Faithful Heart Read Online Free

prayer, asking the Lord to guide them and give them wisdom so they might know His perfect will and His plan for their future. He closed by thanking God for bringing them together and for giving him the love of the most wonderful woman in the world.
    This brought tears to Breanna’s cheeks, and before they headed back, John kissed them away.

2

    T HE STARRY-EYED COUPLE walked slowly back toward the wagon train, savoring every moment of their private time together.
    Breanna told John she had prayed many times a day that the Lord would bring him back to her so she could tell him how much she loved him. She brought up the times he had been there to protect her from harm, then had slipped away, leaving her another silver medallion.
    “Oh, John,” she sighed, “each time I thought my heart was going to shatter with sorrow.”
    He patted the hand that gripped his arm. “Just doing as you told me—staying out of your life. At least, to a degree.”
    “I know, darling. The only person to blame was myself.” She thought a moment, then said, “That day in Hay Springs when you appeared out of nowhere and made that awful brute who was manhandling me eat his cigar, I—”
    “He got off lucky. I had other plans for him—that is, before that rifleman across the street knocked me out. When I came to, you were gone.”
    “You
do
know what happened, don’t you?”
    “Yes. You had an obligation in Denver, and you had to leave immediately on the stage.”
    “I’m glad they explained it to you. I wrote a quick note and left it with the marshal to give to you. I’m assuming you never got it.”
    “No, I didn’t. What did it say?”
    “It said for you to come to Denver and see me as soon as possible.”
    “Well, I guess it wasn’t the Lord’s time for us to get together.”
    “I can see that now,” Breanna said, squeezing his arm. “And then there was that train ride in the Colorado Rockies—you all dressed up like a stoop-shouldered Mexican.”
    John laughed. “Really fooled you on that one, didn’t I?”
    “Well, yes and no. I kept studying you, with something scratching at the back of my mind. Then when we were told you had overcome the outlaws and were taking them down the mountain in the caboose, I knew. I just knew. You fooled me for a while … but when it was all over, I knew it was you.”
    “Even before Ridge Holloway put the silver medallion in your hand?”
    “Yes. Even before that.”
    They walked silently for a few minutes, then John said, “Breanna …”
    “Yes, darling?”
    “There’s something I need to tell you, and I guess now’s as good a time as any. It’s about Frank Miller.”
    Breanna stopped, causing him to stop also. She looked up at him in the pale moonlight with brow furrowed. “Yes? What about Frank?”
    “I learned in South Pass City that he broke out of jail, bent on killing you … and what for.”
    “He’s on the loose?”
    “He
was
. But now he’s dead.”
    “Dead? What—?”
    “On the trail. He was following the wagon train, intending to kill you. The Snakes captured him, tied him to a tree, and left him for the wild beasts.”
    “I … know about those tactics. But are you telling me you knew Frank? You recognized him?”
    “Yes. We met in Cheyenne City a few weeks ago. I heard a man call him by name, so I talked to him.”
    “And now you found him dead, torn apart by wild beasts?”
    “I came along as he was being mauled by a cougar. I killed the cat and was going to cut Frank loose, but he told me there wasn’t time. He had something to say, and he had to say it quick. He barely got it out before he died.”
    “What did he say?”
    “He said when I found you, I was to tell you that he was wrong. That he knew you had tried to save his wife. His last words were, ‘Please tell her I’m sorry … for everything.’ I believe he really meant it.”
    Breanna nodded, too overcome with emotion to speak. She moved close, wrapped her arms around John, and laid her