The Gunman's Bride

The Gunman's Bride
Catherine Palmer

Indulge your fantasies of delicious Regency Rakes, fierce Viking warriors and rugged Highlanders. Be swept away into a world of intense passion, lavish settings and romance that burns brightly through the centuriesAuthor of over 35 novels with more than one million copies sold, Catherine Palmer is a Christy Award winner for outsting Christian romance fiction.Her Christian Booksellers Association bestsellers include Sunrise Song, A Dangerous Silence A Victorian Christmas Tea. Her general fiction title, The Happy Room, ranked among the top five books on the CBA¹s hardcover bestseller list.Catherine's numerous awards include Best Historical Romance, Best Contemporary Romance, Best of Romance from Southwest Writers Workshop Most Exotic Historical Romance Novel from Romantic Times magazine. She is also a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award nominee.Catherine grew up in Bangladesh Kenya. She now lives in Missouri with her husb of over 25 years their two sons. A graduate of Southwest Baptist University, she also holds a master's degree from Baylor University.

How could Bart escape in broad daylight?

He’d be spotted immediately. But how could he stay in her room for the rest of the day?

Someone would find out for sure.

What if his fever grew worse? She listened for moans. But the silence was almost worse than the anticipation of noise.

What if Bart died? She wrung her clasped hands.

If he died, she would never have the chance to chew him out the way she’d always intended!

She’d never learn why he had followed her from Kansas City, or how he had fallen in with Jesse James and his gang.

More important, she wouldn’t be able to tell him how miserable her life had been after he went away….

CATHERINE PALMER

The author of more than fifty novels with more than two million copies sold, Catherine Palmer is a Christy Award-winner for outstanding Christian romance fiction. Catherine’s numerous awards include Best Historical Romance, Best Contemporary Romance, Best of Romance from Southwest Writers Workshop and Most Exotic Historical Romance Novel from RT Book Reviews. She is also an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award winner.

Catherine grew up in Bangladesh and Kenya, and she now makes her home in Georgia. She and her husband of thirty years have two sons. A graduate of Southwest Baptist University, she also holds a master’s degree from Baylor University.

The Gunman’s Bride

Catherine Palmer

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

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

—Philippians 4:6-7

To my faithful readers who bring me such joy.

I thank you for all your years of loyalty.

Contents

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

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Author’s Note

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

April 1883

Raton, New Mexico Territory

Keeping his six-shooter aimed at the sheriff, Bart Kingsley crouched at the corner of a white picket fence. He was bleeding bad. The bullet that caught him in the side hurt something awful. But Bart knew he couldn’t let pain overcome him. He was on a mission to find the woman he loved.

Laura Rose Vermillion’s window stood out as a black patch on the dull gray wall of the dormitory just over the fence. Bart knew it was Rosie’s window because he had caught sight of her shaking out a pink rug that morning. His Rosie…his beautiful Rosie.

“Kingsley!” a voice echoed through the darkness. “Kingsley, I know I winged you, boy. Come on out like a man and maybe the doc can save your sorry hide.”

Bart gritted his teeth. He was too close. Too near Rosie now to let a bullet stop him. Hiding in some shrubs near the depot, he had waited all day until the sun went down and the last train left town. But when he made his move, Sheriff Mason T. Bowman had appeared out of nowhere.