Accidental Sweetheart. Lisa Bingham

      

      Her Reluctant Lawman Match

      Suffragist Lydia Tomlinson won’t stand for the rule banning women from the Batchwell Bottoms mining camp...even if protesting it means “kidnapping” miners to use as leverage. And with Pinkerton detective Gideon Gault guarding the mail-order brides, the women have chosen her to distract him. Now Lydia just has to pretend interest long enough to reach their goal...

      Gideon promised to uphold the camp’s code of conduct, but he’s met his match in feisty Lydia. When a gang of outlaws threatens the town, he and Lydia must put their differences aside. And as they join forces to stop the thieves, he can’t help but wish her protest will succeed...so she can stay by his side forever.

      LISA BINGHAM is the bestselling author of more than thirty historical and contemporary romantic fiction novels. She’s been a teacher for more than thirty years, and has served as a costume designer for theatrical and historical reenactment enthusiasts. Currently she lives in rural northern Utah near her husband’s fourth-generation family farm with her sweetheart and three beautiful children. She loves to hear from her fans at lisabinghamauthor.com or Facebook.com/lisabinghamauthor.

       Also By Lisa Bingham

       Love Inspired Historical

      The Bachelors of Aspen Valley

       Accidental Courtship

      Accidental Family

      Accidental Sweetheart

      Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

      Accidental Sweetheart

      Lisa Bingham

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      ISBN: 978-1-474-08441-3

      ACCIDENTAL SWEETHEART

      © 2018 Lisa Bingham

      Published in Great Britain 2018

      by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

      All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

      By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      “Will you be relieved to see us gone?”

      When Lydia met his gaze, Gideon looked as if she’d handed him a time bomb set to explode.

      Laughing, she said, “I suppose there’s no diplomatic way of answering that.”

      His eyes creased in amusement. “I grew up with sisters. I’ve learned to recognize a loaded question.”

      “Then let me rephrase. I know your duties will be simplified. But I wonder if you’ll miss us in some small way.”

      He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “I dare say this valley will miss all of you. You’ve brought a measure of joy to what would have been a dreary winter.”

      Lydia supposed she shouldn’t put too much import into his words, but she couldn’t ignore the warmth that settled in her heart.

      “I’m glad we weren’t a complete chore.”

      He shook his head. “Not a complete chore.”

      When she would have glared at him, he laughed. “You mustn’t take yourself too seriously. After all, our time together is limited.”

      Yes. But did it have to be?

      The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

      —Genesis 49:26

      Dear Reader,

      I hope that you enjoyed Lydia’s and Gideon’s story, Accidental Sweetheart. This is the third and final book in the Bachelors of Aspen Valley series, and I wanted to make sure that I finished everything with a bang! To my delight, much like the characters themselves, as soon as I started writing, Lydia and Gideon hijacked the plot and decided to have a rollicking good time. In addition, characters from the first two books, Accidental Courtship and Accidental Family, decided to help out. I had so much fun bringing everyone together for one last happy ending.

      I love to hear from my readers, so if you’d like to get in touch, you can reach me at my website, www.lisabinghamauthor.com, or through my social media sites, www.Facebook.com/lisabinghamauthor, and Twitter @lbinghamauthor.

      All my best to you,

       Lisa

      Dedicated to Joyce, my mother.

      Thank you for always believing in me.

      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       About the Author

       Booklist

       Title Page