Surrender the Rain- An Extended Preview!!!

Welcome all! My upcoming novella, Surrender the Rain, A Fire on the Plains Romance, will be available this spring. I thought for those of you that visit the blog, it would be fun to serve an appetizer! How about an extended preview ! 

Fire on the Plains is the series name for a 3 book bundle that feature the American west with characters that fall in love and light the plains on fire. The plots move fast, the story and characters are well drawn and fierce.  

Let's get this preview started! 

All material is copyright protected and not permitted to be shared on public or personal websites. 

Surrender the Rain and the Fire on the Plains Romance are (C)2019 Elle Marlow. Names and trademarks are the sole property of Elle Marlow and EM Enterprises.  

Chapter One

Sadie fought to ignore the pain. But wearing nothing but a thread-bare dress while the sun licked at her skin made her nerves snap. With a force, she pressed the tip of her boot against the shovel. Even with all her weight, the shovel wouldn’t budge the dirt an inch.

 “Somebody has to dig this grave, Sadie Jo Callahan, somebody’s got to take charge around here. And, seeing-how you’re the only one left breathing, it’s up to you,” she scolded, tossing a tip of dust over her shoulder. The cloud it created rained down over her head. Sadie let out a scream so loud, that the black birds appeared from the field squawking and taking flight.

Exhausted, she held the shovel like a spear above her shoulder aiming right at the black cloud they created. “Get out of here, you nasty beggars! You’ve done ate every bit of scrap left on those stalks. Now get!” she hollered. The birds had already melted into the sky, but she threw the shovel anyway.

“I can’t even dig a lousy grave, I don’t know how much longer I can take this, Lord.”

Her chest heaved and her body ached from sheer and utter hopelessness. When she lifted her face, the air where the birds once occupied shimmered and distorted with the heat. Beyond that, she thought she caught sight of something moving along the ridge. She’d been feeling an unwelcome presence for the past few days but couldn’t see a thing. She lifted a hand to block the sun. Nothing moved now, not even the wind but the little hairs on her arms stood straight up warning her. Animal? Maybe. Sadie’s gaze wearily scanned the top of those hills until her eyes watered and then she fell to her knees. Looking around, she realized she was in the exact spot her daddy had shot himself. She ought to do it too. She’d been thinking about it since her mama’s body dropped like stone next to the dead corn. She ought to take the gun and end her life right here and right now. Just lie down next to mama’s body, pull the trigger and be done with it.

“What’s the point in waiting, dear Lord? What’s the point? It’s like you just up and forgot about us. About me.”

She leaned her head back to look up at the sky expecting an answer. She found one lonely cloud sailing against the sea of endless blue. One stinking, useless cloud. The drought in this place had gone on forever. First the water disappeared, and then the corn and the wheat, and then papa. After the oxen died and the chickens were all ate up, mama just fell over and never got up. Now it was her turn—and she was ready.

Birds returned and landed on her mama’s body. Their tiny black bodies perched in a perfect line framing her silhouette. Sadie gathered dirt in her fist and threw it at them. They paid her no mind. Maybe the black birds were taking her soul, because god surely wouldn’t.

Sadie unraveled her hair from the bun feeling her eyes burn. “Guess what, mama? You’re not here anymore. You can’t tell me how to wear my hair, you can’t force me into one of your damn corsets and you can’t tell me not to cry. From here on out, I’ll cry as much as I want to.”

 Knowing she could finally let herself go sent a wave of emotion that stung her eyes until they welled with tears. Tiny droplets formed a train that rolled toward the tip of her lashes.  

She exhaled, welcoming the tears. She wasn’t used to surrendering to her emotions, but when she could no longer breathe, when her body broke into spasms, she opened her eyes to discover that the one lonely cloud she once saw, was now an enormous purple thunderhead.

Sadie stared at it. A shift in the breeze lifted strands of her hair and crawled cool air inside her dress releasing the material from her skin. A crackle of thunder bounced between the ground and the cloud breaking and clapping until a drop of water landed on her face. One drop. Two, three… She inhaled in sheer and utter surprise. It was raining.

Rain.

Sweet.

Blessed.

Rain.

She opened her mouth with both awe and wonder. The sky roared and tumbled like two lions at war as she rose to her feet. Her arms lifted upwards as her body convulsed with sobs of grief and release. The rain rolled with her tears to race down her face until it dripped to the ground below. Sadie swung her arms and spun on her heels, dancing under the storm like a Baptist revival.

She stopped, her face skyward trying to catch her breath. Beautiful life-giving rain. So much, too late. The more she thought about it, the more anger swelled in her chest. She’d lost her papa due to the lack of it, she’d lost everything. Her joy washing away, Sadie lifted a fist to the sky and shook it at god.

“You’re too late, do you hear me? You’re too late!”

****

Fire Eyes clenched his jaw. They traveled here on this day hoping to negotiate trades with the white farmers for corn and wheat. But the area had been abandoned by all, except for one farmer, and his fields looked to have died long ago. Fire Eyes shifted his weight on the horse just as his mind shifted. He should have left upon discovering there’d be no trading, but he spotted a young woman next to a dead body. She’d captured his attention as she let down her hair and then wailed her death song to the sky.

The sun dimmed and the wind blew. The sky came to life and the rolling of thunder held the beat of war drums. Fire Eyes hid his astonishment as he held up his hand to catch the rain. Enough of it fell to collect a small pool within his palm. The intensity of the rain and the woman’s cries walked together and the remarkable way in which they joined made his stomach twitch. He turned to find Sitting Dog, who just a few paces away, also held his face upwards to receive the rain. How did the woman speak to the sky? How did she command it? She simply cried and prayed and then lifted her arms to receive the blessing of Mother Earth’s tears.

“How did she do that,” Sitting Dog asked, his question a mixture of both awe and fear. “Maybe she has magic,” he said.  

Fire Eyes wrinkled his nose at the thought of magic.

 The woman was now shaking a fist at the rain, anger stiffening her spine. He could feel her pain, he could relate to her sorrow over the loss of a loved one. The clouds must have also sensed her pain because the rain turned into ice. His horse snorted and jigged at the small round pebbles pelting at his rump. They have not seen ice in many Suns. Sitting Dog’s expression twisted with his fear. But Fire Eyes could not conjure fear, only regret and empathy for the woman. “Not magic,” Fire Eyes said firmly. “She has nothing but cold water over dead corn.”

“The Pawnee have been here,” Sitting Dog shouted over the storm. “I saw the tracks of their horses. Even they had the sense to leave, as we should.”

The hail stopped and the woman hastily retreated inside her cabin.

“Fire Eyes, don’t you see? The clouds watch over her. They do what she tells them to do. I am going back. I do not want to be here. What if she sees us? What if she killed the older woman on the ground? Maybe she stole that magic from that woman?” Listening Bird concluded, already turning his pony away.

Fire Eyes wasn’t convinced. She’d left the entrance open and he wondered if she’d reappear. Surely, she was going to do something about the dead woman.

 “You are being foolish. She is not a witch, and that old woman died from too many seasons upon the earth,” he reasoned. His eyes strained to see the lifeless body. The last woman he saw dead was his own mate who had honorably killed herself with a knife when she was captured by the Crow. His war party reached her too late. The memory sickened his gut and tore at his heart. He averted his gaze from the woman on the ground as the other woman emerged from the door way with a weapon. His blood ran cold as he predicted what she planned to use it for.

“She is holding a fire arm. I told you, she sees us!” Listening Bird hissed as he kicked his pony hard in the ribs. The pair was out of sight within seconds. Fire Eyes looked back toward the woman with the fire arm small enough to fit into her hand.

Even from the ridge, and through the rain, he sensed her empty desperation. When she put the weapon to her head, he too kicked his horse hard, but not to retreat like Sitting Dog. Instead, he pushed his horse at a reckless speed down the side of the hill. He raced toward her screaming loud enough to burn his own ears.

The horse covered the ground quickly. The woman looked up at him with eyes just as green as spring grass. The terror and surprise upon seeing him was not an unfamiliar reaction. He’d seen that look many times before he moved in for a kill. He had only meant to remove the weapon from her hand, to somehow spare her, but instead, he caught her by the wrist and effortlessly swung her over his lap. She screamed in surprise and at the brutal way in which she was hung face down over his horse’s withers. He smacked his hand hard against her rear and let loose a victorious cry for his coup.

Her body went slack, and her arms and limbs dangled as they made their way up over the ridge. The rain had stopped when she fell into her sleep. The timing made him question what he had done. Taking her captive was pure instinct, it was the voice of the warrior talking within him. Keeping her would be out of the question as the clouds parted and the sun burned his skin mocking him. Sitting Dog could be right. Maybe she could talk to the sky. Maybe she was a witch.

CHECK BACK FOR PRE-ORDER LINKS