Hope Flourishing in the Dark (Preview)

Prologue

Sheri O’Connor ran her eyes over the words on the page, but they all blurred together. She’d been reading too long. Her eyes were starting to sting. 

She removed her glasses, which she thankfully only needed for reading. Deep inside, she held onto a fear that someday she would be blind. That would put a damper on her desire to be a writer, a journalist, someone covering the day’s news. She was interested in everything. 

Everything was a subjective word. It covered a lot of ground. But really, Sheri couldn’t think of anything she wasn’t interested in at least knowing about. When she had a chance to sit with the older folks at church, they had their chance to impart their wisdom to her. And she absorbed it all. She’d learned about Egypt from Ms. Cavendish, who had lived there with her husband for many years and loved to tell Sheri stories about her time spent there. She’d had many adventures and was still energetic enough to act out a few of her memories. 

Mr. Brownshaw was another purveyor of knowledge and wisdom. He had traveled as well, but most of his years were spent in his uncle’s library. His uncle had spent four years serving with the President of the United States when he was a very young man. He often told Sheri about it and how he wished he could remember more than he did. He’d only been six to ten when his uncle had governed the nation.

Sheri squeezed her eyes shut as she pinched the bridge of her nose between her finger and thumb. “Wake up, Sheri,” she whispered to herself. “You’ve got a lot of work to get done, don’t you?”

She wondered if talking to herself was a sign of losing her mind. Had she been at it too long? 

Sheri was a bright, energetic woman who enjoyed her everyday life. She liked her job as a proofreader for a growing magazine company in Tangerine, Wyoming. 

She wasn’t originally from Tangerine. She’d grown up under the watchful eye of her overbearing father, Eustace O’Connor, a man who thought his two daughters had been born to either serve him or serve the wishes of another, as long as it brought in money or some kind of security. 

When Sheri had turned eighteen, she’d found out Eustace – she didn’t call or think of her father as “Pa” or any other form of endearment – had planned to sell her off to the highest bidder. He’d sent out letters for six months, pretending to be her. He’d even solicited a woman to write the letters for him because he knew he wouldn’t be able to sound feminine if he wrote back himself. 

Sheri had a thick mane of auburn hair and bright green eyes. Both these attributes were signs of her obvious Irish ethnicity. She had been born to parents who were both strong and controlling. Her mother would have been beneficial as she went through her teenage years, but when she was thirteen, the woman had eaten a bad mushroom and died horribly, right there in front of her family, who could do nothing to help her. 

There had been great wailing, screaming and crying in their cottage that day. Their father had picked the family up and left Ireland, crossing on a boat with many other people, along with his two daughters, his brother and sister-in-law, and their son and daughter. They had landed in New York, where the family had parted ways. Sheri had never seen her uncle, aunt, or cousins again. It had been four years since she’d left Hanging Branch. She’d left the town and her father and sister behind but didn’t leave the state. 

She didn’t want to be too far away from Lisa. 

Her little sister corresponded with her regularly, so she wasn’t surprised when the door to her little office opened, and the mail boy poked his head in. He lifted his hand out to her. “Mail for ya, miss,” he said with a smile that curled up the ends of his lips and created adorable dimples in his chubby cheeks. He was one of Sheri’s favorites. He liked sweets and wasn’t afraid to ask for one if she had a bowl of them on her desk. She grinned at him. 

“Have you been working hard today?” she asked.

“I have, miss,” he replied, dropping his eyes to the bowl of licorice she had there. She giggled and pushed the bowl forward. 

“Go ahead,” she said. “You can have one.”

“Aw, thanks, miss!” His voice was exuberant. He hopped into the room and right back out, snatching one licorice stick from the bowl. He held it up as a salute to her as he spun around to close the door. “Thanks!” he repeated.

“You’re welcome!” He had already closed the door and was gone. She wished she would remember to ask his name one of these times. 

Sheri opened the envelope and took out the folded paper inside. It was from her sister, as always. She unfolded the paper, immediately noticing a difference in her sister’s handwriting. It was as if Lisa was in a hurry when writing it.

As Sheri read Lisa’s letter, she realized her instincts had been right. Lisa had been writing quickly.

Dearest Sheri, it said. You must come at once. Pa has decided that I am next to be married, and he has agreed to Mr. Vanguard’s offer. I don’t care if he’s the mayor’s son; I do not love him. He is the same man Pa was going to send you to. You have to come home and save me, Sheri! I do not want to be married to Mr. Vanguard! What will become of me? I will be miserable and sad, an old woman with no children and no past to look back on with fond memories. Oh, Sheri, do come home before I lose what is left of my sanity. Come home, please!

I love you and miss you. 

Yours truly, Lisa

Sheri was on her feet, anger sliding through her from head to toe.

 Her father wasn’t going to get away with this, she thought, staring straight ahead. Not if she could do anything about it.

Chapter One

Sheri stepped off the train, sweeping her eyes across the station landing, looking for Lisa. She eventually spotted her, and it became obvious the girl was trying not to be seen.

It made sense. Everyone in Hanging Branch knew who they were. Her father had not kept his agenda with his daughters a secret. He’d openly displayed them for sale from the time they each turned sixteen. She’d hoped he would learn his lesson from her departure when he tried to marry her off, but apparently, he hadn’t. To do the exact same thing with Lisa only a few years later – Sheri shook her head. What a disgrace their father was.

She opened her mouth to call out to her sister, but something about Lisa’s weakened, frightened demeanor made her stop. Her sister was looking around as if afraid she would be seen picking up Sheri. 

She made a beeline for Lisa, sweeping up to her and blocking her gaze from anything else.

“Lisa!” she hissed, grabbing her sister and pulling her into a tight hug. “I should have come home sooner! I should have checked on you over the past year. I’m sorry I haven’t done that. I truly didn’t mean to make you feel alone.”

“Oh, Sheri!” Lisa returned the hug as if surprised to see her sister there. “I am so happy you’ve come. I’ve been so … so scared. I don’t know what to do, which way to turn. And there’s … there’s something I didn’t mention in my letter that I have to talk to you about.”

Lisa was behaving strangely, still looking around suspiciously, as if they were being watched. It made Sheri feel uncomfortable. 

“Why do you keep looking around like that?” she asked, leaning closer and asking the question in a quiet voice. “Is Eustace having you followed?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised by it. Joh …” Lisa stopped, flushing from her neck to the roots of her blonde hair. She lowered her head, batting her eyes as if she were about to cry. “We can’t stay here. Come on, I’ve got a buggy waiting. I borrowed it from the pharmacist, you know, Barry? So no one will notice us.”

Sheri thought that was an inventive and brilliant way to go “incognito”. She nodded and hurried after her sister, looking around cautiously. There was a good chance Eustace was having Lisa followed. The thought sparked a question in her mind.

“That’s brilliant, Lisa. Does Eustace know you sent for me?”

Her sister’s eyes gave away the answer when she cast a fearful glance back over her shoulder. 

“I didn’t think so,” Sheri said. “I suppose that means I won’t be staying at the house. I have to have somewhere else to stay. If I’m in the boarding house, everyone will know.”

Lisa nodded. “I thought of that. Don’t worry. I have a plan. First, we need to find a quiet place to talk. I think I know where we can go.”

Sheri trusted her sister and followed after her without question. They were in the buggy, which was enclosed so no one could see who was inside it unless they were directly facing it before Lisa explained what was going on in her life. 

Sheri discovered her sister had several problems, all brewing at once. She was worried about more than just her overbearing, powerful father. She had a man … and of course, their father wouldn’t let his second daughter, the only one left to make him a fortune, marry a simple farmer from across town.  

“Father said if he couldn’t get his money from you, he would get it from me,” Lisa said, beginning what would be a ten-minute tirade about their father. “We’ve been going back and forth about this for the last seven or eight months. At first, I thought I could handle him. But he is a completely irrational and unreasonable man. He doesn’t think about or care what his daughter might want.”

Sheri remembered the feeling. 

“I told him repeatedly that I wasn’t interested in marrying Mr. Vanguard any more than you were those years ago. Oh, Sheri, he just laughed and told me I had to do what he said and that the contract had already been signed. I know I don’t have the same rights he has, but I won’t let him make me marry that awful old man. I just won’t let him!”

Sheri gently removed the reins from her sister’s hands, allowing Lisa to wring them and put them over her distraught face. Her shoulders hunched forward as she tried to control her emotions. 

“It started about eight months ago because that’s when I told him I was going to see Johnny Weston socially. He said there was no way he would let me marry a poor rancher from across town. I won’t let him do this to me, Sheri. That’s why I got you back here. I’m going to marry Johnny, and Father isn’t going to stop me.”

Sheri wasn’t surprised by the news about Lisa and Johnny Weston. She’d seen a match between them the last time she’d visited her sister for Christmas. At that time, she’d stayed with Pastor Edward Crane and his wife, Anna. They were both so kind and generous, but Sheri hadn’t had time to ask them about this visit. She had been too worried about her sister to make arrangements. All she’d wanted to do was get to town.

“So Johnny is going to marry you …” she murmured. “Well, what plans has he made? Has he talked to Eustace? Has he given you a ring, or have you settled on a date?”

Lisa looked stricken. “I can’t! I mean … Johnny is worried and doesn’t want to make any plans at all until he knows I don’t have to marry Mr. Vanguard. Oh, Sheri, he’s the mayor’s son; do you think he will make me marry him? Will I be forced to marry a man I don’t love?” She looked horrified at the idea.

Sheri didn’t want to see her sister unhappy and terrified. That was how she’d be for the rest of her life if Sheri didn’t intervene.

But that was what she was there for. And she had no problem telling her father exactly what she thought. 

“If it comes down to it, you can come and stay with me in Tangerine for a while. I’m sure Johnny would visit you there, wouldn’t he? It’s not that far away.”

“I could never ask him to do that!” Lisa breathed heavily. “He’s a hard-working man with a ranch to run. He doesn’t have time to go chasing after me! And I don’t want him to have to. I will marry Johnny when all this calms down.”

“Why not now?” Sheri asked. “Why don’t you go and get married now?”

“Because we’d have to leave town to find a pastor to do it who wouldn’t tell Father, and Johnny doesn’t want it to be like that. He wants a wedding where his mother and father and little sister can come to the church and where he will have his friends all around him. I can’t deprive him of that.”

That made perfect sense to Sheri. 

“All right, Lisa,” she said, giving the younger woman a nod and a warm smile. “I understand. I’ll help you. I will talk to Eustace for you. And maybe even talk to the mayor, too, see if I can convince him to talk to his son, so maybe Malcolm will let go of his grip on you.”

“On our family …” Lisa added. “He is a horrible man, Sheri. He may not be old in years, but he’s so much older than me and … oh, Sheri, I love Johnny! I love him so much.”

She broke down again, covering her face, and Sheri realized she had no idea where they were going. 

Chapter Two

When Sheri had come into town to visit, she’d never really traveled through the streets, except at Christmas to see the beautiful decorations. It had been thirteen months since her last two-day stay in Hanging Branch. Other than Christmas and other holiday notes, she hadn’t sent any lengthy letters and had not received any from Lisa.

In those seven months, it seemed the small town had experienced a mini explosion. She noticed several new buildings had gone up; a new restaurant had been added, new vendors carts along the streets, selling all kinds of wares from apples and oranges to necklaces and bracelets made of tiny, colorful beads. Sheri hadn’t realized it had grown so much from her visits.

Now she was seeing it firsthand and was utterly amazed. Someday soon, it might actually be considered a city. She wondered how much the population had grown, too. It would be interesting to find that out.

She immediately noticed that a newspaper printing press and office had been set up. When she’d left four years ago, there had been no newspaper for Hanging Branch exclusively. They’d gotten their news from nearby Rottenberg, where the population was twice what it was in Hanging Branch.

For a proofreader with a dream of someday being a journalist for a local paper, the sight of a newspaper in her hometown made her feel giddy inside, even if she didn’t live there and wouldn’t return until her father had learned the lesson he kept missing. She wondered just who was running and writing for the paper.

“Where do you want me to take us?” she asked gently, one arm wrapped around her sister’s shoulders, hugging her close to comfort her. “Things have changed here, and I didn’t know if you had somewhere specific in mind.”

“Yes.” Lisa nodded, sniffing hard. “Take me … take me to Johnny’s ranch. We can talk there. I think it would be best if we went on a ride. That way, no one will be able to follow us or listen in.”

“But what do you need to talk to me about that is so private you can’t tell me now?”

“I want you to meet Johnny and talk to him. He’s been telling me for months – since this all started really – to get in touch with you. He remembers you. Do you remember him?”

 An image of a young Johnny Weston in the schoolhouse, laughing with his friends, immediately sprang to Sheri’s mind. Johnny was two years younger than she was and four years older than Lisa. He was a bright, fun, happy man who liked to make people smile. He had an easy-going attitude, and she had nothing but fond memories of him, even though they hadn’t spent any real time together. 

“I do remember him. I don’t need to meet him. We went to the schoolhouse at the same time. Back when you were a little girl.” Sheri was teasing her sister and jostled her gently with her elbow. Lisa giggled, swaying to the side as if the gentle nudge had sent her reeling.

“Someday, we will return to our village and see how things have changed,” Sheri said in an encouraging voice. She gave her sister a smile and was gratified when it was returned. “So I don’t know where Johnny’s ranch is. I know where he lived with his parents and sister, though.”

“Just keep going until you hit Mason’s Mercantile. Then you want to turn to the right and go down that road. It’s about fifteen minutes down that street, and you come to a fork in the road. To the right of that fork and another ten minutes, and we’ll be there. It’s secluded and isolated from the other ranches around it because the forest makes a circle around the ranch.”

Sheri didn’t know the place and wouldn’t, as she’d had nothing to do with real estate in Hanging Branch. She tried to picture the area Lisa was talking about but decided she would just have to wait and see what that ranch looked like. It couldn’t be too big if her father weren’t impressed by it. 

Then again, Eustace had never been easy to please. She wasn’t at all surprised he didn’t approve of Johnny Weston. She hadn’t paid much attention to the young man when she was in turmoil about being forced to marry Malcolm Vanguard, the mayor’s son. He was a thirty-five-year-old spoiled child who was manipulative and scheming. She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, and it was doubtful she could pick him up an inch off the ground. 

Sheri turned the horses toward Mason’s Mercantile, running her eyes over the building’s exterior, noticing the Mason family had painted the outside white. The letters over the door painted on the sign were a copper color that flashed when the sun hit it. She was impressed.

After about five or six minutes, the hustle and bustle of the busy main street and the town square was left behind, and everything became quiet. Sheri looked around, wondering how long it would be before the trees, brush, and fields would be taken over by industry, buildings, and people … Lost would be the old country she remembered as a child. When she saw the difference in Hanging Branch in the few years she’d been gone, she could only imagine what their village looked like. She didn’t really know if she and her sister would ever return there. It would certainly be nice.

Nearly a half-hour later, she saw the roof of a building in the distance, poking out above the trees. They had crossed the fork in the road nearly fifteen minutes ago, and Sheri was starting to wonder if Lisa had ever been to Johnny Weston’s ranch before. 

She could feel Lisa tense up as they got closer. The ranch house was fairly nice, three stories with an attic, lifted from the ground to create a crawlspace underneath and painted a dark red color all around. Two smaller buildings stood to the left of the main house that Sheri took to be a bunkhouse and a chow house for the ranch hands. 

It looked like neither building had been touched for some time.

“He’s got no ranch hands?” Sheri asked. “No crew?”

“Not during the cold time of the year. I mean, not from November to January. He does it all himself during the down season.”

Sheri was astonished. “How is that even possible? He’d have to take care of many chores on his own.”

“His sister is here a lot. She deals with the chickens and the milking cow and feeding the farm animals. She also feeds the three large dogs my Johnny just loves to death. I think he might love them more than he loves me sometimes.”

Sheri giggled, bumping playfully against Lisa’s shoulder. “I doubt that’s possible. You’ll be his wife, and you’ll be around a lot longer than those dogs. Dogs don’t live forever.”

“Well, no kidding, Sheri.” Lisa rolled her eyes dramatically, making Sheri laugh. 

Sheri pulled the horses to a stop right outside the front steps of the main house. The door opened, and a much older-looking and very handsome Johnny Weston stepped out. He smiled and held up one hand.

Sheri had to stare at him for a moment. He was much better looking than she remembered. Then again, she remembered him mostly as a gangly teenager. He’d been just eighteen when she’d left. Now, at twenty-two, Johnny had dark, wavy, almost black hair that swept across his forehead and lifted slightly in the gentle breeze. He had a thin mustache above his lip, and when he smiled, Sheri was instantly taken back to their days at the schoolhouse when Johnny had been keeping everyone entertained with his comedic ways. He was a generous and kind boy. Sheri had a feeling he was the same way as a man. 

“Hello, Sheri!” he called out. “I hope you had a good trip on the train. That can be pretty taxing on a body, I hear.”

Sheri smiled at him as she got down from the buggy, retrieving the two trunks she’d brought and heading up the stairs behind her sister.

Sheri wouldn’t let him get away without a hug from his future sister-in-law. She pulled him close and patted him on the back as they hugged. 

“It’s good to see you finally put a move on my sister,” she said, pulling back and enjoying that quirky smile on his face. 

“It’s good to finally be with your sister,” he replied. She could see the fear behind his eyes when he continued, “Please help me keep her.”

Sheri nodded, one more firm pat on his shoulder as she pulled back. “I’m going to do everything in my power to stop my father, Johnny. Don’t you worry.”

Chapter Three

Brett Anderson tossed a bale of hay up into the back of his wagon. His little brother, Louie grabbed it, and piled it on top of another one behind him. They worked in sync so well that Brett wished they could do the entire field that easily. But it was touch and go with Louie. Sometimes the boy wanted to work and was a great help. Other times, he wasn’t any help at all and did nothing but complain about the tasks they had to do.

Brett paid his brother modest, regular pay for his help on the Double Oaks Ranch their father had purchased and given Brett on his twentieth birthday. So the boy had no excuse not to do the work when asked.

Brett wasn’t too hard on his little brother. He had a soft spot for the kid and was constantly teased about it by his best friend, Carter Banks. 

Now there was a reliable worker. Carter was probably the finest man Brett had ever met. He often wondered why his best friend was single. He wasn’t rich, but he was far from poor. He had brought the newspaper to Hanging Branch and opened the printing press office with the money he’d received from his father’s estate when the man had a fatal horse-riding accident. 

He had a nose for news and was well-liked around town, so he was sure to find out anything that happened quickly. 

Brett shaded his eyes with his hand, looking up at his brother in the wagon. 

“How about you pull that hay bale and that one down to here, and we’ll take these on back to the barn. I’m thinkin’ we might not be able to get much more done before them clouds up there break open and pour water down on us.”

Louie scrunched his nose when he looked up at the sky as if he smelled something foul. “Ya think?” he asked.

Brett nodded, snapping up the wagon’s tailgate and hooking it on both sides so it wouldn’t flop down. Louie climbed onto the bench seat after doing what he was told. Brett went around to the front of the wagon and pulled himself up, grabbing the reins from the small pole they were wrapped around. 

He waited until his brother settled in before setting the horses in motion. 

“Thanks for letting me work slow today, Brett,” Louie said, his voice somewhat strained. Brett glanced at him curiously.

“What’s on your mind today, Lou?” he asked. “I ain’t seen you like this for a long time. You got your heart set on some girl?”

Louie blushed furiously, signaling his brother had hit the nail on the head. “Maybe I might,” he murmured. 

“I know how you’re feelin’,” Brett responded, snapping the reins lightly to make the horses pick up the pace. “I used to feel that way about a girl. Nothin’ came of that, as you might recall.” He grinned at his brother. He’d harbored a secret crush on a woman in town for some time but never made a move. Louie knew about it because he’d come across a love letter Brett had penned before Brett had a chance to throw it away or burn it like he’d done all the others. 

Louie had been kind enough not to go blabbing all over town – especially not to the woman or her family. They wouldn’t have approved. At least, the father wouldn’t have. Not from what Brett had heard anyway.

Brett had grown up on the outskirts of Hanging Branch with Louie, his brother, his father, grandfather, and grandmother. His mother had gone to Heaven when Brett was five, just after Louie was born. That was when Brett’s father, Alexander, had moved his parents in to help with the two boys.

Brett had never known anything but love and kindness from his father and grandparents. He was a loyal and good friend to Carter Banks, his best friend, and anyone else who cared to make his acquaintance. He didn’t spend much time thinking about it, but he certainly hoped he had more friends than enemies in his hometown. 

He and Louie had grown up close and would do whatever they could to protect each other. 

Brett had often wondered why his father bought and gave him a ranch all the way across town. They’d joked that their family patriarch was trying to stretch his “power” from one side of Hanging Branch to the other. Alexander had laughed when he heard that remark, saying that his friendship with the mayor, Jonathan Richard Vanguard III, was all the power he needed to wield. That in itself was a joke because Alexander did nothing to try to exert any form of authority over others. He was a successful horse rancher and trainer, friends with nearly everyone in town. 

The wagon rolled slowly toward the barn as the horses dragged their feet. They had no excuse to be tired, Brett thought, but maybe he would give them a bit of a break for the rest of the day. He didn’t want to overwork them. 

“I’ll get this stuff down if you want to go inside and clean up,” Louie said, jumping down from the wagon when Brett pulled it to a stop. 

“Thanks. You have plans tonight?”

Louie gave him a mysterious look, lifting one side of his lips in a cocky grin. “I might do, yeah.”

“Well, you tell whoever it is to be nice to you, or she’ll have the whole family to deal with.”

Louie laughed, waving one hand dismissively toward his brother.

“You gonna take care of the wagon, too?” Brett asked.

“Yeah, a’course.”

“That’s a lot of work you’re taking on by yourself,” Brett responded, raising his eyebrows. “You sure you want to do all of it? I can help unload the wagon, at least. No need for you to have to do all the work, right?”

Louie chuckled, nodding. “I like workin’ for you,” he said casually, pulling down the wagon’s tailgate and climbing into the back. 

Brett chuckled, getting into the back with him. The two brothers tossed the hay bales off the back of the wagon toward the front of the barn. 

“I’ll take ’em in, at least. You find us somethin’ to eat? I’m half-starved.”

Brett intentionally dropped his eyes to his brother’s mid-section, which was as flat and hard with muscle as most eighteen-year-old boys Brett knew. 

“You don’t look like you’re starvin’ to death,” he replied, jokingly, “but yeah, o’course I’ll find us somethin’ to eat.”

“Don’t go bringin’ me an apple,” Louie warned, calling out as Brett sauntered off toward the front of the main house.

Brett just chuckled. He would have to bring back an apple just because. He glanced around as he went up the steps to the house. It was such a nice house. He felt blessed and privileged that his father had entrusted him with its care. And the care of the ranch itself. It was a cattle ranch, which was different from what Brett was used to. 

But he had a handy crew of six men who came to help him regularly with the cattle. He, Carter, and Louie usually took care of the other chores. That way, Brett could save a few extra dollars for other things he needed on the ranch.

Once in the kitchen pantry, he scanned the shelves to see if there were anything his brother would be interested in eating. He had plenty of canned veggies from the supply store, but he knew his brother didn’t want a big fancy meal. He just wanted something to take the edge off.

Brett backed out of the pantry, taking the bread box from the shelf nearest to the wood stove he used for cooking and heat. There was a large hunk of pork he’d gotten from the butcher in the icebox. He’d been making sandwiches with it for the last week, but it would soon start to taste off.

He quickly made himself and his brother a sandwich, putting slices of ham between two chunks of bread and slathering it with mayonnaise. He added a couple of lettuce leaves for crunchiness. 

He took both sandwiches to the table and set one on a plate. He took a large bite out of the other one, going to the window by the cupboards and looking out at Louie. He was taking in the last of the hay bales. He had already unhitched and put the horses inside. 

Brett was proud of Louie. He grinned as he chewed.

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“Hope Flourishing in the Dark” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!

Sheri O’Connor is a strong-willed and independent young woman that fled her hometown to avoid a marriage her father forced onto her. Four years later, when her younger sister finds herself in the same unfortunate situation, Sheri will run to her rescue without a second thought. Luckily for both of them, an old acquaintance, Brett, will try to help them figure out what sinister plans exist in store for the O’Connors.

Can Sheri, in this turmoil, notice the irregular beating of her heart when in his presence?

Brett Anderson has always held a candle for Sheri since they were children, but he had never had the courage to say anything to her that might have taken things a step further. Her sudden return feels godsend to him and a second chance to express his feelings. His fear of losing her again will become his driving force and thus he will do anything in his power to shield Sheri and her sister from the threats against them.

Will he be able to keep them safe and win Sheri’s, so much desired, heart?

The two of them together will have to face multiple dangers and expose the misdeeds of greedy and unsavory people. Standing for each other will bring them closer, but will the powerful light of their romance be able to dissipate the darkness that lurks around them? Or will they be unable to save themselves and her beloved sister?

“Hope Flourishing in the Dark” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Get your copy from Amazon!