Valley of the Heart (Heartsong Presents) - Softcover

Moore, S. Dionne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373486278 ISBN 13: 9780373486274

Publisher: Love Inspired Heartsong Presents, 2012

Synopsis

Maria Cullen is at her wit's end.

After her young son, Levi, wanders off alone on the range, widowed Maria imagines the worst...and is grateful beyond words when Tanner Young finds the boy and brings him safely home. But although she is thankful for Tanner's good deed, she's not sure she can trust his offer to help rebuild her failing ranch. Only an outlaw would work so willingly for so little.

Tanner Young, grizzled hand for a large cattle ranch, dreams of one day owning his own herd and settling down on his own spread. But the cost of earning his dream is high, especially when he's hired by Walter Price to scout out a nearby ranch. Despite reservations, Tanner accepts...then he meets the lovely ranch owner and her son and realizes his task will be even harder than he thought.

When the unthinkable occurs, can Maria and Tanner overcome their fears to realize God will never fail them?

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Fear settled a heavy mantle over Marra Cullen's shoulders. Her throat swelled from the heat and the hurt of the many things gone awry in the last few hours, and the burgeoning realization that there was absolutely nothing she could do to change things. Except pray. And search.

Her legs trembled with every step, her mind growing hazier with each water-deprived minute. Another thing to chasten herself over. What woman, or man for that matter, in her right mind would take off in this heat without a canteen?

"Levi?" The word slipped out on a sob. She swallowed the emotion as she had for the last desperate hours she and her foreman had searched the ranch house and outbuildings. If she broke down now, she wouldn't be able to continue. Just keeping one foot in front of the other took such effort. "Levi!"

Where could he be? Where would he go? He was such a small boy. So sad and sweet and sincere. Maira's heart wrenched with fresh despair. She blinked up at the hot sun from under the brim of her hat and plucked at the material of her blouse to stir a billow of air against her skin. "Levi!"

All she had going for her was the angle of the sun and the fact that the air would eventually grow cooler, but the sun's slow fade into the western horizon heralded her greatest enemy—darkness. She couldn't let her mind go there. Not now. By the angle of the sun she still had three hours of light. Desperation burned through her, and her mind cleared enough to realize she had no choice but to return for water. If not for herself, for Levi. He would need it when she found him. Food, too.

"Levi?" With one last shout and the remote hope that she would hear a feeble response, Maira strained for sound. Only the breeze answered her call. The sun continued to beam down on her, and the sheep in the far pasture startled, then stared. But she had no time to coddle the woolies. No time for anything except returning to the house and gathering the few things necessary to continue the search beyond the ranch. Decision made, she felt more settled and focused. She had to think. And blow the dust off her prayer life and petition God. Surely He cared about Levi.

Carrot Timmons led the group down into the crevice where a longhorn brindle bull stared at them in bovine defiance. Tanner Young admired the leader's work ethic but hated the man's inability to handle a situation without calling out every cowhand on the ranch.

"You get over to him, Tanner. I'll rope his horns and pull. He's got to budge somehow."

The bull let out a sound more grunt than moo. No wonder. The bull had been hassled all morning by Carrot and Fletcher.

"All you need to do is get in there and make a ruckus."

Tanner lifted his hat to allow cool air to sift through his hair.

"Not much to it."

"Or you could make use of that gun and shoot him between the eyes," Fletcher grumped. "Don't reckon we'd miss him much."

"It's about making money," Carrot reminded him. "It's a good bull."

"And you're a top hand," Fletcher groused.

Carrot's eyes flicked over the man. Tanner knew the foreman's temper and saw the dawning of a tantrum. A vein throbbed on Carrot's neck, and his eyes stabbed at Fletcher. Tanner decided it was time to get the bull moving. He drew in his horse, a good mount with an even temper, nothing like the cow ponies that never quite grasped the idea of carrying a man in submission. The piebald plunged into the tangled patch of weeds. Screaming his throat raw as he came up behind the bull, Tanner palmed his gun and let off two shots into the air to add to the commotion. The bull lunged as if to turn. Tanner kept his horse moving, dodging the less agile bull's weaving head. The bull went still, his eyes blazing his rage. Tanner kept up his screaming and fired another bullet. The bull hesitated and planted one hoof ahead of the other in reluctant retreat from his prickly paradise. Fletcher stood in the path of the animal a moment too long and had to scramble to get out of the bull's way.

Tanner moved away from Carrot's withering gaze and Fletcher's shouted words of praise. Praise was the one thing Tanner avoided. Didn't do anyone any good to have it heaped on a body, and it was way too easy for a man's head to swell when it was.

"Waste of ammunition," Carrot bit out.

Ignoring the goading remark, Tanner spurred his horse into a proper gallop. If he'd thought of it sooner, he'd have avoided riding along this edge of the XP Ranch. Better to avoid the cattle and the rough men Walter Price had hired.

He breathed deep and hunched lower in the saddle as the horse's momentum blew hot air through his beard and against his skin. He yanked off his hat and let the wind caress his head, drying the sweat on his cheeks and ruffling through his hair. He brought the piebald down to a trot. No use wearing Cupid out before they reached the ranch house. He licked his lips, amused at the reaction of trail-toughened cowboys should they learn of his horse's secret name. But the horse's heart-shaped patch on his flank had brought the name to mind, and it had stuck. He dissembled by calling the gelding Cue for short in the presence of others.

Leaning forward over the saddle horn, he stroked the animal's neck and whispered sweet nothings to the only companion he'd had for years. Not that it bothered him none; indeed, he preferred it that way. Stalking cats and coyotes along the perimeters of the XP offered him plenty of time to himself, and he seldom longed for people.

As Cue took him closer to the ranch house, Tanner saw his boss on the porch watching a young man working to break a bronc that held fire in its eyes. A lone, old man, Walter Price was a force to be reckoned with. His sharp eyes watched Tanner's approach as if nothing were amiss. Tanner noted the man's stance—leaning against a porch column, eyes squinted, furrows in his brow as deep as irrigation ditches—relaxed. Walt's hair was the color of old linen, with long strands brushed forward to cover his baldness, giving the man a comical appearance if not for the cold flint of his eyes. Tanner had forgotten how hard those eyes were, and how cold they became when there was work to be done and money to be made. It was the reason Price had hired him after a pack of coyotes had taken a pocket of cows in the north range over three years ago.

"Get down off that horse and we'll drink."

"Don't drink," Tanner reminded him, swinging his leg over and ground hitching Cue.

Price raised his chin but said nothing more as Tanner followed him inside and took his seat across the wide plank table. "There's about to be a change in your duties." The old man raised his hand to the young woman who skidded into view, cheeks flushed, plucking at the hairs that fell into her eyes. She was a beauty who Tanner had never seen before at the XP. That and the fact that Walt Price had never married was not lost on Tanner now. Walter shifted his weight and grunted. "Ana? Drinks" was all he said to her before she scurried off, never once lifting her eyes to acknowledge his presence.

About this edition

• Publisher: Love Inspired Heartsong Presents
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0373486278
• ISBN 13: 9780373486274
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 192