Jane Catherine Rozek

What will a woman do for the man she loves! Travel three days by tractor and wagon to homestead in the Canadian wild country. Here's a scary excerpt for you from Chapter 5, book 3 in the Spirit Quest Series: 😟

"Kate knew the load was heavy because when Dave started up the tractor to pull the wagon forward, the hitch made a loud clunking sound. Still, they made it to Johnsons that night with no trouble and slept in the barn again, taking off early on the second day. It wasn’t until they rumbled through a couple of small creeks and started up a steep hillside that they ran into trouble. The rocky wagon trail cut a narrow swath across it with a dark forested ravine below. The woods were quiet when the sun slipped behind a cloud, and Dave stopped the tractor.
“You guys wait here until I get this load to the top,” he said.
Kate and her young stepson, David Dale, climbed off the wagon to lighten the load. At five months pregnant, she needed to stretch anyway. Kate slathered more mosquito dope on both of them, but it didn’t keep the tiny black flies from crawling up into hairlines and under the cuffs of their sleeves. She watched as her husband inched the tractor and wagon up the steep rocky slope. It looked like a twenty percent incline, and the engine shook with the effort. When the tractor’s front wheels reared up off the ground, Kate screamed.
“Dave, stop! It’s too much weight.” Visions of the tractor flipping over backward and Dave sailing off into the air petrified her. It had happened to Dave’s friend Mickey. He’d gunned his tractor in a thick mud bog, and it flipped over and pinned him under the steering wheel. His two sons were with him and had to watch as the life of their father flowed out of his body. Dave bought their homestead lease from his widow afterward. Things like that happened out in the wild country of BC, and risks always had to be weighed.
“Nah, I think I’ll be okay,” Dave chugged his way upward until he came to a hump in the road that left the front tires shuddering in mid-air. Slamming the brakes down hard, he held the tractor from slipping backward on the dirt incline.
“What now?” Kate yelled, her voice echoing off the thick forest above them.
“Dang it! I should have filled the front barrel with water at the last creek for ballast. Forgot this hill was coming up so soon.” Welding the old diesel barrel on a framework in front of the tractor engine had been for that very purpose.
“Are you going to go back and fill it now?” Kate asked.
“I’m already a quarter of the way up. I just need a little more weight out in front of the tractor.” He growled out his frustration. “David Dale, come and stand on the front frame and help balance the load.”
“No. No!” Kate yelled. “David, you will not go to help your dad. You’ll wait right here until we’re safe at the top.” Kate wasn’t going to let their eight-year-old do something so scary and foolish. She’d get on that contraption herself.
She walked up to where her husband was stopped. “Are you sure it’ll be safe?” she asked.
“I think so. You’ve got to learn to trust me,” Dave said.
Kate climbed up to stand on the corners of the frame facing Dave at the wheel, and held onto the top of the large rusty barrel. Dave put the tractor in first gear and inched forward again to climb the hill. Even with Kate’s weight, the front wheels skimmed the ground, lifting up from the road an inch or two every so often.
Kate kept her eyes pinned on each of the tractor’s front tires, and every time a rock stuck up from the surface, she held her breath as the wheels crept over it. She had to lean away from the barrel to put her weight out in front as far as possible. But then the tractor tilted and rose almost two feet up in the air, trembling.
Kate screamed in terror again. “Stop the tractor!” She leaned farther out over the road in front, hanging on for dear life.
Dave didn’t say a word. He looked wild-eyed and desperate until the front wheels fell to the ground again. Still, he kept pressing on up the hill.
“Dave, please stop. I’m scared,” she pleaded in a small, urgent voice.
“I can’t stop, Kate,” he said vehemently. “The weight will flip the tractor and send us both tumbling down the bank.”
Everything in her told her to jump off and save herself. Damn. Hanging on like Spiderman was the epitome of stupidity. But if she jumped off, could she bear to watch the tractor flip over and maybe kill her husband while his son witnessed the crucial moment? He’d blame her for his father’s death. She was caught between the needs of everyone. Then she remembered the unborn child in her belly. She had no choice but to stay on and hold her breath every time a front tire crept over a rock on that hill.
The tractor quivered from Dave’s slow, careful acceleration while Kate mumbled. God help us, please... Don’t let us die. Don’t let David Dale be left all alone.
Glancing backward, Kate saw they were three-quarters up the hill. She breathed in. Breathed out. Gripped tight. Leaned out. Dave’s eyes pierced hers with intensity. Was he mortified with the danger he’d placed her in, beseeching her even now to forgive him? He was trapped in the moment too, and there was no stopping the reality of what was happening.
Minute by minute passed by. The tractor chugged upward foot by foot, still lifting off the ground every so often. Kate’s stretched-out arms ached until the road below her finally seemed to level out. She pulled herself up closer to the barrel.
When the tractor and wagon rolled onto flat ground, Dave stopped the engine. He climbed down and tried to take Kate in his arms to comfort her. But she fled. No touch from him was going to console her. Instead, she ran ahead to distance herself from the terror and the single-minded drive of a man with a goal. She held her tummy as she ran and talked to the baby in her womb. It’s okay. You’re safe. It’s just you and me now and I’ll take care of you, somehow.
Her heart pounded. Her stomach wanted to heave from the adrenaline flowing through her veins. Dark, bitter thoughts thundered around in her head. How could Dave risk my life and our unborn baby like this and still love me? Do I love him? How much does a woman do for the love of a man?
As Kate walked along the dusty road, thick spruce trees formed a scented green tunnel above her. Roots crept up from the forest floor to support her. Treetops swayed gloriously in the sunlit sky, their branches filtering sparkles of light down upon her. But Kate hardly saw any of this as she stormed down the road. She didn’t hear the birds chirp or the chipmunks chatter, only the sound of the mechanical tractor coming up behind her. She kept out of Dave’s sight. She’d let him worry about something besides his bloody freight...."

I've learned a lot after writing 4 books about my off-the-grid wilderness life... You can too by reading them!

I hope you are in a happy chapter! If you're not, remember the sun still shines above the clouds.

Hey! I love a good romance... but with depth and authenticity! My books are for women of faith who crave stories that go beyond surface level romance. Read the first chapters and 5* reviews on Amazon!