Title: A Bride for Tucker
Author: Cynthia Woolf
Genre: Historical Western Romance
Book Blurb:
Ivy Sheahan was married to the man she loved…for a full three months before he was killed in the in a robbery of the mercantile in Flagstaff, Arizona Territory. Heart sick she finally moved to Prescott where she had friends, twins Maisie and Lottie MacSheehy.
Together with her friends she robbed the Prescott Bank and was sentenced to five years.
Two and a half years later, she and her friends were given the opportunity to get the remainder of their sentence dismissed…if they became mail-order brides to the Campbell brothers…of Prescott, Arizona Territory.
Tucker Campbell was betrayed by his fiancé and his best friend. He doesn’t trust easily, but when he sees Ivy, all that changes and he falls head over heels in love for the first time in his life.
It appears that Ivy and Tucker have a wonderful life ahead of them but someone wants Ivy dead and will stop at nothing to see that happen.
Will Tucker and Ivy find happiness together or will an unknown assailant bring their dreams to a crashing halt?
Excerpt:
May 1880 – Yuma Territorial Prison, Yuma, Arizona Territory
Ivy Sheahan stood in front of the warden’s desk and listened to him tell them about the possibility of a new life for the five of them. Fiona O'Neil, Gwendolyn MacGorman, and twin sisters, Maisie MacSheehy and Lottie MacSheehy were Ivy’s friends and cohorts.
Warden Ezra Dean was of average height with graying brown hair and spectacles that were always sliding down his nose.
Ivy listened to each of her friends respond positively. Then it was her turn.
“And what about you, Ivy?” asked the warden.
She looked over the top of her spectacles. “I’m going, Warden Dean.” She had a catch in her voice, but if her friends were all going, then so was she…though she wasn’t happy to be getting married again. She’d only been married for three months but they were the best three months of her life.
Losing Declan was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. After he died, she lived with her mother-in-law, Mabel, in the house he’d left to Ivy. He also left enough money in the bank to pay the bills for six months.
When she finally couldn’t stand her mother-in-law any longer, Ivy sold the house, sent her mother-in-law to live with her sister and moved to Prescott. She never understood how Mabel’s sister could stand her but she’d agreed to have the old harridan move in.
Ivy moved to Prescott to be with her friends, Maisie and Lottie MacSheehy. They were twins and she’d met them years ago, before Maisie had been married to the monster, Donald Kunkle. But the monster was dead. Now she and Lottie lived in Prescott. Maisie worked as a maid in the Prescott Hotel and Lottie worked as a maid for Mrs. Albert Haynes, the bank president’s wife.
Fiona and Gwen were friends. Fiona worked with Maisie at the hotel and that was how they all got together.
For their part, she and her friends had all robbed the Prescott Bank of five-thousand dollars, one-thousand dollars for each of them.
She went on the robbery presumably to help her parents, but she really hoped she’d die like Declan had, by a stray bullet. Unfortunately, no bullets had been fired. The bank president was away and the tellers, wisely, weren’t willing to risk their lives for money that wasn’t theirs.
No one came after them right away. The sheriff, Mike Knoll, had followed their trail to Fiona’s old cabin, and arrested all of them but had never found the money.
Ivy bet her mother-in-law hoped she’d die in prison. For all she knew, she might have, if this opportunity hadn’t come along and she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Fiona, who had dark red almost auburn hair and green eyes, had organized the robbery so she could pay the ransom for her son and get him back. His father had kidnapped him and told Fiona if she ever wanted to see him again, she needed to pay the father one thousand dollars.
Gwen, a former prostitute with vibrant red hair and emerald green eyes, wanted the money to pay off her contract with the bordello owner. She said she’d never be free until that debt was paid.
Maisie wanted to pay off her husband’s debt so she’d be free. They all knew that her husband had treated her terribly but he was dead, thank goodness. Still he had that debt, which the man wanted paid in full or he’d make sure Maisie met her maker.
Lottie, well, Ivy wasn’t exactly sure what Lottie wanted her share for. She thought the woman had mostly come along because her sister did. The women were very close. They were twins and would have been identical if it wasn’t for their hair.
Maisie had white-blonde hair and blue-green eyes.
Lottie had golden-blonde hair and blue-green eyes.
Both women were beautiful.
The five of them had robbed the bank in Prescott three years ago and had been in the Yuma Territorial Prison for two-and-a-half years. It had taken the system six months to catch them and try them. They were each sentenced to five years since no weapons were used and no one was hurt.
She realized things could have gone very badly for them if the bank president, Albert Haynes, had been there but thanks to Lottie they knew that he visited his mistress every day at noon, so they’d robbed the bank then.
During their trials, none of them said where the money was and the sheriff had never found it.
Now if they became mail-order brides and married the Campbell Brothers…of Prescott, Arizona Territory, they would get out of prison having served half their original sentence.
Warden Dean straightened the papers in front of him again. “The Campbells have supplied you each with a dress, chemise, bloomers, blouse, skirt, cotton stockings and new boots. They also have given you each a coat and hat, reticule with ten dollars in coins, and a carpet bag for your clothing.
Now go, dress and pack. The prison stagecoach is waiting for you. You will take it to Yuma and catch the stagecoach to Prescott from there. It’s a three day journey so spend your money wisely. You’ll need to eat and the food is not cheap.”
“Thank you, Warden Dean,” said Ivy.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
It’s a great western story set in Prescott, Arizona in 1880. It’s a unique storyline about five women who can get out of prison if they become mail-order brides to five brothers.
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Author Biography:
Cynthia Woolf is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of seventy-eight novels. Comprised of sixty-four historical western romances, five contemporary romances, two contemporary romance novellas, one historical western romance novella, and six sci-fi space opera romances, which she calls westerns in space. Along with these books, she has also published nine boxed sets of her books and two short stories.
Cynthia loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance, Tame A Wild Heart, was inspired by the story her mother told her of meeting Cynthia's father on a ranch in Creede, Colorado. Although Tame A Wild Heart takes place in Creede, that is the only similarity between the stories. Her father was a cowboy, not a bounty hunter, and her mother was a nursemaid (called a nanny now), not the ranch owner. Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband, Jim, and her great critique partners for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.
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