Sweet Apple Blossom: Hearts of Courage

By Cynthia Hickey

Maizie Appleton dreams of a wedding to a man equal to the heroes in the books she reads and the stories she writes.

 

She dreams of a wedding under her family's apple orchard when the blossoms are fragrant. When Cole Newton, a man from Washington, is hired by Maizie's father to help in the orchards, Maizie feels replaced in the family. Then, disaster threatens, and Cole saves the family from ruin, proving to Maizie that a living man is worth ten of those found in her books. Still, her desire to be needed by those she loves keeps her from truly giving her emotions to Cole.

 

Can these two set aside their personal pain to find a love only God could have created?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cynthia Hickey
• Release date: Jul 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201058395

Cynthia Hickey

Multi-published and best-selling author, Cynthia Hickey, has taught writing at many conferences and small writing retreats. She and her husband run the publishing press, Winged Publications, which includes some of the CBA's best well-known authors. They live in Arizona and Arkansas, becoming snowbirds with two dogs and one cat. They have ten grandchildren who them busy and tell everyone they know that "Nana is a writer."   

Book preview

C:\Users\Cindy\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\AI0VK2A2\90383959_14da625150_o[1].png

1

Arkansas, 1930

Maizie Appleton stood on the small hill above her pa’s apple orchard. The air filled with the scent of sweet apple blossoms just beginning to open. Soon, it would be time to hire migrant workers and turn the apples into cider...if their ancient press cooperated. Why couldn’t she be happier?

Because harvest season meant more work. Not that she was lazy. Far from it. With Ma sick off and on from malaria, the work fell on Maizie, in the house and out. She’d never get married and have a family of her own at this rate. She wanted her bridal bouquet to be full of apple blossom flowers. Well, a girl could dream. Someday, her shining knight would ride up on a gallant steed and rescue her. They’d get married among the apple trees, thick with blossoms raining down upon them. It looked as if another year would pass without that happening.

She stuffed her pencil into the notebook full of short stories she wrote in whenever she had a spare moment, and laughed. Her dreams were more like the rusty rattletrap of a truck below her sending clay dust over the nearest trees.

With a sigh, she hefted her basket of vegetables from the garden and headed home. Her family needed her, and while she might grumble upon occasion, she welcomed the fact that she was needed.

The old truck she’d spotted minutes before, sat parked in front of her weathered home. Pa shook hands with a young man with shoulders as wide as the mountains and hair as dark as the night sky.

I’ll give you ten dollars a week, plus room and board. Now that I’ve got a harvest of Arkansas Blacks, that’s apples to you Yankees, I’ve more than I can handle when they’re ready for picking. Welcome aboard, Cole Newton.

The man turned around and Maizie’s heart almost stopped. He looked every bit as fine as the heroes in her books. Mercy! He was pretty.

There’s my girl. Pa held out his hand. My lovely Maizie, your second-in-command.

All sense left her. She opened her mouth to speak, and promptly closed it when no words came forth. Second in command? Was Pa replacing her?

She’s a bit shy, but will talk the hind leg off a mule, once she gets to know you. Pa gave her a strong one-armed hug, then jumped off the porch. Come on, Cole, and I’ll show you around. Your ma is looking for you, girl.

Cole sent Maizie a wink and bounded after Pa. Vegetables forgotten, Maizie lowered to the top porch step. Had God heard her crazy dreams above the orchard and sent her a prince? He couldn’t have. Such things didn’t happen. Not in the Ozarks, and definitely not during the Depression, as the president was calling the tough times they lived in now.

Was Pa feeling his age? Did he not think Maizie capable of running the orchard? She could run things as well as any man.

With a sigh as heavy as the clouds gathering on the horizon, she lifted her basket of carrots and beans and went into the house. Ma sat at the table, shucking a few cobs of early corn.

I thought perhaps you’d gotten lost, she said with a disapproving look. Daydreaming again?

Yes, ma’am.

Set the basket there and go help Abby with the laundry. She swiped the back of her hand across her forehead.

You feeling poorly?

I’ll be all right, child. Go on now. The day’s as hot as Hades.

Looks like rain.

A blessed relief if it comes.

A glance out the window answered their questions. The wind had picked up enough to yank one of Pa’s shirts from the line. Abby raced after it.

Maizie rushed outside, holding her skirt down with one hand and her hair with the other. The clouds sped toward them, sinister in their darkness. Twister, Ma!

Ma stood in the doorway. Fetch your brother in the barn. I’ll meet you in the shelter. Leave the clothes, Abigail. Ma took a lantern from a hook on the side of the house and marched toward the root cellar on the west side as if she were strolling to Sunday brunch with a neighbor.

With a backward glance at a sky that froze her blood, Maizie sprinted for the barn. Milton!

I’m here. Her sixteen-year-old brother fought to close the barn door. I let the horses loose in the pasture.

Leave it. We have to go.

There’s no time. A deep voice rumbled in her ear as strong arms pulled her inside the barn. The tack room.

Pa?

In the shelter. Her knight in shining armor shoved her to the floor, pulled her brother close, and covered them with his body.

~

The pretty girl in his arms smelled of sunshine and apple blossoms. When Cole had spotted the twister rushing toward them, he’d frozen at first. Then Mr. Appleton told him to get Milton out of the barn, and he’d come to his senses in time to get both the boy and his sister to shelter. Now, they huddled in a corner of the barn with no hope of surviving a direct hit. At least if he died, he died while holding a beautiful girl.

The building shook around them. Cole prayed the roof would hold as the wind roared. He lowered his head between the two younger people and held on. What was only minutes, but seemed longer, passed, the wind died, and the sun came out.

Maizie crawled from his grasp and hurried to the doors. One hung by its hinges, the other ripped off, lying on the ground a few feet away. The house is standing!

Cole joined her as the rest of her family emerged from the shelter. A branch of the massive magnolia tree in front of the house had fallen onto a corner of the covered porch. Still, damage was minimal, considering.

Whooee, Yankee, Mr. Appleton said. I bet they don’t have those in Washington.

No, sir, they don’t. How often do you have them here? Cole propped the fallen barn door against the side of the building, doing his best not to squirm under the intense hazel gaze