Follow the Wind

Western Wind #4

by Janelle Taylor

KISS OF THE NIGHT WINDâ ¦WHISPERED KISSESâ ¦FOREVER ECSTASYâ ¦Janelle Taylorâ s historical are full of the sensuous romance and richly satisfying storytelling that have become her hallmarks. Now, with characters so unforgettable and real that they live in your heart long after the last page is turned, comes FOLLOW THE WIND, Janelle Taylorâ s spectacular new novel of passion and adventure beneath the Texas skyâ ¦FOLLOW THE WIND

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical, Harlequin, Western Romance, Adult

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

The legendary Janelle Taylor was born on June 28, 1944 in Athens, GA. In 1965, she married Michael Taylor with whom she had two children, Angela Taylor-MacIntyre and Alisha Taylor Thurmond. Ms. Taylor attended the Medical College of Georgia from 1977 to 1979 and Augusta State University from 1980-1981. She withdrew from the latter after she sold her first two novels. Today, she is the author of thirty-nine novels, three novellas, and many contributions to other collections. There are thirty-nine million copies of her works in print worldwide and she has made The New York Times Bestseller List eight times. Ms. Taylor's works have also been featured ten times on the "1 million +" bestseller's list at Publisher's Weekly.

Some of Ms. Taylor's most recent books include By Candlelight, Someday Soon, Lakota Dawn, and Lakota Winds (due out in paperback in May 1999). She has also made contributions to other books including The Leukemia Society Cookbook, Christmas Rendezvous, and Summer Love. In addition, readers can see her as co-host of the QVC/TV Romance Book Club Show.

Ms. Taylor's interests include collecting spoons, coins from around the world, ship models, dolls, and old books. She loves to fish, ride horses, play chess, target-shoot, travel (especially in her motorhome and out West), hunt for Indian relics, and take long walks with her husband. Reading, in particular books set before 1900 and current Biographies, Thrillers, Horror, or Fantasy novels, is also one of Ms. Taylor's favorite activities. She is also extremely active with charity work and was even featured on the cover of Diabetes Forecast in February of 1998.

She lives in the country on seventy-nine acres of woods and pasture with a lake and a catfish pond. She writes her novels in a Spanish cottage which overlooks a five-acre lake, a working water mill, gazebo, and covered bridge.

Reviews

[Shirlene]

Jessica Marie Lane was 24 when she went to San Angelo to hire a gunslinger to save her ranch from being slowly taken over by a wealthy neighbor from the East, Wilbur Fletcher. Her sister had been sent back East for schooling and had come back constantly complaining. Mary Louise seldom did the chores she was asked to do. Her brother, Tom, had been born with a club foot and couldn't see well. He couldn't ride or walk so he wasn't able to help around the ranch. Her mother had died shortly after Tom's birth. A ranch hand, Big Ed, had traveled with her but died on the way after he was thrown from his horse that a rattler spooked.
Jessie dressed like a boy and went into a saloon to watch the men coming in. One of the men inside decided to pick on her when Carl Breed, Jr. stepped in to protect her not knowing she was a girl. Jake drew a gun on Carl and he was killed in self defense but the saloon girl told them to go because his brothers wouldn't see it that way. Jessie followed Carl when he headed out of town and tried to convince him to come with her and help her family. The brothers weren't far behind and there was a gunfight. The brothers were killed and Carl was unconscious after being shot in the head. Jessie got him on Big Ed's horse and headed toward home with him. They stopped for a couple of days to rest while Navarro recovered.
Carl Breed, Jr had run with his father's outlaw gang for a short time and been caught. He had been given 20 years in prison and his second escape had been successful. He told Jessie his name was Navarro Jones. Jessie didn't know his background but Navarro was a half-breed who had been abused for most of his life. His mother was an Apache. Apache's raised their children to be thieves and liars. Navarro didn't have any place to go and was drawn to Jessie. Her story was convincing enough for him to go with her after she had taken care of him after he was shot. He needed a place to stay and she offered him that along with money. He'd never had anyone that had ever made him feel like he was special. He'd been raised to believe that he should take what he wanted when he wanted it. He wanted to be around Jessie and knew he couldn't if he took advantage of her, so he didn't.
They made it back to the ranch and had to fix some fencing that had been cut through. They had to spend one last night out before getting to the ranch house and Jessie convinced Navarro to make love to her.
They got home and Navarro began helping with the ranch work. None of their regular summer help showed up this year so they were short handed. There was more trouble and Navarro decided to fight fire with fire. The men they caught cutting the fences were put on their horses without clothes and sent on their way. They found lots of dead wild animals with their pups put around their water supply. Jessie & Navarro moved the dead animals to surround Fletcher's windmills to keep his cattle away from his water.
Mary Louise had been taken to town to get away from the events at the ranch so she wasn't home when Jessie returned. She told Jessie that she didn't think Fletcher was behind the destruction of the ranch. Jessie was angry that Mary Louise seemed to have befriended Wilbur Fletcher while she was in town. Fletcher came to the ranch and denied being behind the destruction but he made another offer to purchase their land so Jessie didn't believe he wasn't behind the events.
Horses had been stolen when they were taking them to the army to sell them. Navarro didn't send all the men because he suspected a trap. There was a gunfight trying to save the cattle at the ranch and one of their men was killed. Another day, one of their hands had four of his fingers broken and he left telling them there was a spy on their payroll who was trying to hurt them. Hay was set on fire. Their milk cows were mutilated so Jessie had to shoot two of the three. The third was saved because when she heard the cows bawling while the men were trying to put out the fire. She scared him off before he could get to the last one. Jessie and Navarro snuck over to Fletchers and dynamite blasted a couple of Fletcher's windmills.
Jessie's brother, Tom, was allowed to help by keeping tally of the calves they branded to help out. He was excited to be allowed to help. Navarro made some moccasins that allowed him to have shoes on his crooked feet. Mary Louise was doing her work without complaining and Jessie didn't trust her sister's behavior. She wasn't as rebellious as she had before Jessie left and she had been allowed to stay for a few weeks while Jessie was away.
Jessie had been worried that Navarro might be attracted to Mary Louise with her blonde hair and good looks. She was satisfied that Navarro wasn't interested. Mary Louise had told her that their foreman, Matt, was in love with Jessie but Jessie thought of him more as she would an older brother. He was 11 years older than Jessie while Navarro was still in his 20's. Jessie was a red-head with a fair complexion. Jessie worked as hard as any man while Mary Louise was much more a woman who detested work in general.
Mary Louise got Navarro alone one evening and asked him to kill Jed & Jessie so they could sell the ranch and run away together. Navarro refused her so she tore her own dress and slapped herself in the face. She ran off Navarro's horse and rode home to accuse him of trying to rape her. She wasn't believed but Jed told Jessie that he couldn't take Navarro's word over his own daughter and he saw a way to separate Jessie from Navarro. He had noticed the attraction of the two to each other. Mary Louise hadn't thought about the fact that Navarro was left handed so it was obvious that he hadn't attacked her but Navarro left the ranch anyway. Navarro told himself that he had to leave. Jessie was in love with a man she only thought she knew. He had killed someone to escape prison and stolen to stay alive. He was a half-breed and a bastard because his father, a cold-blooded outlaw, and his mother, a hostile Apache, had never married although they stayed together.
Things continued to go wrong at the ranch. There was a stampede, cows were stolen, windows were shot out, Jed's bulls were slaughtered and Jed was murdered at the gravesite of his wife. Mary Louise was unhappy that Jessie now owned the ranch and she hadn't inherited anything.
A spy still hadn't been detected that the ranch hand whit the broken fingers had mentioned before leaving the ranch. Navarro never said anything about Mary Louise wanting Jed and Jessie dead. It was now Matt and Jessie that were retaliating. They shot out Fletcher's windows and killed his bulls. They cut his fence and let some of his horses loose. Fletcher likewise accused the Lane's of stealing money that had been stolen from him and for things they had done. They were hurting each other. It wasn't raining and the water on the ranch was drying up. Fletcher was coming over about once a week now to offer to buy the ranch and he had caused problems by cutting the Lane's out of the market by selling his stock for less than the Lane's could afford. He still insisted that he wasn't the one causing the troubles. Someone was out to get both of them. Jessie missed Navarro and Matt was still waiting to let Jessie know how much in love with her he was.
Some soldiers came by and Jessie invited them to stay at the ranch. A fire was started and it spread quickly because the land was dry. The soldiers helped put out the fire and they were helped by a rainstorm. They had worked for hours to put out the fire before the rain came. Jessie came home still missing Navarro. She was surprised to see him in her room after she cleaned up. He told Jessie that he had stolen $50,000 from Fletcher's men after he found out for sure that he was behind their difficulties. They spent the night together and he was gone before she got up.
Navarro told Matt and Jessie that he had been watching the ranch and followed some men who had done some of the destruction of her property. He told them that he saw Fletcher paying them off. It was certain that Fletcher was behind their problems. They still needed to find proof. One of the hands mentioned that he had seen Mary Louise passing a note to one of Fletcher's men. Mary Louise surprised them by telling them that she had sent a note to apologize to Fletcher on their behalf. She then told them that she was marrying Fletcher. Jessie was angry and set up a trap with Navarro, Matt and the sheriff to catch Fletcher.
They told Mary Louise that she was going to town to get money to purchase some more cattle. There were soldiers and the sheriff watching for them on their way home, knowing that they would be attacked. They attacked before they got to where the soldiers were waiting though and almost got pinned down. They were rescued in time when those waiting grew concerned at their delay in arriving at the designated location. All of the men were killed, including Fletcher. The war between them was over. Navarro then told Jessie the truth about his past and told her that he had to leave and that they could never be together. He was worried for their safety should he be discovered on her ranch someday in the future. He told Jessie that this time he would never return.
Jessie offered to purchase Fletcher's ranch from Mary Louise. Jessie gave her $40,000 of the money stolen from Fletcher and promised the rest in 8 payments, one each year for the next 8 years. Mary Louise told Jessie that she was going East and would never return. Jessie told her that she hoped she would find happiness and sent her on her way. Jessie then was surprised when she went to Fletcher's house and found out that she liked it.
Jessie was surprised to find that she was bored with things running smoothly now. She both ranches to run and she was busy. Fletcher's garden was ready for canning before hers was due to the destruction of her garden by Fletcher's men. She and her grandmother did the canning at Fletcher's house. Jessie didn't feel well and felt tired more than usual. It took her a couple of months before she realized that she was pregnant. She still missed Navarro and wondered how her sister was doing. Matt still hadn't told Jessie that he was in love with her. He was afraid it was too soon and she would reject him. It was a woman's rejection of him that had brought him to the ranch when he was 18 and he had remained there and been around Jessie and seen her grow into a beautiful woman.
Following her grandmother's advice, Jessie went to Matt for help, hoping that he would offer to marry her. He offered to marry her and Jessie let it be as if it was his idea and accepted. She was 2 months pregnant when they married. Matt accepted that Jessie and him wouldn't sleep together until after the baby was born.
There was another bad storm and the ranch house was burned when lightening struck the house so they moved into the house on what was once Fletcher's property. Matt and the guys left for a couple of months to take the cattle to market and before he did, he hired a girl in town needing a job. Jessie noticed that Annie and Miguel had taken to each other and encouraged their relationship.
While the guys were gone, a man come who had once employed Annie demanding that she was his, indebted to her to become his wife. She had worked for him and left when he tried to push her into sleeping with him. Annie had run off. Jessie ran him off and he was killed on his way back to El Paso where he had come from.
Jessie found letters in the house showing plans that Fletcher and his brothers had of running a rail line through the Lane ranch. That was why he wanted their property so badly. Jessie received a letter from the brothers and Mary Louise telling her that Fletcher's ranch was left to the brothers so the ranch wasn't hers to sell making the sale to her void. Jessie contacted both the governor and lawyers who both told her that she was legally entitled to keep the land. She warned the brothers to back off and they did. She went to the bank and paid Mary Louise the rest of what was owed to her. She got a receipt back and was done with her sister. The brothers sold what they owned in the states and moved back to England.
Matt came home just before Thanksgiving with a locket that she had given Navarro. Jessie wondered how it had ended up in a pawn shop and if anything had happened to him but she was glad to have it back. Annie and Miguel married just before Christmas. Things were settling down and Jessie knew she was in love with Matt and he was doing his best to show her that he loved her too. They weren't sleeping together yet, but he was doing his best to court her.
Jessie went into labor and the baby was breech. Matt had to pull the baby out before the birth killed Jessie. They named the baby Lane.
It was 5 years before Navarro returned and found Matt working on building houses for the families of their employees on the land that the original ranch house had been before it was destroyed in the fire caused by the storms. Mary Louise had married a doctor back East and apologized for her treatment of her family. She asked if Tom would come see her and have surgery to repair his club foot. Tom had left and now had barely a limp. He stayed in the East until he finished college. He returned home and brought a girl with him. They married and opened up a successful mercantile in town. Jessie had a daughter they named Alice and was pregnant with Lance when Navarro returned.
Matt spoke to Navarro and convinced him that Jessie didn't need to see him. She wouldn't leave with him and Navarro was told about his son. Lane was being raised as Matt's and his returning would prove to others that Jessie had slept with Navarro because Lane looked so much like him. Her reputation would be ruined. Navarro crept to watch from a window to see his son and proof that Jessie was happy and he left. Matt also told Navarro that Jessie had written to the governor on his behalf to see him freed. Navarro told Matt that he hadn't returned earlier because he had been caught and returned to prison just after he left Jessie and he had spent the past 5 years in prison until the governor freed him. Navarro had been offered a job as a tracker for the Army to help in their fight against the Apache. Navarro accepted the job and wrote Jessie a letter after Lance was born to let her know he was okay.
Jessie and Matt were in love with each other. They were each other's destiny. Navarro now had to go find his. Lane and Lance would one day own and run the L/C Ranch.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Another great and emotional book by author, Janelle Taylor!
Here we meet 24-year-old Jessica Lane who's been raised as a boy and is her father’s right hand on the family ranch. She knows just about every aspect of ranching. She’s always been considered one of the boys with their ranch hands. Now the family ranch is being attacked from a "neighbor" rancher who wants theirs. In a desperate attempt to keep their ranch, Jessica rides out to hire a "gunslinger" who can help them protect the ranch. She meets Navarro Breed instead, who is actually not a gunslinger but a man who'd been accused of a crime he didn't commit and escaped a hellish prison. He is on the run but he takes Jessica's offer to help them. Navarro has had a very difficult life with neither parent loving him and as a half breed, he doesn't fit in anywhere. He was always cast aside never feeling love from anyone and yet somehow, he sees how kind and loving Jessica is. They get to know each other on the way to the ranch and practically fall in a wild passionate love. They keep it from everyone as to not cause trouble. Soon, Navarro is fitting in with almost everyone and is making real friends. Meanwhile, attacks against the ranch ramp up to epic proportions and soon Navarro is let go because of Jessica's sisters lie of Navarro attacking her. Navarro realizes he must leave to protect Jessica and her family. He tells Jessica to forget about him because it’s too late for them due to his past. This is the hardest decision Navarro makes because he finally found someone who loves and believes in him. Jessica is heartbroken and she turns to Matt Cordell, the trusted foreman, who's been best friends with her since she was thirteen. Matt has been in love with Jessica for a long time but was afraid to let her know until now. Matt is over joyed but cautious. All will experience turmoil and all of them will make sacrifices and be changed in different ways. The ending is not the typical ending but life has a way of not being typical. Enjoy reading their story!

[Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my auntie's books that I read as a teen. God I still clearly remember being heartbroken when I read the ending. It was the one that taught me that not all couples are meant to be together but that's totally okay. Life may have other things in store for you.

[Carrie Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit long but a beautiful story about the power of love to transform people and the things one sacrifices for love and family. Set in the late 1800s on a western Texas ranch it was a nice change of scenery from all the WWII historical fiction novels out there.

[Kyla Sixkiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sweeping historical romance, set on a late 1800s Texas ranch, explores the transformative power of love and the sacrifices made for family. While not every romance is meant to be, the story portrays the complexities of love and commitment.

[Cws]

F Tay

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was in a word bittersweet. It broke my heart and gave me hope. What a beautiful and stunning accomplishment for the author.

[Shelby Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read about a rancher's daughter and the two men she loves during her lifetime.