Special thanks go to my Web site manager Michelle Hurtley for all she does to spread the stories in ways I will never understand; Web site managers for Cassville, Wisconsin, and to the State of Wisconsin for maintaining the replica of Stonefield, a village near Cassville that recre- ates the past; to Kathy White, site manager at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, for helping get my characters across Iowa in April. My Norfolk, United Kingdom, beekeeper resource, Mark Turner, advised me via Internet on a cross-country transport of queen bees, their care and connection to home. I am grateful also to Cal Thayer, beekeeper in Eugene, Oregon, for providing me with U.S. Department of Agriculture data on the history of beekeeping which offered dates and paths of likely transport and for letting me don the hat and netting of beetender so I could mingle with the bees.
Special thanks go to Kay Krall, Blair Fredstrom, Sandy Maynard, and Jack and Carol Tedder and our friends in Sherman County, Oregon, for faithful support; to Jean Holly for her candid and gracious answers to my questions about the loss of sight and the challenges and joys of parenting sighted children; and to Dave Larson for details of the farriers life My deep appreciation goes to writer friends (and manuscript readers) Bob Welch and Wade Keller for their encouragement, time, and thoughtful suggestions; and to writer Harriet Rochlin for unwavering nurturing and inspiration. Such thanks go as well to my literary agent Joyce Hart of Pittsburgh and my signatory agent, Terry Porter of Flat Rock, Indiana.
The little German poem is a memory of my fathers and I thank him for it. The Ayrshire information came from Barb Rutschow, herd manager and sister-in-law extraordinaire who, along with my brother Craig, loves columbines and the bluff country of Wisconsin.
It is my hope that the women encountered in these pages pay tribute to those who faced what those eleven faced and honor the strength of their spirits, their lessons of learning to let go, living in the present, and trusting in the words of Scripture. All Together in One PUce is a phrase from the book of Acts, describing the bringing together of divergent voices and people into a family of service. It seemed a fitting title for this triumphant story of kinship and courage and the hope woven into all loss.
This Kinship and Courage series is inspired by Psalm 16:5-6 and is based on the belief that to find the pleasant places of our lives we must be willing to expand our boundaries, spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational and to trust as Mazy did that “the Lord maintaineth my lot.”
I hope that the wonder of how these women live their lives in Shasta City, how they find themselves on the Applegate Trail into Oregon and south to Sacramento, perhaps even back to Cassville, keeping community and sustaining their faith, will return the reader to additional books in the series.
Finally, a word of thanks and gratitude goes to my editors LisaTawn Bergren in Colorado and Traci DePree in Minnesota and to the fine team at WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, for their belief in the power of stories and in my capacity to tell this one. And to my husband, Jerry, I give my deepest thanks, for teaching me about hope and faith, and of boundaries and their necessary expansion; and for the love and shelter he provides to make that happen.
Last, but not least, appreciation goes to each of you, the readers, for spending time with these women, for sharing their stories. May you find your own strength and courage reflected in the hope woven inside.
Jane Kirkpatrick
www.jkbooks.com
The following is an excerpt from Jane Kirkpatrick's
No Eyes Can See
Book 2 in the Kinship and Courage series
Along the trail to California, 1852
His arms outstretched, he called to her, his voice deep and far away. “Look up here then, at me. I'll catch you if you fall.” Suzanne found his gaze behind round lenses, the sun glinting off the wire frames.
Suzanne heard, wanted to believe, but she hesitated, watching her husband brace himself against the current as he stood in the middle of the stream. He'd rolled the legs of his butternut-colored pants up to his knees. Water splashed and stained his suspenders, two lines of cedar-red tracks across his bare chest. He looked…boyish, hair falling over one eye, a wide grin of encouragement given just for her. “Put your foot on that rock, there.” He pointed with his chin to a gun-gray stone smeared with moss of green.
“It looks…slick,” Suzanne said above the water's rushing. “I'll fall.” Something made no sense. Her husband wasn't here; she couldn't see him.
“It's not so bad out here in the middle,” he said. “Just look up. Keep your focus, just like the good photographer you are. You'll be fine.”
Focus. Her mind drifted with the word that seized meaning from the Latin, hearth, the hub of home, the pivot point for family. “Keep your focus,” he'd said. That's what she must remember. Maybe then, she would truly learn to see.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from
the King James Version of the Bible Scripture quotations marked
(NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society Used by
permission of Zondervan Publishing House All rights reserved
The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance
to actual persons or events is coincidental
Copyright © 2000 by Jane Kiikpatrick
All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kirkpatrick, Jane, 1946-
All together in one place / by Jane Kirkpatrick — 1st ed
p cm — (Book one in The kinship and courage historical series)
eISBN: 978-0-307-55341-6
1 Frontier and pioneer life—West (U S)—Fiction 2 Women pioneers—West
PS3561I712A79 2000
813′54—dc21
99-054725
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter 1 - Mazy Bacon's Place
Chapter 2 - Choices
Chapter 3 - The Gathering
Chapter 4 - Discovering Home
Chapter 5 - Abiding
Chapter 6 - The Pace of Progress
Chapter 7 - Patience
Chapter 8 - Riding the Horse Named Loss
Chapter 9 - In this Place
Chapter 11 - Sustenance
Chapter 12 - Coming to their Senses
Chapter 13 - Sudden Rush
Chapter 14 - Turnaround Women
Chapter 15 - Keeping
Chapter 16 - Flux
Chapter 17 - Bei
ng Guided
Chapter 18 - Volition
Chapter 19 - Filling Up
Chapter 20 - Sason's Song
Chapter 21 - Where we Love
Chapter 22 - Dance of the Turnaround Women
Copyright