by Shirl Henke
“Anything.”
“To be married in church. It can be in your church, I don't care. I only want us and our children to receive the Lord's blessing.”
For a moment, Rory seemed to consider, his expression grave. “Well, darlin',” he began in a wretched imitation of his own brogue, “sure and that's a fine idea, and one worthy of an Irish politician—if it's your own da who'll be performin' the nuptials.”
With a sob of pure joy, she threw her arms around him. “Yes, oh yes, my love!”
Epilogue
Wellsville, Summer, 1879
The First Presbyterian Church was crowded to capacity for the occasion. Beaming with happiness, Reverend Ephraim Sinclair waited to perform the sacrament. Music from the organ rose, and the congregation joined in singing a hymn of thanksgiving as Celia Kincaid, flanked by Patrick Madigan, stepped up to the altar with the precious bundle. Standing beside them, Rory and Rebekah each held one of Michael's hands as he stared in rapt fascination at his Grandpa.
“Is he gonna cry?” the boy whispered, looking from one parent to the other.
Rebekah put her fingers to her lips with a smile, urging him to be quiet, but Rory leaned down and whispered, ”I don't think so. He's too happy.”
“Happy just like all of us,” Michael replied. His eyes returned to the chancel, where his grandfather asked the ritual questions of Celia and Patrick.
The godparents made their pledges clearly for everyone to hear. Then, the minister's voice rose sonorously over the assembly as he leaned over the font and touched the infant's head with water. “I baptize thee, Ephraim Patrick Madigan, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
Michael's baby brother blinked up at his grandfather with surprise, then gurgled in contentment. Although his namesake did not have tears in his eyes, Ephraim did, but no one seemed to notice.
Author’s Note
When I first had the idea for a tale of broken vows between two young lovers, separated by fate and the villainy of family and foe alike, I knew Rebekah would be a prim and proper preacher's daughter who surprised even herself with her attraction to a shockingly unsuitable man, a foreigner of some sort and of the Roman Catholic faith to add an extra element of conflict. But where to set this story presented a challenge.
After some general background reading, I stumbled on the colorful and raucous era of the Comstock Bonanza in 1870s Nevada, a land of “restless strangers” as Wilbur S. Shepperson called them. Nevada's foreign population outnumbered the native born, creating a unique backdrop for characters like the Madigan brothers, January Jones, Cue Ging and Patsy Mulcahey, not to mention the return of that incorrigible and lovable rascal, Blackie Drago, from my “Colorado Couplet” of books, Terms of Love and Terms of Surrender.
The Comstock Lode comprised the richest mining boom in America's history. Its rapid rise and equally swift demise fitted the stark contrasts of Nevada itself, a place as beautiful as paradise—when there was water; but water was often scarce, leading one wag to scoff, “If hell had water, it would be paradise, too.” The land and its people were as harsh and unyielding as Dorcas Sinclair's bigotry, and at the same time as strong and incorruptible as Ephraim Sinclair's faith. The descriptions of Virginia City and Carson City are as real as I could make them. Wellsville, however, is a fictional town, a composite drawn from descriptions of small agricultural communities along the rich river valleys of the Truckee, the Carson, and the Walker.
The incredible corruption of Nevada politics during the latter half of the nineteenth century is well documented, along with the unscrupulous stock manipulations of the mining and banking crowd, thus providing me with a cast of fascinating villains drawn from real life. These powerful men actually dynamited their own mine shafts, sealing the workers below in order to silence them. In making a killing on the stock market, they occasionally also did some killing, quite literally, in the mine shafts. Ryan Madigan's death is fiction, but many real miners met their deaths precisely that way.
Of the numerous excellent books on Nevada, the best general histories I found are The Nevada Adventure by James W. Hulse, Desert Challenge by Richard G. Lillard, and History of Nevada by Russell R. Elliott. For additional information regarding the evil chicanery of the silver barons and their banking cronies, I used Nevada, The Great Rotten Borough 1859-1964 by Gilman M. Ostrander.
Nevada, because of early gold and silver strikes during the Civil War era, was one of the first Western territories to achieve statehood, in 1864. For details on the raw and colorful times in the capital and on the Comstock, I relied on Wells Drury's autobiography, An Editor on the Comstock Lode. The wonderful mix of characters who fill the pages of Broken Vows I owe to Wilbur S. Shepperson's Restless Strangers, a rich and fascinating account of Nevada's unique immigrant population.
I hope you enjoy this story of vows made, betrayed, and redeemed. Rory and Rebekah had a few surprises for me as I wrote their story, but no one amazed me more than old Ephraim Sinclair and his grandson. They have lived in my imagination. I hope they live in yours, too, long after you have read Broken Vows.
About the Author
SHIRL HENKE lives in St. Louis, where she enjoys gardening in her yard and greenhouse, cooking holiday dinners for her family and listening to jazz. In addition to helping brainstorm and research her books, her husband Jim is “lion tamer” for their two wild young tomcats, Pewter and Sooty, geniuses at pillage and destruction.
Shirl has been a RITA finalist twice, and has won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewer’s Choice Awards from Romantic Times
“I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ballpoint pen—it’s hard to get good quills these days,” she says. Dragged into the twenty-first century by her son Matt, a telecommunication specialist, Shirl now uses two of those “devil machines.” Another troglodyte bites the dust. Please visit her at www.shirlhenke.com.
Table of Contents
PART I, COVENANT
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
PART II, EPIPHANY
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Author's Note
About the Author