Plum Creek Bride
PLUM CREEK BRIDEErika Scharf Had Always Followed Her Heart Now it had led her to America, and a tortured man with a motherless infant. But would the widowed Dr. Jonathan Callender ever recover from his grief? Whatever drove him had died with his young wife - or so it seemed to Jonathan Callender.He knew only that nothing mattered anymore - until the day a German whirlwind disguised as the very determined Erika Scharf charged into his life - and made his heart live again.
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Table of Contents
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth,
but his eyes were calm.
All at once she felt light-headed. She couldn’t look away from him.
Was it possible this stiff, unfriendly man had a glimmer of understanding about how she felt?
No, not possible. He planned to send his baby daughter—his own child—thousands of miles across the sea to Scotland. What kind of man would do that?
Still, he had kept her secret. And he hadn’t objectedwell, not too strongly, at least—when she’d spoken up about sending his child away.
Absentmindedly, Erika pressed new patterns into her mounded potatoes while she tried to think about the man who faced her across the table. Dr. Jonathan Callender held her future in the palm of his smooth, aristocratic hand. She had to try to understand him.
More than that, she had to please him.!
Dear Reader,
As the weather heats up this month, so do the passion and adventure in our romances!
Let’s begin with handsome single father Dr. Jonathan Callender and his darling baby girl, who will undoubtedly warm your heart in Plum Creek Bride, an emotional new Western by Lynna Banning. Critics have described the author’s works as “evocative,” “touching” and “pure fun!” In this marriage-of-convenience tale, German nanny Erika Scharf arrives in Oregon to care for the Callender child, and finds a grieving widower who struggles to heal a town plagued by cholera. But it is Erika who heals Jonathan-by teaching him how to love again.
Medieval fans, prepare yourself for an utterly romantic forced-marriage story with Susan Spencer Paul’s latest, The Captive Bride, about a fierce knight who’ll stop at nothing to reclaim his family’s estate-even marriage! Ana Seymour brings us Lord of Lyonsbridge, the daring tale of a sinfully handsome horse master who teaches a spoiled Norman beauty important lessons in compassion and love.
Temperatures—and tempers-flare in Heart of the Lawman by Linda Castle, which is set in Arizona Territory. Here, a single mother is released from prison, only to find that the man who mistakenly put her there, Sheriff Flynn O’Bannion, is awfully close to capturing her heart!
Whatever your tastes in reading, you’ll be sure to find a romantic journey back to the past between the covers of a Harlequin Historicals® novel.
Sincerely,
Tracy Farrell
Senior Editor
Please address questions and book requests to:
Harlequin Reader Service
U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3
LYNNA BANNING
has combined a lifelong love of history and literature into a satisfying new career as a writer. Born in Oregon, she has lived in Northern California most of her life, graduating from Scripps College and embarking on her career as an editor and technical writer, and later as a high school English teacher.
An amateur pianist and harpsichordist, Lynna performs on psaltery and recorders with two Renaissance ensembles and teaches music in her spare time. Currently she is learning to play the harp.
She enjoys hearing from her readers. You may write to her directly at P.O. Box 324, Felton, CA 95018.
For Suzanne Barrett.
With grateful thanks, to Yvonne Woolston, Andrew and Shirley Yarnes, Leslie Yarnes Sugai, Lawrence Yarnes and my great-grandmother, Mareia Bruhn Boessen.
Plum Creek, Oregon, 1886
The searing July heat boiled up from the road as Erika gazed up the tree-shaded street. She shifted her heavy satchel to her other hand. She had walked all the way from the stagecoach stop, and the plain, high collar of her wilted travel dress stuck to her neck. Perspiration trickled between her breasts, and her feet, imprisoned in tight high-button shoes, baked like twin loaves of Brot. Bread, she corrected. English words were so hard to remember!
She turned up the street, trudged another twenty paces and stopped. The two-story house occupied the entire corner across from where she stood. A white board fence encircled the meticulously groomed emerald lawn, and a scrolled iron sign hung from a porch rafter. Jonathan Callender, Physician.
Such a grand home!
A trio of graceful plum trees shaded the huge grayand-black Victorian structure from the merciless sun. Erika moved past the neat row of scarlet zinnias bordering the gravel path leading to the front porch, unlatched the gate and marched up the cobbled walk. Settling her satchel on the painted veranda floor, she lifted the iron knocker and rapped twice. After what seemed an interminable wait, she rapped again. Someone must be home; a dusty black buggy stood in front of the house.
