A Promise to Keep

A Promise to Keep #1

by Elaine Robinson

Thirty-six-year-old Maggie answers a newspaper advertisement for a wife and mother for two children. At last she will have a home, a husband, and children to care for. Instead, her home is a covered wagon because her new husband is relocating his family from El Paso, Texas to the Arizona Territory where he hopes to claim land for homesteading. Half way there Maggie finds herself in the New Mexico desert with a missing husband, an empty water barrel, and two resentful step-children. She prays for help and Charlie Yates limps, on foot, into her campsite. Maggie and Charlie strike a bargain. Maggie will share her wagon and supplies and Charlie will lead them out of the desert and help search for her husband (who left to find water). The bargain binds them closer to each other than their marriage vows which they believe are A Promise to Keep.

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Elaine Robinson was born in Texas but now lives in Louisiana with her husband of 57 years. She earned a degree in English when she was 50 and published her first novel at 75. She is published in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma newspapers and several magazines. After 30 years of service with one of Louisiana’s five education management boards she devotes her time to family but says, “Writing keeps me sane and allows me to escape to a world of make believe.”

Reviews

[Catherine Yee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great historical western novel. You get insight into the perils of settling the West in the 1870's and a lovely romance to boot.