Maggie And The Maverick

The Unlikely Wife by Cassandra Austin is a sparkling Western about a flirty, truly unlikely wife and the officer and gentleman who shows her what the love of a good man can do. Margaret Moore returns with The Welshman’s Bride, part of her WARRIOR SERIES, about a roguish nobleman and the shy lady he takes to wife, who prove that opposites do attract!

Be sure to look for Hunter of My Heart by talented newcomer Janet Kendall. In this fascinating, multilayered Regency, two Scottish nobles are bribed into marrying in an effort to protect their past secrets. Intrigue and passion abound from start to finish!

Whatever your tastes in reading, you’ll be sure to find a romantic journey back to the past between the covers of a Harlequin Historical

novel.

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

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Maggie and the Maverick

Laurie Grant

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

Books by Laurie Grant

Harlequin Historicals

Beloved Deceiver #170

The Raven and the Swan #205

Lord Liar #257

Devil’s Dare #300

My Lady Midnight #340

Lawman #367

The Duchess and the Desperado #421

Maggie and the Maverick #461

LAURIE GRANT

combines a career as a trauma center emergency room nurse with that of historical romance author, she says living in two worlds keeps her sane. Passionately enthusiastic about the history of both England and Texas, she divides her travel time between these two spots. She is married to her own real-life hero, and has two teenage daughters, two dogs and a cat.

Laurie loves to hear from her readers. You can write to her at P.O. Box 307272, Gahana, OH 43230.

To Ann Bouricius and Carol McFarland, who between them coerced me into writing this book,

To Deborah Simmons, fellow Harlequin Hussy, who gave me the title,

To the determined and inspiring folk who make up the Amputee Coalition of America,

And to my own personal curmudgeon and hero, Michael.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT (#ulink_dcb9c1e5-28fb-55d4-8d3d-75b4a35d4b1b)

I would like to thank Dale Starr, who works in the Print Shop at the Ohio Village, Ohio Historical Society, for his guidance in researching the newspaper industry in general and printing presses as they existed in frontier

America in the 1800s.

I would also like to thank Alvin C. Pike, certified prosthetist, President and Clinical Director of Amputee

Rehabilitation Services in Hopkins, Minn., and Ian Gregson, editor of Amputation Online Magazine, for their invaluable assistance in researching the history of leg prosthetics and in understanding the adjustments, both physical and psychological, that amputees must make.

Prologue

“It’s been very enjoyable, Maggie mine,” Captain Richard Burke told her, smiling regretfully as he rose from the horsehair sofa in front of the hearth. “But I’m afraid marriage is out of the question. You see…I have a wife back East.”

Even as her mind tried to process the words, Margaret Harper automatically noticed how handsome he looked in his uniform, his captain’s bars gleaming against the crisp dark blue. Richard Burke was an attractive man. And even now, as she began to comprehend the full horror of what he had just said, she still couldn’t rid her mind of the thought that he looked the very picture of a soldier.

“Y-you’re married?” Her lips, which still felt the taste of his passionate kiss, grew numb, and she could hardly form the words. “But you…but we’ve been courting-we’ve been lovers! How could you make me think. How could you say you loved me—when you…belonged to another?”

Richard sighed, smiled at her again and started to cup her chin in his hand, a gesture she had always found charming. Now she shrank from his touch. He had betrayed her! How could he think she would let him put his hands on her now?

“Ah, Maggie, who wouldn’t love you? Who could resist you? You’re an unusual woman, you know. Why, I’ve never met a female like you—a reporter, no less! And I wasn’t lying when I said I loved you. I do—in a way I’ll never love Beatrice, my wife. You understand me as she never could. And you’re so honest—”

“That’s certainly a virtue you can’t claim, isn’t it, Richard?” she snapped, ignoring the pain that sliced through her like a cavalry saber. She slapped his still-extended hand away and jumped to her feet. “Don’t you dare touch me, you—you cur! Get out!”

But Richard Burke gave her another of his coaxing smiles. “Now, Maggie, let’s not be so hasty. Boston is hundreds of miles away, and what you and I found together was very…special to me. I believe it was to you, too. Surely we can just go on as we’ve been? You’d miss my loving, wouldn’t you? I know I’d miss touching you, kissing you—”

“You bastard,” she hissed. “I’d feel contaminated if your shadow ever again so much as crossed mine. I told you once to leave, and I meant it. Now get out, or I’ll call my father.”

“Margaret, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Burke retorted silkily. “Would you really like him to know why you’re upset? Do you really want your dear papa to know his innocent daughter is innocent no more? You know, I never expected you to be a…to be untouched, the way you smiled at me.”

“Damn you, Richard Burke,” she said between clenched teeth, feeling her hands curl into claws and fighting the urge to launch herself at him and rake that handsome face. “Damn you to hell!”

“Now, now, I’ve always admired your fiery temperament, m’dear—it goes with that red hair—but a lady doesn’t curse. But then, a lady doesn’t soil her hands in printer’s ink, either, does she? Can you wonder that I thought you a woman of the world?”

She wasn’t aware of her hand closing around the delicate little figurine on the end table beside the couch; she didn’t know she had picked it up until it shattered against the wall just an inch or two above Burke’s head.

He flinched as shards of porcelain rained around him, and after one last reproachful look, beat a hasty retreat out the door.

From above, Maggie heard her father call, “Is anything amiss, Margaret? I thought I heard a noise. Did something break?”