A Love Behind The Broken Mask (Western Historical Romance) Read online

  A Love Behind the Broken Mask

  STAND-ALONE NOVEL

  A Western Historical Romance Novel

  by

  Lydia Olson

  Copyright© 2019 by Lydia Olson

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher

  Table of Contents

  * * *

  A Western Historical Romance Novel

  Table of Contents

  Let’s connect!

  Letter from Lydia Olson

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Ready to start your next Romance story?

  A Truce for Love

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Your Honest Review

  * * *

  Let’s connect!

  * * *

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  Letter from Lydia Olson

  * * *

  “There is no better place to heal a broken heart than on the back of a horse”

  This is my moto, this is how I grew up.

  My name is Lydia and when I am not baking cookies with my daughter or riding the bike with my son, I am a Western Historical Romance writer. It is my passion, my hobby and my career.

  After I received my BA in Psychology I realised that this would help me create believable characters. Characters that are based on real people. I want my readers to feel as if they have lived themselves in the West.

  Growing up myself in a ranch I have a lot of tales to share. Stories that will help you not escape reality, but rather navigate you through reality. You will feel what it would feel to go through situations that make your heart pound and your palms sweat. You will access the depths of someone else’s mind, you will open your selves to new experiences and different point of views.

  What do you say? Wanna take a vacation with me?

  Lots of hugs,

  Prologue

  “Ellie, get away from the fence or the flames will get you!” Edison yelled.

  “But I can see him!” the little girl cried. “That poor cow is gonna get caught in the fire!”

  “Come now, Eloise,” Edison said, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her away from the fence. “You have to let the men do their jobs, just like us kids have got to do ours. And our job is...?”

  Edison plopped Eloise down on the dirt road in front of him and put his hands on his hips. Eloise huffed, folded her arms, and looked away from her older brother.

  “Dig the trenches,” she said, grudgingly.

  “That’s right. And what do we get when we finish?” Edison continued, waving a finger in the air.

  “I don’t care!” she yelled, pushing both arms behind her and leaning toward him. “I’m eight years old now; I can help put out fires, too!”

  “I know you can.” Edison patted her on the head. “But Wilson and Ryan are helping me dig the trenches, and it wouldn’t be any fun without you, would it?”

  Eloise narrowed her eyes. She and her brother Edison were the children of Dillion Hastings, one of Cayenne’s wealthiest homesteaders. Eloise took after their father, while Edison took so much after their mother that he knew just how to reach past her fiery spirit and convince her to see reason.

  Petulantly, Eloise followed her brother away from the raging fire to where he and two other boys were digging trenches off to the side of the road. Anyone passing by could see that Edison and Eloise were brother and sister. They had the same big, chocolate brown eyes, the same shiny, brown hair, and the same pointed nose.

  “I found the runaway,” Edison announced as he approached the other boys.

  “I didn’t run away – I was going to help a cow that was stuck on the other side of the fence!” Eloise argued, stomping her foot. “Anyway, the fire hasn’t gotten this far, and that cow is gonna get burned right now!”

  “It’s dangerous to go that close to a fire, Eloise,” a blonde-haired boy warned.

  “I know that, Ryan!” Eloise cried. “That’s why I was trying to get the cow away from it!”

  “I think that was very noble of her,” the other boy interjected. “But it probably would be better to let the adults handle it this time.”

  “See, Will gets it!” Eloise sneered at Ryan.

  “Wilson agrees with everything you say, even if it could get you hurt,” Ryan pointed out, glaring at Wilson.

  The two boys were opposites in almost every way. Ryan had stick-straight blonde hair, while Wilson had a slight curl to his thick, chestnut hair. Ryan’s face was pale and freckled face with dull, green eyes, while Wilson’s had tanned skin and vibrant blue eyes.

  As different as they were in appearance, they were also different in personality. Ryan was serious, stiff, and a little nervous. Wilson was carefree, energetic, and a risk-taker. With their differences, they argued more than they talked.

  “I didn’t agree with her – I just said it was noble,” Wilson retorted. “If I was agreeing with her, I would’ve said we should drop what we’re doing and save the cow, instead.”

  “But she thinks you agree with her, and that’s just as bad right now,” Ryan said.

  “You want me to control what she thinks?” Wilson drove his shovel into the ground more aggressively than before. “Tell me, how would I go about doing that?”

  “Why do you two have to argue over everything?” Edison groaned.

  “Because he’s wrong!” both boys said in unison, pointing at the other.

  Edison laughed and shook his head. It had to be exhausting to be so competitive with your best friend, he thought. They were the only four kids within twenty acres, and Edison often found Ryan and Wilson’s competitions so tiresome that he’d rather be by himself or with his father than with the other ki
ds. Still, it was sometimes fun to watch them argue.

  “I’m wrong?” Ryan pressed, angrily. “Well, at least I don’t honestly believe that I could make a living tricking people out of their money!”

  “I told you, I’ve seen it work,” Wilson said. “And it’s not a trick, it’s just a game. ‘Sides, you’re the one who thinks you can survive by being a cowboy forever. My dad told me there’s a new thing every year making it harder for cowboys to find a living.”

  “What does that old man know? He’s only ever worked with cattle!” Ryan yelled.

  “Hey!” Eloise interjected. “That’s mean, Ryan – my daddy’s only ever worked with cattle, and he’s the smartest man in the whole world.”

  “Ellie,” Edison put in. “Daddy’s worked with more things than cattle...”

  “He has?” Eloise nearly dropped her shovel. “But how come I never seen it?”

  “Daddy was alive before you were born.” Edison chuckled. “He came here from across the ocean, and he discovered this place the very first of everybody here. That’s why everyone likes him so much.”

  “I want to see the ocean,” Eloise replied dreamily, smiling at the sky. “Daddy said it looks like the sky, only shinier.”

  Edison smiled and patted his sister on the head. Ryan and Wilson had finally stopped arguing, but only because something in the trench had distracted them.

  “One day, we’ll go to the ocean together,” Edison said. “What do you say?”

  “Am I invited?” Wilson asked, wrapping his arm around Edison’s shoulders. “Hey, look at this, Edison. Does this look like gold to you?”

  He showed Edison a long, thin piece of metal that was caked with dirt. Ryan folded his arms and pretended not to be interested, but slowly inched toward them to hear Edison’s reply.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s just a piece of metal,” Edison said.

  “See!” Wilson crowed, pointing in Ryan’s face. “I told you it wasn’t gold!”

  “You weren’t listening to me – I said I thought it was fool’s gold. Because you found it, and you’re a fool!” Ryan said.

  “Boys!” Mr. Hastings said, running down the road. “I need you over here!”

  Wilson chucked the metal in the dirt, and the others dropped their shovels. Behind Dillion, the fire continued to roar, and the men were scrambling back and forth between putting out the flames and driving the cattle away from the at-risk field.

  “What happened?” Edison said, running after his father.

  “The fire’s getting out of our control,” Dillion admitted. “We need more hands – we’ve lost one of the cattle.”

  Eloise gasped, put her hands over her mouth, and stopped running. The other two boys continued after Dillion, but Edison stopped.

  “Come on, Ellie,” he said. “Cows die... You’ve got to get used to it – loss is a part of life.”

  “I could’ve saved it,” she insisted, tearing up.

  “And then hurt yourself?” Edison asked. “Ellie, when I’m running this ranch, you want to be here with me, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said, wiping her eyes.

  “Then you’re gonna have to grow up,” he told her. “You can’t keep crying and acting like a little girl forever.”

  “I’m not a little girl, Eddie!” she countered, wrinkling her forehead. “I can work on this ranch just like one of the men – and I don’t have to grow up to do it!”

  Chapter One

  “Daddy! Daddy, the field’s caught fire!” Eloise, now ten years older, yelled as she ran across the pasture, toward where her father stood near the tool shed. “Daddy! If you can hear me, toss me a shovel, will ya?”

  Dillion Hastings glanced over his shoulder at his daughter, not quite able to make out what she was yelling.

  She clutched her wide-brimmed hat as she ran, but it seemed her hair-tie had broken in her journey, causing her chestnut hair to flow in the wind. Dillion chuckled. Although her men’s work clothes, work boots, and wide leather belt made her look like a tomboy, her long, flowing hair added a certain feminine charm.

  “Daddy!” she insisted. “The field is on fire!”

  “What’s that, Ellie?!” he called back.

  “The FIELD is on FIRE!” she cried.

  Dillion opened his mouth to reply, still not able to hear her, but before he could say anything, he noticed a glimmer of orange and red in the distance.

  Two of his workmen charged toward it from either direction on the back of their horses, signaling to the creatures to kick up great amounts of dirt along the edge of the fire. This must’ve been John and Henry, he thought. The former Pony Express riders always had been the best at training their horses. Although he wasn’t sure their method would be of much help in containing the fire.

  “Oh, dear!” he said, suddenly understanding what Ellie was yelling about. “We need shovels!”

  Dillion ducked into the shed and grabbed any tool he could find which in any way resembled a shovel. By the time he ducked back out of the shed, Eloise and three other men had already gravitated toward the shed door. Eloise was still trying to catch her breath, but as usual, she didn’t let that slow her down.

  “Thank you!” she said, snatching a shovel from her father’s hands and taking off toward the fire.

  “Don’t forget to uncover the trenches first!” Dillion yelled after her.

  “Already taken care of!” she called back.

  “Wow,” one of the men, Edgar, said. “That’s just like her – not letting anything get between her and the safety of this ranch.”

  “Nothing gets between her and anything she wants to protect,” Dillion agreed, chuckling. “But don’t stop now – we got a fire to take care of. I want every trench cover removed within an acre of that fire on either side. And if it keeps growing, keep going! If we don’t get the boards and hay far out of the way of the flames, they will give the fire a direct path onto to the McKinnon property.”

  “If Eloise hasn’t done it already, consider it done!” Edgar said.

  The men took shovels, hoes, and a metal rake and ran after Eloise. By now, the fire had overtaken at least an acre of land.

  Luckily, however, the blaze was contained on at least one side, pushed up against the trenches Dillion and Eloise had dug as a precaution when the days grew drier. The heat alone had been exhausting, but the dry air made everything feel worse. Most days were far too dry in this New Mexico territory, Dillion thought, but late spring into summer was the worst of all.

  “Daddy, wait!” Eloise yelled, running toward him once more.

  “What is it?!”

  “The cattle!” She gestured toward the open field beside them.

  A herd of nearly fifty cattle grazed in the field, slowly and carelessly inching closer to the section of fiery land. Eloise crept toward the herd, despite not having time to prepare a horse to ride while she herded them.

  Dillion furrowed his brow. He wasn’t sure, at first, why she didn’t send the two men on horses to deal with the cattle, but after glancing at the herd, he understood.

  Several calves were among them, which Dillion presumed was the reason for the sad look in Eloise’s big, brown eyes.

  “Ellie,” he sighed. “I told you naming the calves would just make it harder to part with them.”