Marry a wealthy man and provide a home for those she loves? Or have the courage to go west by wagon train to California and chase a dream of her own?

    Not if they value their life. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a lethal plot to burn the Archer brothers off their ranch, a twelve-year-old debt compels her to take the risk.Fourteen years of constant vigilance hardens a man. Yet when Travis Archer confronts a female trespasser with the same vivid blue eyes as the courageous young girl he once aided, he can't bring himself to send her away. And when an act of sacrifice leaves her injured and her reputation in shreds, gratitude and guilt send him riding to her rescue once again.Four brothers. Four straws. One bride. Despite the fact that Travis is no longer the gallant youth Meredith once dreamed about, she determines to stand by his side against the enemy that threatens them both. But will love ever be hers? Or will Travis always see her merely as a short-straw bride?

    Until he tangled with a haughty young Chinese woman as accustomed to ruling her world as he was his.

    They were nothing but trouble. Leaving the rash life of his youth behind, he returned to Skye, seeking peace. He never meant to split the clan or start a war with the MacDonald of Duntulm. He certainly never foresaw an arranged marriage to the most scandalous woman in Scotland. Even though she was twice his age, the size of a horse and mother to more than one illegitimate child, he agreed to secure his sister's freedom.However, even that plan goes drastically awry. On his wedding day, he finds himself faced instead with an enticing, green-eyed lass named Bree. A walking disaster, his bride immediately turns his world into chaos and threatens to melt his resolve never to love again.BOOK TWO:  The Award-Winning Novel: "The Bedeviled Heart" - ROMANCE SILVER MEDAL WINNER of the Independent Publisher Book Awards!(Scotland, 1479) Cameron Malcolm Stewart, Earl of Lennox, had made his peace with destiny. It was not his fate to love as other men.Each of his politically arranged marriages had ended in disaster. And though he had never touched a one of his wives, he had come to believe that sharing his name would consign a woman to an early grave.So, on the sunny spring day Cameron encounters a delightfully devious, bright-eyed lass selling charmed stones in one of Stirling's alehouses, he tosses her a shilling, thinking only to steal a kiss. But it is a kiss that will change his life forever.BOOK THREE: "The Daring Heart" (Scotland, 1482) - To the scandalous Lord Julian Gray, marriage is a malady and nothing more. How can a man even court a lass longer than a fortnight when there are so many pouting lips to kiss? Roaming the courts of Europe, Julian appears to spend his time drinking wine, wagering gold, and dandling willing lasses upon his knee. But no one knows the man behind the mask. No one knows that he is Le Marin--Europe's most daring and brazen spy.But everything changes the night he finds a dagger pressed against his ribs and an alluring hazel-eyed minx in his bed.BOOK FOUR: "The Bold Heart"(Scotland, 1488) - Ewan was a battle-weary warrior with haunted dreams. He no longer believed in love.As Scotland's greatest warrior and heir to the earldom of Mull, few dared to cross swords with Ewan MacLean. But the price he paid for his fearsome reputation was a heavy one. To survive, he buried his emotions and became only the warrior, riding from battle to battle with his men to protect Scotland from threats within and without her borders and letting himself feel nothing else.But when his right-hand man, Alec Montgomery, is caught dallying with a powerful Lord's daughter, a trap is set. And both Ewan and Alec find themselves in an English prison, their necks headed for the noose.On the Isle of Skye, the raven-haired Merry MacLeod spends her days caring for the clan elderly and hurtling across the moors on the back of her black stallion. A high-spirited, adventurous lass, she is no longer troubled by childhood memories of the day the braw lad, Ewan MacLean, rescued her from her husband, the cruel MacDonald. But when she hears the very same Ewan is now confined in an English prison, she disguises herself as a lad and sets out to repay her debt.

    Original.

    First, however, he'll take sweet revenge by kidnapping his sire's new betrothed. But when Giles uncovers a plot against King Richard, he faces a dilemma: take the lady or track the traitors. What's a good mercenary to do? Both, of course.Abandoned in a convent by her brother, Lady Emelin finally has the chance for home and family. Yet now she's been abducted. Her kidnapper may be the image of her dream knight, but she won't allow him to spoil this betrothal. Her only solution: escapeRescuing the intrepid lady--while hunting the traitors--is a challenge Giles couldn't anticipate. But the greatest challenge to both Giles and Emelin is the fire blazing between them. For he's everything a proper lady should never want, and she's everything a bastard mercenary can never have.

    Drake Kincaid's surprise proposal offers the solution she needs. But neither Drake nor Pearl realize trouble will follow them to Texas or why. Pearl is not the wife Drake's grandfather envisioned when he ordered Drake to marry by his 30th birthday. Pearl is not the meek wife Drake envisioned and he soon learns she has a mind of her own. Humor, adventure, murder, kidnapping and arson invade the passion this couple shares.

    Now Nora's love for Cal will cost her everything she holds dear. . .

    Sarah Conway was something else again. She was every inch an Eastern lady, yet she was determined to make Lone Bluff her home.Jake was annoyed to find himself playing guardian angel to this tantalizing innocent--even more disgusted to find he liked it. Little did he suspect that beneath Sarah's ladylike demeanor beat the heart of a frontier woman ant that her body yearned for his hard embrace, her heart for his words of love .. . .

    Determined to bring his friend's estranged daughter, Raven Ralston, back into her family fold, Steve Maddox is surprised by the half-Tonkawa girl he meets, a woman cast out of her dead mother's family who quickly falls in love with him.

    It's a burning quest he has devoted himself to uncovering at any cost. But as a roguish warrior who serves at the pleasure of the King, his prowess-both on the battlefield and in his bedchamber-is legendary. So when a flame-haired Highland lass sneaks into his quarters with a tantalizing proposition, he can't resist taking her up on her offer . . . AN UNQUENCHABLE DESIRELady Mirabelle MacLaren will do anything to keep from marrying her odious suitor, even sully her own good name. And who better to despoil her than his sworn enemy, the one they call "Hawk?" As they set about the enjoyable task of ruining her reputation, Hawk and Mirabelle soon learn that rebellion never tasted so sweet.

    In eighteenth-century Virginia, the lush lands embraced the rivers that bounded the great plantations. There Clayton awaited his English lady...but when he showered his bride with ardent kisses, the woman he found in his arms was Nicole Courtalain!

    Little does he know that, many years later, he will once again cross paths with Princess Sierra when she journeys to America in search of the truth behind her missing, and presumed dead, husband. Although distrustful, their attraction to each other is undeniable - and Princess Sierra is torn. All her life, she has been convinced that affairs of state take precedence over matters of the heart.But as she and High Wolf enter dangerous Crow territory, Princess Sierra finds herself willing to risk all for the chance to regain High Wolf′s love and trust.

    the feisty Irishwoman with secret fears—and secret loves. She made the Cambria empire hers forever.Stephen... he was stern and cruel. But one day, he would pay for his crimes—and his ambition.Lario... a Navajo, he had vowed revenge. But one day, he would promise his heart to Rosemary Rhodes.Grant... forever desiring Rosemary, he linked his destiny with hers. Only to gain a dangerous rival.Stephanie... headstrong and passionate, she was bound to her Indian past—and doomed to her Indian future.Chase the Wind... fated to struggle in the white man's world, and destined to inherit it, he became the first of his kind in the land of the Dust Devil.(

    Army during the Indian Wars. This collection of nine stories set in the era of the frontier army gives an entertaining and educational glimpse into a world not often explored in fiction. "Kathleen Flaherty's Long Winter" weaves a tale of an Irish woman who has no choice but to marry a man she barely knows after the death of her husband leaves her penniless. She struggles with isolation and the cruelty of the others in the fort because of her rapid marriage. In the end, hers is a story of loss, love, and survival. But these are not all love stories. In "Mary Murphy" one soldier reflects about the hard life of a laundress. "A Season for Heroes" tells of a buffalo soldier named Ezra Freeman, a true hero to one officer's family. The collection concludes with "Jesse MacGregor." The narrator, John, looks back on an Apache attack in the desert. After his detail's captain is killed and John is injured, authority falls to surgeon Jesse MacGregor. The account of their struggle to fight hunger, thirst, the elements, and of course, the Apaches, is mesmerizing. Kelly does not leave comedy out of her collection. "Fille de Joie" is a charming story of a married couple reunited after an almost two-year separation. The wife is arrested after the two make too much noise during their afternoon tryst. She is charged with being a fille de joie, and the comedy ensues. Kelly's work will find an audience among those interested in feminist literature, American history, fiction, and nonfiction.