Blog-a-Book-Scene is a
monthly themed blogging endeavor from a group of authors who love to share
excerpts from their stories. Find us on Twitter with the hashtag #blogabookscene
and #PrairieRosePub.
June Theme: On the Road Again
Here is my desperate fight or
flight scene:
Blurb:
Lucy
Thoroughgood has gone and done it now—fallen in love with Hank Wilding, a man
she’s known all her life. He’s content with friendship, but Lucy’s heart has
flown the coop and she knows she’s in love with the determined bachelor. When
she visits him with a proposition—to let the orphans she cares for learn to
ride his horses during the summer—he surprises her with one of his own. She
must accompany him to the dancing lessons he’s signed up for.
Secretly pleased, she hopes that perhaps this arrangement might lead to more than friendship. But Hank’s loved hard and lost, with his engagement to one of the popular town girls going south two years earlier. He’s sworn to never lose his heart to another—including Miss Lucy Thoroughgood.
A teenage orphan, Chayton, could be the key to thawing Hank’s heart—but danger follows the embittered boy. Will Hank be able to give Chayton the home he yearns for—or will the boy’s past bring only sorrow to those he cares for? When a Lakota premonition becomes reality, Lucy’s life hangs in the balance. Will Hank have the chance to let Lucy know how wrong he was?
Secretly pleased, she hopes that perhaps this arrangement might lead to more than friendship. But Hank’s loved hard and lost, with his engagement to one of the popular town girls going south two years earlier. He’s sworn to never lose his heart to another—including Miss Lucy Thoroughgood.
A teenage orphan, Chayton, could be the key to thawing Hank’s heart—but danger follows the embittered boy. Will Hank be able to give Chayton the home he yearns for—or will the boy’s past bring only sorrow to those he cares for? When a Lakota premonition becomes reality, Lucy’s life hangs in the balance. Will Hank have the chance to let Lucy know how wrong he was?
Excerpt:
The crowd grew silent.
Tension filled the air with nervous energy. Hank stepped forward with his hands
raised. “Now listen to some sense, mister. I don’t care what you took from the
house. You’re welcome to whatever you stole as long as you let go of the boy.
He hasn’t done anything to hurt you. You let me have the old man and the boy,
and I won’t try to stop you from leaving.”
A hollow laugh bellowed from
the man. “Like you could stop me anyway. I’m the one with the gun. This boy
belongs to me. He’s my son and he’s going with me just in case anybody gets any
ideas of comin’ after me…sorta like an insurance policy you might say.” He
squeezed Chayton’s neck with his arm so tight Hank thought the boy might pass
out from lack of air. “He better learn to mind me though.”
So this is Stephen Grier. Hank glanced at Chayton. The kid is scared out of his mind. He forced himself to remain calm
and to speak with quiet authority. “Turn him loose, Grier, or I swear to God I
will hunt you down and end your miserable life.”
“You best back off Mister
High and Mighty. Now I’m taking this boy, and these here goods what I found,
and I might even take this broken down old man with me if you don’t shut your
trap.” He pointed the gun at Hank just as Merrilee pulled up in Hank’s blue
pick-up truck. The crowd gasped in unison.
There was no time to lose.
Hank knew he had to do something or Grier was going to get Chayton. No matter
what happened, Hank couldn’t allow him to do that. When Grier’s attention
slipped from him to the truck, Hank knew it might be the only moment he had to
act. He rushed forward toward Grier. A scream rang out from somewhere behind
him. Grier turned Chayton lose and set the sights of the gun on Hank. Just as
he pulled the trigger and a shot rang out, a blur of yellow flew across Hank’s
vision between him and Grier. Oh God,
Lucy!
July’s Theme: Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
Diverse
stories filled with heart
