Heart of Gold Read Online Free PDF Page A

was a new gold or silver strike. Wherever a town sprang up in the Rockies or in the deserts of the Southwest or along the Pacific Coast. And every time a new office opened, a new route was created. Over the past thirteen years, he’d seen just about every corner of the country west of the Mississippi River.
    “How much farther?” Alice asked, bringing his roaming thoughts back to her.
    He motioned with his head. “Not much. That’s the house up there. Do you need to stop and rest a bit?”
    “No.” She shook her head. “I can make it that far.”
    Despite her refusal, Matthew stopped anyway. He put his right arm around her back at the waist and gripped her left forearm with his left hand. Then they continued the climb up the hillside.
    What exactly is wrong with her?
    He should have asked when she first wrote to him, but her letter hadn’t made it sound like anything serious. Just that she’d been ill and needed time to recuperate. She’d been alone since the death of her husband, just her and Todd, no other family. She hadn’t wanted to impose any longer on friends and neighbors in the small Wisconsin town where she’d lived with her husband until he went off to war.
    Matthew feared his lack of curiosity—not to mention his lack of true concern—showed a serious flaw in his character. He hadn’t been much of a brother to Alice up to now. Maybe he’d be able to atone for some of that while Alice and Todd were in Grand Coeur. He’d help her build up her strength, then he’d make sure she and the boy got settled wherever she wanted before he went back to driving a stage.
    It seemed a good and reasonable plan for now.

    Delaney walked along the forest path, hands behind his back.
    “Adelyn, I am more certain than ever this is where God called us to be. But how do I help Shannon find her way in this new place? I fear she is as determined as ever to change my mind, to have me return with her to Virginia. She seems unwilling to care about others who were not raised the way she was raised.” He shook his head. “If you’d seen her with that stagecoach driver earlier this week. Is it arrogance I see in her eyes? Does she believe herself so much better than others simply because she was born in Virginia, born into privilege? I hope not, for if so, I have failed her completely. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the war has taken so much of the money we had before.”
    It was true. The Lord worked in mysterious ways. No wonder the
    Bible told Christians to thank God in all things. Mere mortals couldn’t see the end from the beginning as the Almighty could.
    If she had something to do, Adelyn. Like the nursing she did back in Virginia. I wasn’t sure I approved completely when she first began working in the hospital, but it seemed so much what God called His children to do in Isaiah 61. Binding up the brokenhearted, giving comfort to the afflicted. She was a good nurse. Perhaps God will open another door I cannot imagine, for I certainly never imagined that one .
    “Thy will, not ours, be done, Lord. Thy will and not ours.”

    When Alice awoke, the light coming through the bedroom window had begun to weaken. It must be near suppertime.
    She pushed herself up against the pillows at her back and let her gaze roam over the room. It was nothing like she’d expected. Larger than the home Edward had built before they were married.
    Edward .
    Would it ever cease to hurt to think about him?
    Yes. Yes, it would cease. It would cease because it wouldn’t be long before she joined him in heaven. She had come to Idaho Territory to die. But before she could let go of her ties to this earthly life, she had to make certain her son would be all right. She had to make certain he had a home with someone who would love him.
    She prayed to God she would find that someone in her brother.
    Matthew was the only family Todd would have left when she passed over.
    Alice closed her eyes and pictured her brother again. She had been as