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verse from Corinthians about escaping temptation repeated itself in her mind. Her escape from Tice Edwards by offering to pay Gus’s debt was obviously not a viable plan. There must be another way to escape.
    A familiar verse from Genesis 12 popped into her head.
“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.”
    Leave?
Sarah held her breath and stared at the pale moonlight peeking through the cracks in the attic roof.
Run away?
She shivered in the dark. How could she just up and leave? She had no place to go, no money to get there. Worse, she would be alone—dreadfully alone.
    “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
    Sarah held her breath in wonder. All those Bible verses she’d learned as a child were coming back to her just when she needed them most. But again, the word
how
kept rearing its ugly head—mocking her, urging her to stay and accept her future. She wavered. In spite of her unspoken vows never to marry until she felt God approved, maybe marrying Tice Edwards wouldn’t be as bad as she was making it out to be. He was rich. He seemed polite and was obviously interested in her. He had spoken gently to her and prevented Gus from striking her.
    She chewed on her lip in deep thought and rolled onto her side. The corn husks rustled loudly. There would be no corn-husk mattress waiting for her if she married Tice. Only silks and satins. Soft, smooth bedcoverings. No leaking roof. Then, like a clap of thunder, the memory of her mother’s marriage to Gus resounded in her memory. Sarah remembered how content her mother had appeared when she knew she was marrying a man who would care for her and for her children. Gus had also seemed the perfect gentleman—before the wedding.
    “I can’t marry Tice Edwards,” Sarah resolved between clenched teeth. “I don’t love him. I don’t even know him. I must escape. I have no choice.” That decided, she gave the situation over to the One who knew exactly what He was doing. “I don’t know how I’m going to escape, God, or where I’m going to go,” she whispered in the darkness of the attic, “but I do know You’re the only One who can help me now. Show me the way.” She sighed, turned over, and fell into an uneasy sleep.

Chapter 5
    Eighteen months earlier

Central California
    M atthew Sterling rode into Madera and dismounted in front of Moore’s General Store—which housed the post office—thirsty enough to drain a well. It was over a hundred degrees in the shade, and there was no shade on the ten miles between town and Matt’s Diamond S Ranch. Just flat land, dry grass, and a glimpse of the snowcapped Sierra Nevada in the distance, so far away and hazy in the shimmering late September air that the mountains looked like a mirage.
    With a practiced flick of his wrist Matt led his favorite buckskin gelding, Chase, to the well-filled horse trough in the middle of town, being careful not to let him drink his fill. “Whoa there,” he ordered. “You don’t want to founder.” He raised his canteen to his own parched lips and grimaced when the lukewarm water poured down his throat.
    Matt forced the reluctant horse away from the trough and secured the reins around a nearby hitching rail before giving Chase an affectionate slap on the chest. “Won’t be more than a minute, old boy. Gotta pick up the mail, swap a quick ‘howdy’ with the captain, then it’s back to the ranch for a cool drink and some shade.” He chuckled as he always did when he thought about stopping by the hotel to greet the captain. He’d known Captain Russell Perry Mace ever since he was a small child, but Matt had never heard the stocky adventurer called anything but
the captain. I guess once a captain, always a captain. Even if the Mexican War’s been over for ages
, Matt thought. Between his title and his ever-present top hat, Captain Mace was an easily recognized figure anywhere in