Louise M. - Cowboy Lawman's Christmas Reunion

The Sheriff’s Second Chance

Sheriff Justice Gareau can make outlaws quake in their boots...yet coming face-to-face with Evangeline Benoit once again takes away all his composure. She broke their engagement, and his heart, to marry a wealthy older man. Despite his reluctance, Justice can’t avoid the widowed single mother of two when they’re collaborating on a Christmas village for the town’s children.

The loving boy Evangeline once knew has become an unyielding lawman. Forced to flee New Orleans over false allegations, Evie doubts Justice will take her side when the past follows her to Colorado. Especially when he and her troublesome son butt heads. But perhaps the spirit of Christmas will soften his heart and give them a second chance at love.

“Was the village Susanna’s idea?”

Now bent over his work, Justice shrugged. “It was a group plan.” The hint of red coloring his ears betrayed him.

“It was your idea.”

He shrugged again, this time adding a little smile as though pleased she’d uncovered the truth.

“How clever, Justice. And so thoughtful to do something like this for the children.” Especially since you have none of your own. The thought made her heart ache. Despite her wretched marriage, the Lord had blessed her with two precious children.

“It’s not something I came up with on my own.” He cleared his throat. “I saw villages like this one in Germany the Christmas I spent in Europe.” A frown replaced his smile, and he hunched over the bench as though finished with the conversation.

She longed to touch his shoulder, to give it a reassuring squeeze as she did Gerard’s or Isabelle’s when they needed encouragement. But this was no child, however boyish his eagerness to please the children of Esperanza. This was the man who could arrest her and send her back to her debtors.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Cowboy Lawman’s Christmas Reunion, the sixth book in my Four Stones Ranch series. I hope you enjoyed the love story of my hero, Justice Gareau, and my heroine, Evangeline Benoit. These two sweethearts waited for a long time for their happily-ever-after.

My series setting is the beautiful San Luis Valley of Colorado, where I lived for many years before moving to Florida thirty-seven years ago. While I’ve forgotten many things about the Valley, as we call it, my research sources include a helpful book by lifelong Valley resident Emma M. Riggenbach, A Bridge to Yesterday (High Valley Press 1982), in which she writes about Monte Vista, Colorado, the inspiration for my series.

If you enjoyed Justice and Evangeline’s story, be on the lookout for more stories set in my fictional town of Esperanza. Can you guess who my next hero or heroine will be? Who would you like to see have his or her own happily-ever-after?

I love to hear from my readers. If you have a comment, contact me at:

http://blog.Louisemgouge.com(You can also sign up for my occasional newsletter there.)

https://www.Facebook.com/AuthorLouiseMGouge/

Twitter: @Louisemgouge

Blessings,

Louise M. Gouge

Florida author LOUISE M. GOUGE writes historical fiction for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line. She received the prestigious Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in 2005 and placed in 2011 and 2015; she also placed in the Laurel Wreath contest in 2012. When she isn’t writing, she and her husband, David, enjoy visiting historical sites and museums. Please visit her website at blog.louisemgouge.com.

Cowboy Lawman’s Christmas Reunion

Louise M. Gouge

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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And be ye kind one to another,

tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

—Ephesians 4:32

This book series is dedicated to the intrepid pioneers who settled the San Luis Valley of Colorado in the mid- to late 1800s. They could not have found a more beautiful place to make their homes than in this vast 7,500-foot-high valley situated between the majestic Sangre de Cristo and San Juan mountain ranges.

Thanks go to my beloved husband of fifty-three years, David Gouge, for his loving support as I pursue my dream of writing love stories to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. I would also like to thank my editor extraordinaire, Shana Asaro, who always makes my stories better.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

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

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Friday, October 14, 1887

Esperanza, Colorado

Sheriff Justice Gareau ducked around the corner of the Esperanza train depot, hoping he hadn’t been spotted by the woman who’d stepped off the train. He felt downright foolish. Usually people hid from him if they’d done something wrong, and he sure hadn’t done anything wrong. No, it was that woman who’d done wrong by him and ruined his life. Well, ruined was perhaps too harsh a word, because he had a pretty good life these days. But she’d sure broken his heart. A heart he was determined never to give to a woman ever again.

What was Evangeline Benoit doing in this remote Colorado town anyway? And why did her sudden appearance turn him into a bumbling chump? Because once, long ago back in New Orleans, she’d been his childhood sweetheart and, eventually, his fiancée. Only she’d broken their engagement to marry a wealthy older man the very day Justice needed her most.

He wondered if she’d come looking for him. Perhaps Lucius Benoit wasn’t supporting her in the style she’d chosen over what Justice could have given her as the son of a bankrupt businessman.

“Howdy, Sheriff.” Charlie Williams, the telegraph operator, walked toward him, carrying some of his wife Pam’s wild gooseberry pie. Pam ran the Williams’s Café, where Justice ate most of his meals, unless somebody took pity on his bachelor status and invited him to dinner. How he kept from getting fat and lazy on her fine cooking was a mystery to him. “You waiting for me?”

“Nope. Just holding up this wall.” Justice leaned one hand against the yellow clapboard siding and gave Charlie a practiced easy grin, one he’d learned from his mentor in the Texas Rangers, where he’d served for four years before coming to Colorado. “Seemed a little wobbly after all that wind yesterday.”

Charlie chuckled. “You let me know if you need anything.” He entered the building and closed the door.

Justice pulled his tan Stetson lower over his eyes and stuck his head around the corner to see which direction Mrs. Benoit—he couldn’t allow himself to call her Evangeline, since she was another man’s wife—had gone. To his disappointment, or so he told himself, she still stood on the platform and was now enfolded in the arms of Mrs. Susanna Northam.