Groom Of Fortune

Groom Of Fortune
Peggy Moreland

Link Templeton had sworn he' d never marry, yet he was now carrying a bride across the threshold. But Isabelle Fortune wasn' t his bride, and it was his duty to protect the violet-eyed beauty from her intended groom.Link was a man who valued duty above all things– including, apparently, his own sanity. Because sharing a remote cabin with this virginal seductress was testing his willpower. And he even seemed to be hallucinating, for he kept picturing wedding scenes with Isabelle as his radiant bride… and himself as her adoring groom!

Kate Fortune’s Journal Entry

Can the Fortune family get together without some misadventure always happening? Judging by the latest fiasco in which my Isabelle ran away from her own wedding, I suspect not. Still, I can’t help but be relieved that Isabelle finally saw the light and acted with some gumption. In spite of what her parents said, she had no business marrying that Brad Rowan. Even I could see that he wasn’t on the up and up.

According to the Fortune rumor mill, the investigator hired to look into Mike Dodd’s murder is now protecting her from Brad at a secluded mountain cabin. I’ve already seen how Isabelle and Link look at each other. And I can’t stop hoping that Isabelle will own up to her feelings and put this poor man out of his misery…by marrying him!

Dear Reader,

The year 2000 has been a special time for Silhouette, as we’ve celebrated our 20th anniversary. Readers from all over the world have written to tell us what they love about our books, and we’d like to share with you part of a letter from Carolyn Dann of Grand Bend, Ontario, who’s a fan of Silhouette Desire. Carolyn wrote, “I like the storylines…the characters…the front covers… All the characters in the books are the kind of people you like to read about. They’re all down-to-earth, everyday people.” And as a grand finale to our anniversary year, Silhouette Desire offers six of your favorite authors for an especially memorable month’s worth of passionate, powerful, provocative reading!

We begin the lineup with the always wonderful Barbara Boswell’s MAN OF THE MONTH, Irresistible You, in which a single woman nine months pregnant meets her perfect hero while on jury duty. The incomparable Cait London continues her exciting miniseries FREEDOM VALLEY with Slow Fever. Against a beautiful Montana backdrop, the oldest Bennett sister is courted by a man who spurned her in their teenage years. And A Season for Love, in which Sheriff Jericho Rivers regains his lost love, continues the new miniseries MEN OF BELLE TERRE by beloved author BJ James.

Don’t miss the thrilling conclusion to the Desire miniseries FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE GROOMS in Peggy Moreland’s Groom of Fortune. Elizabeth Bevarly will delight you with Monahan’s Gamble. And Expecting the Boss’s Baby is the launch title of Leanne Banks’s new miniseries, MILLION DOLLAR MEN, which offers wealthy, philanthropic bachelors guaranteed to seduce you.

We hope all readers of Silhouette Desire will treasure the gift of this special month.

Happy holidays!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Groom of Fortune

Peggy Moreland

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Leanne Banks, Kathryn Jensen, Shawna Delacorte and

Caroline Cross. It was an honor to participate with you all in this

series and a thrill to add another limb to the Fortune family tree.

PEGGY MORELAND

published her first romance with Silhouette in 1989 and continues to delight readers with stories set in her home state of Texas. Winner of the National Readers’ Choice Award, a nominee for the Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer’s Choice Award and a finalist for the prestigious RITA Award, Peggy has appeared on the USA Today and Waldenbooks bestseller lists. When not writing, she enjoys spending time at the farm riding her quarter horse, Lo-Jump. She, her husband and three children make their home in Round Rock, Texas. You may write to Peggy at P.O. Box 2453, Round Rock, TX 78680-2453.

Meet the Arizona Fortunes—a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they gather for a host of weddings, a shocking plot against the family is revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.

ISABELLE FORTUNE: She’d narrowly escaped marrying a murderer. But now, stranded alone in a remote cabin with Link Templeton, her heart was facing an even greater danger!

LINK TEMPLETON: This streetwise man had pulled himself up from the gutter by his bootstraps, but now he was facing his biggest challenge—staying away from a woman thirteen years his junior, a woman whose innocence and privileged background posed a stark contrast to his own. A woman he’d lusted after for nearly a year.

BRAD ROWAN: He’d offered Isabelle Fortune a marriage deal he thought she couldn’t refuse, but now she suspected him of murder!

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Epilogue

One

She didn’t love him.

She wasn’t sure she even liked him.

Yet, within minutes she would become his wife.

Having slipped away unnoticed by her attendants, Isabelle Fortune stood in the vestibule with her fingers clutched tightly around her bridal bouquet, her nose pressed against the sanctuary door’s tiny window, watching her fiancé enter the sanctuary through the side door and walk toward the altar. Dressed in black tails and wearing a confident smile, Brad Rowan looked very much the part of the eager groom.

And Isabelle felt like a lamb being led to slaughter.

With a shudder, she forced her gaze away from Brad and to the pews already crowded with family and friends. More than a thousand engraved wedding invitations had been mailed, and it appeared that not a one of the recipients had sent their regrets. Not that she was surprised. When the Fortunes threw a party, no matter what the occasion, all of Pueblo turned out for the event, knowing that the Fortunes would spare no expense.

And they wouldn’t be disappointed this time, either. The caterers her parents had hired had worked frantically for days, preparing the succulent hors d’oeuvres, entrées and desserts for the wedding reception, while a crew of workers readied the grounds of the Fortune estate for the outdoor gala, already touted as the social event of the year. A new marble fountain flown in from Italy had been installed in the swimming pool, and the gardens had been pruned and filled with a colorful array of flowering plants. White canvas canopies dotted the sprawling lawn, and a portable dance floor and a stage for the orchestra had been constructed beneath the largest of the tents.

No, the Fortunes had spared no expense in marrying off their only daughter.

A knot of dread formed in Isabelle’s stomach as she slowly scanned the ornately decorated church illuminated by hundreds of flickering candles, a glimmering reminder of the money invested in this day. Tall, slender tapers stood on the ledges of the windows, bringing to life the scenes depicted on the etched stained glass. Behind the altar, a dozen gracefully curved silver candelabra pedestals held even more of the slender tapers, while towering, fat columns of wax rose from the ropes of ivy on the altar’s railing.

Mesmerized by the flickering candles, she stared, the dread twisting tighter and tighter, until Brad stepped into her line of vision again, making her flinch. She watched him stop in front of the altar and take his place to the right of the priest, her fingers convulsing on the ribbon-wrapped stem of her bouquet. She knew it was considered bad luck for a bride to see her groom on the day of their wedding, but considering the fact that her marriage was a mockery, devoid of any emotion other than that of duty, she didn’t think that luck, good or bad, would have much effect on the success of their union.

Regret over her hasty decision to accept Brad’s marriage proposal burned through her, momentarily overriding the dread, and she was helpless to force it back. She was sacrificing her life, her dreams, for her parents, a payback of sorts for all they’d suffered and sacrificed for her through the years.

And she wondered now if it wasn’t all a colossal mistake, one that she’d regret for the rest of her life.

If she had any courage at all, she fretted, she’d leave right now, before the ceremony began. And why not? she thought, grasping at the idea. She’d simply tell her parents she couldn’t go through with the marriage, that she didn’t love Brad, that she’d only accepted his proposal for their sakes, so that the Fortune family could claim ownership to Lightfoot’s Plateau, and preserve the cave used as a spiritual retreat by Native American tribes, restoring it in memory of their ancestor, Natasha Lightfoot, Isabelle’s grandmother.

She’d explain it all to them, she told herself, relief flooding through her. They’d understand.