Ana Seymour - Outlaw Wife

Cover Page

Excerpt “How about it, mister?” Her voice was not much above a whisper. He tried to take a calming breath, only to have it stab at his sore side. Damn it. He was the victim, not this outlaw girl. He wasn’t about to take on the responsibility for her dilemma. He wasn’t about to let her compound the hurt her father’s gang had already inflicted on him. Steeling himself with anger, he looked up and down her slender form and said with deliberate rudeness, “Sorry, miss. I’m not interested.” The anger died swiftly at her stricken look and sharp intake of breath. He was not used to insulting women. But then, he was not used to getting his ribs broken and his face smashed, either. She seemed to sag, still holding on to the bars. “I saved your life,” she said again, but the energy had gone out of her voice….

Dear Reader Dear Reader, Ana Seymour is back this month with her eighth book for Harlequin Historical, Outlaw Wife. When outlaw Willow Davis saves Simon Grant from certain death during a robbery by the notorious Davis gang, the Wyoming rancher feels obligated to save her from the gallows by marrying her. But the two strangers have a lot to learn about love and marriage before they can find true happiness in this moving story. Nancy Whiskey by Laurel Ames features a daring British nurse and an American spy who discover love and adventure on a journey across the wilds of Pennsylvania, despite incredible hardships, from an author whom Affaire de Coeur describes as “…excitingly original.” In Quicksilver’s Catch by USA Today bestselling author Mary McBride, a runaway heiress throws herself at the mercy of a tough-as-nails bounty hunter who is determined to make as much money as he can from their association, if she doesn’t drive him to drink first. Margaret Moore’s The Rogue’s Return, our fourth title for the month, is the next installment in her MOST UNSUITABLE…series set in Victorian England, and the story of a devil-may-care nobleman who finds redemption in the arms of a respectable woman. Whatever your tastes in reading, we hope you’ll keep a lookout for all four titles. 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 Outlaw Wife Ana Seymour www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author ANA SEYMOUR has been a Western fan since her childhood—the days of the shoot-’em-up movie matinees and television programs. She has followed the course of the Western myth in books and films ever since, and says she was delighted when cowboys started going off into the sunset with their ladies rather than their horses. Ms. Seymour lives with her two daughters near one of Minnesota’s ten thousand lakes.

Dedication With thanks to Tracy Farrell for buying my first book five years ago… and to the excellent Harlequin Historical editors I’ve worked with since— Elizabeth Bass, Joyce Mulvaney, Don D’Auria, Margaret O’Neill Marbury and Karen Kosztolnyik. I’ve learned from each one of you.

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

Epilogue

Copyright

Her voice was not much above a whisper.

He tried to take a calming breath, only to have it stab at his sore side. Damn it. He was the victim, not this outlaw girl. He wasn’t about to take on the responsibility for her dilemma. He wasn’t about to let her compound the hurt her father’s gang had already inflicted on him. Steeling himself with anger, he looked up and down her slender form and said with deliberate rudeness, “Sorry, miss. I’m not interested.”

The anger died swiftly at her stricken look and sharp intake of breath. He was not used to insulting women. But then, he was not used to getting his ribs broken and his face smashed, either.

She seemed to sag, still holding on to the bars. “I saved your life,” she said again, but the energy had gone out of her voice….

Dear Reader,

Ana Seymour is back this month with her eighth book for Harlequin Historical, Outlaw Wife. When outlaw Willow Davis saves Simon Grant from certain death during a robbery by the notorious Davis gang, the Wyoming rancher feels obligated to save her from the gallows by marrying her. But the two strangers have a lot to learn about love and marriage before they can find true happiness in this moving story.

Nancy Whiskey by Laurel Ames features a daring British nurse and an American spy who discover love and adventure on a journey across the wilds of Pennsylvania, despite incredible hardships, from an author whom Affaire de Coeur describes as “…excitingly original.” In Quicksilver’s Catch by USA Today bestselling author Mary McBride, a runaway heiress throws herself at the mercy of a tough-as-nails bounty hunter who is determined to make as much money as he can from their association, if she doesn’t drive him to drink first.

Margaret Moore’s The Rogue’s Return, our fourth title for the month, is the next installment in her MOST UNSUITABLE…series set in Victorian England, and the story of a devil-may-care nobleman who finds redemption in the arms of a respectable woman.

Whatever your tastes in reading, we hope you’ll keep a lookout for all four titles.

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

has been a Western fan since her childhood—the days of the shoot-’em-up movie matinees and television programs. She has followed the course of the Western myth in books and films ever since, and says she was delighted when cowboys started going off into the sunset with their ladies rather than their horses. Ms. Seymour lives with her two daughters near one of Minnesota’s ten thousand lakes.

With thanks to Tracy Farrell for buying my first book five years ago… and to the excellent Harlequin Historical editors I’ve worked with since— Elizabeth Bass, Joyce Mulvaney, Don D’Auria, Margaret O’Neill Marbury and Karen Kosztolnyik. I’ve learned from each one of you.

Wyoming Territory, 1882

Somehow Simon Grant had known that it was not going to be a good day. He’d awakened with a damn crick in his neck from sleeping cockeyed on his saddlebag pillow. The stream that had looked inviting when he’d camped out the previous night had been so alkaline that not even his pinto mare, Rain Cloud, would drink from it this morning. He’d set out toward Bramble with an empty canteen and a morning mouth that felt as if it had been stuffed with someone’s old sock. And now this.

There were six of them.

Rain Cloud eased to a stop in instinctive response to her master’s unease.

Their guns were shiny and close at hand. Ready for business. Simon felt his heart slow to a steady deep throb. Six. If it were half that number he might consider resisting. His reputation as the strongest rancher in the territory was not undeserved. He’d run the Saddle Ridge Ranch practically by himself since he was a boy. And his work-honed body had had to serve his own needs and his pa’s, as well.