A Hopeful Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

moonlit ranch grounds. The girls hadn’t been allowed to explore when they arrived at Mrs. Wyatt’s ranch. Curiosity, combined with the unfamiliar silence that permeated the area, held sleep at bay. Sallie snored softly in the featherbed, her tangled red hair scattered across the white pillowcase. Tressa envied the girl’s ability to drift off to sleep, unencumbered by worries.
    Before slipping between the sheets, Sallie had stretched her arms over her head and released a happy giggle. “What a grand place t’ be, with so much space an’ only Aunt Hattie givin’ orders. She’s a mite crusty, but I’m willin’ to wager she has a tender heart. So different from—” Her smile had dimmed momentarily, but then she’d spun herself in a little circle and clapped her hands, her grin wide. “ ’Tis happy I am to be here, an’ eager to be startin’ me new life. An’ ye, Tressa?”
    Tressa had forced a smile and mumbled something about being happy, too. But her conscience pricked now as she examined the purplish shadowed landscape scattered with gray outbuildings. She wasn’t happy to be here. Not really.
    Slipping to her knees, she propped her arm on the windowsill and rested her chin on the back of her wrist. Stars glittered overhead, beautiful against the velvety backdrop of black sky. How often had she sat in the window of her childhood home and made wishes on the stars?
    Just as she had when she was six, Tressa scrunched her eyes tight. Her most frequent little-girl wish replayed in her heart. I wish I could marry a man like Papa . She opened her eyes, blinking out at the soft night scene. Though she was now a grown up twenty-two, the desire lingered.
    Surely happiness would be hers if she could find someone like Papa—someone tall and strong, with a ready smile and gentle hands. Someone loving, with a boisterous laugh. A man who would adore her the way Papa adored Mama. Papa had adored Mama so much that when she died giving birth to Tressa’s baby brother, he lost much of his will to live.
    He hadn’t even seemed to care when his cotton mill burned to the ground, leaving him without a means of income. His apathy when forced to sell Evan’s Glen, the home where Tressa had been born, had filled her with anguish, yet even as an eleven-year-old she understood the root of Papa’s lack of caring. Why would he fight to keep a home where his beloved wife no longer resided? Tressa was certain the pneumonia would not have claimed her dear papa if he hadn’t been so heartsick from mourning.
    Tears stung her eyes. Although Mama and Papa had been gone for years, she missed them as much as if they’d only left her yesterday. Memories from her early years—carefree, joyful, surrounded by love and laughter—were the only happy possessions she carried into adulthood. Fortunately, her long, somber years with Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Leo hadn’t succeeded in washing away the precious memories.
    The stars wavered, distorted by her tears, but she stared hard at the flickering bits of light. Papa and Mama lived somewhere behind those stars. Papa believed the Bible when it said the Father’s house had many mansions. After Mama’s death, he had held Tressa on his lap and explained that the Father’s house was Heaven, and that Mama now lived in a beautiful mansion built by God. Tressa easily envisioned the mansion—built of tan stone, with turrets and beautifully colored windows, a replica of Evan’s Glen. And she knew Papa and Mama were there, along with the little baby boy who’d lived only a few hours. They resided happily together.
    While she was all alone.
    Sallie’s snore increased in volume. Tressa turned from the window and gasped when a small, fuzzy animal darted across the floor and jumped into her lap. The animal—a cat with long black-and-white fur—kneaded its front feet against Tressa’s leg and set up a mighty purr that competed with Sallie’s snore.
    Too startled to react, Tressa simply planted her