To Carry Her Cross

The Rocky Mountains of Colorado hold age-old mysteries. 

Some people want to uncover them. 

Some hope the mountain holds their secret forever.




To Carry Her Cross



We all have our Crosses to Bear. Willow Creek, Colorado is a town built on the dreams of gold and secrets. Whose life will change forever if their secret Cross is ever revealed?

Dr. Harrison Caldwell -- who hopes the mountains will shelter him enough his past won't find him?

Mitchell Grover -- who hopes to win the mountain for the Lord, and might, if the townspeople would let him live down his past? 

Esther Warren -- who wants to be a doctor but can't forget the blood on her hands? 

Crazy Joe -- a solitary figure who goes about his business, helping others like a finely tuned clock, only now someone is interested in the secret the old man of the mountains is hiding? 

Cordelia Mason -- the town madam who knows many secrets, but her dream just might put her out of business?


To Carry Her Cross

EXCERPT 

The corridors closed like arbors of pitch around him. Snakes of black mist slithered along tar walls, melding until but a glimpse of their silken, lucid skin remained, but Harrison's small torch acted as a dismal beacon to their whereabouts. Real or perceived, his senses, riotous, confused, felt them. The fine hairs on his arms and neck alerted him before the light trapped the sinuous apparitions on the wall.

A wiser man wouldn't have taken the tunnel. Wiser, he wasn't. No, only a poor, stupid coward, running from his fears, from the snakes. He went into the tunnel without thought, plan, or a proper torch. The material on the stick flickered, nearly died, reminding Harrison of the latter. When it sputtered to new life, he nearly yelped for joy.

Joy was premature. He still needed to find his way out.

Flecks of light danced on the corridor walls in the distance, hastening his steps.

Near exhaustion and madness, Harrison glimpsed daylight far along the path. He stumbled toward its effervescence. Toward freedom. Unfortunately, freedom did not await him in the sunlight. Warm rays did not caress his skin, only the coarse binding of a noose. The taut, cruel hands of death.

He opened his eyes to face it.

"N-o-o-o." Harrison flailed against death. But Death's fingers wound about his neck, strong, unrelenting. No matter how hard he fought, they clutched harder, draining him of life. He fought for one last gasp and succumbed to its awesome power. 

Unsure of his surroundings, or why his body felt detached from his head, Harrison followed the path of his mind and landed back in Topeka, Kansas. With someone he'd hoped to forget. Was this a dream, or reality? It felt real enough. 


To Carry Her Cross