Pox on you!

During the period where I set almost all my western romances (1870-1885), disease killed so many people. Even the common ones like chicken pox took about 150 lives each year. Not a lot was known about diseases and each epidemic caused wide-spread panic. People often mistook chicken pox for small pox which was among the deadliest afflictions. Many didn’t see any distinction between them.

In my December 1st book, FOREVER HIS TEXAS BRIDE, Brett Liberty rescues two dozen sick Comanche orphans who are hiding out in a nearby canyon. His neighbor, Edgar Dowlin, sees the red spots on them and assumes they have small pox. The man enlists people in the surrounding towns to take up arms and eliminate the threat. Eaten up with hate for every Indian, Dowlin continues to wage war even after the doctor tells him the children merely have chicken pox.

Brett, who is a half-breed, is determined to save the innocent kids. He’s fought prejudice all his life and is determined to save these children. Brett’s blood brothers, Cooper Thorne and Rand Sinclair, stand shoulder to shoulder with him but the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against them even with their loyal ranch hands. Despite their chances, they’ll fight to the last breath for these orphans who have no one.

Rayna Harper knows what it’s like to be shunned. She’s a bone-picker’s daughter. Bone pickers were deemed the lowest of people and no one welcomed them when they passed through a town with their wagons piled high with bones. Brett finds a kindred soul in her after they meet in a jail when the sheriff arrests him for the crime of simply “being born.” Brett is drawn to her beauty and amazing strength. From their first touch through the cold steel bars, love stirs in his heart. He wants this woman, wants to make her his wife.

But he won’t risk having people call her names like squaw and whore and spit on her as he knew they would. Aching, he tucks his love away, hiding what he most wants.

When his brothers come to get him out of jail, he refuses to leave without her. He takes her to Battle Creek, Texas where he has a small ranch and gets her a job as a nurse for the local doctor. When Brett finds the sick children, he sends for her.

Sharing his Wild Horse Ranch with Rayna deepens his yearnings to have her. Their love binds them like a strip of rawhide. But can they survive long enough to claim the forbidden passion they’ve found?

FOREVER HIS TEXAS BRIDE is the third and final book of the popular Bachelors of Battle Creek series. Join me for the thrilling conclusion. It’s available for preorder everywhere online and will release on December 1st.

Kindle | Amazon.com | BN.com | iTunes/iBooks | Kobo Google Play | Books-A-Million | Powell's Books | Indiebound

And if you missed the first two of this series—TEXAS MAIL ORDER BRIDE and TWICE A TEXAS BRIDE – you can still get both online and in bookstores.