Lauri Robinson - Winning The Mail-Order Bride

She was promised to another...

When widow Fiona Goldberg and her two adorable sons arrive in Oak Grove, Kansas, proclaimed bachelor Brett Blackwell is instantly captivated. But when he learns she is promised to the mayor, he tries his best to keep his distance...

Out of desperation, Fiona had agreed to become a mail-order bride to the disagreeable, self-important mayor. But something about her neighbor Brett makes her feel safe. She knows she must fight her growing feelings for the forbidden blacksmith, even while longing for him to rescue her and take her as his bride himself!

“I hope you don’t mind if your boys call me Brett? I told them it’s all right, but if you insist I’ll abide by your rules.”

In no place to deny him anything, Fiona said, “I don’t mind.”

“Good, I’m glad we agree on that, Mrs. Goldberg.”

“Me too, Mr. Blackwell.”

It felt as if they were playing a game in which neither of them had said they could call each other by their given names, but both wanted to. She thought of him as Brett. Had since last night. Yet that wouldn’t be right. She would soon marry someone else and—

“Oh…” She stumbled slightly.

“What is it? You step on a rock?”

“No.” Josiah had said he’d be back this afternoon. “I probably should have remained at the house.”

A sternness formed on his face. “The mayor is having lunch with the new preacher. He’ll be busy for some time yet.”

“Oh.”

“Come, now,” Brett said. “There’s no frowning allowed on picnics.”

He was once again smiling and his eyes looked bluer than the sky. Mesmerized for a moment, she wasn’t sure how to respond.

Author Note

Welcome to Oak Grove! It’s a small town on the prairies of western Kansas and full of people who believe it’s the best town west of the Mississippi. They are so proud of their little town they create a Betterment Committee in order to bring in a trainload of mail-order brides to marry several of the local bachelors. As you can imagine, things aren’t quite as easy as they thought it would be—which has made writing these stories all the more fun.

I hope you enjoy Brett and Fiona, and the twists and turns their story takes before reaching their happy-ever-after.

Stay happy!

Winning the Mail-Order Bride

Lauri Robinson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

A lover of fairy tales and cowboy boots, LAURI ROBINSON can’t imagine a better profession than penning happily-ever-after stories about men—and women—who pull on a pair of boots before riding off into the sunset...or kick them off for other reasons. Lauri and her husband raised three sons in their rural Minnesota home, and are now getting their just rewards by spoiling their grandchildren. Visit: laurirobinson.blogspot.com, facebook.com/lauri.robinson1, or twitter.com/LauriR.

Books by Lauri Robinson

Mills & Boon Historical Romance

Oak Grove

Mail-Order Brides of Oak Grove

‘Surprise Bride for the Cowboy’

Winning the Mail-Order Bride

Daughters of the Roaring Twenties

The Runaway Daughter (Undone!)

The Bootlegger’s Daughter

The Rebel Daughter

The Forgotten Daughter

Stand-Alone Novels

The Major’s Wife The Wrong Cowboy A Fortune for the Outlaw’s Daughter Saving Marina Western Spring Weddings ‘When a Cowboy Says I Do’ Her Cheyenne Warrior Unwrapping the Rancher’s Secret The Cowboy’s Orphan Bride

Mills & Boon Historical Undone! ebooks

Rescued by the Ranger

Snowbound with the Sheriff

Never Tempt a Lawman

Visit the Author Profile page

at millsandboon.co.ukfor more titles.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Author Note

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

The single fly that buzzed between the people sitting shoulder to shoulder in the pews in front of him annoyed folks. Not Brett Blackwell. When the fly finally landed on his shoulder, he let it be. The fly wasn’t any more irritating than the sweat rolling down his neck, and the bug probably wasn’t any happier than he was. Not usually prone to selfish thoughts, Brett wasn’t sure what to do with the melancholy that sat inside him. It had to do with the ceremony taking place in the front of the church.

The folks up there were getting married. He’d paid money to have a chance that one of the brides the Oak Grove Betterment Committee had brought to town would pick him, but that hadn’t happened, and there wasn’t a whole lot of hope inside him to say he might have another chance at getting married anytime soon. Only five brides had arrived instead of the twelve Mayor Melbourne had promised, and though the mayor claimed more would arrive soon, Brett was with the other dozen or so men who figured Josiah was just blowing hot air. The mayor liked to do that. Put Josiah Melbourne behind a podium and a person’s ears would wear out before Josiah’s voice would.

Brett figured the town should be glad that at least five gals had arrived on the train a month ago. There couldn’t be a whole lot of women willing to travel to the center of Kansas to marry a stranger. Although Oak Grove was a nice little town, and growing as folks hoped it would, it was a long ways from everywhere else. Dodge City was a solid hundred miles south. Yet good people lived here. He liked most of them, and despite his own melancholy, he was genuinely happy for the men who were marrying the brides the Betterment Committee had brought to town.

Those men were some of his best friends. Steve Putnam had been the first to welcome him to town a few years ago, and he’d spent plenty of hours fishing in the Smoky Hill River with Jackson Miller, one of the other men standing up there. That was what he should do today, go fishing. It had a way of settling a man’s thoughts.

However, his thoughts might never be settled again. Not until he found himself a wife like Steve and Jackson had.

As he was taller than most everyone else, his gaze easily surveyed the heads ahead of him, until it settled on Josiah Melbourne’s. The mayor was sitting front and center as usual. Abigail White, wearing a hat full of flowers, sat beside Josiah, and Teddy, Abigail’s brother and one of Brett’s best friends, sat beside her. Teddy had been hoping for a wife too, as had several other men in the church.

Just last night he and Teddy had talked about that, about how they doubted the full dozen of brides Josiah had promised would show up, and how there wasn’t a whole lot either of them could do about it.