The Rancher's Wife. Lynda Trent

      “There isn’t anything going on between us,” he said. Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Epilogue Copyright

      “There isn’t anything going on between us,” he said.

      “You sleep in your room and I sleep in mine. Our conduct is entirely aboveboard.”

      

      “Pretty much so, yes.”

      

      “I only kissed you once.”

      

      “I know.” She hadn’t intended for her voice to hold so much regret.

      

      The silence grew long between them.

      

      “Do you want me to give them some explanation? I guess I could say you’re my sister or a cousin.”

      

      “No. I don’t want to lie. Especially not to a preacher. I hate dishonesty.”

      

      “Then what do you suggest?”

      

      “I don’t know.” She shook her head and sighed. “Why didn’t I ever think about this before now?”

      

      Carefully he said, “We could let them assume you’re my wife.”

      

      She looked at him and waited for an explanation.

      “It’s what they already believe. No one would question it.”

      

      Elizabeth exploded. “But it’s not true!”

      Dear Reader.

      

      This month we’re giving you plenty of excuses to put your feet up and “get away from it all” with these four, fantasy-filled historical romances.

      

      Let’s begin with handsome rancher Brice Graham and his darling baby girl who will undoubtedly capture your affection in The Rancher’s Wife, an emotional new Western by award-winning author Lynda Trent. Critics have described the author’s works as “sensual” and “utterly delightful.” In this pretend marriage tale, an abandoned wife moves in with Brice in order to care for his daughter. Yet complications arise when the two wish to many for real...

      

      Medieval fans, prepare yourselves for a spine-tingling story of forbidden love in Lyn Stone’s latest, Bride of Trouville, about a young widow, forced to marry, who must hide her son’s deafness from the husband she’s grown to love. And don’t miss Conor, by bestselling author Ruth Langan, in which a legendary rogue teams up—permanently—with a beautiful lrish noblewoman to thwart a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth.

      

      If those aren’t enough excuses to curl up with a book, then perhaps half-Apache Rio Santee will entice you in Theresa Michaels’ new sigh-inducing Western, The Merry Widows—Sarah, about two wounded souls who heal each other’s hearts.

      

      Whatever your tastes in reading, you’ll be sure to find a romantic journey back to the past between the covers of a Harlequin Historcal^®.

      

      Sincerely,

      

      Tracy Farrell

      Senior Editor

      Please address questions and book requests to:

      Harlequin Reader Service

      U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave.. P.O. Box 1325. Buffalo, NY 14269

      Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Ene, Ont. L2A 5X3

      The Rancher’s Wife

      Lynda Trent

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      LYNDA TRENT

      Lynda Trent has been writing novels for twenty years, using various pen names. Her time travel romances are written under the pseudonym Elizabeth Crane, and her ghost novels as Abigail McDaniels. Romance and mainstream novels, as well as nonfiction, are published as Lynda Trent.

      

      Among other achievements, Lynda Trent has been awarded the prestigious RITA Award by Romance Writers of America for Opal Fires, a contemporary mainstream romance novel. She has frequently been a RITA finalist for both contemporary and historical romances. In 1985 she won a bronze Porgy for Best Western Novel in the West Coast Review of Books. In 1986, she and her former co-author were named Outstanding Historical Romance Writing Team by Romantic Times Magazine. Translations of her fifty-three books are sold worldwide.

      To Courtney Jade Trent—a ray of sunshine

      Chapter One

      

      

      Something hurled itself at the side of the sod hut and Elizabeth prayed the storm hadn’t torn loose more of the barn. It wasn’t a real barn, only a lean-to, not like the ones she had known back home in Hannibal, but it was all the mule had for shelter. Her husband was gone on the horse so the poor mule had only his own body heat to keep him warm in the winter’s first snowstorm.

      Nothing had gone as Elizabeth had planned when she married Robert Parkins seven years before. She had been seventeen and eager to escape her tyrannical father at any cost. At the time she had thought she loved Robert and that they would live in a pretty home filled with love and children. But she was twenty-four now with neither home nor child. Only Robert, and her disillusionment, and