Today’s Wednesday Waypoints features a moment from …

Welcome to Wednesday Waypoints, a weekly pause to step into a brief moment from my stories. Each post shares a carefully chosen excerpt paired with a few cozy touches that reflect its mood or meaning. It’s a chance to slow down midweek and find a little encouragement rooted in the 1930s world I write.

She came to America to escape a workhouse prison, but will the cost of freedom be too high a price to pay?

1933, Wisconsin – Large animal veterinarian Katy Wells takes her patients’ welfare personally, so it’s no surprise when she stands up to angry farmers planning a milk strike or takes in an injured draft horse to save its life. But after a visitor from the past discovers her location and reveals a threat, she must choose between her work and her freedom, and whether to trust a man to keep her safe.

Och, why had she opened the letter before the farmers’ meeting? She needed every ounce of her courage to stand up in front of all those men. If only that New York newspaper hadn’t published an article on the handful of female veterinarians who had graduated from Cornell in the last couple decades. The reporter focused on the first woman in America, who had received her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine just twenty-three years ago, but mentioned other graduates as well. Graduates like Katy. That must be the way her uncle had tracked her to Wisconsin.

She pushed from the wall, carefully folding the letter before tucking it into her medical bag. Then she smoothed the gray fabric of her skirt, as if that action could smooth her troubled heart. She needed to put the letter, her uncle, and her past out of her mind. This afternoon’s meeting was not about her. In fact, knowing these farmers as she did, they likely wouldn’t appreciate her interrupting their meeting. Normally, she’d happily leave them to their own devices. She’d rather face down an ornery bull than walk the gauntlet of men inside.

But this meeting affected her patients, which meant she needed to speak up.

If you’d like to dive deeper into this story, you can find it available now through these retailers and my author shop. Thank you for inviting these characters and their stories into your reading journey.

To complement this excerpt, I’ve chosen a few cozy items that match its mood and theme. I hope this post inspires a moment of peaceful rest in your day and invites a sense of home to carry you through the remainder of your week.

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