Books by Regina Jennings
THE JOPLIN CHRONICLES
Courting Misfortune
THE FORT RENO SERIES
Holding the Fort
The Lieutenant’s Bargain
The Major’s Daughter
OZARK MOUNTAIN ROMANCE SERIES
A Most Inconvenient Marriage
At Love’s Bidding
For the Record
LADIES OF CALDWELL COUNTY
Sixty Acres and a Bride
Love in the Balance
Caught in the Middle
NOVELLAS
An Unforeseen Match (from the collection A Match Made in Texas)
Her Dearly Unintended (from the collection With This Ring?)
Bound and Determined (from the collection Hearts Entwined)
Intrigue a la Mode (from the collection Serving Up Love)
Broken Limbs, Mended Hearts (from the collection The Kissing Tree)
© 2020 by Regina Jennings
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2497-9
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Jennifer Parker
Contents
Cover
Books by Regina Jennings
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Sneak Peek of Courting Misfortune
About the Author
Back Ads
For girls who climb
one
1868
OAK SPRINGS, TEXAS
Bella Eden had always known when it would happen—the day before her eighteenth birthday. A girl who commenced with kissing too young was bound for trouble. On the other hand, she couldn’t wait until she was staring spinsterhood in the face either. A first kiss just before eighteen was reasonable, she reckoned. And she knew where it would happen. For years, she’d passed by a stately live oak on the way to and from school. Beneath the canopy of its spreading branches was the perfect place, and she’d spent many a walk home imagining exactly how it would occur.
The only thing she hadn’t known was who.
But now all was clear.
“What’s got you so tickled?” Jimmy Blaggart asked. “You’re grinning up a storm.”
Bella’s heart was pounding like a steam engine. She pulled him away from the wagon trail and toward the oak. “I have a surprise for you,” she said.
Today was the day, and Jimmy Blaggart was the man for her. They’d grown up together, but only recently had he paid her any mind. Every day since April he’d walked her home, even staying and visiting for a spell afterward. That could only mean one thing.
The tree’s majestic limbs stretched out in every direction, their farthest-flung tips nearly sweeping the ground when moved by the breeze. Jimmy paused as Bella ducked beneath them, and she pulled him inside the green cavern.
“It’s like being beneath a colossal green parasol, isn’t it?” Releasing him, she spun slowly, mesmerized as always by the unworldliness of her secret enclave.
“How would I know? I don’t use a parasol.”
If Jimmy wanted their marriage to prosper, he would have to develop an imagination. Bella looked at him again. He was decent enough. Caused no offense. His family was moving after he graduated, so this could be her last chance to make an impression.
She smiled. Tomorrow she would be eighteen, and in another week she’d be finished with school and able to devote more time to her sewing. Soon she would have enough customers to call herself a bona fide seamstress. This kiss was the next step to her future.
“My lands, would you look at this?” The canopy arched higher near the center, exposing the tree trunk. Bella had spent hours getting this spot ready, but it would be worth it. “Look at this. Someone has carved a heart in the tree.” She leaned forward as if seeing it for the first time. “What’s that inside the heart? BE? Why, those are my initials! How strange.” She slipped her hand into her pocket and felt for the paring knife, glad she’d thought to stick the blade through a new potato so she wouldn’t cut herself.
“Bella.” Jimmy’s passable face looked worried. “You’re a nice girl. . . .”
Pushing the potato off with her thumb, she managed to get the knife free without slashing her pocket. “Look what I have.”
His eyes widened. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to kiss me.” She hadn’t expected that she’d have to spell it out for him.
“You do? Right now? Right here?”
“Yes, I think it’ll be real special.”
He kept one hand extended between them. “And if I don’t?”
“If you don’t?” Bella looked at the tree where her initials were carved. In all her plans, she hadn’t thought there needed to be a threat involved. “If you don’t, I’m going to be heartbroken.”
“But you aren’t going to stab me, are you? Promise me you aren’t going to stab me.” His eyes never left the knife in her hand.
“Sweet potatoes! Are you joshing?” she cried. “This knife is for the tree. You’re going to carve your initials in the heart above mine, and then you’re going to kiss me. Why would I stab you?” Maybe Jimmy had more imagination than she’d credited him for.
Seeing that his epidermis was in no danger of being punctured, he simmered down. “Like I was saying, you’re a nice girl.”
She was not fond of the direction he was going. “You’ve walked me home every day for a month, Jimmy Blaggart. That’s supposed to mean something.”
“It means that I’m partial to those bird dog puppies of your pa’s. I mean to buy one as soon as I get my hands on enough money. You know the one I want? The little speckled one?”
“I did not plan this encounter to talk about a speckled pup!” Bella stabbed the knife into the tree to free up her hands. Getting a kiss out of Jimmy might be more work than she’d figured. She flipped her honey-colored braid over her shoulder and wiped her hands on her skirt to calm
