Gold Rush Bride. Debra Lee Brown

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      “There is something you must do for me.”

      “Me?” He looked at her, his dark eyes shining in the firelight. “Your father was my friend. I’ll do what I can, but I’m leaving town tomorrow and don’t plan on ever coming back.”

      As if of their own accord, his eyes washed over her body. He looked away abruptly, embarrassed, it seemed.

      She pulled the buckskin tighter, conscious of her wet dress clinging to her, outlining her hips and legs. “That’s exactly why it must be you, Mr. Crockett. You and no other.”

      He turned toward her, then, and narrowed his eyes. They were black again. Black as a Dublin night in Liffey Quay. “What exactly is it you want, Miss Dennington?”

      She’d likely burn in hell for what she was about to propose, but she mustered her courage and did it anyway.

      “I want you to marry me.”

      Praise for Debra Lee Brown’s previous titles

      Ice Maiden

      “Ice Maiden is an enticing tale that will warm your heart.”

      —Romantic Times Magazine

      The Virgin Spring

      “Debra Lee Brown makes her mark with The Virgin Spring, which should be read by all lovers of Scottish romances.”

      —Affaire de Coeur

      “Debra Lee Brown pens an enjoyable tale of intrigue and adventure.”

      —Romantic Times Magazine

      “A remarkable story. The fast pace, filled with treachery, mystery, and passion, left me breathless.”

      —Rendezvous

      #591 MY LADY’S TRUST

      Julia Justiss

      #592 CALL OF THE WHITE WOLF

      Carol Finch

      #593 DRAGON’S DOWER

      Catherine Archer

      Gold Rush Bride

      Debra Lee Brown

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

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      Available from Harlequin Historicals and

       DEBRA LEE BROWN

      The Virgin Spring #506

      Ice Maiden #549

      The Mackintosh Bride #576

      Gold Rush Bride #594

      To my mother, Marilyn Berger.

      And my father, Lee Hargus

      With love

      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

      Tinderbox, California, 1849

      Kate Dennington arrived too late.

      Months aboard ship, a fortnight tromping across the steaming jungles of Panama. Riverboats, mule trains and enough miles on her feet to wear holes in her shoes.

      And all of it for nothing.

      She ground her teeth behind pursed lips and met the solicitor’s sympathetic gaze. “When did my father die?”

      “Tuesday.” Mr. Vickery looked past her out the window to the graveyard across the road. A fresh mound of earth stared back at them.

      Tuesday. She swiped at her eyes, but her hand came away dry, as always. No tears, girl. Bear up. She could hear her mother speak it in the Irish, even now, so many years after her death. Denningtons didn’t cry. Not ever.

      “W-what day is today?”

      She’d arrived in San Francisco nearly a week ago, ill from the rough steamship journey up the coast, and with barely enough funds left to make her way to the frontier