“Please, God,” he prayed aloud.
The farmer grunted. “Never heard anyone pray for a motor before, but seems your prayers are answered.”
Dan sprinted back to the plane. “It works?”
Harrison wiped his hands on his overalls. “Cleaned up a sticking valve. Should run fine now.”
“Thank You, God,” he shouted into the heavens. “And thank you, Mr. Harrison.” He drew out a healthy number of bills and handed the money to the farmer. “You’ve saved my day.”
Harrison whistled. “Guess this was a big deal to you.”
“Yes, sir. The biggest. The rest of my life depends on it.”
He got back in the cockpit, pulled on the helmet and goggles and waited for Harrison to give the propeller a pull. Sure enough. The motor sprang to life. No miss. Smooth as silk.
Dan turned the plane and bumped down the field until he could lift into the air and set course once again toward the east and the only thing in life that truly mattered.
* * *
Since Darcy looked tired, Jen sent her home with Jack. She then rejoined her mother and sisters, grabbed a broom and began sweeping up crumbs.
“You’re not supposed to clean up,” Ruth protested. “Let us do this. You should go and enjoy this moment with your friends.”
“I’d rather be with my family.”
“Oh, sis.” Ruthie hugged her, tears in her eyes. “I miss you all, too. It’s like old times being together here, even if it’s only for a couple days. Tell me everything that’s gone on since Minnie’s wedding.”
Jen shrugged. “Nothing much. The mercantile is doing a booming business since Blake started the discount program. City hall got a new clock.”
“I don’t want to hear about that, silly. I want to hear about you.” Ruth took the broom from Jen and swept the crumbs into a dustpan.
“I’ve been busy teaching classroom instruction at the flight school and getting flight training so I could take the license test.”
“That I could figure out. Tell me if a special man has come into your life. Have you heard from Mr. Wagner?”
“No and no.” Jen certainly didn’t want to talk about Dan. Bad enough they’d parted on such icy terms. She had no doubt she’d seen the last of Dan Wagner. “I’m resolved to live a solitary life.”
Ruth laughed. “Then you’re in the perfect place for marriage. That’s exactly how I felt when Sam appeared. Watch out—your future husband might be right around the corner.”
“Or right next door,” Minnie added.
Naturally she would say that. Like Beatrice, she had married a man she’d known in school. Unlike Beatrice, Minnie hadn’t fallen in love with Peter until they were grown. Jen had neither prospect to consider. Only one man had ever captured her heart, and he had left with no intent of ever returning.
Ruth frowned. “What’s that buzzing sound I hear?”
“A bee?” Minnie yelped. “There’s a bee in here?”
Only then did Jen notice the drone. She recognized it at once. “It’s not a bee. It’s an airplane, and it’s getting closer. That’s odd. Who could it be? None of the students are flying today. I wonder who would fly into Pearlman.”
Minnie glanced at Ruth. “Maybe you should go check. We can handle things here.”
Apparently they wanted rid of her out of some misguided idea that she shouldn’t help clean up.
“Go.” Ruth shooed her out of the classroom with the broom.
“All right, but only because I’m curious.” Jen walked through the hangar and out the open doors onto the airfield. It didn’t take long to locate the low-flying biplane. It was an old Curtiss Jenny, the type popular with stunt fliers and private pilots because the army surplus models were so inexpensive to purchase. This one sounded as if it had a more powerful engine than the old surplus models, and by the looks of it, had undergone considerable modifications. The flashy red-and-yellow plane appeared to be lining up to land.
How unusual. Few planes ever landed in Pearlman. Occasionally an old friend of Jack’s would drop in, but they usually notified him ahead of time. Usually. This one clearly hadn’t, or Jack wouldn’t have gone home.
Jen squinted against the high sun, following the plane as it made a perfect landing and rolled to the far end of the runway. Then it turned and coasted toward the hangar before pulling to a halt near her.
The plane wasn’t nearly as shiny up close as it had appeared from the distance. The usual grease and oil splattered the fuselage near the motor. The wings bore the scars of a long flight, including a coating of smashed insects. The solitary pilot—a man, considering the breadth of the shoulders—hopped out of the plane without removing his helmet and goggles.
He strode toward her with the arrogant swagger of an ace pilot, a stride that struck a familiar and tantalizing chord. The build, the height all pointed to one man. Her heart raced at the thought. Could it be? She couldn’t tell for certain without a glimpse of his hair and eyes, but the gloves looked like his. All that was lacking was the tattered Stetson.
He stopped in front of her. “Where’s the old mackinaw, Miss Fox?”
“Dan?” She choked out his name, hardly daring to believe it could be him. After not writing or sending any word for three months, why had he suddenly shown up today of all days?
He pulled off the goggles and helmet. Sure enough, there was that gorgeous auburn hair and those bright blue eyes.
“Dan, is it?” He grinned, those eyes twinkling. “You must not be angry with me anymore.”
“Angry?” Maybe she was. Maybe she wasn’t. She didn’t know what to feel. “You didn’t write. You didn’t even let us know that you’d arrived safely.”
“Neither did you.”
“I didn’t know where to write.”
He called her lame excuse. “Boynton is small enough to know everyone. You only had to post a letter to general delivery. They would know where to find me.”
The words were factual, but the tone was hard. He’d expected to hear from her, too. The blame didn’t land on one set of shoulders.
She set her jaw. Nothing he could say would send her off-kilter. Now she was a licensed aviator. She had accomplished the one thing he had refused to believe she could do. “Why are you here?”
“Nice to see you, too.”
She whipped around, sick of playing this game.
He caught her arm. “I missed you, Jen. Darcy wrote that you were flying for your license today. I couldn’t miss it.”
“You came all the way from Montana just to see me take my flight test? Or did you expect me to fail?”
“No.”
She tossed her head. “You’re too late anyway. I took the exam hours ago.”
“You passed, of course.” He didn’t ask. He knew she’d done it.
She made the mistake of looking into his eyes. His gaze held her to the spot. Something had happened to those blue eyes of his. They’d deepened, darkened and yet softened. She couldn’t seem to look away.
He swallowed, making his Adam’s apple bob. “I brought something for you...for later, actually.” He dug in his jacket pocket until he came up with something round and flat and metal. He pressed it into her hand. “For the polar attempt.”
It was a medallion, just like the one he’d given her the night of the ball. “But I still have the other one you gave me.”
He motioned for her to turn it over.
She did, and the tears rose. Engraved on the back was her father’s name.
“Carry it with you,” he said. “Bring him to the Pole with you.”
She pressed a hand to her lips, trying to control the trembling that had set in. “Thank you.” It came out soft and ragged and filled with emotion.
“It’s the least I could do.” His gaz
e never left hers, never flickered.
She could no longer hold back the surging emotions. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged tightly. “I missed you.”
His arms wrapped around her. “I missed you, too.”
“You did?” She gazed into those eyes again, and this time she saw it—the reflection of her looking at him. Love curled around that image, unspoken yet unwavering.
“Every moment of every day.” He leaned close and brushed her lips. “How I missed that.”
She could not bear his teasing. “Please tell me you’re staying. Please tell me you’re not just flying through en route to an air show.”
“I’m not going to an air show.”
But she noticed he didn’t say he would stay.
“I’m starting an airmail route.”
She hardly dared ask where. No, she knew. In Montana. She squeezed her eyes shut and leaned against his strong chest. “Congratulations.” It hurt to say it. He’d only just arrived. Now he would leave again. Better he had never tortured her with his presence.
He smoothed a hand over her hair. “I’m looking for a copilot.”
Oh, these tears were bitter. “Jack would never leave Pearlman.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I’m not talking about Jack.”
Startled, she pulled back to look him in the eye. “Who, then?”
“Is it that difficult to figure out? You did get your license today.”
The shock nearly killed her, but he wasn’t finished.
“Now I’m not fool enough to think that arrangement would pass muster with either your mother or mine, so I’m proposing another partnership, something more permanent.”
He had lost her. “You want to sign a contract?”
He grinned. “In a manner of speaking, I guess I do.” He dropped to one knee and took her hand. “I love you, and I want to spend my life with you.”
Jen could not breathe. Was he saying what she thought he was?
“Will you be my copilot through life, Jen Fox? Will you marry me?”
At some point her family must have sneaked up behind her, for when she didn’t answer right away, Minnie called out, “Say yes.”
Ruth and Beatrice seconded that. Even Mother got in on the advice. When Darcy added her voice, Jen turned to see her friend had returned, not nearly as tired as she’d seemed less than an hour before.
“Where?” was all she could squeak out.
Her sisters groaned, but Dan grinned.
He stood and brushed the dust from his knee. “I suppose I ought to give you all the details. I’ve gotten a route flying north from Grand Rapids to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If it’s all right with you, I figured we could stay right here in Pearlman.”
How could this be? How could everything she’d ever wanted come together on a single day?
“Well?” her sisters chimed in chorus.
Jen looked into Dan’s eyes again and knew the answer. She’d known it for months, since the first time she’d set eyes on him. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. Yes to all of it.”
Dan whooped and grabbed her in a bear hug. Then he spun her around and kissed her, joyous and intense and filled with promise. Jen wished it would never end, and when it did, she looked into those wonderful eyes, marveling that she would get to see them every day of the rest of her life.
Then her sisters ran to her, showering the pair with congratulations and tears and hugs until Jen felt she would burst from it all.
“When should we get married? Will we fly this plane? Will Jack let us keep the plane in the hangar? How often do we fly? Should we talk to Pastor Gabe today?” The questions flowed from her lips faster than water from a spigot.
“Whoa now,” Dan said. “There is one little thing I need to pass by you before you go getting the preacher.”
His serious demeanor made her heart sink. What hadn’t he told her?
This time he looked nervous. He kicked at the dirt and watched the bits of gravel fly. “Now, I know how much you like to have the final say on things, but this was such a deal that I went ahead and did it without asking.” He sneaked a peek at her. “I went and made a down payment on a house for us.”
Jen gulped. “You did what?” She didn’t want to think about the size of the mortgage. “How could you manage that? I thought you had to pay off debts, and then were planning to put the rest into your plane.”
“I was, but I figured we’d have half a year before we’d need to consider whether or not to get the engine outfitted for cold weather. And I kinda hoped that Mr. Simmons might give us a deal.” He raised a hand before she could protest. “The debts are paid off, darling. The way I see it, a house is more important than a plane.”
“No, it’s not. The plane is your means to earn a living. Our means.” If Dan was one of those men who spent money faster than he made it, she was going to have to get control of that little habit right now.
“Whoa now.” Again he held up his hand. “What do you say you have a look at the place first before making any decisions? The payments are well within reach, but if you don’t like it, we’ll put it back on the market.”
Mollified, Jen consented to at least look at the house. “But you certainly were sure that I would agree to marry you.”
That grin came back. “I had a good feeling about it, especially after talking to Jack and Darcy.”
Jen could just imagine what they’d told him. That she’d been moping around and asking if they’d heard anything. “They never told me they’d talked to you.”
“I asked them to keep it a surprise. Do you want to see the place now? It’s not all that big, but I think you’ll like it. Maybe Blake could drive us there.”
Within minutes, practically the entire family had piled into Blake’s Cadillac. They were squeezed in so tightly that Jen had to sit on Dan’s lap. Blake drove up Old State and then turned on Third.
“How do you know where this is?” Jen asked, suddenly realizing Dan hadn’t said a word to Blake.
“My dad’s the one who sold it to Dan.” Blake turned left onto Oak.
“Does everyone but me know what’s going on?”
“Yes,” shouted a chorus of voices.
Blake slowed the car.
“That’s our house,” Jen cried.
“Yes, it is,” Dan confirmed.
“You bought our house?”
“I took a little look around the day I had dinner with your family. I found the place charming. After getting the airmail route, I made inquiries and learned it was back on the market. Since I needed a place to live, I made an offer.”
“Then you weren’t certain I would agree to marry you.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “I hoped you would, but I was prepared to battle it out—for years if necessary.”
“Then you really do love me.”
“I really do.” He kissed the nape of her neck. “Is the house all right?”
Jen bubbled over with emotion. This wonderful, incredible man had given her everything she had ever wanted. She didn’t even care that everyone could see her tears flow. “It’s perfect. It’s absolutely perfect.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from A FAMILY FOUND by Laura Abbot.
Dear Reader,
I have long been fascinated by Alaska’s Iditarod dogsled race, which is run in commemoration of the diphtheria outbreak mentioned in Jen’s story. The airplanes of the era never got off the ground, while the heroic efforts of a dogsled relay got the antitoxin to Nome. Great feats in aviation lay just ahead, though, including Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic flight in 1927. Though the MacMillan expedition mentioned in the book did not reach the pole in 1925, both Byrd and Amundsen did fly over it just three days apart in May of the
following year.
I did move one timeline forward a little in the interest of the story. The first private contractor to fly the mail for the US Post Office began in 1926. Before that the Post Office hired and trained their own pilots. Airmail service was too perfect a solution for Dan and Jen for me to pass it up when less than a year separated fact from fiction.
I hope you have enjoyed the Fox sisters’ stories in this series. They are like family to me now. I do love to hear from readers. You may write me in care of Love Inspired or through my website at christineelizabethjohnson.com.
Blessings,
Christine Johnson
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Historical title.
You find illumination in days gone by. Love Inspired Historical stories lift the spirit as heroines tackle the challenges of life in another era with hope, faith and a focus on family.
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Chapter One
Denver, Colorado
Early May, 1879
“You’re absolutely sure you want to do this, Sophie?” Effie Hurlburt, never one to mince words, watched her houseguest pack. “The Estes Park area is barely settled. It’s not too late to change your mind.”
Sophie Montgomery finished folding a flannel petticoat and then turned to Effie, her eyes dancing. “Run from a challenge? You’ve come to know me over the past weeks. Do I seem faint of heart?”
Laughing, Effie threw up her hands. “Stubborn. Strong. Independent. That’s you. I should’ve known better than to question your determination.” The older woman took Sophie’s hand in hers. “Regardless of what you encounter, please know you’re always welcome here.”
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