Promise of the Sierra

From Colleen L. Reece, 2017 – A heart-felt “howdy” to both new and those readers who have read Flight to Freedom, (originally Romance Rides the Range), Book One in the Diamond S Chronicles. Life on Matt Sterling’s ranch near Madera, California, fascinated me. I didn’t want to leave, so Promise of the Sierra (originally Romance Rides the River), book two, was born.

As a ’tweenager, my favorite reading place was an enormous willow tree outside our home near a small WA state logging town. Two sturdy branches crossed close to the trunk and made a seat. There I read Zane Grey’s exciting novel, The Border Legion. A red bandana that held a comb, toothbrush, and extra socks lay beside me. Should I ever be kidnapped like the heroine in my book, I was prepared!

This is a new story, with different lead characters (Seth Anderson, Sarah’s brother, and Dori Sterling, Matt’s sister) who must rely on God for help. However, friends and enemies from Flight to Freedom step back into the story to provide another exciting read. Blessings, and welcome aboard. Hang onto your bonnets and Stetsons and enjoy.

Promise of the Sierra

Chapter One

June 1880, Diamond S Ranch, Madera, California; Two years before the events in Flight to Freedom

“I’m not going to school in Madera any longer.”

Dolores Sterling’s personal Declaration of Independence hit the kitchen of the white stucco, Spanish-style ranch house on the Diamond S cattle ranch like a burst of gunfire.

Solita, the small Mexican housekeeper, dropped the tortilla she had been tossing. Dori’s brother Matthew straightened from lounging in the doorway. Storm signals flashed in his bright blue eyes that matched his sister’s. He parked his hands on his hips and glared down at her. “You’re what?”

Dori gave Matt her most charming smile. “I’m going to Boston for a three-year term.” She clenched her hands behind her back and tossed her head until her long, black curls danced. “I already wrote to the school. They are holding a place for me. All you have to do is to send the money.”

Matt snorted. “I do, do I? What if I refuse?”

“Then you’ll cause me to break my word. I told them I was coming.” Dori ignored Solita’s gasp. “It’s a matter of honor, Matt.”

“What’s so honorable about going behind my back to promise such an outlandish thing?” he raged.

If Dori hadn’t known how much her brother—who had taken their father’s place after his death—doted on her, she would have been intimidated. As it was, she wasn’t afraid of Matthew Sterling in the least.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, not sorry at all, “but I figured you’d say I’m too young. I’m not. I’ll be sixteen years old in a few months. You need to start treating me like a young lady, not like a little girl.”

Matt exploded with laughter. “You, a young lady?” He pointed at her worn riding skirt and vest. “How do you think you will stack up against all those Boston bluebloods?”

Dori tossed her head. “I’d rather have western blood than all the blue blood in America. Besides, I can become just as much a lady as any sissy east-coast girl.” She held out a worn magazine advertisement extolling the virtues of Brookside Finishing School in Boston, Massachusetts. “This is where I’m going.”

Matthew said nothing.

Dori turned her words to Solita. “You think I should go, don’t you?”

The housekeeper, who had become Matt and Dori’s substitute mother after the death of Rebecca Sterling so many years before, waited until Matt finished reading the advertisement. Then she quietly said, “Señor Mateo, I think that Señora Sterling would be glad for her daughter to attend such a school.”

“Gracias, gracias, Solita!” Dori grabbed the housekeeper. She whirled her into a mad dance, blew Matt a kiss, and dashed out of the kitchen. With Solita on her side, Matt would never refuse to let her go . . . or would he?

Not quite certain about the final outcome, Dori paused just outside the doorway. She knew eavesdropping was wrong, but her whole future hung in the balance.

“Our casa will seem empty, but you must release the señorita,” Solita said. “She is unhappy here, like a bird that wants to try her wings. Your mamá and papá would have allowed it, had they lived. Since they are no longer with us, you must decide what is best for her . . . not what is best for you.” She sighed. “Or for me.”

Dori sneaked away, knowing she had won.

* * *

Once Matt reluctantly consented, the next few weeks flew by in a maze of preparations. Matt paid the exorbitant fee required by Miss Genevieve Brookings, owner and headmistress of the Brookside School. He imported a dressmaker from Fresno. If Dori was going back East, she would go in style with the proper clothing.

Unfortunately, Dori’s idea of “proper clothing” did not match Miss Mix’s ideas When the dressmaker produced a pair of corsets, Dori shook her head. “I don’t wear corsets. My brother thinks it’s unhealthy for young girls to be forced into instruments of torture for the sake of fashion.”

Miss Mix gasped. “You discuss ladies’ undergarments with your brother?”

Dori reveled in the woman’s shock. “Of course,” she said innocently. “He’s so much older than I that he helped dress me when I was a little girl.”

Disapproval oozed between the pins in Miss Mix’s pinched mouth. “Pride goeth before a fall, Miss Sterling,” she scolded.

“Actually,” Dori replied, quoting Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Miss Mix grunted but said no more.

When Dori’s trunks were packed and ready for the long train trip, they contained both lovely and practical clothing: hats, gowns, shoes, and so on—but nary a hated corset.

* * *

Dori enjoyed the train ride back East with Matt, despite being cooped up in a small space. When she grew weary of sitting in the plush seats, she strolled through the cars, wondering where her fellow passengers were headed.

Dori smiled.  Surely, no one else was going to the Brookside School. This knowledge made her feel superior. And oh! What would the town of Madera think when she finished her schooling? “I’ll come home a woman,” she whispered. “My girlhood will be left behind. The cowboys on the Diamond S will gape.” She giggled until a new, disturbing thought took over. “I wonder if being a lady means giving up the freedoms I’ve always enjoyed?”

Then a new worry hit her like a summer squall. Dori had shrugged off Matt’s and Solita’s warnings that some of the young ladies at Brookside might look down on her. She scoffed silently. Who cares? She could hold her own against any snobbish girl.

“But . . . what if I meet a handsome Easterner and”—she swallowed—“fall in love? A fellow who considers everything west of Chicago uncivilized? Could I give up my home for him?” Dori sniffed. “Lord, it was fine for Ruth in the Bible to promise she’d follow her mother-in-law wherever Naomi led, but I’m no Ruth.”

Dori squirmed in her seat. How foolish to be concerned over what might lie ahead! It was so far in the future that she laughed. A scripture Solita often quoted when Dori or Matt worried about what might happen came to mind. “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Yes, it was enough for now that each day brought new sights. Dori had never been farther from Madera than Fresno and a visit to the big city, San Francisco, several years earlier.

She shivered. The tall buildings had pierced the sky and closed in around Dori. And the Pacific Ocean! She had never seen so much water, not even when the rivers around Madera flooded. She’d sighed with relief when she and Matt left the city behind.

Now, Dori found Chicago even more crowded and stifling than San Francisco. Changing trains swept away her feelings of superiority. Big and bustling, with people rushing in and out of the station’s doors, Dori felt dwarfed by its immensity. She stayed close to Matt until her need to find a comfort station could no longer be denied.

A smiling agent directed her to the proper place.

“Don’t be too long,” Matt warned. “Our train was late, so we only have a short layover here.”

“All right.” Heart pounding, Dori took careful note of the way to the facility so she would know how to get back to Matt. She had no trouble reaching the room marked Ladies and hurriedly took care of her needs. She washed her hands at one of the gleaming sinks and started back to Matt, but was caught up in a horde of people rushing in the opposite direction. All of them appeared to know exactly where they were going.

Feeling like she’d been trapped in a stampede, Dori became hopelessly disoriented. She couldn’t see over the tall hats many of the gentlemen wore. Was this how a salmon felt trying to swim upstream? For the first time in her life Dori panicked. Where was Matt? What should she do? What if she missed the train? What would she do? Where would she go? Please, God, help me find my brother.

It was the first prayer Dori had uttered in weeks, except for asking God to convince Matt to let her attend Brookside School. Now, fear threatened to suffocate her. What if God didn’t answer? The crowd of pushing, shoving people swept her along. Caught in their midst, Dori screamed, “Matt! Where are you?”

The clamor swallowed up her cry for help. A train whistle shrieked a warning to get on board or be left behind. The multitude swarmed the outside doors, Dori still in their midst. If she couldn’t free herself, she would be carried onto the train with Matt left behind. Or—Dori blanched—forced onto the wrong train. Terror changed Dori into a wildcat. She rammed her elbows into those around her.  “Get out of my way!”

Muttered curses from those she struck rang in her ears, but she cleared a passage and fought her way to the side of the crowd. She clung to a doorpost, while the uncaring crowd rushed past.

The train began to move. Dori screamed for her brother. A hand fell onto her shoulder. Tears streaming, she looked up. “Matt! Thank God!” She sagged in his arms.

Matt grabbed her arm raced toward the eastbound train.

“Hurry!” the conductor cried from his position at the bottom of the steps. The train was picking up speed, its wheels slipping and screeching.

With a mighty leap, Matt hit the bottom step and lunged up to safety. He yanked Dori up beside him. The conductor followed and raised the steps.

Safe! Dori clung to her brother and sobbed.

* * *

They reached Boston at last. The clackety-clack of the train’s wheels dwindled. Brakes screeched. The engine chuffed and died, as if glad to have reached its destination. It had been a long, hard seven days from Madera to this eastern city. Three thousand miles of mountains and canyons, cities and small settlements, endless plains, and worse: the never-ending clackety-clack of gigantic wheels carrying Dolores Sterling away from everything she knew.

“Well, we’re here.” Matt stepped into the aisle and stretched. “Need a hand?”

Dori shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. What she could see of Boston through the train’s dirty windows depressed her. The drizzle from weeping skies added to her misery. So did the tall buildings closing in on each side of the street and threatening to smother her. Just like San Francisco.

Dori shuddered and pulled her traveling cloak closer around her trembling body. She clutched her reticule and followed Matt up the aisle, past the now-empty velvet seats, and onto the station platform. A few minutes later, she found her in a horse-drawn carriage that rumbled and swayed over the cobblestone streets.

She huddled in the corner of the musty-smelling vehicle, closed her eyes, and fought homesickness. I can’t look back. Yet she couldn’t help reliving the frightening incident in the Chicago train station.

A hard jolt flung Dori against Matt. She opened her eyes. She was no longer lost and terrified in the Chicago station. Or on the train, badly shaken and unable to tell Matt what had happened, or how frightened she’d been. She was in Boston at last. She should be giddy with excitement instead of pondering the single question with absolutely no answer. It drummed inside her head.  

What was I thinking? Why on earth did I plead, bed, and insist on going back East to school, instead of staying home on the Diamond S where she belonged? I’ll be all alone.

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