Lessons of the Heart

By LizAnn Baker

Lessons of the Heart follows Arabella Lacy Keye Rogers as she pursues her dream of living in high society and the culture found in Boston. She attends a select school in St. Louis to learn the ways of ladies of society. Impulsively, she follows her heart and the man she loves to Boston taking a risk that results in deceit, lies, and disobedience. Ignoring the signs of warning, she plunges into society headlong and finds herself heartbroken, ashamed, and desolate. She hides away in a Boston tenement with no hope. Kentucky, who is the foreman of the ranch Lacy is to inherit at twenty-five, is sent by Sara and Bart Rogers to find their daughter and bring her home. In the course of finding the woman he loves, he discovers she does not love him, refuses to go home, and is in despair of her life. Kentucky has only one solution for her through a Power higher than himself. Lessons of the Heart is poignant story of the heart and the lessons God teaches in the lives of the ones who become His children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098025793

Book preview

Chapter 1

The End before the Beginning

The old woman stood in front of the small graveyard. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, but a strand of raven black hair, now streaked with white, blew across her face, and she absently pulled it behind her ear. Her blue eyes stared at the scene before her in the early morning light of the sunrise. Her horse, which was tethered nearby, stamped its foot impatiently, but Arabella Lacy paid it no mind. She was busy sorting through memories.

There were five graves in the small cemetery. One belonged to her half-brother, Mathias T. Keye. He had died prematurely, never drawing his first breath, but a real son nevertheless to her parents who had mourned the loss. The grave next to his was her mama’s. Sara Morrow Keye Rogers had been gone for almost fifteen years. Now she rested on the mountain she had so dearly loved in life. Next to her was the man she knew as Papa, Bart Rogers. Although he was not her flesh and blood father, he was Papa just the same. He had always been in her life and treated her as his own daughter. He had adopted her, and she carried his name. Papa had died two years before Mama. They had been a long two years for Mama.

Lacy had never known her real father, Tennyson Keye. He died the day she was born. In fact, it was close to the same hour she was born. Tennyson was not buried here. He was buried in the town’s cemetery beside his first wife. Tennyson had two children by her, a son and daughter, Ned and Josie. The son had inherited the Keye Ranch southwest of Bloomfield. It was one of the largest cattle ranches in the state. Tennyson’s other daughter, Josie, had inherited a large fortune and lived with her family in a neighboring state. Although Lacy had never known him, he had named her and left her an inheritance two months before she was ever born. Somehow, he knew she was to be a girl and named her Arabella Lacy after his mother. He had left her the land he owned in the mountain. Her mother always loved it here, and Lacy’s earliest memories were the years she, Mama, and Papa had lived here. But Lacy didn’t always have the same love for the mountain as her mother had. Not when she was young.

Next was another small grave. Arabella Joy was only three months old when Lacy had put her to bed. The next morning, she was gone. She had simply stopped breathing in the night and, without a single whimper, left this earth. Lacy had been devastated. Her only girl, God had used her to teach her the true meaning of unconditional love. She had been such a sweet happy little baby, but God had walked Lacy through another dark valley through the shadow of death.

The last grave was a newer one. She stood before the mound of stones covering the remains of the man who had loved her for over thirty-five years. A freak accident had taken him away from her long before she was ready to say goodbye. This grave had no stone yet. It had been ordered and would soon be placed in its permanent location. Lacy’s eyes swam with tears. This last grave hurt the most. Not only because it was the most recent, but because it was the one that left her feeling desolate. Half of her, the better half, was gone. A large piece of her life was missing, and she wasn’t sure how she could go on without it. With the depression that had swept the country in the late twenties, 1931 didn’t promise much in the hopes of prosperity. And now, without someone to share her troubles with…Lacy sighed. The Lord knew all that.

Lacy stepped away from the graves and took the path that led to the top of the bluff. There she stood silhouetted against the sky. Below her lay the land, the mountain cabin and barn. All of it had been her inheritance from Tennyson Keye. It stretched out before her. It eventually joined the land that Papa had bought. In the far distance, she could see the sprawling log house Papa had built for Mama, and their son, Daniel, Lacy’s last half-brother. When Papa died, Daniel inherited all of it. Papa told her when she was fifteen that her inheritance came from Tennyson. It was the mountain ranch, with the log cabin and stable, which were built into the side of the mountain. Bart had seen to the running of her ranch, as well as his own and continued to do so until she inherited it at twenty-five. But the year she turned eighteen, she thought she hated the ranch and then had cared very little about it. That was the year that changed her life completely.

Eighteen. Lacy sighed with the tortured memories of that year. She had been so restless then. She wasn’t sure what had made the ranch so unbearable to her. Maybe she had simply been bored with her life at the time. She hated the ranch and the life with which she felt she was stuck. She resented living out in the middle of nowhere. She wanted to live in the city, any city. She wanted to know the social life that came with city living. She wanted to go back East where there was culture and refinement. She wanted to be part of society with its parties and dinners and dancing. She wanted to be the belle of the ball in high society. But she knew it required money, and she didn’t have any. When she was twenty-five, and the mountain ranch was hers, she could sell it, but that seemed eons away. Lacy wanted to go to the city right then if only Papa would let her go.

Papa always provided for her, gave her a generous allowance, but refused to allow her to go back east to a city. He said her life here had all the culture and social graces a body could want. Lacy disagreed. At eighteen, she wanted out, and she didn’t feel she could wait another year for it.

Lacy let her thoughts pursue the memories as they flooded back into her mind. She had just turned eighteen when she struck on what she thought was a gold mine that would help get her away from the ranch and into the city. She could think of only one way that Mama and Papa both might agree to let her go to a city, and that would be if she pursued her education. She was certain they wouldn’t refuse her. She had decided to spring the plan on them the day of her eighteenth birthday. The plan indeed worked and changed her life forever.

Chapter 2

The Inheritance

Lacy rose with the sun. Eighteen. The beginning of her life. Lacy smiled to herself as though she harbored a secret. Well, in a way, she did. A secret plan to take her to the city where she knew life would be exciting and filled with parties and special events. She wanted to be a part of it.

Lacy quickly dressed and planned to stop long enough in the kitchen to grab a piece of toast and kiss Mama good morning before she headed to the stables.

Good morning, Arabella Lacy, and a happy birthday too. How does it feel to be eighteen with your whole life ahead of you? Mama asked as Lacy entered the room.

Sara looked at her young daughter who was on the brink of adulthood. There was no doubt that Lacy looked like her real father, Tennyson Keye.

Morning. Where’s Papa this morning?

He’s already left for town to pick up supplies he needed. Where are you off to this morning?

I’m on my way over to check on the mountain ranch and stop in at the cabin.

Your papa will be pleased to know you are taking an interest in it. It won’t be too much longer before you’ll be twenty-five, and it becomes yours. You only have a few years to learn how to manage the ranch you will inherit. I always did love it so. It has so many special memories for me.

I know, Mama. I’ve got to be on my way. A piece of toast is all I need this morning. See you before noon. Lacy was out the door and headed to the stable to get her horse.

She would ride over to the mountain cabin and at least pretend to care about the ranch and how it operated. It was only a front, but one that pleased Papa, and she wanted Papa to be in a good frame of mind tonight when she revealed her plan. Besides, she had something to pick up from the cabin.

Lacy followed the road until it branched off and headed up the mountain. It was the same road her mother had walked in the middle of a blizzard. Only she accidentally took the turnoff and had headed up the mountain by mistake. Tennyson Keye just happened to be traveling up that same road when his horses were startled by a veiled hat flying across the road in front of them. Then he came upon her valise sitting by the side of the road. Leading the team, Tennyson found Mama half-frozen in the snow. He was able to get her into the back of the buckboard and headed to the mountain cabin. There he nursed her back to health, which was quite a story all its own.

Lacy soon found herself in the grove of pine and then under the porch of the stable. She tied her horse to one of the posts and slipped inside the structure. The stalls were empty of animals. They had been cleaned out. Straw and hay were stacked neatly in their designated areas, and a load of split logs filled one stall, ready for anyone who needed to build a fire.

Lacy went to the back of the barn and turned to the right. A locked door led into the cabin area. Lacy quickly found the key and unlocked the door stepping into the large one-room cabin. There was one area partitioned off for sleeping, but the rest of the room was open. A large fireplace was to the left of the doorway and the kitchen area to the right. It had a window that faced the front of the cabin. Beyond it was the front door which was locked and bolted from the inside.

The sleeping area was by the far wall and the middle of the cabin made up the living room area. Lacy smiled as she thought of the years she lived here with just Mama and Papa and later, little Daniel. The mountain was Lacy’s whole world back then. She especially remembered the one winter that a blizzard had hit and lasted for weeks. No one ventured outside, but all were safe and secure in the mountain cabin. The horses, cow, and chickens had the barn with their feed while the family had the cabin. They used water from the spring room in the mountain. There were even extra supplies kept in the secret room if supplies in the cabin ran low. The mountain cabin was a safe, secure, and snug home even in the face of a blizzard.

Lacy stopped and turned to close the door behind her. She also bolted it; a precaution Papa had always insisted on if she was ever at the cabin alone. Lacy crossed the room and turned to what appeared to be a closet in the left corner of the back wall. Quickly Lacy went to the back of the closet and pushed. The back swung open leading into a hallway of solid rock. Lacy stepped inside. She closed the door and bolted it before she turned to the hallway. She dug into her pocket for a match and struck it. Finding a small box of candles on a ledge, she took one and lit it. She followed the hallway for about forty or fifty feet when she came to a room. She crossed to the table and using the candle, lit the kerosene lamp. She blew the candle out. The light revealed a large room with a fireplace and chairs, a dining table with benches, a big double bed, and a dresser, and a wardrobe which looked to be homemade. This was the secret room. Only the family knew about this room and its hallways. There was another hallway that led to the stable area.

A sound of trickling water was heard, and Lacy stepped through a doorway into another smaller room that contained a spring and the opening for the second hallway. All seemed in order, and Lacy went back into the secret room. She crossed over to the dresser and pulled out some papers she had hidden there. She would need these to present her plans tonight to Mama and Papa. With any luck, she could soon be on her way east, to the city and freedom.

Lacy crossed the room but stopped at the rocker in front of the fireplace. She laid the papers down on the table next to the rocker and sat down. She slowly began to rock back and forth. She closed her eyes and allowed pictures of the past drift across the screen of her mind. Eighteen years and twelve of them were spent in this cabin. She had known love and security and happiness in these walls—her mountain home—at least that is how she always thought of it—her mountain home. It used to mean as much to her as it did to Mama. But somewhere in the years that followed, Lacy had become convinced that real happiness could only be found in a city. Lacy opened her eyes and stood up.

Picking up the papers, Lacy relit the candle and then quickly blew out the lantern, using the candle again to retrace her steps back to the cabin. She unbarred the door and stepped through pulling it firmly shut. She went through the stable door, locked it behind her, and went out the barn doors to her horse. Stowing the papers away in her saddle bags, she untied the horse, remounted, and started down the road toward home.

Lacy hadn’t gone very far before she met another rider coming toward her. The man sat tall in the saddle but with an easy way about him. His skin was tanned from the sun. His hair was slightly bleached by the same sun but maintained its brown color. His eyes weren’t brown, and they weren’t hazel. They were something in between, and they always made Lacy feel like they looked deep into her soul.

His name was Kentucky. Kentucky was the foreman Papa had hired to run her ranch. It wasn’t his real name as his real name was E. P. Judson, but everyone called him Kentucky as that was where he hailed from before he came west to learn about ranching. Bart had hired him on his ranch as a hired hand, but was so impressed with him, that he made him a foreman of the mountain ranch.

Good morning, Miss Rogers. Kentucky touched the brim of his hat. I thought I’d seen someone come up this away, and thought I’d better check it out.

Good morning, Kentucky. It is only me, so you can return to whatever it was you were doing. Lacy moved as if she was leaving. For some reason, she resented his presence.

If you don’t mind my saying so, you may want to look over the herd the boys have rounded up this year. They look pretty good. We had a mild winter, but you might want to consider putting up some storage sheds for future winters. It would make it easier for the men to get food to the cattle if a bad storm makes it impossible for them to roam.

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