Myra Felton’s grandfather has sold her to a banker to pay his debts! But Myra will not become the property of the evil Cosmos Hubbard—she plans her escape… With her future uncertain, she leaves in the dead of night for Charleston, the largest city of any size, vowing to lose herself there. But a chance encounter with a marriage broker gives her the best plan of all—with no money of her own, she agrees to travel to Wyoming, as far from Cosmos Hubbard as she can get!
He’s desperate for a cook…
Anson Barlow fears mutiny from his four younger brothers if he
can’t come up with someone to cook a decent meal for them all once in a while! It’s hard enough to run a thriving ranch such as the Circle B without having to worry about cooking and cleaning—talents the Barlow brothers lack. When he signs a contract for a housekeeper, he doesn’t realize that also means a wife.
Love is waiting…
When Anson meets Myra at the train station, she’s not at all what he’s expecting. He can’t protect her from the gossips if he takes her home without marrying her—and though he may be many things, he is not that cruel. But though the marriage may protect her from vicious jealousy in the town, what will happen when Cosmos Hubbard shows up to claim the woman he says is rightfully his? Will MYRA’S ESCAPE have been for nothing?
EXCERPT:
“What do you mean, you hate Myra?”
“I didn’t never want no more young’uns after my son turned out so rotten, but Myra was our granddaughter and Emmie Mae said it was only right that we take her in. After our son died, the girl was in an orphanage for a couple of years or so. She was ten or twelve years old by the time Emmie Mae found her.”
“Why did she come to live here?”
“When my sorry son and his wife died and there weren’t no-where else for the girl to go ’cept the orphanage. Spite me saying we ought to leave her there to grow up, Emmie Mae wouldn’t hear to it. She said it was our duty to raise the girl. I finally give in to Emmie Mae ’cause she swore she’d not cook my meals no longer if’n I didn’t let the girl come to live here.”
Myra’s heart almost stopped. She knew she and her grandfather didn’t get along very well, but she never dreamed he actually hated her. Though she’d never cared for him as much as she did her grandmother, she always thought they were family, and therefore cared somewhat for each other. That was one reason she’d stayed on at the farm after her grandmother’s death. She felt she should look after her grandpa out of respect. But his words had changed everything.
She decided her duty to him was over and she would no longer worry about him or his farm. It was time to start taking care of herself. After all, she would soon be twenty years old. It was time to get away from here and live her own life somewhere else.
Before she could think of a way to get away and out of her grandfather’s hideous plan, Cosmos shouted, “I know you’re listening, Myra Felton. So to make it clear, you better be at my house on Saturday by the time I get home from work. Don’t get it in your head to try to run away because there’s no place in South Carolina or anywhere else that I’ll not find you. I’ll follow and find you anywhere you run. I’ve wanted you for a long time, and you will be mine, whether or not you want to be.”
She didn’t answer aloud, but in her mind, she thought again, When Hell freezes over.
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