Coming Soon--the next in the Brides of the Blue Ridge series.

Rebecca is a new schoolteacher in the mountains of Virginia, and she meets handsome, flirtatious, Jack, a man with a bad reputation.  He's a bootlegger and a moonshiner, and definitely not Rebecca's type.  Then why can she not stop thinking about him?  
When a freak snow storm strands them together on the mountain, sparks fly.  Her uncle insists he's ruined her good reputation, and now he wants Jack to do something about it.

Excerpt:
Jack reached forward and poured himself another cup of black coffee, took a sip and said, "I have a kind of…bad reputation around these mountains. Not that I don't deserve it, I reckon."

"Bad reputation?" Rebecca said slowly. "But I don't understand…what has that to do with me?"

He looked at her sharply. "I know that you're a sheltered kind of woman and all, but you can't be that dumb."

Rebecca's back stiffened and her eyes flashed. "We've been perfectly well chaperoned the entire time I've been here!"

"We have?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Why, yes, of course!" Rebecca said heatedly. "There's Billy and his mother…I mean, we haven't exactly been alone at all!"

Jack sat back again and looked at her. It made Rebecca furious to see the snide look on his face—he seemed to actually be enjoying her discomfiture. "Well, I just don't think that my sister's presence will be much of a comfort to your uncle's mind."

"Well, why not?"

Jack leaned forward conspiratorially. "Well, you see," he said in a loud whisper that easily carried across the room. "My sister—though you been calling' her Mrs. Dodson—well, she ain't exactly married."

Rebecca's mouth fell open and she looked at the woman in the bed in horror. Her eyes went from the baby over to little Billy. "But she has two children…" she whispered back to him, in a scandalized tone.

Jack nodded, a wicked little smile playing around the corners of his mouth. "I know. It don't seem right, does it? But the fact of the matter is her and old Tom never did go before a preacher." He shook his head sadly, "It's a crying' shame is what it is. If I'd have been around I'd have killed his ass. But, like I said, because of the fact that she ain't a married woman, I don't think her presence will make a whole lot of difference to your uncle."

Rebecca stood up in a panic and stared down at him. "But what can I do?" she asked sharply. "He'll just have to understand, Mr. Berry, that I had no choice. He's a reasonable man, and I'm sure he'll understand the situation. I'm not a young girl, after all."

"I don't know, but I think you have to consider things from your uncle's point of view," Jack said. "Your uncle may be a lot of things, but I wouldn't call him exactly a reasonable man. I don't think he'll believe you spent the night—maybe several nights---in a small cabin with me and I didn't try anything, I'm sure he trusts you, Miss, but he has no reason to trust me."

He shook his head. "No, ma'am, it just won't wash. Your uncle's got us dead to rights. I'm afraid our goose is cooked."

She stopped pacing and turned on him. "Will you stop saying those stupid platitudes?"

"Yes, I will," Jack said solemnly. "If you'll tell me what that is."

"Oh!" she stamped her foot and put both hands on the table in front of him. "Stop being so reasonable! Tell me what you're going to do about this!"

"Well," he said. "Right now I'm going to finish my coffee...if your uncle comes up here, like I think he will, I expect I'll either have to fight him—or we'll have to get married."

Rebecca straightened up and stared at him in shock. "What…did you say?"

"Well, as a general rule, I don't like to shoot people." he said. "Unless they shoot at me first. It just leads to a lot of explanations and trouble with the law. So I expect that we'll get married just as soon as your uncle can arrange it, and I'll have to hope he doesn't try to shoot me anyway right after."

"Well, that…that's just ridiculous!" Rebecca cried. "I'm not getting married to you or anyone else!"

Jack shrugged and smiled.











Coming in December, Catching His Fancy, from SCP, a historical romance of the Civil War era.

Coming in January, Days of Grace, from SCP, a historical romance set in Alabama in the 1930's.