Read an Excerpt
Defiant Heart LP
Chapter One
1850
The folks of Hawkins, Kansas, had only two reasons to get excited on any given day. One: the birth of a baby (which only happened in the rooms above the saloons but, nonetheless, gave cause for a stir), and two: a wagon train making camp along the creek just outside of town for one, two, sometimes as many as three days if the Oregon-bound settlers were ahead of schedule and needed to make repairs to more than a couple of wagons.
Today there were no babies reported born, but the town was up in arms just the same, and that could mean only one thing: The first wagon train of the year was about to make camp just beyond the town's border.
"It's a'comin'!" The disembodied shout from outside the store window caught Fannie Caldwell's attention and brought an intake of air to her lungs. Every nerve ending beckoned her to run to the door and join the small gathering of townsfolk—men, mostly, except for the occasional fancy woman venturing sleepily from one saloon or another, face paint smeared, shawls drawn over petticoats and chemises.
As much as Fannie longed to venture out herself, she knew better. She could feel Tom's eyes boring into her. Those dark, leering eyes that followed her wherever she went. Hour after hour. Day after endless day. Year after year. She had to remain alive and whole if she was going to keep Kip and Katie alive and whole, so she stayed put, keeping her gaze focused on the account books open on the counter in front of her.
Grunting, Tom pulled his bloated body from the wobbly wooden chair at the end of the counter. Disgust burned a hole through Fannie as the middle-aged storekeeperlumbered across the scarred plank floor. He grabbed hold of the leather latch, yanked open the door, and stepped out into the dusty street.
"Gal," he called with gruff command, "you best git your head out of them books and ready the store for business. This one looks to be a long train—pert near a hunnerd wagons I'm guessin'."
Fannie's heart lifted at the news. A wagon train that big could surely hide three small people like her and the twins. Maybe things were finally starting to go right for a change. A grim smile tugged at Fannie's lips, but she squelched it before Tom could see. No sense raising his suspicions.
"Ya hear me? Or do I need to help yer hearin' a mite?"
They both knew he wouldn't beat her just now. There was no one else to run the store for the next few hours. Too much money to be made and not enough time for her to take a beating, then pull herself together for what promised to be a busy day of selling. "Yes, Tom. I heard you."
"Git to it, then."
With a sigh, Fannie did as she was told. She'd learned long ago the price of disobedience. Not that she was a lily-livered coward. But after three years of being indentured to Tom, she knew all too intimately the pain of connecting with his fists, boots, the flat of his hand. And tonight there was too much at stake for her to risk provoking a beating she might not be able to recover from very quickly.
"Yes, sir." The sound of her soft submission masked the wild rebellion nearly exploding from her heart. The subservient reply would have fooled even the most astute bystander. Thankfully, it fooled Tom. It had to. If her plan was going to work.
Fannie shut the account book and shoved it beneath the counter. Next, she set to work dusting shelves and raising prices 50 percent as Tom always insisted. Enough so that he made substantially more of a profit than his already overpriced goods demanded, but not so much that the average traveler, hungry for the sight of a town and the inside of a dry goods store, would balk too much before plunking down the price.
"Where's Kip?" Tom barked. The planks groaned beneath his mass as he reentered the store and waddled to his seat. "These folk'll need someone to help carry packages." Another two bits per customer. Another shot of whiskey for Tom.
Fannie forced herself to maintain an air of calm. "He'll be along soon. Remember, last night you told him to go to the creek this morning and catch fish for tonight's supper?"
"Huh? Thet right?"
No. It was a flat-out lie, but he'd never know it. The drunken fool. Kip and Katie weren't anywhere near the creek. They were loading the wagon with the last of the supplies they'd smuggled out last night after Tom drank himself unconscious. Lookouts had been reporting back on the wagon train's forward progress for the past two days. The three siblings had gone to work finalizing preparations at the first word. If all went according to plan, by the time Tom drank himself into the same inevitable stupor tonight, she and the twins would be long gone.
When the first wagon came into view through the open door, Fannie could no longer resist the pull to stare. The longing she kept carefully hidden. Tom had spoken the truth. All told, there must be a hundred wagons, maybe more. She knew they would pull through town and make camp just the other side, next to the creek.
Within the hour, the first wave of pioneers would find their way into the store. By nightfall, her body would ache with fatigue. Tom would hover for a while then, as the money box got fatter and fatter, his excitement would grow, and he'd leave her to the wagon train customers and visit one or both of the local saloons. Eventually, he'd stagger home rip-roaring drunk. She wouldn't think about what would happen later, but afterwards, when he fell into a stupor, her plan would fall into place. Three years of meticulous planning. She finally had everything she needed to take Katie and Kip away from this godforsaken dirt pile of a town. If a person could even call it that. Two saloons, a smithy, and Tom's trade store. That pretty much summed up the town's commerce.
Defiant Heart LP. Copyright © by Tracey Bateman. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
