Jule Mcbride - Secret Baby Spencer

You’re invited to…

Return to Tyler

Where scandals and secrets are unleashed in a small town and love is found around every corner…

Don’t miss any of these wonderful love stories!

Secret Baby Spencer

Jule McBride

Patchwork Family

Judy Christenberry

Prescription for Seduction

Darlene Scalera

Bride of Dreams

Linda Randall Wisdom

Dear Reader,

November is an exciting month here at Harlequin American Romance. You’ll notice we have a brand-new look—but, of course, you can still count on Harlequin American Romance to bring you four terrific love stories sure to warm your heart.

Back by popular demand, Harlequin American Romance revisits the beloved town of Tyler, Wisconsin, in the RETURN TO TYLER series. Scandals, secrets and romances abound in this small town with fabulous stories written by some of your favorite authors. The always wonderful Jule McBride inaugurates this special four-book series with Secret Baby Spencer.

Bestselling author Muriel Jensen reprises her heartwarming WHO’S THE DADDY? series with Father Fever. Next, a former wallflower finally gets the attention of her high school crush when he returns to town and her friends give her a makeover and some special advice in Catching His Eye, the premiere of Jo Leigh’s THE GIRLFRIENDS’ GUIDE TO…continuing series. Finally, Harlequin American Romance’s theme promotion, HAPPILY WEDDED AFTER, which focuses on marriages of convenience, continues with Pamela Bauer’s The Marriage Portrait.

Enjoy them all—and don’t forget to come back again next month when another installment in the RETURN TO TYLER series from Judy Christenberry is waiting for you.

Wishing you happy reading,

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin American Romance

Secret Baby Spencer

Jule McBride

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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In 1993 Jule McBride’s dream came true with the publication of her debut novel, Wild Card Wedding. It received the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best First Series Romance. Ever since, the author has continued to pen stories that have met with strong reviews and made repeated appearances on romance bestseller lists.

500—WILD CARD WEDDING

519—BABY TRAP

546—THE WRONG WIFE?

562—THE BABY & THE BODYGUARD

577—BRIDE OF THE BADLANDS

599—THE BABY MAKER

617—THE BOUNTY HUNTER’S BABY

636—BABY ROMEO: P.I.

658—COLE IN MY STOCKING

693—MISSION: MOTHERHOOD*

699—VERDICT: PARENTHOOD*

725—DIAGNOSIS: DADDY*

733—AKA: MARRIAGE*

753—SMOOCHIN’ SANTA**

757—SANTA SLEPT OVER**

849—SECRET BABY SPENCER

418—WED TO A STRANGER?

519—THE STRONG SILENT TYPE

Seth Spencer—There’s a wealth of passion burning beneath this banker’s three-piece suit!

Jenna Robinson—She’s got a bridal gown in tow—and a baby on the way….

Quinn and Brady Spencer—Seth’s sexy brothers. Their motto is: “No Spencer man ever commits!”

Elias Spencer—His wife ran away with his heart….

Martha Bauer, Bea Ferguson, Emma Finklebaum, Merry Linton, Tillie Phelps—The famous Quilting Circle—their quilts are the very fabric of Tyler.

Caroline Benning— the waitress is new to town, and not too sure if she’ll stay….

Johnny and Anna Kelsey—Their boardinghouse is Home Sweet Home—for them and their guests.

Rev. Sarah Baron—Everyone in town is part of her flock.

Tillie Olsen—At her beauty salon, customers get the latest hairstyles—and the hottest gossip!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

A town away, in Belton’s substation, police captain Brick Bauer was the first to frown, rise from his desk and walk to the window. “Probably kids,” he decided, glaring at the winking, cat-eyed taillights of a suspicious-looking dented gold Cadillac heading toward Tyler, Wisconsin. “No adult around here drives a car that sounds like…like…” Brick shook his head, his mind unable to seize upon any suitable phrase.

“Like the end of the world,” Reverend Sarah Baron said decisively a few minutes later, looking up from her desk in the Tyler Fellowship Sanctuary. Vaguely, Sarah wondered if the car would wind up stopping in town and if the passenger was feeling friendless and lonely or might someday become a member of her parish, then she said, “Maybe Michael can do something about that awful-sounding muffler.” Yes, if the driver couldn’t afford a mechanic, surely Sarah’s husband would offer to look at the car free of charge, though by the sound of it, even an act of God wouldn’t fix it. “Oh ye of little faith,” Sarah sighed after a few moments, still chiding herself as, some distance away, Martha Bauer gaped through the window of a stately brick Victorian known as Worthington House, then at the ladies seated around a quilting frame.

“Look at that woman’s hair!” exclaimed Martha with a gasp.

Pausing, needles raised in midair, the other women, mostly elderly, stared curiously through the window into the twilight, scrutinizing the Cadillac sedan idling at the new stop sign on the corner. The driver had short, spiky dark brown hair, streaked with red. “Her hairstyle’s certainly inventive,” Lydia Perry remarked, knowing nothing less could have drawn her mind from the date she’d shared last night with Elias Spencer.

“And is that a wedding dress bunched in the passenger seat?” asked Martha, squinting.

“Sure looks like it,” said Bea Ferguson, determined to speak before anyone initiated another argument about whether or not the new stop sign was really necessary. “And look. She’s got a baby in the back. I see a car seat.”

“A baby?” Lydia leaned forward, wondering where the woman was headed and whether there was a man in the picture. “Do you all think that poor woman’s running from some kind of trouble?”

“Who knows?” sighed Bea. “But if she stops in town for the night, she’ll probably head for the Kelsey Boarding House or the Timberlake Lodge, which means we’ll hear the gossip if there is any.”

“Or she’ll go to Granny Rose’s,” Martha added, referring to Tyler’s bed-and-breakfast. “It’s just a good thing she didn’t park in front of Worthington House. That car looks like something bequeathed by Elvis, don’t you think?” she continued as she bent her head over the quilting frame and surveyed the fabric with sharp eyes that belied her eighty-seven years. “I’d rather walk a mile in orthopedic shoes than be caught dead in a car as awful as that.”

“Martha, not everybody can afford a late-model car,” Kaitlin Rodier reminded gently. The newest group member glanced up from the patchwork quilt. “Besides,” she chided, “with hair like that, she’s got to be from a city, and let’s face it, Tyler can always use some new blood, even if she’s just passing through.”