Today is release day for
by Sandra E Sinclair
Book 16 and her fifth book in the series
SWEETHEARTS OF JUBILEE SPRINGS
About Hope Eternal:
If you've read Gambled Pride and Captured Heart you may be please to know that the story continues from there...Meet Constance Michaels, Rachel's mother, and what it means for Rachel and Beg, having her mother turn up out of the blue...
Book Description
She wants forgiveness, he wants to protect his wife.
After years of hiding who and what she is, Constance Michaels must now face the bitter truth of her wrenched past, and the knowledge one of her children wants nothing to do with her. She understands her daughter’s feelings. Thirteen years was a long time to be absent to just expect to walk back into a person’s life and pick up where she left off. There were mountains to climb, and bridges to mend before she could possibly hope for forgiveness for the part she played.
Beg Wilson has worked hard to put together the broken pieces of his wife’s heart. The last thing he needs is Constance thinking she could come back into her daughter’s life and undo everything he’d worked so hard to achieve. He’s conflicted as to what would be best for all of them. He knew what it was like not to have a mother. How could he possibly deny his wife the chance to have hers, regardless of the outcome?
Is it possible for Beg to use the spirit of Christmas, to mend old wounds, build bridges, close the gap of time, and bring a mother and daughter together?
Find out today in Hope Eternal book 16 of the Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs Series. on Amazon. PLEASE CLICK HERE
Hope Eternal will be offered at the New Release sale price of $.99 for one day before it will be available at its usual price.
Now for an Excerpt
Chapter 1
Constance Michaels scrunched the letter she held in her hand, tears streaming down her cheeks, landing on the bobbin lace embroidery she'd been creating. She hadn't heard from Marybeth in a while and wondered why she hadn't responded to her letters.
To get this heartbreaking news from Rachel, her youngest, tore her apart. She couldn’t breathe, her chest felt tight, as though a large rock was forced into the narrow space there. Sure her heart would fail, and without warning, darkness descended as she slumped to the ground.
"Ma, are you all right? What happened?" Darrell asked, his face creased with concern.
She blinked up at him as the fog cleared from her eyes and mind. “I’m fine, I just came over all lightheaded.” Constance let her son help her to her feet. The letter from Rachel was squashed in his fist.
There was no way he hadn't read it. It was time to tell her boys about their sisters. She'd put it off for too long. Now Jeremiah her husband was gone, the risk to him and his boys was over. She could tell them about her previous life. The life she’d led before meeting their father—a generous and good man to the last.
She wasn’t proud of what she’d done and didn't know if the children would forgive her deceit. She'd abandoned her other children in order to marry a man she didn’t know when she hadn’t been free to, and raised another woman's offspring.
She hadn't seen her girls in the flesh for over thirteen years. Even so, she had never stopped thinking about them or how they were doing. She'd received many updates as to their progress through life, by her dear friend Pearl Cartwright. Until her friend's eyesight began to fail, the news of her girls had been regular.
Pearl's last few letters had disturbed her. It informed her that her baby girl, Marybeth was a dancing girl at the saloon. She'd taken the risk of asking Pearl to leave the mail order bride advertisement on the seat next to Marybeth in church, asking her to befriend her eldest daughter and to give Marybeth a letter she'd written to her.
That had been three years ago. Her letter to Marybeth had stated Constance's address in Monarch Bend. As well as the scarcity of the women in the neighboring town of Jubilee Springs, and for Marybeth to run away from her father, and bring Rachel with her.
She was to contact Mrs. Millard and make the application to be a mail order bride. Constance would send money through the post every month, so Marybeth could buy the provisions she needed for her and Rachel to make their escape.
Constance had always known it would be a lengthy process in aiding her children find a better and happier life. She never thought Marybeth would die before she could have accomplished all they had set out to achieve.
Her only consolation was that Rachel had escaped. She was safe and married. But from the tone of Rachel's letter, her daughter hated her. She felt it in every line she read. She didn't blame her. She had told Marybeth to keep their correspondence secret from everyone for fear of their father finding out. If that had happened, all their lives would have been much worse.
She could accept Rachel's feelings for now. The loss of her sister must have been brutal, and Constance hadn't been there for any of it. She hated herself, but she would have to live with the decisions she'd made all those years ago. What was done could not be undone. She could only hope to find a way to reach Rachel and beg her forgiveness.
At the same time, she had to consider her boys. She'd been their mother for thirteen years. She owed them an explanation too. Constance thanked God her beloved Jeremiah wasn't alive to see her shame. He'd given her eleven wonderful years, free of beatings, cursing, and deprecation. She couldn't have loved him more.
He'd encouraged her independence and turned her side venture into a small business where she'd earned enough money to help on the farm, giving her the ability to send money to Marybeth.
Her only regret was she never told him about her girls. Her decision to keep her husband in the dark had been a selfless one. As much as she’d pined for her girls, she had also seen the dangers.
Jeremiah would have insisted they got the girls and brought them to live with them, but their father would have sooner gunned him down in the street as look at him. The only way to keep everyone safe had been to keep them a secret and apart.
Not to mention her lack of divorce from her previous husband before marrying another. To have made things legal would have meant declaring her whereabouts. So many lies had passed her lips, she prayed every day for redemption. But she couldn’t take the beatings any longer.
She’d rather her girls be scarred from her leaving, than to have them witness her death. And in turn, bring about their own, by a ruthless hateful man, who married her for her inheritance and the money she’d made from making lace for dressmakers and linen stores.
Her skill with bobbins and pins lace making was one handed down to all the women in her family. She’d started teaching Marybeth the more difficult patterns when she had to leave. Unless Marybeth had taught Rachel the basics, the craft would die out from her line of the family with her.
If Marybeth had taught her, then she had some intricate patterns she would leave with her. If Rachel knew the stitches, the rest of it would be easy enough for her to figure out by reading the patterns.
All she wanted was one more Christmas spent with her girl, so she could hand over to her a piece of her family’s history, to pass on to her own children someday. Also she needed to know and be sure the man her daughter married would be good to her, and to impart some of her wisdom on to her if he wasn’t.
The cold of the glass being forced into her hand by Darrell brought Constance out of her musing. Her son’s face held lines of worry around his mouth and eyes. She gave him a wry smile of reassurance. She was fine. But was she? For the second time in her life, her world had been turned on its head.
“Here, drink this, and then we’re going to talk about this.” Darrell pulled her letter from Rachel out of his pocket. “I had sisters? Why would you keep something like that from us, from Pa?” His concern now merged with wrinkles of disgust, which shattered her composure. With the inability to stop them, she let her tears flow freely.
Jeremiah’s boys had always welcomed her as a mother. They had only ever shown her love and adoration. The expression on Darrell’s face was far from loving, and he was the closest to her. If he could regard her with such disdain, how would Joshua see her?
~o0o~
To read and enjoy all of the books in the Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs series, please sign up and follow us on Amazon by CLICKING HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment