Joy on This Mountain
A Prairie Heritage, Book 2
by Vikki Kestell
Also Available in Print Format
The little town of Corinth, Colorado, lies in the gateway to the majestic Rocky Mountains just west of Denver . . . just far enough from the city to avoid close scrutiny, but close enough to be accessible. Few know of the wickedness hidden in the small town, so picturesquely set in the foothills of the mighty mountains.
Joy on This Mountain is the eagerly awaited sequel to A Rose Blooms Twice. The legacy of Jan and Rose has far-reaching and unexpected consequences.
A Prairie Heritage, Book 2. Spoiler alert! You may not want to read this book until you have read its prequel, A Rose Blooms Twice.
Visit Vikki’s website, www.vikkikestell.com or find her on Facebook.
A Rose Blooms Twice
A Prairie Heritage, Book 1
by Vikki Kestell
Also Available in Print Format
Rose Brownlee has suffered more loss than most people can endure. Now she must find a way to move on with her life. Will she bow to conventional wisdom or will she, like Abraham, choose to follow where God leads her . . . even to a country she does not know?
Set in the American prairie of the late 1800s, this story of loss, disillusionment, rebirth, and love will inspire, challenge, and encourage you.
Read Wild Heart on the Prairie, the prequel and companion to A Rose Blooms Twice, and the exciting sequel to A Rose Blooms Twice, Joy on This Mountain.
Visit Vikki’s website, www.vikkikestell.com or find her on Facebook.
Wild Heart on the Prairie
A Prairie Heritage, Book 4
by Vikki Kestell
Also Available in Print Format
Jan Thoresen and his brother Karl have left their native land of Norway to bring their families to America—the land of freedom and hope. Like thousands of others, Jan and his wife Elli long for the opportunity of a better life and a future for their children.
After braving an ocean crossing and the arduous journey west, they encounter a land so vast and wide that it defies mastery. Jan finds that his struggles are not only with the land, but with a restless and unmanageable heart. Will Jan find a way to overcome this wild land or will the prairie master him?
Wild Heart on the Prairie, while designated Book 4 in the series, A Prairie Heritage, is chronologically the prequel and companion to Book 1, A Rose Blooms Twice.
Read the beginning of this beautiful saga, A Rose Blooms Twice, its exciting sequel, Joy on This Mountain, followed by the third book in the series, The Captive Within.
Visit Vikki’s website, www.vikkikestell.com or find her on Facebook.
The Captive Within
A Prairie Heritage, Book 3
by Vikki Kestell
Also Available in Print Format
The Captive Within opens the day after Joy on This Mountain ends. The two infamous houses of Corinth, Colorado, are closed and the young women who had been imprisoned there have been released. Soon after, Rose and Joy leave Corinth to establish a home and a haven for “their” girls in Denver.
Before long, Rose and Joy face a heartrending challenge: What does it take to unlock and free the soul of a defiled woman? And as they wrestle for a foothold in Denver, Rose discovers that the long-abandoned house given to them hides a dark secret of its own.
The Captive Within is Book 3 in the series, A Prairie Heritage. Read the beginning of this saga, A Rose Blooms Twice, and its moving sequel, Joy on This Mountain. The saga continues in Book 5, Stolen, June 2014.
Visit Vikki’s website, www.vikkikestell.com or find her on Facebook.
Stolen
A Prairie Heritage, Book 5
by Vikki Kestell
Available June 2014
Life resumes in Denver for Rose, Joy, Grant, Mei-Xing, and the others of Palmer House. Stolen takes up the tale where The Captive Within leaves off. Will they “let sleeping dogs lie,” or will they be forced to face off with those who would see the work of Palmer House destroyed?
Don’t miss this exciting installment as the inspiring saga, A Prairie Heritage, draws to a close in books 5 and 6!
Visit Vikki’s website, www.vikkikestell.com for updates or follow her on Facebook.
Book 6: Title to be announced
(Available November 2014.)
Read all the books of A Prairie Heritage as they become available:
Book 1: A Rose Blooms Twice
Book 2: Joy on This Mountain
Book 3: The Captive Within
Book 4: Wild Heart on the Prairie, February 1, 2014
Book 5: Stolen, June 2014
Book 6: To Be Announced
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Defeating Human Trafficking in This Generation
Pronunciation Guide
About the Author
Joy on This Mountain
© 2013 Vikki Kestell
All Rights Reserved
Scriptures quotations taken from
The King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain.
and
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation
copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by
Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers Inc.,
Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
All rights reserved.
Faith-Filled Fiction
A Division of Growing Up in God
www.faith-filledfiction.com/ | www.vikkikestell.com/
Dedication
This book is dedicated
to all those who give their lives
to rescue and bring the healing of Jesus the Messiah
to those who have been oppressed.
Appreciation
Many thanks to my esteemed proofreaders,
Cheryl Adkins and Greg McCann.
I could not have done this without you!
The Lord reward and bless you.
To My Readers
This book is a work of fiction, what I term “faith-filled fiction,” intended to demonstrate how people of God should and can respond to difficult and dangerous situations with courage and conviction. The characters and events that appear in this book are not based on any known persons or historical facts; the challenges described are, however, very real, both historically and contemporarily.
I give God all the glory.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
for he has anointed me
to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free . . .
(Luke 4:18, NLT)
Chapter 1
August 1908
Rose finished her difficult climb and crested the rise behind their house. She slowly straightened her stiff back, her breath coming hard. Below her, nestled picturesquely between the knoll and a meandering creek, stood their home, the place where she and Jan had lived, loved, dreamed, and raised their family.
Across the creek and away to the east stretched the fields that belonged to Jan’s son, Søren, and two of his cousins, Karl and Kjell. Their families, homes, and barns were surrounded by their well-ordered crops.
Rose turned toward the sinking sun. Their fields, hers and Jan’s, lay before her. The drying stalks of their harvested corn waved in a gentle breeze. Rose searched through the shadows beginning to fall upon the field, her hand held to her eyes against the waning light.
There.
Rose spotted the young woman, on the far side of the field, her face turned toward the dropping sun. Even from this distance, Rose could tell the woman was staring out into the vast prairie, her shoulders bowed.
Rose’s heart twisted a little. It would be best not to approach her right now. Rose’s comfort would not be welcome. Not at this time.
Sighing, Rose looked back toward their little white house, the center of so much happiness. She looked for and found her husband of 26 years staring back at her. He leaned heavily against the rails of the veranda that wrapped around the house. Rose knew that he was as concerned as she was, but he was unable to climb the hill she stood on, no longer able to till or harvest their fields.
“Oh Lord,” she murmured. “You are our Rock. Our strong High Tower. Our Fortress. Our strength in time of need. O God, we need you now.”
She turned again toward the solitary woman across the field and remembered . . . remembered the summer day she came into their lives.
Late summer 1883
The heat in the house was oppressive. Sweat ran from Rose’s face and soaked the pillow and her hair. She strained with a contraction.
“Jan,” she moaned. “Jan!” The contraction peaked and she fell back against the pillow.
She had endured more than 24 hours of hard labor yet the baby just would not come. Rose had given birth three times before this, the children of her first marriage, but none had taken as long or been as difficult. As another contraction took her, Rose felt her strength ebbing and her hope and resolution slipping.
“Jan . . . Jan, please,” she whispered as the constricting band about her eased momentarily.
Fiona leaned over her and wiped her brow. “Whist? Jan?”
“Yes . . . Jan . . .” she moaned through cracked lips. “I need him.”
Moments later Jan slipped to the side of her bed and took her hand. Rose looked up and, voice shaking, whispered, “Jan, I don’t think I can do . . . this . . . it’s taking too long . . . and, and . . . something must be wrong . . . I’m so . . . sorry.” She stared at his dear face in shame and regret.
“Nei, Rose.”
His eyes, those blue, blue eyes, captured her soft gray ones as another contraction took her. Neither of them looked away; they remained fixed on each other until the pain eased again.
Jan began to speak, willing her to hear and be strengthened. His eyes never left hers as he spoke, his words awash with faith and resolve. “Listen, my li’l Rose!”
“Da Lord ist mine light an’ mine salvation;
whom shall I fear?
da Lord ist da strength of mine life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
. . . For in da time of trouble
he shall hide me in his pavilion:
in da secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me;
. . . I had fainted, unless I had believed
to see da goodness of da Lord
in da lan’ of da living.
Vait on da Lord:
be of good courage,
an’ he shall strengthen thine heart:
vait, I say, on da Lord.”
“In da lan’ of da living, Rose. We vill see his goodness in da lan’ of the living. Be of good courage, my Rose.”
Another contraction began as Rose was muttering, “Be of good courage . . . he shall strengthen my heart . . . wait on the Lord . . . my heart will not fear . . .”
Her breath rasped as she struggled with yet another unproductive birth pang. Another. Again. Another. And another.
And then—water gushed from between her legs. The contractions came without reprieve now, one atop each other, relentless, without mercy. Suddenly an urgent need to push overtook her.
An hour later Rose lay exhausted and limp, while Fiona and Amalie gently cleaned and dressed her. Finally Amalie, her kind face smiling broadly, laid a tiny bundle on Rose’s chest. Rose’s arms trembled with fatigue as she struggled to hold the bundle. The bedroom door opened softly and Rose felt her husband leaning over her.
“Ist vell, Rose?” Rose heard the depth of concern and care in his voice. Her eyes drifted up to his deep glacier ones.
“Our daughter,” she breathed. She felt the warmth of the tiny body against her breasts, felt the small rise and fall of the baby’s breath.
“Ah, Rose! Our babe.” Jan sat on the edge of the bed and tenderly slipped his work-rough hands under the bundle. Lifting the newborn he turned back the blanket and revealed to both of them a tuft of white-blonde hair and a crinkled pink face.
Rose thought her heart would stop, so great was the love that washed over her at that moment. She looked to her husband. His face was buried in the baby’s blanket and she heard his muffled sobs.
Rose had never seen, never heard her husband cry so and, as his weeping intensified, tears began to stream down her face also.
She knew too well why he cried. He cried for the loss of his other daughter, Kristen, and her mother, Elli. For the many years of grief and loneliness he had suffered.
Rose cried for the husband and children she had lost three years before . . . James, and their children, Jeffrey, Glory, Clara. Gone in a few agonizing moments, claimed by a river of ice one fateful evening.
She also wept for the new love and companionship God had granted her with this good man. For the comfort and healing of this baby—for the renewal and purpose this child would bring them.
She knew they wept for joy.
“Oh dear God, I denk you!” Jan sobbed. He held the baby to his chest with one hand while his other hand tenderly caressed Rose’s cheek. “I denk you, O Fat’er God!”
Finally, their tears eased, and Jan wiped his eyes on the corner of the baby’s blanket.
“Such joy, my Rose! Such joy,” he whispered.
“Yes,” Rose answered tearfully. “Joy.”
Their eyes met and they slowly nodded in agreement.
Jan looked down on the tiny face and murmured, “Little girl, you are Joy!”
“Joy Again,” Rose added. “She is our Joy Again.”
“Joy Again,” Jan repeated, tasting the words for the first time. He smiled and nodded . . .
Rose roused herself from those precious memories and turned again to the tall figure across the field. How had so many years flown by?
And how had so much been undone so easily?
~~**~~
Chapter 2
April 1902
Arnie Thoresen smiled contentedly at his pleasant wife, his healthy young sons, and his cousin, Joy, who had just arrived in Omaha. They were finishing lunch outdoors at a sidewalk café, and it was a very lovely late spring day. Arnie hadn’t seen his much younger cousin for more than two years. He leaned back, relaxed and replete from the meal, and indulged in his favorite pastime: people watching.
At almost 19 years old, Joy was proving herself to be a charming, unspoiled young lady. She w
as tall for a woman but as slender and supple as a willow branch. Her thick, white-blonde hair, inherited from her Norwegian father, hung to her waist in a silken sheaf. She wore it more in the mode of the last century than in the manner of a modern woman of the 1900s. Arnie liked that immensely.
Joy’s father and Arnie’s father had been brothers. Arnie, compared to Joy, was also tall but broad rather than lean, and he sported a shaggy head of dark-blond hair. Unlike his brothers, who remained on the family’s farm, Arnie had chosen to study law and establish a practice in the city.
Arnie listened as Joy praised something Arnie’s older son Petter said, her hand resting on Petter’s arm. It was obvious that both of his boys were smitten with their second cousin.
Arnie grinned as Joy declared that Petter was “brilliant” and the young man reddened in both embarrassment and delight. Petter’s little brother, Willem, punched Petter under the table, and attempted to distract Joy’s attention toward himself. Arnie and Anna exchanged amused glances.
Arnie’s hand was dangling over the arm of his chair when he felt a warm, wet nose snuffle his hand. Startled, he momentarily jerked his hand away and looked down into the soft brown eyes of a black-and-white border collie. The dog nudged his hand again and Arnie rubbed between his ears.
“Arnie! It’s good to see you.”
Arnie turned to find the greeter. “Grant! The pleasure is mine. How are you keeping?”
“Fine, fine; thank you for asking. I see Blackie found you. He never forgets a friend.” Grant Michaels snapped a leash onto the dog and nodded and smiled at the group. And then saw Joy Thoresen. And stared.
Joy stared right back, her lips slightly parted. Petter and Willem looked from Grant to Joy and back and then glared. Arnie shook his head and smothered a chuckle.
“Grant, I believe you know my wife, Anna?”
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