Rancher Wants a Wife. Kate Bridges

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       ‘Welcome to my valley.’

      There went her nerves again. Cassandra couldn’t get enough of looking at the new Jack. Goodness. Wasn’t he handsome? Perhaps he knew it. Perhaps this new confidence she sensed in him came from being aware of how he was perceived by the women around him. And those women … they had such fine features and beautiful skin.

      It hurt to remember that she’d once looked like that. That she’d once turned heads and garnered male attention.

      She composed herself and tried to remain positive. Jack hadn’t asked anyone else to marry him; he had asked her. So Cassandra focused on what the future with him might bring, and gave him a cheerful nod.

      ‘Nice to be here finally.’

      ‘Yes, finally,’ he said, as if he were thinking about something more.

      She swooped down to inhale the perfume of the roses, hoping the colour heating up her cheeks didn’t show.

      Finally, after all these years, Jack McColton would be taking her virginity.

       Kate Bridges invites you to her

       MAIL-ORDER WEDDINGS

       From blushing bride to rancher’s wife!

      The Great Fire of Chicago might have changed

      best friends Cassandra Hamilton’s and Natasha O’Sullivan’s lives for ever, but they’re determined to carve a new future for themselves as mail-order brides in the West.

      Then along come their Stetson-wearing, gun-slinging, breathtaking new husbands—it seems Cassandra and Natasha have got a whole lot more than they signed up for!

      Read Cassandra’s story in:

      RANCHER WANTS A WIFE

      And look out for Natasha’s story

      WELCOME TO WYOMING

      Coming April 2014

      Rancher Wants a Wife

      Kate Bridges

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Award-winning and multi-published author KATE BRIDGES was raised in rural Canada, and her stories reflect her love for wide-open spaces, country sunshine and the Rocky Mountains. She loves writing adventurous tales of the men and women who tamed the West. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Kate worked as a paediatric intensive care nurse. She often includes compelling medical situations in her novels. Later in her education she studied architecture, and worked as a researcher on a television design programme. She has taken postgraduate studies in comedy screenwriting, and in her spare time writes screenplays. Kate’s novels have been translated into nine languages, studied in over a dozen colleges on their commercial fiction courses, and are sold worldwide. She lives in the beautiful cosmopolitan city of Toronto with her family. To find out more about Kate’s books and to sign up for her free online newsletter please visit www.katebridges.com

       Previous novels by the author:

      THE DOCTOR’S HOMECOMING

       THE SURGEON

       THE ENGAGEMENT

       THE PROPOSITION

       THE CHRISTMAS GIFTS THE BACHELOR

       THE COMMANDER

       KLONDIKE DOCTOR

       SHOTGUN VOWS

       KLONDIKE WEDDING

       KLONDIKE FEVER

       WANTED IN ALASKA

       HER ALASKAN GROOM

       ALASKAN RENEGADE

       Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

      This book is dedicated to my family for their loving support and for always coming through with their sense of humour.

      In writing this story I owe many thanks to my fabulous editor, Carly Byrne, for her talented editorial input and advice. I’d also like to thank Linda Fildew for her support, and the entire team in the UK offices for their friendliness when I came to visit and their dedication behind the scenes.

       I would like to thank my marvellous agent, Erica Spellman Silverman, for her enthusiasm and guidance, and the whole team at the Trident Media Group.

       It’s a great pleasure to work with all of you.

      Contents

       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

       Chapter Twenty-Two

      Chapter One

      Chicago, February 1873 Mrs. Pepik’s Boardinghouse for Desolate Women

      “What if my husband doesn’t like me? What if I don’t like him?” Cassandra Hamilton leaned forward at the crowded dining table. Her blond braid dipped over her shoulder as she lifted a stack of letters from her would-be grooms.

      A dozen other chattering young women jostled around her to read the names and notes.

      All these men, thought Cassandra, interested in her?

      “Don’t worry so much, my dear.