The Heart's Frontier Read Online Free PDF

hand of a man who has known hard work. “Luke Carson.” He jerked a nod toward Jesse. “This disrespectful knothole is Jesse Montgomery.”
    “Hey! Is that any way to talk about your best point rider?” Jesse jerked away from his grip, wavered on his feet for a second, and then caught his balance.
    If it hadn’t been true, Luke would have been quick to correct him, but besides being a pain in the backside, Jesse was the best point rider in his outfit and a longtime friend.
    “You say thieves took your wagon?”
    “ Ja . They went that way.” Jonas pointed toward the western horizon. “They left us with nothing.”
    Luke took off his hat and scratched his head. “I understand your dilemma, mister, but I don’t have time to help. I’m being paid to get Simon Hancock’s cattle up to the railhead in Hays. We’ve been on the trail for two months. Our lead group got spooked yesterday, and we rode a hard stampede right up until dark and then spent half the night gathering strays. We’re at least a dozen miles off course, and I have less than a week to get the herd to market.”
    True, the train wouldn’t leave until Monday, and at the pace they had kept they would arrive by Friday if nothing else delayed them, but there was no sense cutting it closer than he had to.
    The younger daughter stepped up beside her father. “Papa said the Lord would send help, and when we saw you we knew for certain that He’d answered our prayers.”
    The old woman plucked at her sleeve. “Still your tongue, Rebecca.”
    “’Tis the truth. Isn’t that right, Emma?” Despite her protest, she stepped back beside her grandmother and lowered her head demurely.
    “She does speak the truth.” Emma’s soft, low voice fell on his ears like a warm breeze on a chilly night. “What we’ve lost are only things, but without them we have nothing. If the Lord places it in your heart to help us, you will have our gratitude.”
    Dark blue eyes rose to meet his. The trust he saw in them, and also in her father’s, stirred something in his chest. Something he didn’t like.
    The voice of reason came from an unlikely source. “Sorry, folks. We don’t have time to chase down a wagon and steal it back from a bunch of thieves.” Jesse plucked off his hat, smoothed his hair, and put it back on his head. The slur had become less pronounced, but his movements were still slow and overly careful.
    Once again, Luke couldn’t argue with him. These seemed like nice people, but he didn’t have time to spare. “I’m sorry,” he told Jonas. “I wish I could help.”
    “ Ach! ” The grandmother slapped a hand to her chest and wilted against her elder granddaughter. “My hutch will end up as firewood for the man with black teeth.” The girls each took an arm to support her, and she sagged between them.
    Jesse inspected her. “Your ma doesn’t look so good,” he told Jonas. “You want me to get the doc? He’s inside the saloon playing poker.”
    The woman’s eyes went round as she cast a startled glance toward the establishment. She drew in an outraged breath and straightened, giving an offended sniff. “ Danki , no.”
    “You’re welcome.” The cowhand staggered sideways a step.
    Luke steadied him. What he needed was a couple of hours of hard riding to sweat the whiskey out of his blood, but they couldn’t leave the Switzers stranded in the middle of the street with nothing. Especially when they thought the Lord had sent him to their aid. Luke didn’t think it all that likely the Lord would send him here to retrieve a drunk cowhand and rescue a stranded Amish family, and he certainly didn’t think the Lord expected him to desert his herd long enough to deliver them forty miles east to Troyer. Still, he wouldn’t feel right walking away without doing something.
    He dug cash out of his vest. “I really am sorry I can’t help.” He pulled out some folding money and thrust it into Jonas’s unresisting hands. “Here’s enough to pay