Cooper's Wife. Jillian Hart

      Praise for Jillian Hart’s previous work, Last Chance Bride “You have to marry her.” Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Prologue 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 Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Copyright

      Praise for Jillian Hart’s previous work, Last Chance Bride

      “The warm and gentle humanity of Last Chance Bride is a welcome dose of sunshine after a long winter.”

      —Romantic times Magazine

      

      “The main characters are special in so many ways due to their courage, their strength and their ways of fighting for what they beheve in.... In will touc you deeply.”

      —Rendezvous

      “You have to marry her.”

      Cooper couldn’t imagine why his daughter had gotten all worked up over being without a stepmother. Her mother had been gone a long time, nearly half Katie’s life. They’d adjusted, moved on, tried to make a family with just the three of them.

      

      “Why?”

      

      “Because I wrote a letter and asked Mrs. Bauer to come here.”

      

      Cooper deposited Katie on the floor and bolted from the chair. “Let me get this straight. You wrote a letter to a perfect stranger and asked her to come here?”

      

      “To marry us.”

      

      “How did you find Mrs. Bauer in the first place?”

      

      “I bought a newspaper advertisement.”

      

      “You placed a request for a mother in a newspaper?”

      

      Katie’s eyes still brimmed with tears. “No. I pretended to be you....”

      Dear Reader,

      

      Welcome to Harlequin Historicals—stories that will capture your heart with unforgettable characters and the timeless fantasy of falling in love!

      

      Jillian Hart, who made her publishing debut in our 1998 March Madness Promotion with her enormously popular Last Chance Bride, returns this month with another heartwarming Western, Cooper’s Wife. The local sheriff saves a widow and her little girl when their stagecoach is robbed and learns that the woman is a mail-order bride for him—thanks to his meddling daughter. He responsibly proposes a marriage of convenience, and unexpectedly finds a lasting love.

      

      In The Dreammaker by Judith Stacy, also a Western, two people who are swindled by the same man go into business together to recoup their losses and realize their dreams—when love, the dream of a lifetime, is right in front of them! Award-winning author Gayle Wilson returns with Lady Sarah’s Son, an emotional Regency-style tale of sweethearts, torn apart by tragedy, who come together again in a marriage of convenience and can no longer deny their enduring love.... And don’t miss The Hidden Heart, a terrific medieval novel by Sharon Schulze. Here, a beautiful noblewoman must guard her heart from the only, man she has ever loved—the Earl of Wynfield, who has returned to her keep on a dangerous secret mission.

      

      Enjoy! And come back again next month for four more choices of the best in historical romance.

      

      Sincerely,

      

      Tracy Farrell, Senior Editor

      

      P.S. We’d love to hear what you think about Harlequin Historicals! Drop us a line at:

      

      Harlequin Histoncals

      300 E. 42nd Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10017

      Cooper’s Wife

      Jillian Hart

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      JILLIAN HART grew up in rural Washington State, where she learned how to climb trees, build tree houses and ride ponies. A perfect childhood for a historical romance author. She left home and went to college and has lived in cities ever since. But the warm memories from her childhood still linger in her heart, memories she incorporates into her stories. When Jillian is not hard at work on her next novel, she enjoys reading, flower gardening, hiking with her husband and trying to train her wiggly cocker spaniel puppy to sit. And failing.

      To Henry, my husband and best friend, who is all of my heart

      Prologue

      

      

      Montana 1864

      

      “Candy, Mama?”

      “In a minute, pumpkin.” The bank was busy and the line behind her long, but Anna Bauer smoothed the gold curls from her tiny daughter’s forehead.

      “One hundred twenty-five dollars and thirty-seven cents.” The clerk counted out Anna’s life savings with crisp flicks of twenty-dollar bills.

      So much money. Anna’s heart flickered as she counted