Having read the first in the 'Saddles And Spurs' series I
was determined to catch the second. Rhonda Gibson had the
great idea of following a family of willing lads and their
mother, who sign up to provide riders and a staging post
for the fledgling Pony Express postal service. The first
book is called 'Pony Express Courtship' and now we follow
Jacob Young as he gets to grips with his new job in PONY
EXPRESS HERO.
Jacob was adopted as a youngster and now he has a chance
to
work away from his home ranch, tending stock for the Pony
Express, and he hopes to find some birth relatives. He
meets a young woman called Lilly, who has a little girl in
tow, her sister Daisy. They live at the ranch where he is
now stationed, but worryingly someone unknown seems to be
trying to harm Daisy. Jacob is unfamiliar to Lilly but by
the same token he can't be the one who has been up to
tricks. She decides to trust him to help find out who is
behind the problem.
Daisy becomes a focus for the story; aged five she is like
a young version of Laura Ingalls with a love for cats and
water, early riding lessons and mostly good manners.
There's so much ranch work to do that Lilly hires a nanny
to care for her and help around the house; this is a young
woman called Willow who has fallen on hard times. Willow
explains her single mother state by saying that her
husband
was a miner killed in a cave-in; Lilly takes her at her
word but I am sure on the frontier such stories were
sometimes convenient fabrications.
While the tale mainly stays on the ranch and feels a lot
more static than the previous book, the life has its own
share of hardships and dangers. We also get a chance to
understand the main characters well and we want the
outcome
to be suited to their circumstances. Lilly is considered
above the station of a mere stock man, so Jacob can't be
bold in declaring his admiration for her; he just has to
be
respectful and helpful and value the times when she treats
him as a confidante. With basic but nourishing cooking
and
constant work, the California setting and 1890s period are
well evoked. The romance is family friendly so PONY
EXPRESS
HERO could be a good introduction to historical western
romances and Rhonda Gibson's series has a lot more in
store
for us.
Pony Express rider Jacob Young is a man of action, which is why when he sees a little girl caught in the middle of a stampede, he races to her rescue. And he soon discovers the child is the half sister he hadn't known he had. The more time Jacob spends with adorable Daisy and her beautiful guardian, ranch owner Lilly Johnson, the more he realizes they're filling all the lonely corners of his heart.
Wary Lilly can't deny the cherished feelings that overcome her when Jacob vows to protect her and Daisy from any harm. And she can't help but hope that maybe they can put their past hurts aside and forge a future together as a full-fledged family.
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