Finders Keepers: bringing families together
Isabella Trueblood made history reuniting people torn apart by war and an epidemic. Now, generations later, Lily and Dylan Garrett carry on her work with their agency, Finders Keepers. Circumstances may have changed, but the goal remains the same.
Lost
One groom. Emily Sutton is up to her ears in the final plans for her lavish society wedding when her fiancé informs her that he can’t marry her.
Found
A stand-in at the altar: her fiancé’s black sheep brother. Emily assumes Jordan Chambers has saved her from the embarrassment of being publicly jilted in order to salvage an important business merger between their families. But Jordan’s not motivated by family at all. What he’s always wanted is Emily, and he’s not about to squander his only chance.
“Why have you dragged me in here, Jordan?”
“I thought it might be a good idea if we got married tomorrow.” Jordan made the suggestion with a casualness that would have been entirely appropriate if he’d been suggesting that she might like to try out a new restaurant for brunch on Sunday.
Emily clutched the back of the nearest chair. Jordan had asked her to marry him. She was quite sure she’d heard him do that. Unless she was hallucinating. Was she? She felt her mouth start to drop open again, and she hurriedly closed it.
“I don’t think marriage would work out too well for us,” she said, trying to keep her voice soft and nonthreatening. She even managed a small, reassuring smile. When dealing with lunatics, it was best to be gentle. “Thanks for asking, Jordan, but if you remember, we don’t like each other. I have this quaint, old-fashioned dislike of men who sleep with other men’s wives.”
Dear Reader,
Long before I became a romance writer, I was an avid reader of all types of romances. I love Cinderella stories, and stories in which the heroine transforms herself from quiet, mousy wimp into a strong, sexy, achieving woman. Best of all, I confess to enjoying the marriage-of-convenience plot, even though it could be considered among the most artificial and contrived of romantic story lines.
In days gone by, women often found themselves in situations from which the only possible escape was to make a marriage of convenience. Consequently, authors of historical fiction can have a lot of fun playing with this theme. But nowadays, with endless opportunities open to most women, it’s much harder for an author of contemporary romances to dream up circumstances in which a woman might consider making a marriage of convenience.
Emily Sutton, the heroine of His Brother’s Finacée, is an educated, professional woman from a loving family background, and yet, she finds herself agreeing to marry Jordan Chambers, the outcast younger son of the upper-crust Chambers family. Of course, the temporary marriage of convenience soon begins to turn into a passionate affair of the heart, although there are a few obstacles to be overcome along the way before Emily and Jordan can have their happy ending.
I hope you find their story fun, and that you will enjoy this installment of the TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS series.
Sincerely,
Jasmine Cresswell
His Brother’s Fiancée
Jasmine Cresswell
Acknowledgments
Jasmine Cresswell is acknowledged as the author of this work.
Dedication
For Angela Naylor Candlish, who likes to read all the same books I do!
Trueblood, Texas
The Cowboy Wants a Baby Jo Leigh
His Brother’s Fiancée Jasmine Cresswell
A Father’s Vow Tina Leonard
Daddy Wanted Kate Hoffmann
The Cowboy’s Secret Son Gayle Wilson
The Best Man in Texas Kelsey Roberts
Hot on His Trail Karen Hughes
The Sheriff Gets His Lady Dani Sinclair
Surprise Package Joanna Wayne
Rodeo Daddy B.J. Daniels
The Rancher’s Bride Tara Taylor Quinn
Dylan’s Destiny Kimberly Raye
Hero for Hire Jill Shalvis
Her Protector Liz Ireland
Lover Under Cover Charlotte Douglas
A Family at Last Debbi Rawlins
THE TRUEBLOOD LEGACY
The year was 1918, and the Great War in Europe still raged, but Esau Porter was heading home to Texas.
The young sergeant arrived at his parents’ ranch northwest of San Antonio on a Sunday night, only the celebration didn’t go off as planned. Most of the townsfolk of Carmelita had come out to welcome Esau home, but when they saw the sorry condition of the boy, they gave their respects quickly and left.
The fever got so bad so fast that Mrs. Porter hardly knew what to do. By Monday night, before the doctor from San Antonio made it into town, Esau was dead.
The Porter family grieved. How could their son have survived the German peril, only to burn up and die in his own bed? It wasn’t much of a surprise when Mrs. Porter took to her bed on Wednesday. But it was a hell of a shock when half the residents of Carmelita came down with the horrible illness. House after house was hit by death, and all the townspeople could do was pray for salvation.
None came. By the end of the year, over one hundred souls had perished. The influenza virus took those in the prime of life, leaving behind an unprec-edented number of orphans. And the virus knew no boundaries. By the time the threat had passed, more than thirty-seven million people had succumbed worldwide.
But in one house, there was still hope.
Isabella Trueblood had come to Carmelita in the late 1800s with her father, blacksmith Saul Trueblood, and her mother, Teresa Collier Trueblood. The family had traveled from Indiana, leaving their Quaker roots behind.
Young Isabella grew up to be an intelligent woman who had a gift for healing and storytelling. Her dreams centered on the boy next door, Foster Carter, the son of Chester and Grace.
Just before the bad times came in 1918, Foster asked Isabella to be his wife, and the future of the Carter spread was secured. It was a happy union, and the future looked bright for the young couple.
Two years later, not one of their relatives was alive. How the young couple had survived was a miracle. And during the epidemic, Isabella and Foster had taken in more than twenty-two orphaned children from all over the county. They fed them, clothed them, taught them as if they were blood kin.
Then Isabella became pregnant, but there were complications. Love for her handsome son, Josiah, born in 1920, wasn’t enough to stop her from grow-ing weaker by the day. Knowing she couldn’t leave her husband to tend to all the children if she died, she set out to find families for each one of her orphaned charges.
And so the Trueblood Foundation was born. Named in memory of Isabella’s parents, it would become famous all over Texas. Some of the orphaned children went to strangers, but many were reunite with their families. After reading notices in news-papers and church bulletins, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents rushed to Carmelita to find the young ones they’d given up for dead.
Toward the end of Isabella’s life, she’d brought together more than thirty families, and not just her orphans. Many others, old and young, made their way to her doorstep, and Isabella turned no one away.
At her death, the town’s name was