Father Goose

Jodi Thomas

Chapters (21)

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Books by Jodi Thomas

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Honey Creek series
Breakfast at the Honey
Creek Café
Picnic in Someday Valley
Dinner on Primrose Hill
Beneath the Texas Sky

Novellas
One Night at the St.
Nicholas
The Valentine’s Curse
One Wish

Anthologies
A Texas Kind of Christmas
One Texas Night
Give Me a Cowboy
Give Me a Texas Ranger
Give Me a Texas Outlaw
A Texas Christmas
Be My Texas Valentine
Give Me a Texan

Title Page

JODI THOMAS

Father Goose

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Copyright Page

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Kensington Publishing Corp.
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New York, NY 10018

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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eISBN-13: 978-1-4967-3615-4 (eBook)

eISBN-10: 1-4967-3615-X (eBook)

Father Goose

JODI THOMAS

Chapter 1

Time: December 1867
Location: Jefferson, Texas

Trapper Hawkins rode into the settlement of Jefferson, Texas, at dusk, just as he had the day before. Late sunshine flickered off Big Cypress Bayou like diamonds on new-formed ice.

The wind was cold, promising rain that might change to snow by midnight. The temperature didn’t matter. He’d been cold to the bone so long he wasn’t sure he was alive. Now and then he thought if someone cut out his heart, he’d still function.

Memories drifted in his mind like sand on the wind. He’d been seventeen when he’d signed up to fight for his state, Tennessee, in a war he didn’t understand between states. But his three big brothers were excited to go, and Trapper didn’t want to be left home on the farm with his father.

The old man blamed Trapper for his mother’s death. His father never looked at his youngest and left Trapper’s raising to his older sons. One of his first memories was being locked out of the cabin for forgetting to do something. He’d been four and the night was cold. He lay on the ground without cover and pretended he didn’t feel the cold. Pretending became his first defense.