

  Her family and the Lord were all Bella had.

  Bella’s father Elroy called out to her brothers, Dean and Jonah, their names distinct in his authoritative tone. More footsteps rumbled through the house, a nauseous nervousness turning in her belly. The Nebraska spring was chilly at night, dark, countless crickets creating that singular sound in the distance. But those were not what pushed those goose bumps up on the backs of Bella’s arms.

  Her brothers crossed the house to join their father, Bella knew by the direction of their footprints, and she couldn’t remain sitting on that bed a minute longer. She’d been told to stay out of it, that it was the business of men. After the last time, her father had instructed her not even to open the door at such times, should they arise.

  But her legs simply wouldn’t obey, and they carried her slowly to the bedroom door. She reached for the door latch, fingers slowly stretching for it. Her father’s muffled voice was still beyond her clear understanding, but there could be little doubt about what they were talking about. Her mother said a few things, her words also not clear, before the front door closed with a loud clap.

  Bella pulled the latch and opened the door. Her mother Sybil stood by the front door, turning to face her daughter with a soft, sad expression. Bella knew her mother was as apprehensive about those midnight trips to the grazing grounds as she was. Sybil knew what the dangers were; she knew what the chances were of tragedy striking them. Every time they went out, tragedy threatened to return with them.

  The lamplight set Sybil’s graying red hair in a flickering glow, worry pushing her eyebrows up toward the center of her wrinkled forehead.

  But both remained quiet as Sybil turned and carried the lamp to the kitchen, Bella following in somber silence. Sybil set the oil lamp down on the table and lit a fire under the potbelly stove.

  Chapter 2

  Elroy Archer and his boys followed their hand, Richie Knob, north toward Nelson’s Creek. The water was swollen with ice melt from the north, and the lands were seasonally rich and lush. There was a lot of grazing grass in the area, not to mention communal fields of crops planted by the local homesteaders, the Archers included. Horse hooves pounded beneath them as the four men rode on, all of them armed.

  Elroy knew there was a chance they’d be able to run the men down, but he was worried about what would happen once they did. He knew how the boys would react, of course, and Richie’s loyalty could scarcely be questioned. The men they’d meet would have little need for a margin of error, no doubt were in greater numbers, better armed, and ready to corroborate each other’s stories, if it came to that.

  There were other concerns, of course; flash floods, cougar attack, Indians, and bandits. But if any of them were creeping around, Elroy reasoned, they’d either been chased off by the ranchers or drawn into an attack. Either way, Elroy knew he and his sons had no choice.

  They rode up to the fields south of the creek, a wide and flat plain cut into sections and neatly planted with corn and radishes and other vegetables; at least it had been. By the time Elroy and his team arrived, it was several dozen acres of mangled crops, crushed roots and tubers, unearthed insects bringing in the meadowlarks and chickadees.

  Richie said, “Sorry, Mr. Archer, got t’you soon as I could.”

  Jonah looked around, his twin brother Dean doing the same. “We can still catch ’em,” Jonah said. “Bet they ain’t far over the creek.”

  But Elroy had to shake his head, glancing around in every direction. “No use,” he said, “may as well head back.”

  Dean leaned forward a bit on his horse, a mirror image of his brother and each a reflection of their father; brown hair, big and soulful eyes. “How long are we going to sit and take this, Pop? We’re as close now as we’re going to get! I agree with Jonah, I say we run ’em down!”

  “And then what? They’re probably encamped by now, and they name us as bandits who came upon them unannounced, or savages. We ride after them now, we don’t ride back.”

  Jonah shook his head. “Then aren’t we no more’n cowards, Pop?”

  “Killing or being killed is never the first option,” Elroy said, “I’ve taught you boys that long ago, both of you. The fact that you won’t listen beguiles and irritates me no end!”

  “Because this isn’t the first time,” Dean said to Elroy, Richie looking on in respectful silence. “They keep doing it, and ain’t we charged with protecting these lands?”

  “Aren’t we,” Elroy corrected his son, “and no; we’re doing what we can to represent them with the ranchers. We’re not their private police force!” The twins shared a glance, one Elroy recognized. Elroy said, “Jesus said, ‘Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children!’ Matthew 5:9.”

  But Jonah was quick to reply, “What about Ecclesiastes 3:8? A time to love ... and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace?”

  Dean added, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes!”

  Elroy could only commit the sin of pride, glad that his boys were so well grounded in scripture. He’d been worried that their own innate aggression would drive them further from Christ’s teachings, which had guided his own life for so many years. But they were still leaning to the scriptures of war, the stories of battle, of which the Bible had so many.

  The Old Testament’s tellings of the Hebrew’s history in the known world was rife with recordings of some of mankind’s greatest battles; Jericho, Ai, Megiddo. The boys were fighters, and they were drawn to tales of like-minded men. But Elroy wanted his family to read the Bible, not live it, certainly not die it.

  Elroy said, “We ride back,” and abided no contest. He kicked his paint and she jumped into a gallop, heading southward back to the Archer homestead, his sons and hand following with wordless obedience. He didn’t know how long it would last.

  Chapter 3

  Bella sat with her mother, the hot tea doing little to soothe her. The bond between Bella and her mother Sybil was strong, strong enough to mean words weren’t always necessary. At times such as that dark quiet of the kitchen, lit by a flickering flame fed by whale oil, Bella and Sybil knew what the other was thinking and feeling, and offered every sympathy that words could never express.

  But still the words came, quiet and grainy in the backs of their throats. Bella said, “You had that dream again, the one about the thu
nderstorm?”

  Bella shook her head. “One of the others, the cattle stampede.” Sybil shook her head, and Bella was quick to explain, “I feel like God’s trying to tell me something, Mother, that there’s a terrible fight coming ... with the ranchers, and that they’ll win that fight.”

  “Bella, when you’re sleeping, that’s when the enemy comes to you, and you know who I’m talking about. He wants to trick you, to frighten and beguile you —”