“Don’t get too smug, Mrs. Dancy. Our bargain still stands.”
“I know.” Determinedly, Rosamond lifted her chin. “I fully intend to hold up my end of our deal, too.” She swallowed hard, then gave him a deliberately steely look. “I can’t wait to leave here and help you kit out your new lodgings at the stable!”
For a long moment Miles could only gaze at her with admiration. “I’m impressed. That almost sounded convincing.”
“So did your dedication to fixing that window,” Rosamond pointed out. “Yet here we are, chatting away instead.”
Miles laughed, knowing he should skedaddle inside but wanting this easy closeness to last between them … the way it once had every day. “You’re a hard taskmaster.”
“I like to get things done, that’s all. Now that I’ve decided what to do, there’s no benefit to wasting time.”
Miles disagreed. He crossed his arms, still studying her. “I think you’ll find that some things are best done slowly.”
Her brow arched. “Like window-fixing?”
“Like kissing.”
Thank you for reading Morrow Creek Runaway! I’m happy to share Rosamond and Miles’s story with you, and I’m delighted to introduce you to the Morrow Creek Mutual Society, too. I hope you enjoy reading about all the intrigues and escapades going on there. If you do, please tell your friends!
Please join me for the other books in my Morrow Creek mini-series, too—it includes The Honour-Bound Gambler, The Bride Raffle, Mail-Order Groom and several others—including some short stories and an e-Book exclusive—all set in and around my favourite corner of the Old West.
If you’d like to try a sample you can find complete first chapters from all my bestselling books on my website, www.lisaplumley.com While you’re there you can also sign up for personal new book alerts, download an up-to-date book list, get the scoop on upcoming books, request reader freebies and more. I hope you’ll stop by today!
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Morrow Creek Runaway
Lisa Plumley
USA TODAY bestselling author LISA PLUMLEY has delighted readers worldwide with more than three dozen popular novels. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and editions, and includes Western historical romances, contemporary romances, paranormal romances, and a variety of stories in romance anthologies. She loves to hear from readers! Visit Lisa on the web, ‘friend’ her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter @LisaPlumley.
To John, with all my love.
Happy 25th anniversary!
Contents
AUTHOR NOTE
March 1885, Morrow Creek, northern Arizona Territory
Miles Callaway was a man who didn’t believe in second chances. He’d never needed to before. But on the day he arrived in the tiny territorial town of Morrow Creek, perched at the edge of a pine-dotted mountainside and bordered by its namesake sparkling creek, he decided to try for a second chance anyway.
After all, he’d traveled two thousand miles to find this one—to find the woman who’d slipped away from him back in Boston. Any woman who could inspire that kind of devotion was special.
On the other hand, so were the five hundred dollars he’d accepted for finding her.
That was more money than Miles had ever seen in one place in his whole lifetime. Even now, with most of those greenbacks stashed safely away in his battered valise, he felt conspicuous—like a miner who’d just pickaxed himself a gold nugget or twelve and was carrying around all that plunder stuffed in his britches pockets.