Kat Henry Doran/Veronica Lynch: Slow Train to Nowhere: Jenny by Laura Strickland

To find her happiness, first she must believe.

In keeping with our Books In A Series feature, Wild Women Authors presents Slow Train to Nowhere: Jenny, an American historical romance, written by Laura Strickland, and released by The Wild Rose Press.

About Slow Train to Nowhere: Jenny: Jenny Withers has never asked for much. Following a tragic childhood in England, she arrived in America only to be sent west on the orphan train and passed from one caregiver to another. Now grown and widowed, she might build a fulfilling future, but only if she finds the courage to stand up for her true desires.

Robert MacKenna hopes what Jenny desires is him. A man with a broken past and a restless spirit, he has trouble settling at anything. He’s never met a woman like Jenny, and he’ll move heaven and earth to be with her. But his toughest task may be convincing her he can provide the love for which she’s always yearned.

EXCERPT:

Their waitress appeared from the door that led to the kitchen, and his attention quickened. She was a petite woman, surely no more than five foot two, and small-boned with an air of fragility. Overloaded by the tray she toted, she struggled across the dining room, and he had to fight the impulse to jump up and take the burden from her. Waiting tables was her job. He wouldn’t want to insult her by assuming she couldn’t perform it.

People did not appreciate that.

All the same, the young woman did not look happy with her lot. Her rather plain face remained composed, but her eyes gave her away. Large brown eyes they were, fringed by thick lashes and full of a kind of sorrow that damn near pierced Robert through.

He wanted to make her smile, to chase away that deep sorrow. An unreasonable desire, since she was his waitress and he nothing more than her customer.

She placed two bowls of stew down on the table in front of them along with what looked like half a loaf of fresh-baked bread and a small cask of butter. Robert, usually glib of tongue, sought unsuccessfully for something to say.

“Thank you, miss,” Newton filled the gap with cool courtesy.

“You’re welcome. Would you gentlemen like coffee?”

“Please,” Robert croaked out.

She hurried off. Her feet must feel like stumps by the end of the day.

“I suppose we’ll have to stay another night with the Blighs,” said Newt, “if we’re to interview the mill owner. And this Sean Hussey who was mentioned. He seems to be out of town.”

Robert wrinkled his nose involuntarily. He liked nothing about the Blighs’ aside perhaps from the amiable Milo Digsby.

Their waitress came back with a coffee pot, having been waylaid by a customer at another table. She poured carefully, and for reasons unknown to him Robert looked at her left hand. No wedding ring.

“Thank you,” he told her, just to make her look at him. For an instant her wide, brown eyes met his and held. It made him feel like he’d been punched in the gut.

No smile touched her lips. She hurried away again.

“You’d think,” he muttered, “they’d have another waitress for this many tables.”

Newton looked surprised. “She seems to be keeping up. Stew’s good, if a bit rough and ready.”

Newton went on talking about the needs of the town, and Robert watched the waitress from the corner of his eye. She hustled to clear a vacated table and hurried to answer the demand of someone on the far side of the room. She dashed to the kitchen and returned in time to seat three men who looked like farmers. Her feet never stopped tapping the floor in a complicated dance.

“All in all,” Newton said, “I doubt I will recommend investment. They could use a better-class restaurant and God knows a hotel is called for. That cot at Blighs’ left a lot to be desired.”

“You should try the loose box.”

“Still and all, I don’t think Crowne Enterprises would get a good return on its money.”

The waitress took the new arrivals’ order and flew off to the kitchen again. What was her name? And did it matter?

He buttered a piece of bread and sopped up the last of his stew with it. He wondered what had put that depth of sadness in the woman’s eyes.

What would it take to make her smile?

To purchase Slow Train to Nowhere: Jenny, go to:

Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DBM5NPF7

Amazon Canada:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0DBM5NPF7

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slow-Train-Nowhere-Jenny-2/dp/1509257969/ref=sr_1_3