All Standing Love

By Jacqueline Hopper

Christmas Eve of 1895 will be the loneliest one yet for Trucker, a nomadic cowboy.

Raised without a father's guiding hand, Trucker had been run out of Pine Valley when he'd stood up for what he'd deemed to be the right thing to do.

While traveling around the country and winning races with horses he'd trained to become champions, he laments the girl he'd left behind in Pine Valley and the life they could have had together—until the girl and her father show up unexpectedly and ask him to work with a horse intended for her betrothed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Prism CW
• Release date: Dec 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781943104789

Jacqueline Hopper

Jacqueline Hopper currently resides in New Brunswick, Canada. Always willing to learn new things pertaining to the publishing industry, she's studied to become a proofreader, copy editor, and writer, and has dabbled with ghostwriting. Her books are Christian and/or inspirational in nature. UPDATE FOR CHRISTIAN ROMANCE AND INSPIRATION WRITERS: sometimes features a Christian/Inspirational/G to PG writer on her blog. Find out more by going to: http://jacquelinedhopper.blogspot.ca/

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YOU

ALL-STANDING LOVE

Jacqueline Hopper

Copyright 2016 Jacqueline Hopper

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Cover Art by Joan Alley

Editing by Lisa Lickel

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are the product of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Published by Prism Book Group

ISBN-10:1-943104-78-6

ISBN-13:978-1-943104-78-9

First Edition, 2016

Published in the United States of America

Contact info: [e-mail]

http://www.prismbookgroup.com

DEDICATION

To my dad. Though I’ve never seen him ride a horse or pitch hay—he’d worked on farms during his teen years—he’s the inspiration for the good guys in this story, a man familiar with hard work, generosity, and loving kindness. Dad, I thank God that you’re a cowboy at heart.

CHAPTER ONE

Cobblestone, Alberta

December 21st, 1895

She’s a beauty, said the tall man with gray hair, an aristocratic nose, and gentle blue eyes as he stroked the neck of the horse he’d just purchased. His small daughter with the same eyes as her papa stood quietly at his side.

It was on account of those blue eyes Trucker had allowed the stranger to make an offer on Sweet Pea when he rode her into Cobblestone that morning with the intention of entering the town’s annual horse race. Not that it’d been his goal to sell the horse he’d bought from a farm he’d discovered during his travels.

A year ago, when he’d first caught sight of the bay as it stood quivering in the cold spring rain alongside a dilapidated fence, he’d made it his business to find out who owned her.

The recently widowed woman had flashed him a suspicious look when she’d opened the door and heard his declaration to buy the sadly neglected horse. However, the amount he’d offered changed suspicion to greed.

After listening to her tell a pitiful account of her life for the better part of an hour, he’d increased his offer by ten dollars. With triumph, she grabbed the money from his outstretched hand, told him a bridle would cost him an extra five, and to help himself to the good for nothing old nag.

There’d been signs of neglect in Sweet Pea’s hide, and she’d balked at any noise louder than a pebble skipping across water, but he’d taken his time with her, taming her fear of humans and thunder. A few months later, Sweet Pea had transformed into a champion. With Trucker’s training, she’d won five racing events that’d earned twenty times what Trucker had paid for her.

I promise my daughter will take good care of her, the man added, holding out his hand to Trucker. Won’t you, Henrietta? Smiling radiantly, the child nodded, her huge eyes on the horse. It was good doing business with you...

Trucker. When the man’s eyebrows rose, he added, Just Trucker. No last name. As Trucker shook the man’s hand, he thought of another who’d loved horses when she was a little girl. Emersyn Birmingham.

The woman he wanted for a wife. The woman he had no right to call on.

I’ll hold you to that promise. Trucker nodded, feeling a pang of loss as the man led Sweet Pea away into the crowd. Then they were gone from sight. Trucker fought against the impulse to chase after them, slap the man’s money into his palm, and reclaim her.

Instead, he turned on his heels and clomped down the wooden boards. He planned to leave town that evening, but before he did, he’d stop at the livery and see what the town offered in the way of horse flesh. Sometimes, he was surprised by what was available. The horse he’d owned before Sweet Pea had been one of those unexpected surprises.

As he neared the edge of Cobblestone, the crowd thinned and parted, allowing him a glimpse of the one man he’d never expected to see in Cobblestone. Barley Birmingham. A moment later, his gaze shifted and it was as if the early winter sunshine sharpened and intensified on the dark hair of the young woman