Free An Unexpected Love (The Colorado Brides Series Book 5) by Carré White

all the letters Wesley had ever written, and I proceeded to sit in the corner and read them again, while Mary and Susanna readied for bed.
    In them, I rediscovered the sort of man Wesley was. His family came from Virginia, and they remained there, while he had traveled west to seek his fortune. His goal had been to earn a living mining, and he longed to find a wife and have a family. I had known him since arriving in the Denver City, and he had been by my side after I had stupidly run away. I’d spent several days in the prairie, wandering towards the mountains. I was a precocious fifteen-year-old, and I had caused Fanny and Jack a great deal of trouble through my thoughtless actions. I was lucky I survived the ordeal, especially because I could have been taken by any variety of Indian or I could have starved, being without food. It had been a foolish thing to do.
    My history spoke for itself, unfortunately. I’d made some mistakes, along with bad choices. “Then I can’t trust myself,” I whispered.
    “What?” Mary turned over in bed, staring at me. “Did you say something?”
    “No. Go back to sleep.”
    “It’s late. What are you still doing up?”
    “I’m reading.”
    She yawned. “You should come to bed.”
    Placing the letters in the drawer, I turned the lamp down, sliding beneath the covers. Tomorrow I would not return to the Weaver farm, although I longed to. I was determined to put the episode behind me, chalking it up to a momentary lapse in judgment and nothing more. No one besides Hannah would know of my personal error. It would be…as if it never happened.
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    Resigning oneself to a new way of thinking was not as easy as I had hoped. I continued to bring my siblings to town, dropping them off at school and performing my chores for Fanny. We cooked, cleaned, minded children, and sewed in our free moments. I’d done my best to forget about the “tipi incident”, but the memories refused to leave.
    I’d not had a letter from Wesley now in more than a month, and, as June drew to a close, and I had yet to see a single piece of correspondence, I began to worry. To complicate matters, renegade Indians attacked supply trains, hindering products and food items from arriving in Denver City. The mail had fallen victim as well, although Wesley’s correspondence came from the mountains.
    After church one Sunday, we gathered near our wagons, Fanny, Hannah, Louisa, and Paulina’s children ran around the churchyard, while the older ones talked under a tree. We typically drove to Paulina’s house for brunch, but we would not do so today. The elder Hoffman’s spoke with Pastor Bailey, who stood on the steps of the church.
    “Have you seen them yet?” Paulina asked.
    Hannah looked confused. “Seen what?”
    “The grasshoppers. It was like a dark, noisy cloud. They landed yesterday morning.”
    “Mrs. Winter said something about it when I saw her on Tuesday,” said Louisa. “They live south of here. She said they’ve settled on her crops. They’re trying everything they can to get rid of them. Matthias fears they’ll come here as well and it sounds like they have.”
    “Oh, heavens above,” muttered Hannah, her eyes shielded beneath the brim of a yellow bonnet. “I’ll have to pull everything out of the garden as soon as I get home.”
    “Is there anything we can do?” asked Fanny. “The corn is only just beginning to show. It would be unfortunate if the entire crop is ruined.”
    “Nathan must know something,” said Hannah. “I’m sure we’ll think of a way to keep them at bay.”
    “We weren’t able to do a thing,” said Paulina. “Once they’re through eating our field, they’ll move to yours and so on and so forth, unless more fly in from somewhere else.”
    Samuel approached. “We should go. I’ll get the children.”
    “Did you tell Nathan and Matthias about the grasshoppers?”
    “I did.” He looked grim. “This is the last thing we need. First