Following Faith

FOLLOWING FAITH (Lonesome Hearts, book 2)

Can a single day together on horseback change your life forever?

Oregon Territory – 1852

Labeled a harlot and expelled from a remote logging camp and her only employment teaching children, Faith Featherby embarks on a journey to return a stolen spirit horse to the little girl whose photograph she found hidden in the horse’s riding blanket.

Orphaned young and stifled by a lifelong shyness, Faith has only her education as a schoolmistress and her memories of her mother’s stories. She’s not an experienced rider, but a Medicine Hat horse—alleged to have the sacred power to protect its rider—might be her best hope for surviving the wilderness… until an Osage warrior rides out of the mist.

Scarred by a brutal past, Eagle Feather challenges Faith to follow a new path where belief in yourself and your partner, be they horse or man, can lead to a triumph of the heart.

Follow a path. Find a partner. Fight for a future together.

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STEAM LEVEL: Sweet

STORY LENGTH: A short novella or novelette (73 pages)

OTHER EDITIONS: Following Faith was first published in Feb 2017, but from that date until Feb 2020 it could only be found in the limited-edition multi-author anthology Journey of the Heart.

LONESOME HEARTS SERIES: Between Heaven & Hell (Oregon Trail, 1850), Following Faith (Oregon, 1852), Choosing Bravery (Oregon, 1868), Rescuing Raven (Deadwood, 1876). This series follows the frontiersmen and women who meet on the Oregon Trail and afterward. Each story features characters from the other books but is also a standalone read.

REVIEWS

“One phenomenal short story.” ~ Tonya L.
“This was the first story I’d read by Jacqui Nelson which put her on my watch-out-for-and-read-her-stuff list. Despite the short length, this story packed a big punch.” ~ Michelle R.
“I loved this story and highly recommend the read.” ~ Sandy S.
“So well written and so descriptive, you easily get transported to the old west and are traveling on the trail with Faith and Eagle. A beautiful, sweet, romantic, heartwarming story you won’t want to miss.” ~ Barb
Jacqui Nelson “has a unique way of drawing the reader back to the old west with colorful descriptions and characters who leap from the page.” ~ Jacquie B.

EXCERPT

Oregon Territory, 1852

“You’re relieved from your duties, Miss Featherby.” Mr. Hammond tucked his bearded chin under his sagging collar, seeking respite from the squalls that tested Timber Creek’s logging camp more days than not during Faith Featherby’s three years teaching in the wilderness.

Although she habitually shied away from confrontations, this wasn’t one she could accept mutely. “For how long? The children need me.”

Hovering at the foot of the schoolhouse steps, Hammond’s usually kind eyes remained downcast as he stared at Faith—or rather her feet, which were frozen in her bewilderment to the threshold of a structure that doubled as her lodgings.

“Your presence as Timber Creek’s schoolmistress is no longer desirable,” Hammond replied in a staccato voice, as if reciting from a script. Under eyebrows thick as woolly caterpillars, his eyes darted left then right, toward Mrs. Cain and Mrs. Crisp who flanked him. “The school committee has voted. You’re to leave immediately ’n never return.”

An avalanche of fear hit Faith. She clutched the doorframe of the one-room shanty she’d transformed into a safe haven for her students and herself. Becoming a teacher had been her ticket out of the orphanage she’d grown up in. A ticket she’d hoped would lead to a better future.

“I’ve nowhere to go.”

Mrs. Crisp’s arctic-blue gaze chilled her to the bone. “You’ll find room in a bawdy house.”

“Jezebel,” Mrs. Cain hissed under her breath.

“Whore of Babylon,” Mrs. Crisp added, lightning quick.

A gasp broke from Faith’s lips before she could swallow it along with her hurt. From day one, the two women had mistaken her shyness for conceit and never uttered a kind word to her, or about her. But until today, they’d never gone so far as to slander her character.

Hammond raised his palms in a placating manner, but his gaze dipped even lower, locking on his own feet. “Ladies, please. Ain’t no need for name callin’.”

Mrs. Crisp sniffed in disdain. “She brought this on herself.”

“What do you mean?” Faith slumped against the doorway and struggled to speak over her rising panic. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Mrs. Cain’s spindly body snapped straight as a pencil while her voice climbed high enough to make even Hammond flinch. “You consider relations outside marriage nothing?”

“Who said—?” An appalling notion pierced Faith.

Last week Dan Doolan had been furious when she rejected his overtures of relations outside marriage, which he’d proclaimed was her only prospect considering her advancing spinsterhood and lack of social graces. He’d preyed on her weaknesses. She could very well end up in a bawdy house—unable to elude men like Doolan—if she lost this job. She had few savings, and no family or friends.

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