Ana Seymour - Frontier Bride

Cover Page

Excerpt “If I weren’t a gentleman, this would be the opportunity for me to say I could help keep you warm.” “You’re not a gentleman,” she replied with a nervous giggle. He had walked up to the circle of pines and was using one foot to scrape the pine needles into a pile. “You’d better hope I’m a gentleman, Hannah Forrester, because it’s going to be one hell of a long night.” Something in his voice told her that he was not teasing. She walked timidly toward him and began to push the needles from the other side of the “bed.” “So are you, or aren’t you?” she asked softly. “A gentleman?” She nodded. He squinted to see her better in the dark. He spoke slowly. “I…don’t think so…”

Dear Reader Dear Reader, Ana Seymour has been delighting readers and editors alike since her first book, The Bandit’s Bride, was published by Harlequin Historicals in 1992, and this month’s Frontier Bride is bound to do the same. It’s the story of a woman torn between her affection for the man who bought her indenture and her growing love for the rugged frontiersman who is guiding them to a new life in the territories. We hope you enjoy it. And don’t miss the third book in award-winning author Theresa Michaels’s Kincaid Trilogy, Once a Lawman, featuring the oldest Kincaid brother, a small-town sheriff who must choose between family and duty as he works to finally bring to justice the criminals who’ve been plaguing his family’s ranch. This month, Miranda Jarrett has written another of her delightful Sparhawk titles, this one, Sparhawk’s Angel, about a captain tormented by a meddlesome angel bent on matchmaking that Romantic Times calls “delightful, unforgettably funny and supremely touching.” And a sensible novelist brings love and laughter to the wounded soul of a neighboring earl in Deborah Simmons’s new title, The Devil Earl. Please keep a lookout for Harlequin Historicals, available wherever books are sold. Sincerely, Tracy Farrell Senior Editor Please address questions and book requests to: Harlequin Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Title Page Frontier Bride Ana Seymour www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author ANA SEYMOUR says she first discovered romance through the swashbuckling movies of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power and the historical epics of Thomas Costain and Anya Seton. She spent a number of years working in the field of journalism, but she never forgot the magic of those tales. Now she is happy to be creating some of that magic herself through Harlequin Historicals. Ana lives in Minnesota with her two teenage daughters.

Dedication To my dear friends… Bronwyn, Jan, Jeanne, Karen and Debi… Frontierswomen all!

Prologue

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

Epilogue

Copyright

“You’re not a gentleman,” she replied with a nervous giggle.

He had walked up to the circle of pines and was using one foot to scrape the pine needles into a pile. “You’d better hope I’m a gentleman, Hannah Forrester, because it’s going to be one hell of a long night.”

Something in his voice told her that he was not teasing. She walked timidly toward him and began to push the needles from the other side of the “bed.”

“So are you, or aren’t you?” she asked softly.

“A gentleman?”

She nodded.

He squinted to see her better in the dark. He spoke slowly. “I…don’t think so…”

Dear Reader,

Ana Seymour has been delighting readers and editors alike since her first book, The Bandit’s Bride, was published by Harlequin Historicals in 1992, and this month’s Frontier Bride is bound to do the same. It’s the story of a woman torn between her affection for the man who bought her indenture and her growing love for the rugged frontiersman who is guiding them to a new life in the territories. We hope you enjoy it.

And don’t miss the third book in award-winning author Theresa Michaels’s Kincaid Trilogy, Once a Lawman, featuring the oldest Kincaid brother, a small-town sheriff who must choose between family and duty as he works to finally bring to justice the criminals who’ve been plaguing his family’s ranch.

This month, Miranda Jarrett has written another of her delightful Sparhawk titles, this one, Sparhawk’s Angel, about a captain tormented by a meddlesome angel bent on matchmaking that Romantic Times calls “delightful, unforgettably funny and supremely touching.” And a sensible novelist brings love and laughter to the wounded soul of a neighboring earl in Deborah Simmons’s new title, The Devil Earl.

Please keep a lookout for Harlequin Historicals, available wherever books are sold.

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to:

Harlequin Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

www.millsandboon.co.uk

says she first discovered romance through the swashbuckling movies of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power and the historical epics of Thomas Costain and Anya Seton. She spent a number of years working in the field of journalism, but she never forgot the magic of those tales. Now she is happy to be creating some of that magic herself through Harlequin Historicals. Ana lives in Minnesota with her two teenage daughters.

To my dear friends…

Bronwyn, Jan, Jeanne, Karen and Debi…

Frontierswomen all!

Philadelphia—December 1762

Priscilla Webster was finally going to die. Hannah wiped cold sweat from the woman’s forehead, then straightened up, rubbing her own back. She looked out the window at the late afternoon darkness.

Through the thick panes of glass, the first storm of winter was howling, but inside, the small room was sweltering. Randolph Webster had insisted on keeping the fire stoked to the maximum all this week as they waited for his wife to take the last of her short, tortured breaths.

Hannah gave a deep sigh. She would miss Priscilla. When Hannah had arrived at the Webster household almost two years ago, she’d been apprehensive and weak from poor food and bouts of seasickness that had plagued her during the six-week crossing. She and the other hundred indentured servants on the Constant had been forced to remain below decks almost the entire trip, leaving her pale and dispirited. Priscilla Webster had greeted her more like a lost relative than a woman her husband had purchased. She had insisted that Hannah get sufficient rest and food those first few weeks until her spirits and her health were fully restored. After months of injustices and mistreatment, Hannah had drunk in the woman’s kindness like sweet water after a drought.

“Is it snowing?”