Taking a Leap of Love (Preview)

Chapter One

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 reach 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 Two

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 Three

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 thunderstorm?”

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 —”

“Then he’s doing a plenty good job of it!”

Sybil offered up a sympathetic chuckle, putting her hand on Bella’s to comfort her. “Be strong in your faith, Bella. I know that … things have been difficult for you lately, confusing —”

“No, Mother, I’m only concerned about the family, all this business with the cattlemen, these late-night trips out to the commons. It’s dangerous —”

“It is, I know, and you’re a good daughter, Bella. But it’s only right that other things should be on your mind. You don’t have to … to protect me, Bella. I was young too, and then … and then older.”

Bella knew well what her mother was getting at, and it was a subject she was increasingly interested in avoiding. “I … it’s fine, Mother, I’m fine.”

Sybil smiled and took a sip of tea as a long, suspect silence passed. “Have you given any thought to the future?”

“I have,” Bella was too quick to answer, “and that’s to take care of the family. With what’s coming, I know we’ll need all the help we can get. And if we won’t look after ourselves and each other, who’ll look out for us? Didn’t Daddy teach us that?”

“Your father taught you to love your family and neighbors and to love God, as those are the two greatest commandments. The Bible also says to go forth and multiply —”

“Mother, such language!”

“It’s in the Bible, Bella. And the Bible is right.” After a knowing pause and another sip of hot tea, Sybil went on, “I imagine young Turner Moss is thinking and feeling the same things. He’s just your age, and he’s always taken a shine to you.”

Bella waved her mother off, raising the teacup to her lips. “Oh, Mother, honestly!”

“I am being honest, Bella. I think maybe it’s time you started being honest yourself.”

“Mother!”

“I see the way you go a little flush when he comes around, business with your father and brothers. And the way he glances at you when we’re at his family’s store … it’s as clear as a church bell, my daughter.”

“Maybe to you,” Bella felt she had to say, “but to me … it’s just not so clear.” Sybil sat there, looking at Bella from over the bridge of her nose, until her daughter had to explain, “I … I like Turner, I really do. He’s from a good family, and he’s a good man.”

“I knew you wouldn’t miss his obvious qualities.”

“But that’s just it,” Bella said, “those are the obvious qualities. What isn’t so obvious, what isn’t so clear, is the less obvious thing. I … I like Turner, but … I don’t love him, Mother.”

Sybil rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, my child, what you’re thinking of as love … that’s … that’s a fairy tale.”

“What about you and Daddy? You love him with all your heart and all your soul, I know you do. I can see it when you look at one another. I saw it when you were standing at the door … after he went off with the boys.”

Sybil nodded, taking another sip of tea. “It’s true, your father and I … we were meant to be together, chosen one for the other by God himself.”

“And that’s just what I want, Mother! And what I deserve, what we all deserve.”

“It is, child, you’re as right as rain about that. But … the sad fact is that we all do not get what we deserve, not in this life. This life, this place, is where we’re tested, where we prove ourselves; to ourselves, to each other, to God. But this is not heaven, my daughter. This is where things are not perfect; this is where things go wrong for good people, for whatever God’s reasons and purposes.”

“But I know those purposes,” Bella said.

“You know? Daughter, do you blaspheme?”

“Of course not, Mother, never! But isn’t it sensible that the reason bad things happen to good people is to make them better people? And wouldn’t that make God proud and happy, and inclined to help us? He helps those who help themselves, Mother!”

“Marrying Turner Moss would help you plenty, and the whole family!”

Bella let a long silence pass, Sybil’s downcast eyes and slow sip of tea belying her guilt. Bella asked, “You’re not thinking of the family … as regards my troth?”

“You take the same position,” Sybil said, “I do the same, and by your own fine example! Take care of the family; we’ll need all the help we can get. If we won’t look after ourselves and each other, who’ll look out for us?”

Bella nodded. She knew the truth of what her mother was saying; there was little way to talk herself out of it. But she also knew that there were greater truths, and that her mother knew that as well as she did. They were not evident, God hadn’t revealed them to Bella yet, but He would, Bella was certain, and in His own time. She could only hope and pray that His time was coming soon. Her parents were clearly becoming inpatient; about her and about so many other things in their lives. If God did not reveal His truths soon enough, Bella knew she might never truly know them at all.

Chapter Four

The front door opened, and the Archer men stepped into the living room, the boys putting their rifles, along with Elroy’s and Richie’s. Richie nodded and turned, “G’night then —”

“No, Richie,” Elroy said, “stop, have a cup of coffee.”

The men gathered around the table while Bella and her mother started making coffee. The men slumped in their chairs, but Bella was just glad they’d made it back at all, and all in one piece.

Sybil asked Elroy, “How bad?”

“Virtually all of it,” Elroy said, “hardly a single root remains.”

Sybil shook her head and turned back to the still-empty cups.

“They’re running smaller herds,” Dean said, “fifty head maybe.”

“Which we cannot prove,” Elroy said. “Had we challenged them, they could always have denied, blamed some other drive.”

Bella said, “I don’t see why they don’t just take their cattle around the creek on the other side.”

Jonah said, “Because they don’t care, and they want us to know it. They’re cruel, heartless men, these cattle ranchers.”

Elroy said, “Jonah, they’re just businessmen, not that different from us.”

“With all due respect,” Dean said, “these men burn their brand right into the animals’ hides! They treat them cruelly, spread disease to other animals, anthrax …”

Jonah added, “Why would they treat people any differently?”

“Because they are human, they’re men. As men, they deserve some benefit of a doubt.”

Dean said, “But, Pop —”

“No, you boys listen to me. I’ve been charged with the duty of negotiating with these men. That doesn’t mean running them down in camp in the middle of the night, and it doesn’t mean underestimating or demonizing them. Too many people make the same mistake in life; presuming that only they can be right, that their way is the only way. They assume others must be wicked or evil; that some are all good and virtuous and any who hold different positions must therefore be bad, driven by darker forces. But this is an illusion, haven’t I taught you that after all these years?”

“You have, Father,” Dean said, “you’re a good man, and we’re proud to be your sons. But there are other illusions, Pop.”

Jonah said, “He’s right, Pop. Not all men are driven by the same higher principles which drive you, and which you’ve taught us to adhere. Some men are wicked, they are driven by greed and power and money. Doesn’t it behoove us to know these men for who and what they are?”

“It does, Son, yes; they are men, with families they love, with fears and passions and dreams. We’re not so different. If we are going to have peace with these men, we have to focus on those similarities, not the differences.”

“For how long?” Dean stood up and stepped away from the table just as Bella and her mother brought the cups of hot coffee. “Our charge is to negotiate, when will they keep their word? Where is the good faith in these negotiations? That saloon owner is useless as a go-between.”

“But necessary,” Elroy said. “The ranchers like him, they trust him.”

“No wonder,” Jonah said. “They’ve got him in their pocket. He’s just stalling us and has been for over a year now!”

Dean nodded. “That’s when Barton Callahan should have dealt with this!”

Bella and Sybil exchanged a worried glance at the mention of Josh Callahan’s father. Sybil said to her son, “Mister Callahan’s a good man, his whole family, in fact; fine people, good Christians.”

“He promised to help broker a deal with the ranchers,” Dean said.

“And he’s doing his best,” Elroy said, “we all are.”

Jonah waved the notion off. “He’s no better than Decker or the others. He only means to keep distracting us until those beasts stomp us right out of business. How many more seasons before we all cease to be a problem for him?”

Bella knew her brother and his twin had good points. But Elroy was the man of the house, and he wasn’t the type to be easily swayed, not even by his own family.

“We don’t know who trampled those crops,” Elroy said. “If we make claims we can’t substantiate, we risk the strength of our position at the table.”

“At the table,” Jonah repeated, “what about our position on the land, and in town?”

“The latter relies upon the former,” Elroy said.

A long, dark silence collected around the table as the men sipped their coffee.

Jonah asked, “How long can we sit on our hands?”

“The only alternative at the moment,” Elroy said, “is to fill our hands with weapons, go to war with the ranchers. Then where is the law, where is the government this country is founded upon? You say these men are cruel and unreasonable, where would be the reason in our actions were we to go down that path? Incite them to riot? Give them cause to take arms against us? Think of the slaughter that would ensue. You think those men are brutal? War makes brutes of everyone involved, boys! You speak of our survival, the future of the other homesteaders? If we take arms against the ranchers now, we’ll have no future. No, our charge is to avoid that war … at all costs.”

Chapter Five

Elroy tried to convince his sons to stay behind, as usual, but they insisted on coming to the meeting in town, also as usual. He’d cautioned them not to speak out in rashness, however. The negotiations were still in play, and that meant discretion and diplomacy were to be employed whenever possible.

They collected in the big central room of the Golden Loon Saloon, which owner Otis Remington had cleared out. As it was early in the day, it didn’t cost him much business. Elroy found the place distasteful, even devoid of its usual rabble, even without the cigar smoke and jaunty piano playing in the corner.

Otis’ long sideburns flared out from his cheeks like red flames, his balding pate lined with graying red hair. “If we could keep our rhetoric to the matters at hand, gentlemen, please.”

Elroy surveyed the other men, their dispositions already clear to him. Elroy had come to represent the homesteaders, just as Barton Callahan had agreed to represent the ranchers, while Otis, being the closest thing to a mayor of Barnock, would mediate the negotiations. Land official Parker Bristol, with curly blond locks and the jib of a Boston man, would represent the government’s position on the matter, such as it was.

“The question, then, is when will Saul Decker move the ranchers to stop destroying our crops?”

Barton Callahan, portly and crowded with a thicket of blond curls, stood up and shrugged. “The problem, again, is that those crops, which the homesteaders of Barnock basically usurped as their own, were planted on grazing land that has long been used by the ranchers.”

“But the times are changing,” Elroy said. “More homesteaders are coming into the area, and we have rights!”

“To be fair,” Otis said, “you did just arrive here only a year or so ago, Mr. Archer, you and your fine family. Isn’t a bit quick to start … rearranging things to your own liking? The ranchers have been using that land for decades, it’s true.”

“There’s other land,” Elroy said. “They can graze north of the spring.”

“Until you decide to plant there as well,” Barton said. “So you can see that the cattlemen have a point.”

Jonah snapped out, “I personally cannot! They’re expanding to too great a number anyway, these miserable animals! I wonder if the land can support that much moving meat.”

“They’re living creatures,” Elroy said to his son, a stern expression quieting the boy’s outburst.

Barton smiled nervously. “The boy makes a good point. There are more cattle than in previous years, that’s true. And there will likely be even more to come. They’re mad for good beef in the East, not to mention the leather. There’s a fortune, numerous fortunes, in cattle. There’s just no way to stem that flow.”

“Then what about us,” Elroy asked, “farmers who need the land? You’ll run us right into the ocean.”

Otis turned to Parker Bristol, tall and lean with a completely shaved head that reflected the sunlight streaming in through the windows. “The question of who owns the land?”

“We own it,” Elroy said, “by virtue of having modified and built on it. Isn’t that right, Mr. Bristol?”

“That is according to the homesteading act, yes.”

Barton said, “I think it’s prudent to mention that there’s no proof that any of the local ranchers were responsible for the trampling of those crops. That’s pure conjecture.”

Dean turned to Barton. “You’d turn against your own neighbors? What’s Decker paying you to let this go on?”

Barton’s son Josh said, “How dare you challenge my father’s integrity?” Barton was a younger image of his father, youthful and athletic with well-trimmed hair and a matching blond beard.

Elroy held out his hand to silence them. “We’re all trying to work out mutually beneficial terms, boys; that’s our common goal. I’ve warned you both.” They retracted into respectful silence, and Elroy turned his focus on Barton and the others. “Barton, can’t you get Decker to tell his ranchers to take their cattle north of the creek?”

“I’ve brought the matter to Decker, and he’s agreed. How can I hold him responsible for every rancher in Nebraska?”

“Decker has power,” Elroy said. “If he wanted them to comply, my guess is that they would.” Barton shrugged, hands up, cubby shoulders curling. Elroy went on, “The homesteaders have been talking about … taking other measures.”

Otis and Parker shared a glance, Barton clearly sharing their new worry. “Measures?”

“Measures,” Elroy repeated. “Those cattle have broken down our fences, there’s talk of putting barbed wire up instead.”

Barton repeated, “Barbed wire? But … that’ll tear the cattle to ribbons!”

“Holes too,” Elroy said, “post holes, trip trenches. Your cows’ll be snapping their legs by the score.”

Josh shook his head. “You wouldn’t!”

“We don’t want to.”

Otis and Parker glanced at one another again, turning their attentions back to the others.

Barton said, “The ranchers have tried to accommodate you, but … the creek is swollen right now, and crossing it is treacherous. Changing their course to north of the creek isn’t as easy as all that.”

“They did it last night,” Jonah said, standing up.

“Can you prove that?” Jonah glanced at Dean, and then sat back down. Barton went on, “Being cut off from the grazing land south of the creek is a devastating blow for them. And you seem to be utterly unsympathetic.”

“Where is their sympathy for us?”

Otis said, “All right, all right, this is getting us nowhere.”

Elroy turned back to Barton. “Tell Decker we mean business, Barton. We’ve waited as long as we can; we’ve given up all the ground we’re going to give.”

“There’s only so much I can do,” Barton said. “But I’ll tell him.”

“You do that,” Elroy said, “or bring him here, and I’ll tell him myself.”

Chapter Six

Josh Callahan followed his father out of the meeting. He’d parted with the Archers in a civil manner, but the tension between their families was palpable.

Walking toward their horses, Josh said to his father, “They have a point, Pop.” Turning to glare at his son, Barton said nothing. “You really think Decker is pressuring his fellow cowboys to take those animals north of the creek? If anything, I’d bet he’s encouraging them to tread further and further south.”

“And why would he do that? He wants peace as much as any of us do.”

“Peace at the end of the day, Pop. But the sun’s still high over this conflict, and it’s not setting anytime soon. If Decker won’t back down, the homesteaders will take steps. Then what?”

“I’ll talk to Decker.”

“You’ve already talked to Decker … and he’s talked to you.” Barton stopped and turned to face his son, and Josh went on, “He’s the one who convinced you to represent him and his pokes. I don’t even see why you accepted the responsibility to begin with.”

“Somebody had to, Son. If this nation is going to come to anything, we have to learn to work together. Didn’t you learn anything from that terrible war?”

“I did, Pop, and what I learned was that neighbor shouldn’t turn against neighbor, brother against brother.”

“Then what do you suggest, Josh?”

Josh wanted to offer a quick response, but it was not ready on his tongue. “I … I’m not sure, but we can’t go on stalling Archer and the others. You can see they’re already done with it, done with us.”

“I hardly think they’ll take it out on us personally. That’s why Decker enlisted me, because we’re so well respected in the community.”

“But how long will we still be respected if we cow-tow to that Decker? I tell you, Pop, he’s ruining us in this town; at least as far as the homesteaders are concerned. Decker’s not honoring his agreements, and that means we’re not honoring ours!”

“We don’t know that to be true,” Barton went on. “I will look into it, Josh, but in the meantime, you need to reevaluate your priorities. This is your family. It won’t do our reputation any good to have you turn your back on your own.” A tense silence passed between them. “Choices have ramifications, boy. Whatever we do, there’s a price.”

“That’s exactly my point, Pop. There’s a price for us to pay for taking this position.”

Barton shook his head. “I wish I could get through to you! One does not take a position because it is popular, but because it is right!”

“Are we in the right, Pop? The homesteaders do have their rights.”

“And so do the ranchers. You heard them back there! They’d sabotage the land, the steaders, lay barbed wire down! What kind of land would this be, festooned with trip trenches and barbed wire?”

Josh nodded. “Granted, they seem willing to go to extremes. But what choice do they have?”

“They can be content with the land they’ve got! The cattlemen have as much right to exploit these lands as anybody!”

“You heard that land man, Bristol. They’ve made developments to the land.”

“Did they? They put up fences, they planted seeds, but this isn’t seventeen-hundred anymore, Son. Suppose everybody were to lay down and fence and call the land their own? It’s an abuse of the system, Josh! Those laws were meant for people who built houses, developed the land!”

“But they did build houses!”

“And that’s the land they have! But they can’t keep spreading out their holdings simply by virtue of their own sense of entitlement. And if they do, can they really object to the ranchers’ presence in the area? They’re just as entitled to the land as the homesteaders, every bit as much.”

“But they need more,” Josh said, “more and more all the time.”

“And so would the homesteaders. Both parties have to respect the other. So long as they won’t, there will be a limit to how much we can accomplish here. But in the meantime, this is a good opportunity for you to prove to me that you’ve a clear eye to see things as they really are. Your sense of judgment has been muddled for too long now.”

Josh gave it some thought. “And how are things, Pop, how are they really?”

“You’re a member of my household,” Barton said, “my son! Your loyalty should always be to your home, your name; that should be clear to any man.”

---

“Taking a Leap of Love” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!

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?

“Taking a Leap of Love” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Get your copy from Amazon!