Jillian Hart - Mail-Order Mistletoe Brides

BIG SKY BRIDES FIND A FAMILY—AND LOVE—THIS CHRISTMAS

Christmas Hearts by Jillian Hart

Thirteen-year-old Amelia longs for a new ma. Little George needs a father’s guidance. For their children’s sake, Cole Matheson and Mercy Jacobs agree on a businesslike marriage. But though Cole tries to keep his distance, Mercy offers the very thing he’s stopped believing in—the chance to forge a real family.

Mistletoe Kiss in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad

“Passable cook wanted as wife. Marriage in name only.” Noah Miller doesn’t expect any replies to his plainspoken ad, though it’s the only kind of offer the guarded rancher’s prepared to make. Until widowed Maeve Flanagan and her sweet daughter arrive, turning his home and his heart upside down.…

Praise for Jillian Hart

“A sweet romance with characters who only want the best for one another.”

—RT Book Reviews on “Her Christmas Family” in Mail-Order Christmas Brides

“A sweet, romantic novel, with memorable characters.”

—RT Book Reviews on Snowflake Bride

“This is a beautiful love story between two people from different stations in life, or so it appears. The characters are balanced and well thought out and the storyline flows nicely.”

—RT Book Reviews on Patchwork Bride

Praise for Janet Tronstad

“This great story filled with kindness, understanding and love is sure to please.”

—RT Book Reviews on “Christmas Stars for Dry Creek,” in Mail-Order Christmas Brides

“Elizabeth is a wonderful, caring character, a strong-willed woman with tenderness for a motherless child. Jake is a gentle giant, and their love story is full of Christmas joy.”

—RT Book Reviews on Calico Christmas at Dry Creek

“Janet Tronstad’s quirky small town and witty characters will add warmth and joy to your holiday season.”

—RT Book Reviews on “Christmas Bells for Dry Creek,” in Mistletoe Courtship

JILLIAN HART

grew up on her family’s homestead, where she helped raise cattle, rode horses and scribbled stories in her spare time. After earning her English degree from Whitman College, she worked in travel and advertising before selling her first novel. When Jillian isn’t working on her next story, she can be found puttering in her rose garden, curled up with a good book or spending quiet evenings at home with her family.

JANET TRONSTAD

grew up on her family’s farm in central Montana and now lives in Pasadena, California, where she is always at work on her next book. She has written more than thirty books, many of them set in the fictitious town of Dry Creek, Montana, where the men spend the winters gathered around the potbellied stove in the hardware store and the women make jelly in the fall.

Mail-Order Mistletoe Brides

Christmas Hearts

Jillian Hart

Mistletoe Kiss in Dry Creek

Janet Tronstad

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Contents

Christmas Hearts Christmas Hearts Jillian Hart by Jillian Hart

Mistletoe Kiss in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad

Christmas Hearts

Jillian Hart

To Jenny Blake, from Janet and Jillian. Meeting you face-to-face in Spokane last May after being online friends for so many years was a true blessing. You are a great friend, Jenny. You have been an inspiration and encouragement to both of us. We love you. Blessings always.

For You shall enlarge my heart.

—Psalms 119:32

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

Montana Territory

December 20, 1886

The steel clickety-clack of the rails slowed as the town of Miles City came into sight. Mercy Jacobs felt her heart catch. Being a mail-order bride was nerve-racking. With every mile and every stop on the route, her new home of Angel Falls came closer and closer.

And so did the reality of meeting the stranger she’d agreed to marry.

“Ma?” Her seven-year-old son fidgeted on the seat beside her, straining to see above the lip of the windowsill to get a better view of the approaching town. “Will Angel Falls be like this one?”

“I don’t know, George. Maybe.” She smiled past her nervousness. Cole Matheson, the man whose advertisement she’d answered, had written of a friendly railroad town lined with shops, one of which was his own.

“Will it be snowy, too?” Those wide baby-blue eyes filled with a child’s hope.

“I reckon so, as your new pa said in his last letter to bundle up, that our first Christmas in Montana Territory was guaranteed to be white.”

“Boy, I sure do wanna go out and play in that.” George sighed wistfully. As the train chugged a little slower, the view of snowy fields, rolling hills and the snow-mantled roofs of homes clustered along the outskirts of town became crisp, no longer blurred. Easy to soak in and dream a little. George let out a sigh of longing that fogged part of the window. He swiped it away with one hand and watched two children building a snowman in their backyard.

Snow had been hard to come by at their home in North Carolina.

“Miles City, next stop!” The conductor’s voice carried above the conversations of passengers in the crowded car, packed with folks traveling to be with family for the holiday.

“Well, that’s me.” Maeve Flanagan turned around in her seat to smile back at Mercy. The small child seated beside her peered out the window, too. “This is as far as we go.”

“Are you nervous? You look nervous. Why, you’re absolutely pale.” Mercy leaned forward and caught her new friend’s hand. They’d met back East when Maeve had boarded the train, a mail-order bride, too. “Take a deep breath.”

“I’m fine. It’s merely last-minute butterflies.” Maeve smiled gently. She was truly striking at nearly six feet tall with beautiful red hair and blue-green eyes. “This is what I’ve been waiting for this entire journey. Meeting Mr. Noah Miller.”

“He’ll be everything you’ve been hoping for, I just know it.” Mercy gave Maeve’s gloved had a squeeze of encouragement. “Our prayers will be answered.”

“We’ve prayed so often on this trip, surely the Good Lord has heard us.” Maeve paused as the train’s brakes squealed, making conversation difficult.

The train jerked to a stop, bouncing them in their seats. With the final jerk, all motion ceased. Her time with Maeve had come to an end, but she knew regardless of where their separate paths led them, they would always be friends. Some journeys bound hearts together, and this was one of them.

“Why, it’s my two mail-order brides.” The conductor, kindly Mr. Blake, paused in the aisle with a sympathetic smile on his round face. He might be a big man and built like on ox, but his heart was bigger. “I’ve been praying for you lovely ladies. Think of the happiness awaiting you. Why, I can’t imagine a thing more romantic. It’s almost like a story, first declaring love with each other through your letters and then finding a deeper love when you meet. It must be all poetry and declarations of the heart, like a fairy tale happening just to you. Not only am I a happily married man, so I know what’s waiting for you, but it’s the Christmas season. Love and happy endings are in the air.”