Hope Reborn Read online

  Praying my story gives God glory!

  Reviews

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Other Books

  Coming soon

  Contact Caryl

  Five Star Reviews of Book One

  Vow Unbroken by Caryl McAdoo

  With an intriguing plot line and well-developed characters, McAdoo, who's written nonfiction and children's fiction, delivers an engaging read for her first adult historical romance. --Publishers Weekly

  After reading Caryl McAdoo's story of Henry and Susannah in "VOW UNBROKEN," I felt like I'd had another adventure with Tom Sawyer and Becky, this time as young adults. --Alan Daugherty: columnist The News-Banner

  Caryl McAdoo is a new unique voice in historical Christian fiction. I fell in love with the characters from the very first page. They pulled me into their lives and kept me there through the whole interesting storyline. I found the setting authentic, and Caryl kept me turning pages. I know you’ll love this book as well as I did.

  --Lena Nelson Dooley, award winning, best-

  selling author of Maggie’s Journey, Mary’s Blessing,

  Catherine’s Pursuit & many more novels

  Loved this story! Fresh strong voice from Caryl McAdoo…most memorable character [heroine Sue Baylor] I’ve encountered in some time. Well plotted and nicely paced. There’s a Louis L’Amour and All-American feel to Caryl’s writing. Beautiful romance, one of the nicest I’ve seen in a while. --Carrie Fancett Pagels, author

  Return to Shirley Plantation, a Civil War romance

  A Really "Wow" Debut Novel! I loved this book--fast paced, adventurous, and satisfyingly wholesome. Oh, you are going to love this book. --Anne Baxter Campbell, author The

  Truth Trilogy: The Roman’s Quest, Marcus Varitor,

  Centurion, and The Truth Doesn’t Die

  Five Star Reviews of Book Two

  Hearts Stolen by Caryl McAdoo

  Christian Romantic Historical Western Adventure Fiction--a BIG genre for a whole lot of novel. I said it about Caryl McAdoo's debut "Vow Unbroken" and it goes for book 2, "Hearts Stolen". For me, McAdoo vaulted immediately into the ranks of a seasoned author--another great writer I'll follow closely.

  "HEARTS STOLEN" evokes the slower 19th century pace, but with daily life and death risks. Trail topics include Texas statehood, land deals, rogue red men, outlaws, daily faith, farming and family. I wouldn't want to live then; but 'tis fun readin' 'bout. Book 2 works as a stand-alone, but definitely continues many characters' lives from earlier.

  -- Howard “Doc” Wolfe, top Amazon reviewer

  Caryl McAdoo is an entertaining storyteller! Early Texas history, action and adventure, and forbidden love are just a few of the threads that are woven together to create this compelling story. Hearts Stolen kept me up late, turning page after page, with an eagerness to know how the love story would end. I enjoyed this emotional journey of love and loss and look forward to continuing the trilogy in Hope Reborn!

  --Britney Adams, reader, Texas

  I thought Hearts Stolen is a great novel. I loved the characters, setting, history, and plot. I found the storyline quite unique. Just when I thought I knew how it will end, there was an unexpected twist. Highly recommended! 5 stars!

  --Amy Campbell, reader, Salem, Virginia

  I loved Unbroken Vow, the first book in this series, and I enjoyed this one every bit as much. The author makes you feel like you are actually in the midst of the story with an outstanding cast of characters, especially an enchanting 4 year old boy named Charley It tells a wonderful story of early Texas including the rescue of captives from the Indians, Texas Rangers, outlaws and early settlers, and there is plenty of adventure and romance. I wasn't ready for the story to end and I am definitely looking forward to Book 3 in the series.

  --Ann Ellison, reader, Abilene, Texas

  I thought Hearts Stolen is a great novel. I loved the characters, setting, history, and plot. I found the storyline quite unique. Just when I thought I knew how it will end, there was an unexpected twist. Highly recommended! 5 stars!

  --Amy Campbell, reader, Salem, Virginia

  Get ready for a wild, uplifting, heart-tugging, page-turning ride. Hearts Stolen, a historical Christian Western Adventure Romance grabbed me at the start with Native Americans capturing the heroine, Sassy. Her feisty, fighting spirit will win your heart from page one. Immediately drawn in and mesmerized, I couldn’t set the book down until the end. Actually burnt dinner because I couldn’t cook and read at the same time. Forget eating, I ate this book up. Caryl McAdoo is a master storyteller who weaves in Texas history into a well-crafted plot with unforgettable and totally loved characters. I didn’t think I’d enjoy another book as much as her first Novel, Vow Unbroken, but Hearts Stolen is even better.

  --Holly Michael, author, Crooked Lines

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, places, characters, and events are products of the author’s imaginations, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  If you’ve purchased this book without a cover, please be aware that it was reported as unsold to the publisher, therefore neither the author nor publisher have been paid. If a stripped copy, it should be considered stolen.

   2014 by Caryl McAdoo

  All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever- except short passages for reviews – without express permission. For information, address Post Office Box 622, Clarksville, Texas, 75426.

  First Edition

  January 2015

  Printed and bound in the United States of America

  ISBN-13 978-1502-8170-4-4

  ISBN-10 1502817047

  Cover Art by Kirk DouPonce of Dogeared Design, Woodland Park, CO.

  www.dogeareddesign.com

  Inquiries for volume purchases of this book may be directed to

  Post Office Box 622, Clarksville, Texas 75426

  For contact with the author or speaking engagements, please visit www.CarylMcAdoo.com

  Dedication

  Always, I pray my story gives God glory, and so I dedicate Hope Reborn to Him and to His Kingdom. I would never have any books out therewere it not for Him. He continues to bless me with stories to send out into the world

  And then there’s my Ron, always faithful to love and support and encourage me. He is my story in so many ways and most assuredly, the love of my life.

  I remember the first time I saw him at the baseball park, playing a game at the River Bottoms in Irving. And the first time I spoke to him when he checked out a basketball from me on his lunch hour. He asked me out and we were a couple ever since that first date.

  Our forty-eight years (forty-six married)
haven’t all been bliss. No relationship ever is. But God uses those times, too, to bind us together all the more. With His mercy and grace, we’ve made it through every trial and tribulation. I do love you, my Sweetest heart.

  And to my mother, Naomi Ruth Cloyd Lawrence, January 9, 1931 through August 2, 1997, who loved me like no one else. I was so blessed to be her only child for eight years and her bright and shining star. She taught me to love God by word and example, and diligently prayed me through the years. Still missing her every day, I anticipate our reunion in eternity.

  I love you, Mama.

  Acknowledgements

  All the glory for anything I accomplish belongs to my Heavenly Father who loves me so and never ceases to amaze me. His blessings and favor are evident in my life as He constantly showers me with blessings, mercy, and grace and often provides what I need before I’m even aware of it.

  Every person named below; God brought into my life. Words aren’t enough to express how I’m blessed by their love and help.

  To mention my Ron in every acknowledgement is a must. I can’t gush over him enough, without my dear husband, his support and encouragement and help (yes, he’s a writer, too), there’d never be any stories for you to enjoy!

  God definitely sent Lenda Selph, the proofreader straight from Heaven, my own personal comma-kazi lady and sister-in-Christ. I might think she was an angel unaware, but I’ve met her husband Terry and visited in their beautiful home.

  Thank you, Kirk DouPonce of DogEared Design for creating my beautiful cover. I love working with such a gifted Christian brother.

  All my beta readers, Louise Koiner, Leah Jones, Telena and Holly, and my eVALUaters, and everyone who leaves a review at Amazon and Goodreads, clicks ‘Share’ and ‘Like’ on Facebook, Tweets, and recommends my books to friends. I need y’all and thank y’all and know God will bless you for blessing me! My cup literally overflows!

  My Hope is in You, Lord.

  …Caryl

  “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life..”

  Proverbs 13:12

  “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”

  Lamentations 3:26

  “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

  Romans 15:4

  “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;”

  Titus 1:2

  “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”

  I Peter 1:13

  Chapter

  One

  Texas.

  May smiled at the Tribune’s headline, “Fillmore Says Pay Texas Off.” Even the President was thinking about the new state. She returned her gaze to the line close to the bottom of the front page.

  Could it be that more than one Henry Buckmeyer lived in Texas? She seriously doubted it, and that settled the matter. She was going west.

  “Chester, would you come in here, please?”

  While she waited, she reread the article that lacked the prominence due—in her estimation. It hadn’t changed. The man’s name stared back at her in bold type.

  “Chester.” She hated raising her voice. “Where are you?”

  For a minute more, she tapped her nails in a rapid syncopation—little finger to index—on her desk. Finally, she stood. Where had he gotten off to? And what could he be doing?

  Before she reached it, her parlor’s left side door opened. “Did you need me, ma’am?”

  “Yes, I wanted to know if you read that article I gave you about the exploits of those two Texas Rangers.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Well? What did you think?”

  “Interesting. Might be a novel there, but really, ma’am, not your sort of story. Is it?”

  “Well, I don’t see why not.” She headed back to her chair with the man following then flopped into it. “Oh, Chester.” She massaged her face, thumbs on her jaws.

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “I’m so sick of snooty-prude ladies doing whatever they can think of to trick stuffy-shirted men into marriage.” Her hands went high into the air in defiance then relaxed into a stretch. “Really. I can’t write another.”

  He looked around the rather large room; it tickled her that the New York mansion’s grandeur still impressed him, always had. “But those stories do pay the bills.”

  She hated that everything always boiled down to gold coins. “Ah, but certainly, there’s got to be more to life than money.”

  “Well said, if you have plenty.”

  The last thing she wanted this evening was to get into a debate over dollars. Besides, she didn’t like to think of herself as having plenty, as he put it.

  “Fine. I’ll capitulate. Life requires filthy lucre. There. Now if you’re happy, how about you remove a handsome amount out of the safe for me? I’m going to Texas.”

  “What?” He grinned, and his snowy teeth glistened as white as any of her heroes’. “No. Millicent May. Texas is unruly, primitive. And there are wild Indians. You cannot.”

  She glared. “Do not call me that, you know better.” Clearing her throat, she smoothed her hair, pushing up a curl, and willed herself calm and reserved. “And do not presume to tell me what I can—or cannot—do. Please.”

  He lifted his brows and tucked his chin a bit, but only looked at her, didn’t speak.

  “So why not?”

  “Texas came into the Union as a slave state, ma’am.”

  “What does that matter? It has nothing to do with anything.”

  “And, you have a deadline looming. A manuscript to finish?”

  “Oh, pshaw, I can write anywhere.” She picked up the newspaper, turned it upside-down to her, then pushed it toward him, touching it halfway down. “See what it says?”

  He leaned over her desk. “Fillmore’s definitely an advocate.”

  “Yes, of course, but that isn’t what I was talking about. Look there by my finger.”

  He read the copy where she pointed. “What about Henry Buckmeyer?”

  “Don’t you remember your daddy’s last letter?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Are you speaking of him mentioning a Patty Buckmeyer whom he ran into some place up on the Red River. Jonesboro, if I remember. Said he’d known the man during the war.”

  “Well?”

  He shook his head. “Bound to be lots of Buckmeyers.”

  She smiled, loved knowing something he didn’t. For a few sweet seconds, she savored the moment then puckered and nodded.

  “Well, one Patrick Henry Buckmeyer fought the bloody British with Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. The exact same place your daddy won his freedom in 1814. This Henry has got to be the same man.”

  “Maybe, but Texas is still a slave state, ma’am.”

  “I could care less, doesn’t matter one iota. I want us to go.”

  He leaned back and closed his eyes. She considered jumping up and shaking him until he agreed, but she wouldn’t. She was too much a lady for such shenanigans, and he didn’t like to be touched.

  Finally, he opened his eyes then leaned his nappy head all the way back until he faced the ceiling. “May, May, May.”

  “Chester.”

  When he came back level, locking his eyes onto hers, he spread his full lips in what vaguely passed as a crooked smile. “Is there any argument that I might use to talk you out of this crazy idea?’

  “No, not one. I am going, whether you join me or not. Are you? Will you? Please come along. It would be so hard without you.”

  He put one fist on his hip, shook his head again, and exhaled a long slow breath. “Alright then, yes, ma’am. Shall I make the travel arrangements?”

  “Yes, please. I want to leave as soon as possible.” She rubbed her h
ands together. “Oh, this is going to be exciting. Isn’t it?”

  In a totally bland tone and with a face as straight as a carpenter’s chalk line, he gazed intently. “Oh, yes, ma’am. Hoorah.” He turned and headed out.

  “Chester.”

  He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “When it is only you and me, there’s no need for you to use your houseboy manners.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I know.” He strolled out. Seemed to her a bit lighter on his feet, even if he acted like he didn’t want to go.

  She loved needling him, almost as much as he loved playing the part of her faithful freedman. She’d expected more resistance. Why, he hadn’t put up much of a scrap at all.

  Down deep, he was probably as excited as she. Past time to have a fine adventure, being cramped up in this gilded cage had gotten old.

  The next two days passed in a flurry. To make her editor happy, she sat her high European-fashioned, bustled bottom in her chair and slung ink like a madwoman.

  She hated the drivel she blabbered onto the pieces of innocent, pure white paper, but she’d taken the money, and so she scribbled. How many times had she written a crippled variation of the exact same tale?

  The first four or five novels were fun, even exhilarating. But lately, boring wasn’t a strong enough word.

  Midmorning of the third day, both parlor doors flung open. Chester nodded toward the front of the house. “Everything is loaded, ma’am; we need to leave in the next half hour.”

  She laid her quill pen down, blotted the last page she’d been working on, then stood. “Excellent.”