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Blurb
Some men left the civilized settlements of the east to risk life and limb in the lawless gold and silver mines of California and Nevada for wealth. Beth Dodd left behind her little sister and the civilized farming region of southern Ohio that she loved to travel to those same gold and silver regions in search for her scalawag of a husband who deserted her. In Lundy, Beth finds rancher named Val Caldwell with a heart bigger than all the gold in the Mono County mountains of the eastern Sierra-Nevada. She stays, knowing she has a responsibility to settle affairs with her husband. But, having lost almost everything she valued due to the decisions forced upon her first by her father and then by her husband, can she ever again trust a man to have any degree of influence or control over her life?
Bitter over laws that favor men over women and determined to start a new life for herself and her sister on her own terms and through her own efforts, Beth resists the attraction she feels towards Val. Can Val make any headway in his quest to persuade Beth to consider a future with him someday?
Excerpt
“I done made provisions
for you, daughter. You ain’t gonna be workin’ like this no more. I found me a man
to buy the farm.”
His words immediately
propelled Beth into action. Her face suffused with shock, she threw her splayed
hands up next to her head as she sucked in her breath. Next, she leaned forward
and reached to grab her father’s hands clinging to the wooden arms of the rocker.
At the last moment, she thought better of it and clasped her hands in front of her.
“No, Pa! There ain’t
no call you doin’ that. We’re doin’ right fine. Sellin’ the farm will force us to
move to town. You don’t want that.”
“We ain’t movin’
to town. We’re stayin’ right here. I done found you a husband, Beth. It’s part of
the deal. He’s goin’ to marry you as part of buyin’ the farm.”
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