Jane Kirkpatrick - The Daughters Walk

Praise for
The Daughters Walk

Jane Kirkpatrick is a wonderful writer who creates a story full of strong, admirable characters with human flaws. Clara and Helga come to life with dimension and depth, pulling us into their world. I walked across the country with them, experienced their triumph and disappointment, and faced the shattered, angry family when they returned. Jane has given readers a wonderful story of a family schism that comes full circle to love and grace, and of the importance of family, especially when one has been an outcast. I highly recommend The Daughters Walk !

Jane embraces the finest qualities of the human spirit in all her writing. One of Americas favorite storytellers.

Jane Kirkpatrick brings immense integrity to historical imagination, using her consummate skills as a historian sleuth and psychologist. A compelling portrait of Claras own bold entrepreneurial spirit gives readers believable insight on how a mother and daughters love survives financial hardship, a courageous thirty-five-hundred-mile walk, family tragedy, and estrangement. Bravo!

Jane Kirkpatrick gives us inspiring stories of women who accomplish amazing feats. She has done it again with the poignant story of Clara Estby, who walked with her mother from Spokane to New York in a desperate bid to save the family farm from foreclosure. What was left for this daughter when her connection to family was severed? Jane brings Claras story to life.

Jane Kirkpatricks attention to detail and ability to craft living, breathing characters immerses the reader into her story world. I come away entranced, enlightened, and enriched after losing myself in one of her novels.

The Daughters Walk brings to mind another much-loved book, Mamas Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, which became the Broadway play and movie I Remember Mama . Janes Norwegian characters captivated me in much the same way. Uplifting and heartbreaking by turns, this is a wonderful story, superbly written.

Other Books by Jane Kirkpatrick

NOVELS

Portraits of the Heart Historical Series

A Flickering Light

An Absence So Great

Change and Cherish Historical Series

A Clearing in the Wild

A Tendering in the Storm

A Mending at the Edge

A Land of Sheltered Promise

Tender Ties Historical Series

A Name of Her Own

Every Fixed Star

Hold Tight the Thread

Kinship and Courage Historical Series

All Together in One Place

No Eye Can See

What Once We Loved

Dreamcatcher Collection

A Sweetness to the Soul

Love to Water My Soul

A Gathering of Finches

Mystic Sweet Communion

NONFICTION

A Simple Gift of Comfort

Homestead: A Memoir of Modern Pioneers Pursuing the Edge of Possibility

Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community, and Craft

finalist and award-winning works

THE DAUGHTERS WALK
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

Scripture quotations are taken or paraphrased from the King James Version and the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc. TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com .

This book is a work of historical fiction based closely on real people and real events. Details that cannot be historically verified are purely products of the authors imagination.

Copyright 2011 by Jane Kirkpatrick

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

WATERBROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kirkpatrick, Jane, 1946
The daughters walk / Jane Kirkpatrick. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Based on a true story.
eISBN: 978-0-307-72941-5
1. Mothers and daughtersFiction. 2. Family secretsFiction. I. Title.
PS3561.I712D38 2011
813.54dc22
2010043657

v3.1

To strong and transforming women of all generations .

C AST OF C HARACTERS

Characters designated with an asterisk are not based on actual historical figures and are fully imagined by the author.

Prologue

M ICA C REEK , W ASHINGTON S TATE , M ARCH 1901

G o back! Just go back! The woman glared at the dog, who stopped, his tail down, ears tipped forward in confusion.

You cant come with me, she said. Im not part of this family anymore. Her voice cracked at the truth that now defined her life. Heavy, wet snow fell on the solemn pair. The dog failed to obey. Even in this she was powerless. She looked at the window, hoping her mother or sister might wave. No one. She returned to the dog.

Go back. Please. She pointed, her voice breaking. Go, Sailor. Go home. The dog curled his bushy tail between his legs and then turned, walking toward the farmhouse now shrouded in snow. He looked back once, but she pointed and he continued back to the family as shed ordered.

The woman bit her lip to avoid crying, then stuffed the packet close to her chest to keep the papers dry. She pulled her fur coat around her. Maybe she shouldnt have worn it; maybe her success offended them and thats why theyd refused.