The Painted Sky Books
A town of lost souls the desert wind was about to blow away. A church ready to close its doors. A preacher down on his luck and down on his faith. Five widows with nowhere to turn and no one to care. A ruthless cattle baron who wanted the town and its people gone, no matter what it took, so he could use the land for his vast herds. If God wanted to work a miracle anywhere New Mexico looked like a good place to start.
Life has changed quickly for widow Marianne Freeman. Strangers on horseback who followed her on a mountain trail have turned everything in her world inside-out and upside-down. A man with vivid blue eyes, quiet strength, and a gentle touch has stormed her heart and her dreams. Two women who survived an attack on a wagon train have moved into her house and become very special friends. But she still lives in a county where the ruthless Ahab Hawthorne rules. And she has no idea which of the men and women who have swept into her world will stand with her against his threats and which will leave her to face his evil on her own.
The time has come for the nine brothers to go to work - five of them on the building of a new church near Dianna's and Dana's ranches, four of them on the erection of a ranch house for Marianne, Joyeux, and Noelle. But a surprise visitor, a tall woman in black riding a black horse, changes everything. So does Adam's appeal to the five deputies of Sheriff Teddy Westcott to switch allegiances and side with what they know to be good and right. And so does Dianna's growing affection for Reuben and Brett David and Dana's for their brother Michael. Yet it is the feisty Australian widow Noelle who moves first to win the man she has quickly grown to respect and admire and desire. In so doing, the native of Brisbane sets all kinds of wheels in motion in New Mexico, wheels that can never be brought to a stop.
A Church is going up. So is a homestead for the widows Noelle, Joyeux, and Marianne. And while nails are hammering walls together and saws are making boards just the right length, big things are happening in the hearts of Dianna Charming and Dana Fleming. But while love many be blooming again in the New Mexico Territory, so is the threat from from another man everyone has lost sight of in the excitement of new beginnings, new love, and the determination to resist Ahab Hawthorne and his gunmen. Now it may be too late for all of them, good and bad alike.
The Apache attack on the Lazarus church is swift and lethal. But the combined force of clergymen, widows, lawmen, settlers, ranchers, and Ahab Hawthorne's hired men is enough to blunt the first assault. After that the Apache surround the church and use rifles and flaming arrows to try and kill them or burn the men, women, and children out. As enemies must become allies to save all of them from certain death, words unspoken, kisses not given, and embraces never offered when times were peaceful suddenly rise to the surface. A time of danger unexpectedly becomes a time a love.
In the aftermath of the Apache raid, Sheriff Teddy Westcott has some questions for Marianne Freeman, questions about the murder of Ahab Hawthorne that are difficult for her to answer. Yet before the air has cleared from the attack by Blood Lance, or Marianne can properly respond to the Sheriff's accusations, she and the other widows and the preacher brothers are betrayed, as one double cross leads to another. In a matter of minutes, no one is sure who is on whose side anymore, who is friend and who is foe, or if anyone can be trusted. Meanwhile, on the desert horizon, a new danger is building, one greater than any the preachers and widows have faced before. Faith and prayers continue to give them strength but there is no certainty that any of them are going to come out of this fresh confrontation alive.
The hot desert of New Mexico. A band of men and women and children struggling to survive against all odds. Love blooming despite the danger and the fear. And now the coming of the outlaws nicknamed The Five Hundred led by a ruthless bandit named El Satan Blanco, The White Satan. And suddenly the nine brothers and the women who love them and the homesteaders have almost nothing left to fight the outlaws with, only a few guns, a few bullets, and a few prayers. Barring a miracle from the hand of God, it may not be enough.
The final volume in the Painted Sky series and the dramatic conclusion to the epic drama of New Mexico in the year following the Civil War. Will ruthless cattle barons have their way and turn southern New Mexico into a vast grazing land for their herds? Will the killers they hired put an end to the nine brothers and the women they love? Or does God have an ace up his sleeve no one knows about, not the killers, not the brothers, not the widows, not even the angels in heaven themselves?