Heart of Gold by Robin Lee Hatcher Read Free Book Online

thought, as he prepared the meal for the three of them. He needed to know what to do for Alice. She hadn’t been forthcoming when he’d asked questions about her illness. His gut told him she needed more than simple rest, but he didn’t know what that might be. He’d hardly been sick a day in his life. A cold every now and again, but nothing that put him to bed. And he’d broken his left arm when he was a boy.
    He wondered if Alice remembered that. She’d been pretty small when it happened.
    Taking up the lunch tray, he carried it into the parlor and set it on the low table before the sofa. His sister looked at him, and there was something in her eyes that caused a twinge of alarm. She seemed . . . disconnected . . . departed. Then she gave him a small smile and he thought he must have imagined it.
    “Eat up.” He took up some pillows to put behind her back. “You need your strength.”
    He was going to contact the doctor before this day was out.

    Shannon stood on the porch, watching Sun Jie make her way down the street toward the south side of Grand Coeur. That was where—Mrs. Rutherford had informed them in front of their new housekeeper— the area known as Chinatown was located.
    She could almost hear her father preparing his sermon now. She’d recognized his annoyance with the woman’s condescending attitude.
    Delaney Adair was a Southerner through and through. No man could say that he wasn’t. But he’d disagreed with many of his friends and neighbors back in Virginia on the issue of slavery and the supposed inferiority of the colored races. He believed, deep in his soul, that all men were the same—white, black, yellow, red. He believed they should all be free to live and serve God as He called them. While her father was in favor of a state’s right to govern, while she was certain he would support the Confederacy once the new nation was free of Yankee invaders, Delaney Adair would also press for the emancipation of the slaves. He even admired Abraham Lincoln for that very act.
    Imagine. A Southern gentleman admitting that he admired President Lincoln. It had cost him a number of friends, but he’d stood firm in his belief. Shannon reluctantly admired him for his unwavering stance before popular opinion.
    “God would not have us discriminate between the races,” her father had told her on more than one occasion. “He would not have us be another’s master. He would have us respect one another. Respect even our differences. Serve one another out of love.”
    Yes, she admired her father above all men. But she often wished he would keep such thoughts to himself.
    Shannon turned and reentered the house. Her father was seated in one of the mismatched chairs, his Bible open on his lap, a pair of glasses perched on the end of his nose.
    “It appears you won’t have many meals to prepare for your father after today,” he said.
    “I like cooking for you.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead.
    He chuckled. “When it suits your mood.”
    She playfully slapped his shoulder.
    But he turned serious again. “God has great work for us to do in Grand Coeur. There are men here from around the country, from around the world. ‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.’ That’s why the Lord has called us to this territory, Shannon. We are the laborers He needs to bring in the harvest.”
    She nodded, although she wasn’t convinced. At least when it came to her part in this master plan.
    “Think of it, daughter. It isn’t just these miners who so desperately need Christ. Sun Jie and her husband are believers. Perhaps we can be of help in the conversion of more Chinese. The gospel is the good news to all. Not simply to those of European roots. How exciting this could be.”
    It seemed to Shannon that she was there by default. God had called her father, and the Lord got her in the