SummaryStunning Melissa Grayson, a veritable Helen of Troy in the
Wild West, will do anything to satisfy her one burning
passion--teaching art and poetry to the children at Grayson
Academy, the private school left to her by her beloved
father. But it isn't easy when every trip she makes into
town drives the unmarried men into a frenzy of fisticuffs
in their attempts to win her hand. Exasperated by the civil
unrest caused by Melissa's beauty, the local clergy and
sheriff finally give her an ultimatum: marriage or jail,
the latter of which would surely mean the end of her
school. Prepared to make any sacrifice for her students, Melissa
writes her pen pal in New York, James Harold Pickney IV, a
sickly, sensitive scholar. Together they agree to forge a
platonic marriage whose real commitment will be to the
cause of education. Plainspoken Passion . . . When he's not hightailing it from one of his many
misadventures, gambling man Lucky Lawrence has a habit of
rescuing damsels in distress--sometimes from himself. But
this time he's the one who needs rescuing, as a murderously
sore loser has a score to settle with him--and expects him
to pay with his life. Even Lucky wouldn't have bet that
this latest escapade would lead him to be mistaken for a
bookish Harvard boy--and land him the most beautiful woman
he has ever seen. Nor did Melissa Grayson expect her
asthmatic pen pal to be so ruggedly handsome, with such
broad shoulders and teasing eyes. Might she discover a
passion she as yet has only read about? And what of ailing
James Pickney, en route to his bride-to-be? Will either
groom survive to stake his claim, or will Melissa be a
widow before she's a wife?
|
