Cade stepped out of the bank, which was a half block away, just as three freight wagons pulled down the street. Although this wasn’t unusual, what caught Laura’s eye were the dozens of children sitting or standing in the beds of the wagons. People stopped along the sidewalks to watch as the caravan pulled through, then stopped in front of the church at the end of town.
“Ready to go home?”
An arm snaked around her waist, or the general area where her waist used to be. Laura turned her gaze to her husband, and offered him a smile. He leaned forward, and kissed her on the mouth, his other hand caressing her protruding abdomen.
“Why are those wagons filled with children?” she asked, directing her attention back up the street. Cade followed her gaze.
“Andrews at the bank told me there were some folks coming through, bringing orphans to the church to look for families to take them in.”
“Orphans?” Laura’s eyes widened.
Cade took hold of her hand. He shot her an indulgent smile. “We’re not heading down to the church, Laura. Don’t start getting any notions in your head. You’re going to be plenty busy very soon.”
Laura stared at the children in the wagons. Her heart went out to them. Cade was right. They couldn’t possibly take in a child at this time.
“What’s going to happen to them if they don’t find homes?” she whispered.
“I heard they came all the way from New York. They’re shipping a lot of homeless kids out west in the hopes of finding homes with families who can use an extra hand or two.”
“That’s horrible,” Laura gasped. “They’re not going to get loving homes. They’ll go to people who only want free labor.”
Cade pulled her up close to him. “It’s not the most ideal thing, I’ll admit, but at least they will have homes. This has been going on for decades, from what I understand. Farmers and ranchers have always relied on their kids to help out. If some are willing to take in a child and give him a home, the child will be better off than he was before.”
Laura frowned. “I suppose.”
Cade tugged on her hand. “Let’s go home. You need to get off your feet, and we still need to stop by Ethan and Sally’s place to pick up Jonah.”
Laura glanced over her shoulder one final time toward the wagons, then followed Cade to their buggy.
As she lay in Cade’s arms that evening, she envisioned the baby she would soon hold in her arms. She smiled, and pressed up closer to her husband, or as close as her large frame allowed. Not a day went by when she didn’t cherish every moment with this man.
The orphans she’d seen today stayed in her mind. Cade was right that they couldn’t take in a child at this time, but hopefully all those children would find loving homes and the happy future they deserved.
THE END
Thank you for purchasing and reading IN HIS TOUCH. I hope you enjoyed it. If you missed the first book in the series, IN HIS EYES, you can find it here.
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Also by Peggy L Henderson
Find all my Books here on Amazon
Yellowstone Romance Series:
(in recommended reading order)
Yellowstone Heart Song
A Yellowstone Christmas (novella)
Yellowstone Redemption
Yellowstone Awakening
Yellowstone Dawn
Yellowstone Deception
A Yellowstone Promise (novella)
A Yellowstone Season of Giving (short story)
Teton Romance Trilogy
Teton Sunrise
Teton Splendor
Teton Sunset
Second Chances Time Travel Romance Series
Come Home to Me
Ain’t No Angle
Diamond in the Dust
Blemished Brides
(Western Historical Romance)
In His Eyes
In His Touch
In His Arms (coming soon)
Dear Reader
Thank you for purchasing IN HIS TOUCH, Book 2 in the Blemished Brides Romance Series. I hope you enjoyed the book. The series is set in Montana, in the general area of the city of Deer Lodge. I created the fictional town of Elk Lodge for the purposes of this and future stories, as I wanted a small-town feel for the citizens, and what the town was doing to the heroine, Laura Engelman. The Montana State Penitentiary is located outside present-day Deer Lodge, and was created in 1871 as the territorial prison of Montana.
Gold was first discovered in Montana Territory in the 1860’s, and most mines were pretty much mined out by the 1870’s. Mercury was (and still is) used in gold mines to recover gold from sediment. Some mercury that was used in the past is still found in the environment today. In certain areas of California, the environment is still very much affected as a result of the gold rush in the 1850’s. Mercury attaches itself to gold, and the way to separate it is by heating the compound. This produces mercury vapor, which is toxic and dangerous in high quantities.
The most common practice used in small-scale mining to separate gold from ore is a process called mercury amalgamation. This process involves combining mercury with silt that contains pieces of gold. The mercury binds to the flakes of gold and forms a solid mercury-gold amalgam. The amalgam is then heated to vaporize and capture the mercury in an enclosed oven, leaving the gold behind.
When mercury vapors are inhaled, up to 85 percent of the mercury enters the bloodstream directly from the lungs, and then rapidly spreads to other parts of the body, including the brain and kidneys. Once in the body, metallic mercury can stay for weeks or months. High exposure to mercury vapor is very dangerous, and can cause permanent brain, kidney, and lung damage. Long-term exposure to lower levels can cause health effects that develop gradually, such as tremors, headaches, sleeping problems, memory loss, irritability, poor coordination, and changes in vision and hearing.
While death in an adult is rare from inhaling mercury vapor (but a definite possibility in infants and young children), I read about a case in the 1950’s where a man was heating gold-mercury amalgam on his kitchen stove to separate out the gold. He became very ill after the first time, recovered, then repeated the procedure. He was admitted to the hospital with seizures, and died several weeks later.
Reading this particular case report gave me the idea for Jack Kincaid’s demise. I had him exposed to very high levels of mercury vapor over an extended period of time, which finally led to his death.
Finally, in this story, the July 4th celebration is on Saturday. In 1887, July 4th actually fell on a Monday.
As always, a huge thanks to my editor, Barbara Ouradnik, and my superb beta readers – Heather Belleguelle, Lisa Wiebe Bynum, Sonja Carroll, Becky Fetzer, Kathie Hamilton, Renee York, and Hilarie Kearns Smith.
And to my son, Collin, for his graphic arts skills to create the cover for this book.
Find out more about me and my stories here:
www.peggylhenderson.com
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In His Touch: Blemished Brides Book 2 Page 18