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Can love free Jubilee from her pain?
Orphaned
and widowed, eighteen-year-old Jubilee Stallings clings to her southern
Indiana farm as her only refuge. The wilds of Gibson County are just
being tamed in the year of 1850, and Jubilee ekes a meager existence.
But when Rafe Tanner, a cousin of her abusive dead husband, shows up
with the deed to her property, Jubilee’s dream of her own home
dissolves.
Rafe, stinging from his ex-fiancée’s rejection, offers a business marriage, throwing him and Jubilee together in an effort to make the farm successful. But scars from the past keep her in constant fear of her new husband. The pair masquerades as a love-struck couple at Rafe’s family farm, enduring the romantic notions of his family, and the jealousy of his ex-fiancée.
Once home, Rafe realizes his newfound love for Jubilee, and sets out to court her. Meanwhile, Jubilee fights demons from her past as her husband reveals his interest. Can Jubilee let go of her distrust and pain to embrace God’s plan of true love and finally find a place to belong?
Rafe, stinging from his ex-fiancée’s rejection, offers a business marriage, throwing him and Jubilee together in an effort to make the farm successful. But scars from the past keep her in constant fear of her new husband. The pair masquerades as a love-struck couple at Rafe’s family farm, enduring the romantic notions of his family, and the jealousy of his ex-fiancée.
Once home, Rafe realizes his newfound love for Jubilee, and sets out to court her. Meanwhile, Jubilee fights demons from her past as her husband reveals his interest. Can Jubilee let go of her distrust and pain to embrace God’s plan of true love and finally find a place to belong?
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EXCERPT
Copyright 2015 © Peggy Trotter
Gibson County, Indiana, December 31st, 1849
Jubilee Stallings’
forehead collided with the wall. Stars flashed behind her closed lids.
She lay completely still. Her face heated and her body ached, yet she
dared not move.
“You’re worthless,” her husband’s slurred voice continued.
She heard his footsteps stagger across the floorboards.
“You’re nuttin’ but a dog, and…and…a piece…of dung.”
The floorboards thundered as his body hit the floor. Scraping sounds emitted from the other side of the room.
“I…oughta…”
He continued mumbling
unintelligibly. Jubilee pressed her bruised brow against the icy wood of
the wall and prayed. Fresh tears wet her face. Please fall asleep. Almost
on command, Colvin gave a snore. Jubilee continued to lie immobile,
although, now that the initial rush of adrenaline had worn off, the
frigid air made her naked body want to shake. She clenched her teeth and
fought against her body’s urge. Snores filled the air.
She
pushed to a sitting position and eyed the straw mattress where Colvin
had sprawled. Moving as cautiously as a newborn colt, she crawled to her
dress by the door. She pulled it on as a set of shivers ripped through
her body. With her sweater in hand, she crept to the fireplace. Only
dying embers remained, but Jubilee couldn’t risk adding another log. Her
teeth chattered as she tucked her feet beneath her skirt and pulled up
the ragged cardigan to ward off the chill.
She
grimaced as she rubbed the swelling on her neck where he’d choked her.
The moonlight broke through the clouds, highlighting the marks scratched
into the wall near the stone mantel. She’d carved the last one this
morning—December 31, 1849. More than a full year had come and gone since
she’d begun marking. Tomorrow would be her second birthday in this
house. Once again, tears threatened. She’d be eighteen.
The
day had dawned in a gray haze, but the day of her birth marked a new
year, which always buoyed her with hope. The hours had passed
pleasantly. She’d filled the wood box, baked fresh bread, and gone to
bed looking forward to tomorrow. Until Colvin had exploded through the
door, startling her from a deep sleep. She closed her eyes and her mind.
It was always the same. More tears spilled from her swollen eyelids.
She
tensed as Colvin sputtered a few times before going back to his
ear-splitting snores. Noting where his pants had dropped, she decided to
wait a little longer before she pilfered a couple coins. Any more and
he’d notice and beat her senseless. Now, time to rest and recover her
strength. She’d make sure she wasn’t near the cabin when he woke.
Hopefully he’d follow his usual pattern and be off and gone for the next
several weeks. Let it be months, she prayed. I don’t care if he ever shows up again. For now, she needed rest.
She
woke a short time later, collected a few coins from Colvin’s pockets,
and opened the door, thankful for the quiet leather hinges. Because of
the cold, she wouldn’t head to the woods, her favorite hiding place.
She’d settle for the barn, a huge hulking structure. Her breath formed a
ghostly fog about her in the chill, crisp air. Fear licked at her, and
she ran from the evil sleeping in the cabin.
Inside
the barn, she moved quietly so as to not stir the cow, who loved to
greet her in the early morn. She scrambled into the loft and buried
herself in a cave of hay. The exertion left her body panting, but warm.
With the protection of the sweet hay around her, she fell asleep.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peggy Trotter is a small town Hoosier native who teaches 1st and 2nd grade
at a small Christian School and writes Christian Romance in her spare
time. God blessed her with a wonderful husband who cooks and helps clean
while supporting her crazy dreams. She has two incredible grown kids,
one fabulous son-in-law, and two rays of sunshine, commonly called
grandchildren.
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