Indulge your fantasies of delicious Regency Rakes, fierce Viking warriors and rugged Highlanders. Be swept away into a world of intense passion, lavish settings and romance that burns brightly through the centuriesHer past has finally caught up with her… After years on the run, Kinsey Templeton has settled in Crystal Springs. But when a handsome stranger steps from the stagecoach, Kinsey knows it’s time to leave. If she doesn’t run she is in danger of losing everything she has ever fought for – her respectability, her home and her son. Jared Mason isn’t going to let her go without a fight. Kinsey surprises him in so many ways and, despite everything, he wants her.So Jared will just have to make sure she never runs again…
It was the stranger, the man she’d kissed in the alleyway.
But he was more than that.
Kinsey saw the stranger and Sam in profile. Same chin. Same nose. Same black hair.
They both turned to her. Eyes and mouth. Nearly identical. Sam’s features were soft. The man’s were hard, straight and rugged. This was what her son would grow up to look like.
Kinsey’s blood ran cold.
Jared Mason had found her.
Judith Stacy fell in love with the West while watching TV Westerns as a child in her rural Virginia home—one of the first in the community to have a television. This Wild West setting, with its strong men and resourceful women, remains one of her favourites. Judith is married to her high school sweetheart. They have two daughters and live in Southern California.
Recent novels by the same author:
MARRIED BY MIDNIGHT
MAGGIE AND THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART THREE BRIDES AND A WEDDING DRESS (in Spring Brides anthology)
THE LAST BRIDE IN TEXAS
THE HIRED HUSBAND A PLACE TO BELONG (in Stay for Christmas anthology)
JARED’S RUNAWAY WOMAN
Judith Stacy
To David, Judy and Stacy—who else?
Chapter One
Colorado, 1887
Kinsey Templeton watched the passengers file out of the stagecoach at the depot across the street. Horses and wagons passed between them kicking up little swirls of dirt. She squinted her eyes against the bright afternoon sunlight and craned her neck for a better view.
A husband and wife. Two women and a young boy. A man traveling alone. All tired and dusty, probably hungry, stretching their legs and drawing fresh breaths of the clean air.
Since arriving in Crystal Springs several months ago, Kinsey watched the arrival of nearly every person who set foot in town. The task had grown more difficult lately. The stage came more frequently now. The railroad had made the town a regular stop on its line, bringing even more new faces. She had her job, too, at the boardinghouse. Kinsey was probably the only person in Crystal Springs who arranged their day to match the stage and train schedules.
She was probably the only one who needed to.
With a quick glance around, Kinsey checked to see if any of the merchants she knew on Main Street or her friends going about their business seemed ready to stop and chat. No one did. No one at the stage depot took notice of her either.
She was all but invisible to everyone arriving in Crystal Springs. Twenty-five years old, her brown hair tucked beneath a bonnet, she wore the same sort of clothing as all the women in town. She looked as if she belonged there.
No one noticed that she watched the stage passengers, scrutinizing their appearance, their clothes and manners. Even if anyone commented about her odd behavior, Kinsey wouldn’t have changed her ways. She couldn’t. She had no choice.
Because she knew that still, after all the miles, all the towns and all the these years, someone would come after her.
How would she recognize him? A family resemblance? Maybe. Maybe not. More likely his clothing. Eastern. Well-cut and expensive. His appearance would be out of place here in the West. He’d have the look of a dandy. A thief.
A predator.
Kinsey turned her attention to the husband and wife in front of the depot. The two of them talked for a few minutes before he pointed to the White Dove Caf'e down the street. The couple was passing through, Kinsey decided, and focused on the two women and young boy who were now speaking to the express agent. She dismissed them as quickly, realizing they were, like so many other travelers she’d seen, inquiring about their layover time. She settled her gaze on the man who’d been the last to exit the stage.
His back was to her as he gazed westward down the street. Tall, wide-shouldered and long-legged. Hours on the cramped stage had surely been difficult for a man his size.
He wore dark trousers and vest, and a pale blue shirt. His black hat covered most of his equally black hair. A pistol was holstered low on his thigh. He carried a small satchel in his hand.
The man seemed to fit in, in dress and manner, at least from what she could see from across the street. Yet a unease crept over Kinsey, as if—