Comanche Haven, The Loflin Legacy # 1

Comanche Haven, The Loflin Legacy #1

 By Catherine Wolffe

 Copyright 2012 Catherine Wolffe | All Rights Reserved

Discover other titles by Catherine Wolffe @ catherinewolffe.wordpress.com

Cover design by Ally Thomas

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.  If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the author’s website and purchase your own copy.  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my family for supporting me in my writing.  This one is for you!  Also, I want to thank my sister for all the hours of assistance and encouragement she’s given me over the years with my writing.  You’re the best!

Comanche Haven, The Loflin Legacy #1

Chapter 1

The Road Home

Texas 1858

Celia glanced out at the children running alongside the stagecoach as it slowed. Their tiny feet evoked a cloud of dust as they followed the newest visitor to their part of Texas.

“Have you been to Tyler before?” the young blonde woman seated next to Celia inquired politely.  Her name was Claudette Harding.  She had the most perfect golden curls Celia had ever seen.

“Yes, but it’s been a long time.”  Celia glanced back at the children, before examining the wooden buildings dotting the street.  Nothing had changed.  Some were new and some no longer stood.  They’d been replaced in the name of progress.  Noting the result, she dropped the leather flap over the small window, before swallowing a twinge of regret.  A sharp realization that nothing would ever be the same again moved through her.

From the top of the stage, the Wells Fargo Whip called out the name of the stop, “Tyyyler!”

“I’m expecting my gentleman-friend to pick me up.” Claudette glanced sideways at Celia as she gathered her parasol along with her reticule.  “Do you have someone picking you up?” Tiny ringlets of gold bobbed about the woman’s creamy, oval face.  Celia smiled to herself as Claudette continued to prattle on.  The woman could talk.  Claudette had boarded the stage in Shreveport.  Since she’d sat down, the three other passengers listened to all manner of comments, stories and questions.

“Yes, my cousin.”  Celia peeked out of the window again.  Dust swirled around the opening, threatening to engulf them all.  The two men seated in front of the women waved at the dust as if it threatened their lives.  The one in a stylish stovepipe hat started coughing.  Reluctantly, Celia dropped the flap, waiting instead for the stage to come to a complete stop.

The wooden door of the stage opened.  A calloused hand reached in.

Claudette took the hand, before winking at Celia. “Enjoyed riding with you. Good luck.”  Bending low in the confines of the stage’s interior, Claudette exited through small opening.