About Little Family on the Homestead
Written by Kara Larson
45 pages / 19500 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-849-4, 1-60370-849-9
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc, epub, Sony-optimized pdf, paperback
Thad had thought that he was saying goodbye to Jamie forever when he left eleven years before. Like the Pony Express, their relationship was supposed to die out quietly, gracefully. What he hadn't expected was how much Jamie Boyd and that little patch of Nebraska meant to him, and how much he wanted to spend the rest of his life on that Pony Express station turned homestead.
Eleven years later, and Thad's happier than he's ever been, helping Jamie's cousin raise her five girls and making sure that Patchwork Ranch runs as smoothly as can be. But that all changes when Mattie Alden, the actual impetus that drove Jamie and Thad apart years ago, steps back into all their lives. With Mattie come complications, like men interested in both Jamie's family and the ranch itself. Thad's not the only one who has to make the journey of self discovery, but he's not sure they'll all survive the journey if they have to make it together.
Review
Mel Spenser, author of Miss Me? and Rover, writes: Thad and Jamie are back in this sequel to “Home Station on the Prairie.” Thad is enjoying life and helping Jamie’s cousin raise her young daughters on the Patchwork Ranch. Of course everything can’t remain peaceful on the prairie forever. Complications develop from outside menaces, and also when Mattie Alden steps back into their lives.
Lovers of historical romance are in for a treat with this story. Kara Larson does a wonderful job of immediately putting the reader into the setting of a Nebraska homestead in 1872. I got a sense of actually being there in the harsh environment; the next property is literally a day or more away.
One element that made this story work for me was that it didn’t follow a set formula. With unexpected elements throughout, there is originality in the storytelling that I found refreshing. I also like the interesting mix of people forming a strong family who obviously care about each other. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this story was the dialogue. This author’s forte is her ability to capture the feel of the era with exchanges between the character’s, as well as, realistic description.
Readers of historical stories about the west will find this story a
delight. And because I thoroughly enjoyed it, I know that I will look
forward to further installments with Jamie and Thad.
Sample
December 1872
A nose pressed into Thad's shoulder, breath warming the skin that peeked out from under the heavy blankets. There were times when Thad was glad they'd moved back into the big house when the first snows fell. Their room was smaller and kept the heat in better, unlike the drafty old station house. No matter how often he and Jamie fixed the leak in the attic, there always seemed to be one more crack for the wind to whistle through, or one more space for the rain to come in. He could handle rain falling on his head in the middle of the night. Snow was a horse of a different color.
Jamie nosed Thad's shoulder some more, though Thad couldn't tell if his partner was asleep or awake. Jamie had a habit of curving every inch of his body around Thad's at night, almost as if the fella were afraid to let Thad go. Granted, there had been those years apart, ten years, after which Thad had admitted he'd been a bit of an idiot for staying away that long. Funny how simple misunderstandings could cause so much pain and strife. Funny how they'd both ended up in the same place, even after all their time apart.
His first memories of Jamie were of a wee spud at school, Jamie being barely nine years old when his pa first dropped him off in Lillienthal. Jamie'd been small even then, not a real pretty boy, but good looking, all eyes and hair. Thad himself had been almost eleven at that point, too old to hang out with the primer class, but still, he'd kept an eye out. Maybe because Jamie had a bushel of cousins, including pretty little Louisa. Maybe because everyone respected Jamie's pa, for all Mr. Boyd never had a cent to his name. He raised some damn fine horses though, horses that everyone in the county wanted to get their hands on.
He saw the worship in Jamie's eyes even then and reveled in it. Who could say no to a little boy looking up at him with such soulful brown eyes? Thad knew he couldn't. Should've known, even then, that he'd be stuck on Jamie Boyd. The other boys'd all teased him about his little shadow, but Thad hadn't cared. Everyone knew how sickly Jamie's ma was, how Jamie's uncle wasn't worth much more than the alcohol he drank, and how hard Jamie's pa worked to support the family. Family farm itself wasn't worth much, but the horseflesh... Thad always knew that Jamie's family would find its wealth in horses. He hadn't expected it to take near on twenty years, but it had.
Only a few years in and out of school -- his little shadow had been a touch sickly himself -- and then Jamie left for good. Thad turned an eye to some of the other boys then, but none caught his attention as Jamie had, brown haystack hair and all. When he'd found out from his uncle, nigh on ten years later, that the Boyds were running an Express station for Russell, Majors and Waddell, and were looking for help, Thad had to jump on the chance. No one knew horses the way the Boyds had. No one appreciated the little Indian pony in Iowa, any more than they appreciated Thad's eye for the boys. And since Thad's own pa agreed with the church on certain matters of sodomy, to the point of tossing Thad out on his behind, that had been all Thad needed, really.
He'd hankered for riding for the Pony himself, except the stationmaster in St. Joe had pronounced him too big. "Stocktender, with those arms and hands. Rider, though, son... You'd slow our horses down too much." The stationmaster grinned. "Bill Boyd's son, though, out at Midway -- weedy little thing, he is. He'd make a rider."
Thad had grinned at that, wondering as he had all this time if Jamie had ever found some height. Apparently not. "Could give him a shot. I know my way around a horse, don't mind tending 'em. Prefer 'em to two-legged folk, sometimes." His family'd bred horses for longer than the Boyds, even -- fancy trotting teams that'd been matched with a sharp buggy.
While he loved the clean, dainty lines of his family's stock, there was something about the rough and tumble prairie ponies, kind of like the scrappy little Jamie Boyd.
The stationmaster's sharp eyes had looked him up and down, studying him the same way Teacher used to in school, when he and the other boys'd get up to some mischief or another. "You may do, son," Stationmaster had finally said. "There's a couple new riders heading out to Midway, and that would free up a position as rider for young Boyd."
And the rest was part of Pony history.