Hope by Lori Copeland

Author:Lori Copeland [Copeland, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Christian, Romance, Religious, FICTION / Christian / Romance, Fiction / Religious
ISBN: 9781414341583
Google: eza6iAGywpsC
Amazon: 0786238259
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 2002-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

“Hope, you have company.”

Hope looked up at Dan’s soft announcement. It was still so early that the sun was barely visible through the broken windowpane. Luther’s intermittent snores resonated from behind his and Harriet’s closed door. “Me?”

Parting the curtain a fraction more, Dan said softly. “It’s a young girl.”

“It must be Fawn, the youngest Bennett girl. I spoke with her yesterday. Maybe she’s talked to her parents.” Quickly brushing her hair, Hope slipped into one of Harriet’s oversize coats and headed for the door.

Dan was waiting for her, arms crossed. Wearing his coat now, he blocked her path. “You’re not going out there.”

“But she wants to talk to me—she isn’t a threat.”

“You’re not going out there alone.”

Hope opened the door a fraction, and the pig squeezed around her. Dan lunged for the animal, but its fat backside was already waddling toward the open pen.

Hurriedly stepping outside, Hope watched the old porker settle into the mudhole with a satisfied grunt. Dan trailed her onto the porch.

“She won’t talk with you here,” Hope protested. “You’ll only intimidate her. Stay here.”

Grasping her shoulders, he turned her toward the stand of cottonwoods. “What do you see over there?”

“The Bennett boys.”

“Holding what?”

Hope squinted. “Rifles.”

She turned to look at Fawn. The girl must have talked to her parents; otherwise she wouldn’t present herself so openly.

Fawn waved, friendly-like. “It’s all right, ma’am! My brothers ain’t gonna shoot!”

“What do you think?” Hope whispered. She followed Dan’s eyes back to the stand of trees. Four of Luther’s offspring stood leaning on their rifles, keeping an eye on the exchange.

Dan’s voice brooked no nonsense. “I don’t trust them. Come back into the house.”

Hope continued to study the situation. She didn’t trust them, either, but someone had to show a little faith, or the standoff would go on forever.

“I’m going out there.”

“Hope,” he warned, “you’re not to go out there.”

Now the Bible says, “Wives, obey your husbands.” It doesn’t say a thing about women obeying government agents—leastwise not flat out. “Keep an eye on that pig,” she murmured. “If anything happens to her, we’re sunk.”

Right now that old sow was the only thing standing between Luther and Lyndon and all-out war.

Taking a deep breath, Hope walked to the edge of the yard where Fawn was huddled deep in a bedraggled jacket that might once have been red. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Fawn said as Hope approached. “Need to do some serious jawin’.”

“All right.” Hope waited for the girl to put her thoughts in order.

“Pa’s a knucklehead.”

Hope felt a twinge of compassion. “You tried to talk to him about the feud?”

“Yes’um. But he’s shore nuff a knucklehead.” Fawn shoved her hands deeper into the coat pockets. “He won’t listen to nary a word about a truce. Keeps jawin’ ’bout ‘an eye for an eye’ or somethin’ like that.”

“He won’t even talk to his brother?”

“No, ma’am. Says Uncle Luther’s an even bigger knucklehead than he is, and he don’t want nothin’ to do with that Nut Muffin.”

“Oh, dear.”

The girl brightened. “Did you have any better luck

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