The Sheriff Gets His Lady. Dani Sinclair

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      Isabella Trueblood made history reuniting people torn apart by war and an epidemic. Now, generations later, Lily and Dylan Garrett carry on her work with their agency, Finders Keepers. Circumstances may have changed, but the goal remains the same.

      Lost

      The joy of motherhood. Skylar Diamond was a successful fashion designer now, but the regret she harbored at the long-ago decision to give up her baby haunted her still.

      Found

      A grown-up daughter and an overprotective father. Sheriff Noah Beaufort didn’t appreciate a high-society type nosing around his town, watching his daughter, Lauren. Then Lauren took a fancy to the woman, and in spite of himself, so did Noah. But he was too good a lawman to trust her motives. Something was definitely suspicious....

      “You’re free to go, Ms. Diamond, but stay away from Lauren.

      “My daughter is engaged to be married this summer. The last thing she needs or wants is a career in modeling.”

      Her composure slipped when he mentioned the engagement. He saw an instant of shock before she rallied, blanking her expression completely. The phone rang again as she came to her feet. “Isn’t that for her to decide, Sheriff?”

      “You don’t know when to quit, do you?” But she definitely had spunk, he’d give her that.

      “This isn’t the Middle Ages, you know. Women do have choices.”

      He grabbed his hat, answering his assistant’s emergency call, and closed the distance between him and the woman. Flecks of blue and green shimmered in her eyes as excitement warred with apprehension. While she flinched slightly, she didn’t back up or lower her gaze.

      “Go back to New York, Ms. Diamond. You’ve overstayed your welcome in Darwin Crossing. If I find you around town again, I’ll arrest you for loitering.”

      “And I thought New Yorkers were cold.” She shot the words after him.

      Noah sprinted for the gas station and his leaky truck. So she thought he was cold, did she? Well, cold was the one way Skylar Diamond definitely didn’t leave him.

      Dear Reader,

      I was excited to be asked to participate in the Trueblood, Texas series with such a talented group of authors. Bigger than life, these bold men and women of the series are ready to tame and be tamed—by the right mates.

      Noah and Sky’s story presented a unique opportunity to delve into the complexities of more than simply a man and woman’s relationship. How would it feel to discover that the infant you had to give up at birth was about to marry? What would it be like to fall in love, only to learn the woman you love is the mother of your adopted daughter? And what would happen if you discovered that someone you liked and respected was actually your birth mother?

      Writing this story was a challenging undertaking. But watching them struggle to become a family unit and overcome their problems was a voyage of discovery for all of us.

      I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Sheriff Gets His Lady. And be sure to watch for the next installment from Trueblood, Texas. I know I’m looking forward to it.

      Happy reading!

      Dani Sinclair

      The Sheriff Gets His Lady

      Dani Sinclair

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Dani Sinclair is acknowledged as the author of this work.

      This one is for you, Roger—my helpmate, lover and best friend.

      Special thanks to Mary McGowan and Jacki Frank for help beyond the call of friendship.

      And for Chip, Dan and Barb as always

      THE TRUEBLOOD LEGACY

      THE YEAR WAS 1918, and the Great War in Europe still raged, but Esau Porter was heading home to Texas.

      The young sergeant arrived at his parents’ ranch northwest of San Antonio on a Sunday night, only the celebration didn’t go off as planned. Most of the townsfolk of Carmelita had come out to welcome Esau home, but when they saw the sorry condition of the boy, they gave their respects quickly and left.

      The fever got so bad so fast that Mrs. Porter hardly knew what to do. By Monday night, before the doctor from San Antonio made it into town, Esau was dead.

      The Porter family grieved. How could their son have survived the German peril, only to burn up and die in his own bed? It wasn’t much of a surprise when Mrs. Porter took to her bed on Wednesday. But it was a hell of a shock when half the residents of Carmelita came down with the horrible illness. House after house was hit by death, and all the townspeople could do was pray for salvation.

      None came. By the end of the year, over one hundred souls had perished. The influenza virus took those in the prime of life, leaving behind an unprece-dented number of orphans. And the virus knew no boundaries. By the time the threat had passed, more than thirty-seven million people had succumbed worldwide.

      But in one house, there was still hope.

      Isabella Trueblood had come to Carmelita in the late 1800s with her father, blacksmith Saul Trueblood, and her mother, Teresa Collier Trueblood. The family had traveled from Indiana, leaving their Quaker roots behind.

      Young Isabella grew up to be an intelligent woman who had a gift for healing and storytelling. Her dreams centered on the boy next door, Foster Carter, the son of Chester and Grace.

      Just before the bad times came in 1918, Foster asked Isabella to be his wife, and the future of the Carter spread was secured. It was a happy union, and the future looked bright for the young couple.

      Two years later, not one of their relatives was alive. How the young couple had survived was a miracle. And during the epidemic, Isabella and Foster had taken in more than twenty-two orphaned children from all over the county. They fed them, clothed them, taught them as if they were blood kin.

      Then Isabella became pregnant, but there were complications. Love for her handsome son, Josiah, born in 1920, wasn’t enough to stop her from grow-ing weaker by the day. Knowing she couldn’t leave her husband to tend to all the children if she died, she set out to find families for each one of her orphaned charges.

      And so the Trueblood Foundation was born. Named in memory of Isabella’s parents, it would become famous all over Texas. Some of the orphaned children went to strangers, but many were reunited with their

      families. After reading notices in newspapers and church bulletins, aunts, uncles, cousins and grand-parents rushed to Carmelita to find the young ones they’d given up for dead.

      Toward the end of Isabella’s life, she’d brought together more than thirty families, and not just her orphans. Many others, old and young, made their way to her doorstep, and Isabella turned no one away.

      At her death, the town’s name was changed to Trueblood, in her honor. For years to come, her simple grave was adorned with flowers on the anniversary of her death, grateful tokens of appreciation from the families she had brought together.

      Isabella’s son, Josiah, grew into a fine rancher and married Rebecca Montgomery in 1938. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Trueblood Carter, in 1940. Elizabeth married her neighbor William Garrett in 1965, and gave birth to twins Lily and Dylan in 1971, and daughter Ashley a few years later. Home was the Double G ranch, about ten miles from Trueblood proper, and the Garrett children grew up listening to stories of their famous great-grandmother, Isabella. Because they were Truebloods, they knew that they, too, had a sacred duty to carry on the tradition passed down to them: finding lost souls and reuniting loved ones.

      Contents

       PROLOGUE