Heart of Gold by Robin Lee Hatcher Read Free Book Online Page A

bargain.
    “Yes, Father,” she answered softly. “It is exciting.”
    She turned away, and her gaze fell upon the table near a window where she’d set out the cherished portraits and photographs brought from home. There were portraits of her grandparents and another of her mother that had been made the year before she died. There was a photograph of a number of young women of the county—good friends, all—taken in 1860, the year before the war began. What innocents they’d been. And there was a photograph of Benjamin, the man she was to have married. But the Yankees had killed him at the Battle of Malvern Hill, just one of more than twenty thousand gallant men of the Confederacy killed in that weeklong campaign in Virginia.
    She crossed the room and took up the framed photograph. How handsome Benjamin had looked in his uniform, his black hair combed back, his mustache and goatee neatly trimmed.
    I should have married him before the war started. Maybe he wouldn’t have joined the army so soon. Maybe he wouldn’t have died. Why wasn’t I in more of a hurry to wed him? Now who will I marry?
    Shame washed over her. What a horrid person she was. Benjamin had been killed on the battlefield, and here she was thinking of herself and how her life had been inconvenienced. So different from what she’d thought it would be. If her father could read her mind . . .
    Perish the thought.

    Delaney returned to the church that afternoon. He’d planned to begin work on his sermon for the following Sunday, but instead he found himself on his knees at the altar.
    “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you . . . Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing . . . Pray without ceasing . . . Pray without ceasing .”
    Earlier this afternoon he’d felt great excitement at the prospect of being able to help Sun Jie and Wu Lok bring the good news to other Orientals in Chinatown. But as he’d walked from the house to the church, truth had pierced his heart. The Orientals needed the Lord no more and no less than the godless men who nightly frequented the saloons of Grand Coeur. And neither people group would be easy to reach. He couldn’t depend upon them to suddenly appear at one of his services. Prejudice would keep the Chinese from the white man’s church, and strong drink and riotous living would keep most of the miners away. If he meant to win souls, he would have to go out to meet them where they were.
    He’d seen his daughter’s reluctance when he’d shared his excitement, but now he felt reluctance himself. Throughout his ministry, he’d enjoyed the society of people quite like himself. That was no longer the case. What if he wasn’t up to the task? What if he hadn’t the knowledge he would need? Or even the compassion. If his daughter had been spoiled by the life they’d enjoyed in Virginia, then it was no less true of himself. Until the war began, he’d lived in comfort and plenty. Even now he wasn’t without financial resources.
    “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you .”
    “Lord, I thank Thee for bringing us to Grand Coeur. I thank Thee that my daughter is out of harm’s way, that the war can’t endanger her here. Be with our loved ones who are still in Virginia. Be with our soldiers and their families. I thank Thee for this church and for the congregation I have come to this territory to serve. Lord, empower me by Thy Holy Spirit to reach out and evangelize. Show me common ground with those who are different from me. Fill me with Thy compassion.”
    “Pray without ceasing .”
    “Lord, please help my daughter find contentment here. Please send her a friend so she won’t feel alone.” He remembered the way she’d looked at the photographs earlier and the loss that had flickered in her eyes as she’d remembered Benjamin. “Please heal her heart and perhaps allow her to find love