Joelle's Secret - Large Print Author:Gilbert Morris These dying words from Joelle Lynn Mitchells' mother give her seventeen-year-old daughter hope after she's left alone to deflect the unwelcome advances of her predatory stepfather, Burl Harper, who took a wife only to take the Mitchell homestead. When Harper is declared Joelle's legal guardian, she escapes the sleepy mid-1800s Tennes... more »see town of River Bend, knowing he will try to have his way with her.
To conceal her identity against the WANTED signs Burl has posted clear throughout Arkansas, Joelle cuts her beautiful hair, dresses like a boy, and changes her name to Joe Jones. Finding work as a stable hand, "Joe" meets hard-knocked Owen Majors who invites her to join a wagon train to gold-rich California. But dangerous living on the trail makes it harder for Joelle to conceal her identity, and when Owen learns the truth, the tangled matters of friendship, love, and gold must find clarity in the hands of God.« less