Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance
    An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance
    An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance
    Ebook58 pages39 minutes

    An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance

    By Johanna Jenkins

    2/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Joshua Gates did not expect to find a girl sleeping in his stables. 
    Working in the stables of his brother's farm, Joshua was more than surprised to find a young, unmarried, pregnant woman sleeping in the hay. After speaking to the girl, Eliza Howlstead, he realizes the true danger of her situation, and he allows her to stay hidden in the stables. As the weeks pass, it becomes more and more difficult to hide her from his brother. And those she is running from. 

    Eliza Howlstead didn't intend to stay in the stables. 
    When she slipped into the barn on the Gates ranch, she only intended to sleep the night and move on at first light. But, she was so tired of running from her abusive father that her body simply gave out. When she woke and found a stocky, blond haired, blue eyed boy staring down at her, she fully expected to be thrown back out onto the open road. She could never have anticipated the kindness Joshua Gates would show her or how strong her feelings for him would become. Still, she knows she must leave him eventually. Preferably before her baby is born. But, as the time comes closer, she wonders if she will have the strength to do what she must.

    This is a standalone short story with no cliffhanger! 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClean & Wholesome Romance Club
    Release dateNov 22, 2018
    ISBN9781386747222
    An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance

    Read more from Johanna Jenkins

    Related to An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Duplex

      Jun 9, 2020

      I moved to Los Angeles to sing. When was this? August? June? I was twenty-nine, and those were shapeless months, when the days blended together and I refused to pull them apart. My landlord was unusually close to her adult son. His name was Jeffrey,

      21 min read

    • Article

      The July War

      Sep 8, 2020

      In summer, our neighborhood quiets in phases. The quieting begins in May. Schools give their older kids, the seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, a month off to prepare for the baccalaureate exams. Following a ritual as old as our parents, the students

      21 min read

    • Article

      Finding Peace

      Dec 31, 2023

      Finding Peace
      4 min read

    • Article

      Till We Meet Again

      Aug 25, 2023

      Till We Meet Again
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Renaissance

      Apr 25, 2019

      My Renaissance
      6 min read

    • Article

      On Loss

      Apr 17, 2023

      On Loss
      3 min read

    • Article

      One Carrot

      Jul 2, 2020

      One Carrot
      5 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jun 14, 2022

      My grandfather came to live with me. There was nowhere else for him to go. What had happened to all his children? Death, decay, exile—I hardly know. My own parents died of pain. But I must not be too gloomy, at the beginning, or you will leave me, an

      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane

      Apr 20, 2021

      Lane's memoir, which won the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, explores the author's ancestral history in order to give her future child a family history. The post ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane appeared first on The

      8 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      “I Could Feel the Poverty”

      May 14, 2018

      I’m the ninth reader in a line-up of 10. Famous Writer will be last, naturally. This is the final evening of an intimate week of instruction, workshopping, and study. During the past six days, I’ve schlepped salads and sandwiches and coffee for the a

      3 min read

    • Article

      Wayétu Moore

      Jun 15, 2018

      Lai was hidden in the middle of forests when the Vai people found it. There was evidence of earlier townsmen there, as ends of stoneware and crushed diamonds were found scattered on hilltops in the unexpected company of domestic cats. But when the Va

      29 min read

    • Article

      Year Of The Goat

      Mar 18, 2021

      Year Of The Goat
      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Things You Hear

      Jan 1, 2023

      THE HOLLOW OF the oak tree wasn’t dark enough. Zoia squeezed her head between her knees, letting her wool dress mute the sunlight, the sounds of the forest, and the angry knife of grief that found her heart every time she thought about last night. Zo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Abandoned

      Jun 3, 2021

      Abandoned
      5 min read

    • Article

      Abandoned

      May 24, 2022

      Abandoned
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Education of Mrs. R.

      Sep 6, 2022

      An adolescent shriek woke her. Cockerels, she thought, cockerels, with a wry twist to the word. She lay in the dark listening. There was no use in covering her head; the screaming still came through. The soloist was suddenly submerged in the chorus.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Taking A Stand

      Oct 13, 2020

      As Shane readied his rifle and gear for the opening day of deer season, his father entered his room. “Alarm’s set for 4:30.” “Oh, I’ll be up Dad,” said Shane. “Where do you want to sit in the morning? Ole Faithful’s always good with a north wind.” “A

      3 min read

    • Article

      What We Loved This Week

      Jul 27, 2018

      What We Loved This Week
      5 min read

    • Article

      Swisher Sweets

      May 1, 2022

      Swisher Sweets
      17 min read

    • Article

      My Renaissance

      Aug 24, 2018

      My Renaissance
      5 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Too Much Seinfeld

      Nov 30, 2017

      Too Much Seinfeld
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Scarlet PEBBLE

      Feb 7, 2024

      The Scarlet PEBBLE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      I The teenaged girl is searching for a placethat goes through, the holeto put the tampon inside. When she finds itshe asks her mother, Is this where the penis would go?Yes, her mother explains.Then I will never have sex. II Sweltering New York City.

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance

    2/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      An Unusual Arrangement - Historical Western Romance - Johanna Jenkins

      An Unusual Arrangement

      Prologue

      Eliza

      He was coming for her .

      That was the only thought running through Eliza Howlstead’s mind as she slumped down against a large oak tree growing along the side of the road.

      Her father would come for her. If not her father, then the other man. The one she didn’t dare to think about. The one who had helped her father beat her bloody when they’d discovered her...condition.

      She rubbed one hand over her swollen stomach and felt the tiny foot, growing inside it, kick in discomfort.

      I know, little one, she whispered to the child in her belly. I’m tired too. But, we have to keep going.

      Eliza took in a deep breath and looked towards the dimming light along the brown dirt road. With a resigned nod, she forced her aching, swollen feet to march, once again, along the path.

      She had been walking since first light that morning. Since she slipped out through the back door of her father’s house and began to run down this western road.

      She’d given up running a little after dawn. But, she didn’t dare diverge from this path.

      There was a town at the end of this road. There, Eliza hoped, prayed, she might find shelter. Possibly at a local church. Maybe a good Samaritan would take her in.

      Anything would be better than the fate that would await her at her father’s home. The home where her father had promised to tear her child from her arms as soon as he was born.

      Just a little further, she whispered half to herself and half to the child in her belly.

      But, as she reached a small signpost that marked the way towards town, she realized that was a lie. She still had three more miles to walk before she reached even the edge of town.

      The sun was shrinking fast behind the horizon. Eliza knew that she could not continue walking in the dark. She had no lantern, nothing to light her way. And, in her condition, she was likely to fall and harm either herself or the baby. Possibly both.

      Though she feared any attempt to slow her gait or stop, her swollen ankles and aching feet told her as surely as the light disappearing in the sky that she could not go on any further.

      She looked to either side of the road. There was nothing but corn fields and cow pastures as far as she could see. No houses where she might ask for shelter. Not even a barn she might sneak into to spend the night.

      That was when she heard it.

      The clomping of hooves pounding against the ground.

      She froze and listened. The horse was large. In her mind, she could see the fierce black creature ridden by Charlie Sanders, the bounty hunter her father knew well. The one he had promised Eliza to in marriage.

      Whoa! a loud voice cried around the bend.

      At the sound of the voice, she began to run. She could not see the horse or be sure of its true rider, but neither could she take the chance.

      Finally, as she rushed along the road, she spied a small brown, barn-like structure not far off.

      She made her way towards it, running as fast as her swollen stomach, feet, and ankles would allow her. She reached the building just as the clomping of hooves sounded behind her again on the road.

      Again, without checking behind her to see the identity of the follower, she threw herself behind the building so that she was hidden from the road. She remained pressed against

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1