Wilderness Trail of Love (American Wilderness Series Romance Book 1) Read Free Page B

sister.
    Without argument, because she permitted none, the children began climbing the stairs. Jane followed the three, carrying the baby, and noted how loud the parade of footsteps sounded on the wooden stairs. Her girls grew bigger by the day, including their feet.

    They say it’s a paradise, all I have to do is get us there.
    Laying down his dog-eared copy of Daniel Boone’s
Adventures
, Stephen shook his head. What he just told himself belied the hard truth. Getting there would be the most difficult and dangerous undertaking any of them ever experienced. Like the real paradise, dying might be the cost. But his heart was near bursting from the need for land and an opportunity to make a better living for his family. And his soul craved the excitement and adventure a trip west had to offer.
    Despite these strong arguments for leaving, his all too logical mind kept asking the same questions. He adored Jane and their four young daughters. Could he forgo their current happiness and put the lives of those he loved through the dangers of a thousand-mile journey to appease his ambition? Most of the journey would be through raw wilderness. A lot can happen on a journey like that—much of it not good. Some of it terrible.
    Confused, he wandered restlessly about the room. The walls seemed confining, trapping, as he tried weighing the pros and cons. But the mental drill didn’t help. He was stuck in a quicksand where all decisions and actions seemed impossible.
    His chest tightened as indecisiveness gnawed away at his confidence. He leaned one arm against the mantel and lowered hishead.
    The war between doing what was safe for his family, and what he believed to be his destiny, raged on. But he would find a way to win this war. He straightened and pushed his shoulders back. Somehow, he would follow his heart. He picked the book up again and turned to his favorite part,
    “…yet in time the mysterious will of Heaven is unfolded, and we behold our conduct, from whatever motives excited, operating to answer the important designs of Heaven.”

    Jane plucked the book out of Stephen’s work-roughened hands and dropped it on a nearby table. As she did, she noticed his calloused palms. She certainly hadn’t married a lazy man. As usual, he had worked sun up to sun down, trying to get a rocky plot ready for planting. Resting was something he did only on the Sabbath, but even then, he did so begrudgingly.
    Stephen flexed his back muscles and rolled his broad shoulders.
    “Lean forward, let me rub your back. I know it must ache after a full day in the field,” she offered.
    He grinned with anticipation.
    She kneaded his shoulders and he leaned into her touch. Stephen moaned with enjoyment, reminding her of similar sounds of pleasure the evening before. The memory warmed her insides as she recalled trying to muffle her own sounds of marital ecstasy. How he managed to make their coupling better for her every time was inexplicable to her.
    She felt his muscles beginning to relax, as her fingers pulled out the fatigue. “You seemed worried while you were reading.”
    “Oh, I was just concentrating,” he replied.
    “No you weren’t,” she accused. “You kept staring at the book and pondering something else. What is it?”
    He didn’t answer. Instead, he grasped her wrist and tugged her into his lap.
    Instantly her heartbeat quickened.
    Stephen eyed her for a moment. She detected a flicker in his intense eyes and a hesitation before he said, “I’m just thinking through something, that’s all. But it’s nothing to fret over.”
    “What?” she pressed. He was evading her questions.
    “I said it was nothing, so let it be.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm.
    Jane moaned as he nibbled on one of her fingertips, astounding her that even her fingers responded so fervently to his touch.
    He ran a hand gently down the side of her neck. “Ah Jane, do you know how much I love you,” he said, “and our girls.”