The Wolf Cub

Lewis just loves living with his mother in a small cottage that backs directly onto a vast forest.

The shy four-year-old’s favourite spot to relax is in a clearing by a watering hole, where all the woodland creatures come to get their daily measure of drink and forage nearby for food. He always enjoys chatting to the smaller animals (especially the squirrels and rabbits), making new friends nearly every day.

And that’s exactly where the boy was when it happened – the hair on the back of Lewis’ neck suddenly stood on end, and the young boy shivered slightly.

He was being watched…

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Whisper

Britney is a young, extremely malnourished child, who comes from a poor family with an abusive father. Her mother does everything she can to protect her daughter from her husband, receiving the brunt of the aggressive beatings herself. The girl barely speaks, afraid of being overheard by the wrong person, and the only words she knows are the few repeated words her mother uses to calm her after a fight. A total of three words in all, namely – Whisper, Britney, and Ma.

There is a very private, sheltered spot in the nearby forest which Britney uses as a place to hide away if ever her mother has to spend the day walking into the nearest town to purchase supplies or to trade goods. They have discreet, non-verbal signals which they use to keep the area hidden and make sure that Britney is secure (far away from Pa’s prying eyes).

On one such day, Britney hears unusual sounds and is terrified that her father has found out about their system, but the surprise turns out to be just a lonesome little puppy. The girl quickly becomes friends with the stray, instantly joining forces in their solitude, only ever meeting in the secret place where they share such a deeply silent, unspoken bond.

This continues until Ma helps her only child run away for good, tearfully leaving Britney to fend for herself in the best way she knows how. The adoring puppy (promptly being referred to as Whisper) unexpectedly follows the girl, and together they set off on a journey that will forever change their lives…

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Lucas

Lucas follows on from the story of Whisper, focusing more fully on the orphan’s life before he came to be a middle-aged man rescuing Britney from her world of abuse. In this book, we discover just how Lucas found himself growing up and then taking in the stray waif.

When the boy’s parents die unexpectedly from sickness, the family’s neighbours end up taking him in. Lucas likes the Copperley children, but is afraid of not being welcome in the household when he accidentally overhears their parents talking about him. Quickly, Lucas decides that village isn’t for him anymore and chooses to spend a life on the road, constantly drifting from town to town, searching eagerly for his place and somewhere he could belong.

During this course of aimless wandering, the boy finally stumbles across Seth and Ruby Rodgers and begins working for the friendly, easy-going couple, eventually being adopted by them. Lucas enjoys running the carpentry business when he’s older, but wonders if there is anything else for him, and the sudden arrival of the mistreated, terrified little girl brings even more responsibility upon Lucas’ shoulders than he ever thought possible.

Lucas loves the child deeply, but his strength of character is severely tested – will Britney ever learn to trust him? Or has the memory of her drunken father been ingrained so intensely within her heart that she will never welcome another man’s presence ever again?

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Escape

In ‘Escape,’ the more intricate details of Kaylee and Carlos’ estrangement are explored, as we learn of their ill-advised marriage while still young. Following on from ‘Whisper’ and ‘Lucas’, new information comes to light when Kaylee runs away from home and finds taking off with her childhood sweetheart without her parents’ knowledge was not at all like what she had been promised.

After taking on new work in a nearby town, her husband turns abusive and unnecessarily violent towards Kaylee. The woman is afraid of his current lifestyle, but even when giving birth to a daughter and starting a family, she is scared of what Carlos might decide to do to her.

For reasons beyond her own comprehension, Kaylee makes the horrible decision to ascertain Britney’s safety, placing the girl’s welfare far before her own life! The inexperienced mother soon takes the child away and is then left to deal with Carlos’ anger alone. Despite her misgivings, Kaylee knows that she has done the right thing in sending her precious daughter away, instinctively believing that Britney has escaped from a world of only pain and constant terror.

When Carlos’ treatment of her only goes from bad to worse, Kaylee leaves the small cottage and goes in search of her treasured daughter. Will she be able to find her, unknowing which direction Britney had gone? And would Kaylee ever be reunited with her own beloved parents anywhere upon her travels? Filled with so many questions and doubts, she sets off to get the answers.

But not far behind her comes Carlos… her husband is looking for forgiveness and second chances. But has the man truly changed?

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Footprints in the Snow

“What’s that sound?” Katrina gasped, snatching at her friend’s sleeve.

“Oh, nothing really,” Mack answered casually. “Just a bird.”

But the animal that jumped out in front of them on the path was definitely not a bird – it was a mountain lion! Mack and Katrina stared at it in bewilderment, vaguely wondering what was going to happen next. The children had already been startled out of their wits, so when the creature stepped closer, snarling and growling ferociously, they just turned and hastily scurried away.

As he stumbled blindly along, Mack felt a warm spurt of blood suddenly trickling down his arm, but he ignored it in the great hope of reaching home safely before the mountain lion could make another swipe at one of them. Mack expected the vicious animal to attack him from behind at any given moment. Then he became aware that the noise had faded slightly…

Could the mountain lion be stalking them silently? Risking a momentary glance over his shoulder, what the frantic boy saw only made him run even faster than ever – the wild animal was still giving chase!

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The Horses of Saddlers Ranch: Cloud

“Come on, you beast!” The man mumbled under his breath, quite unaware that he was being observed by several rather stunned onlookers. “Get over here!”

Despite his terse command, as if sensing the man’s edginess, the gelding merely laid his ears back and started shaking his head, soon lashing out with his long, delicate legs. High-pitched squeals of outrage soon followed, and at the disturbance, another person’s face suddenly peered out of the passenger window of the cab.

“You see, Daddy? That kind of behavior is exactly why we can’t keep it! I need a reliable horse that I can depend upon at all times.” The blonde-haired girl stared at the scene, almost in disdain, and then immediately continued whining again. “Hurry up, Daddy! I want to ride Secret Service again as soon as we get home. That horse is so much better behaved!”

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The Horses of Saddlers Ranch: Golden Haze

“I can’t believe you’re boarding Tammy’s palomino for a whole month!” Lexie Howard exclaimed to her friend, rather breathlessly.

“Neither can I,” Coral Johnson laughed in response to her eager enthusiasm. “But my cousin is going away for a while, and unfortunately, she couldn’t take Golden Haze with her on holiday.”

“Unfortunate for who?” Lexie grinned. “I thought you’d be delighted to have such a pretty horse staying at your ranch…”

“I am!” Coral playfully shoved her friend on the arm, amused by her good-natured teasing. “But I’m still surprised that my dad said yes when Tammy called to ask.”

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The Horses of Saddlers Ranch: Black Knight

Coral Johnson grumpily rolled over and risked a quick glance at the clock on her bedside cabinet. Then she blinked her eyes several times and tried again. She hadn’t been imagining it – 2:30 am blared back at her, the bright green lights forcing the seventeen-year-old girl to look the other way rather abruptly. It was still in the middle of the night, so what had woken her up? Some moonlight filtered into her bedroom through the curtains, but most of the room was still shrouded in darkness.

Coral lay wide awake for several minutes, just staring toward the ceiling, wondering why she felt so uneasy all of a sudden. She usually preferred being at Saddlers Ranch; it was much better than living in town like her two best friends did. She’d had sleepovers at both Tilly Carpenter’s and Lexie Howard’s, but nothing was quite like being at home on her family’s ranch, with the fresh open air and rugged landscape just outside her window.

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The Horses of Saddlers Ranch: Acorn

“Coral Johnson, please report to the principal’s office. I repeat, that’s Coral Johnson to the principal’s office. Thank you.”

Coral glanced up from where she had been bent over her desk, surprised to hear her name being called over the school’s loudspeaker, especially when they were right in the middle of a class. The seventeen-year-old girl quickly got permission from the history teacher to leave the room, who nodded at her in response to the announcement.

“What did you do?” Tilly Carpenter hissed in her ear from her usual place at the next desk over.

“I’ve got no idea,” Coral whispered back, gathering her books and rushing to stuff them all into her backpack. “I’m as startled as you are.”

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