BOOK REVIEW - Ada Brownell's ~ The Lady Fugitive ~

 ADA BROWNELL




 
                                            AND


 THE LADY FUGITIVE

This is a story of a gal who's on the run. . .I'd love to tell you all that happens, but I think one of the characters should give you a better scope of how things go that pushes Ada Brownell's     LADY FUGITIVE into her flight. . . .

MEET THE LADY FUGITIVE

Jenny Louise Parks

When Jenny Louise Parks stepped on stage at the Peachville Opera House in 1908, snappy eyes the color of a dark brown gemstone gleamed. She smiled at the crowd, her brunette curls bouncing with her energy.

“Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone,” she declared with poise, gesturing as she continued her rewritten rendition of the famous poem that she crafted into a humorous rhyming story.

When the crowd’s laughter quieted, the trained elocutionist eased her way to the piano, her long burgundy dress gently accenting her curves and slender figure. Her fingers danced over the keys and she bounced a little as the music to Rocky Mountain Columbine began. Then her clear voice rang with the bubbly melody.

 The next day, the judge’s massive body loomed in the opening of the barn where she took care of her horse. He slid a razor strap back and forth in his manicured hands. “Jenny!”

Her heart thumping like a dasher churning butter, the seventeen-year-old dropped the curry brush and moved past the buckskin’s large rump toward the side door.

The huge man limped closer. “Didn’t I tell you to quit flirting with those young men at the opera house?” His deep voice boomed among the stalls. “I want it stopped.”

Jenny inched backward. She swallowed. Icy tingles crawled up her back, her neck, and over her scalp.

“But…but…I was just being polite. I was honored they came to hear an elocutionist. They complimented me on my recitations.”

 Judge Danforth Schuster, her uncle, stepped closer, looking her up and down in the dim light. When she backed away, he grabbed her wrist and tightened his sausage fingers. He lifted the strap with his other hand.

 “It’s about time you had a good lickin’.” Tobacco and liquor breath sprayed her cheeks as he tried to turn her around.

This nightmare was not happening. Jenny wiggled, twisted, and scratched like a cat caught by a naughty child. The man clenched her tighter. Gritting her teeth, she braced her legs and shoved. She might as well have tried to move the boulder out by the windmill.

Relaxing a moment, she took a deep breath, jabbed an elbow into his dome belly, and stomped her boot heel down hard on his foot with the ingrown toenail.

A deep cry ripped from his throat. The hairy arms lost their hold, and she whirled out of his grasp. She ducked in time for his fist to miss her face. Then she ran past the horses and out the door.

Each step she took toward the house brought her closer to admitting the truth. Her life here was over.

That night, she packed, ready to escape. Then the lock to her room clicked. She went out the window and down the trellis. Her uncle caught her when she landed. He shoved her into the cellar and padlocked the door. She went out the coal chute opening.

She rode out on her horse heading for the midnight train, but the judge and his men followed. She gave them the slip by going toward barren country. But where could she go?

Shortly before Jenny’s father died, the judge talked him into changing his will so the judge would inherit the horse and peach ranch. But the will said he had to keep Jenny until she was 21 to inherit.

Jenny becomes a fugitive in Colorado with her name on Wanted Posters. With no one but her brother to love her, the Lord seeks her like the one lost sheep, hoping to bring her to peace and safety. 

 

You can find the rest of the character introductions this week with each day welcoming  a different character for the entire week ~ Be sure to check them out at:

www.journeystojoy.net

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel by Ada Brownell. She's put a different slant on the Historical Romance and the book had me intrigued enough that I truly had to FORCE myself to set it aside to get some work done. Rewarded myself with reading the rest when I should have been sleeping!