Free Heart of Gold by Robin Lee Hatcher

left Oregon Territory and returned to his family home in Wisconsin. Of course, I wasn’t leaving anything so pretty as Covington House must be, but it was difficult all the same.”
    “I’m sure it was.”
    Alice smiled. “We women do seem to always be following a man somewhere, don’t we? Me, going with Edward back to his boyhood home. And now coming here to be with Matthew because this is where his job is. You, joining your father where he pastors a new church.”
    Shannon couldn’t argue. It did seem to be a woman’s role to do the following. “I suppose, if not for the men in our lives, we women would never stray far from the places of our births. The entire population of the world might still be living within a short distance of the Garden of Eden if left to the gentler sex.”
    Alice laughed aloud. The response brought color to her cheeks and a sparkle to her dark eyes.
    She must have been quite pretty before she took sick .
    “I must remember to tell Matt what you said. He’ll find it funny too.”
    Shannon remembered that moment by the woodpile, when she’d been on her hands and knees, rump in the air, looking for the puppy. She hadn’t cared at all for his laughter then, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to give him another reason to laugh at her now.
    “When we were young, my brother loved to tease me.” Still smiling, Alice closed her eyes. “But he was good to me and looked out for me too. As a girl, I thought the sun and moon rose at his request. Of all the things I remember about my girlhood, I think it’s the sound of his laughter I like the best.”
    Begrudgingly, Shannon admitted to herself that Matthew Dubois did have a pleasant laugh.
    Alice released a sigh. “If not for Edward’s death and my illness, I wonder if I would ever have seen my brother again. But here we are.
    Together.” She looked at Shannon. “The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways. We see only the threads on the back of the tapestry.
    God sees the whole design.”
    Quiet faith. That’s what Shannon saw in the eyes of the woman on the bed. No self-pity. No anger over what lay before her. Peace. A peace that passed understanding.
    Have I ever known peace like that?
    She feared not—and she found herself strangely envious of the dying woman.

    Delaney Adair followed the boardwalk through town. When he made eye contact with others, he smiled and dipped his head in acknowledgment, but he didn’t stop or try to make conversation. His thoughts were busy elsewhere. He was busy praying, beseeching the God of heaven on behalf of lost souls—and it was quite clear to him that there were plenty of them in Grand Coeur. On Main Street alone he’d counted seventeen saloons and six brothels.
    A block back, he’d seen some women from one of those latter establishments sitting on a second-story veranda. Although morning had given way to midday already, they’d been clad in night attire. Revealing attire, at that. One of them had even called out to him, inviting him to come inside and partake of her pleasures. He recoiled at the thought.
    Poor lost souls, indeed.
    Then he recalled the story of Hosea and the example of unrelenting, all-pursuing, unconditional love that book of the Bible provided to God’s children. Perhaps the Lord would have him go back to that brothel and speak to that woman. Perhaps Delaney had missed a door God had opened. Perhaps the scantily clad female was among the fruit he was here to harvest.
    Lord?
    He waited but felt no urging.
    Richmond had its brothels, of course, as did other towns in Virginia and elsewhere in the South, but Delaney had never felt called to visit those establishments or reach out to those women. Why was that? Because they were tucked away in corners of the city where he never went? Corners where they couldn’t be seen?
    Make the way clear, Lord. Help me to heed Thy voice .
    His thoughts turned to his daughter. He didn’t like the idea of her being exposed to such blatant sin. If