âYouâre Penelope Lear,â Tucker said. âWho doesnât know the Lears of Anchorage?â
âThat isnât who I am.â
âYou arenât Penelope?â He stayed close to the fire, watching her gather herself. Lamplight flickered, casting shadows on a face that was beautiful in a way he wouldnât have imagined. Maybe because of the light in her eyes, the animation of her features.
âI am Penelope Lear. Butâ¦but Iâm not a spoiled little rich girl.â In the warm glow of the lamp he saw tears pool in her blue eyes.
âIâm sure theyâll be looking for you.â
âOf course they will.â She shivered again.
But would they find her?
Alaskan Bride Rush:
Women are flocking to the Land of the Midnight Sun with marriage on their minds
Klondike HeroâJillian Hart
July 2010
Treasure Creek DadâTerri Reed
August 2010
Doctor RightâJanet Tronstad
September 2010
Yukon CowboyâDebra Clopton
October 2010
Thanksgiving GroomâBrenda Minton
November 2010
The Lawmanâs Christmas WishâLinda Goodnight
December 2010
started creating stories to entertain herself during hour-long rides on the school bus. In high school she wrote romance novels to entertain her friends. The dream grew and so did her aspirations to become an author. She started with notebooks, handwritten manuscripts and characters that refused to go away until their stories were told. Eventually she put away the pen and paper and got down to business with the computer. The journey took a few years, with some encouragement and rejection along the wayâas well as a lot of stubbornness on her part. In 2006 her dream to write for the Steeple Hill Love Inspired line came true. Brenda lives in the rural Ozarks with her husband, three kids and an abundance of cats and dogs. She enjoys a chaotic life that she wouldnât trade for anythingâexcept, on occasion, a beach house in Texas. You can stop by and visit at her website, www.brendaminton.net.
Lost in the Alaskan wilderness.
Penelope Learâs great adventure was not supposed to end this way, with her standing on a shadowy path in the middle of nowhere. Mountains surrounded her, cutting her off from the rest of the world. She was completely, utterly alone in a world so huge she didnât know in which direction to turn.
What had started with her brilliant idea that she could find the treasure and save the town of Treasure Creek was now looking like a news alert. All because she was positive sheâd seen a clue from the treasure map. Just days ago when sheâd taken a hiking tour of the area, she really thought sheâd seen the rock formation that people were talking about. Her dad would have told her she was less than a week in town and already in over her head.
Instead of the confidence she had started out with, she was picturing the headlines that would be splashed across newspapers tomorrow morning. Or whenever they finally realized she was missing.
âPenelope Lear, Heiress, Lost in the Alaskan Wilderness.â
She didnât want to think of other headlines, worse headlines. But she couldnât stop herself from thinking about what would happen if someone didnât find her. If they didnât find the Jeep and her note that she was hiking out, heading south toward Treasure Creek, what would happen?
As for heading south, she hoped she was heading south.
She glanced at her watch and then looked west, where the sun would have been setting in an hour, if not for the mountains encircling her. At least she thought she was looking west. She had a compass in her bag, but she didnât know how to use a compass. It had been part of the equipment sheâd bought at the general store.
The clerk had grinned at her when sheâd bought supplies. Either because he was single and enjoyed all the single women trotting through Treasure Creek and his store, or because he thought she was another clueless city slicker.
Fortunately Joleen Jones had bounced into the general store in time to take some of the pressure off. Joleen with the hair, the clothes and the personality to draw attention the way sugar drew ants. Joleen, like so many other women, had come to Treasure Creek looking for the hunky tour guides described in the Now Woman magazine article.
In the short amount of time Penelope had been in Treasure Creek, she had realized she wasnât the only woman who had shown up to see what the men of Treasure Creek were all about; if they really were different.