I Am Loved, Said Claire to Jed

By Doreen Milstead

I Am Loved, Said Claire to Jed -- He knew she’d be refined and a lady, but he couldn’t imagine it would be a black woman named Claire. Jed wanted and needed love and knew that God had sent this woman to him for a reason. Evident in her face every time he looked at her was a very deeply buried, dark secret. He could tell. An almost tragedy at the end brings them together and she is able to reveal what has been haunting her and driving her away from the Lord in shame. This is a lovely yet emotional story that can warm your heart, and mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Hart
• Release date: Mar 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463310427

Book preview

I Am Loved, Said Claire to Jed

by

Doreen Milstead

Copyright 2020 Susan Hart

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

I Am Loved, Said Claire to Jed

Synopsis: He knew she’d be refined and a lady, but he couldn’t imagine it would be a black woman named Claire. Jed wanted and needed love and knew that God had sent this woman to him for a reason. Evident in her face every time he looked at her was a very deeply buried, dark secret. He could tell. An almost tragedy at the end brings them together and she is able to reveal what has been haunting her and driving her away from the Lord in shame. This is a lovely yet emotional story that can warm your heart, and mind.

Chapter One

Sweat. It beaded off the brim of his nose and snaked down his dusty face. It moistened the soil furrowing in velvet shades behind his plow. It clung to his back. It foamed from his horse. It pulsed in rhythm to his heaving chest.

Like ocean breakers pounding out the tide of another day, Jed’s perspiration lathered him with the satisfaction of a job well done.

He loved it. He loved the blaze of late Texas sunlight setting fire to the horizon. He loved the feel of rich Texas soil covering his body with the scent of earth and the pride of labor.

Stretching his powerful frame in several abrupt twists to loosen his muscles, Jed squinted. Tears added their glisten to his face. No place like home. Doggone it, now there’s a fact. Across the acres of fresh topsoil he’d just unearthed, the afternoon sun was layering the plains with streaks of gold.

Warm breeze rustled patterns through his young wheat fields. Several cows dotted the plain beyond, spotting color to the land’s muted canvass. Blurred by the sunset’s haze, the horizon seemed to unite earth and sky in a seamless shimmer of light.

Under all that glory, nestled in the field’s golden ripples, lay the crowning feature of Jed’s homestead: His little cabin.

To most folks, it had the presence of any snug home on the plains: Rough-hewn siding, wooden shingles pressed tightly against a low-sloped roof, a chunky red chimney and glassless windows. To a farmer, it boasted of a meticulous craftsman who had done his share of raising boards and laying brick. To Jed, it was his masterpiece.

His sweat stained every shingle. His hands laid every nail. His dreams saturated that little cabin until it fairly glowed in his mind with an aura of expectation. Because someday, he’d told himself, someday, not too long from now, his arms were going to carry a bride across that