Autumn Promises Read Free Page A

thrown himself into fatherhood the way he’d done with everything else in his life. She had to fight a little twinge of anger at him. Perhaps if he hadn’t seen himself as invincible he wouldn’t have re-enlisted, and he’d have lived to be the father her son had deserved.
    Soon she was following the directions Jack had given her to the ranch. As promised, it took her through the center of Torrence, then meandered across the countryside to the entrance of the Circle A. Hanging on a wooden crossbeam across the narrow road was a carved sign reading “Circle A Ranch.”
    “Welcome to the Wild West, pardner,” Meg drawled, and turned onto the private gravel road. “I guess this is the Circle A.”
    After a mile she came to the first building. It was the ranch-style house she’d seen in Jack’s pictures. It appeared to be a long one-story log home but a deeply pitched roof added a second floor at the rear. Different as it was from Laurel House, Meg was charmed by its rustic simplicity. From Jack’s description and the odd snapshot from Christmas, she pictured the interior with its rustic beamed cathedral ceiling and a balcony edged with artfully twisted branches that had been used to fashion a sturdy railing.
    The squared-off logs used in the construction of the walls and the rustic red clay tile roof above them did nothing to alter her perception of rustic comfort. Now that she saw the building “in person,” it reminded her of the side view of a faceted jewel—a ruby.
    Big terra-cotta pots planted with specimen trees, which Jack had mentioned in letters, dotted a patio edged with a red-stone wall. A patio and wall surrounded the house and she saw that the wall was topped with a thick layer of snow. Towering elms lined the outside of the wall and patio, giving the house a nestled-in feel. The bare branches of all thetrees were ice coated and glistened in the strong winter sunlight, adding to the jewel-like quality of the home.
    In the distance she could see more squat buildings and several corrals. The other buildings all matched the house as far as construction and color went, but the roofs with their shallower pitches were slightly snow covered. The heart of the Circle A operation seemed to have settled in for a long winter, just as Laurel Glen had back home.
    As she tooled along next to the house, she noticed several work vehicles parked in a circular parking area just beyond the house that Jack had mentioned. Meg pulled in there, turned off the engine and got out. Her boots crunched in the dry snow as she walked toward a stone path that led to the back door.
    The air was crisp and dry, so unlike most winter days in the east, where higher humidity levels made summer seem hotter and winter feel colder. The icicles dripping from the eaves of the house shone like diamonds in the sun. Her analogy of seeing the house as a ruby made more sense than ever. It really did glisten.
    Meg stopped halfway up the path, her heart pounding. She would have to face him in a moment. She didn’t understand it, but something about the tall, handsome man with the iron-gray hair and commanding presence—her adversary, Evan Alton—undid her. She couldn’t face him like this. Then it occurred to her that there was something she hadn’t done since leaving the hospital. More important, there was Someone she needed to lean on.
    “Lord,” she prayed aloud. “I praise You for being my Father. And I beg forgiveness for not leaning on You. I ask You to give me strength and patience with this man who has so disappointed me, for my child’s sake. And, again, please bless Jack, Beth and the twins with the return of her good health. If there is a lesson here for one or all of us, let it be learned from her illness and not her death.”
    Feeling better able to face Evan Alton on his home turf, Meg walked the rest of the way up the path and across the stone patio. As with most homes in rural areas, the door was unlocked, so she opened it. She